Titusville - We visit Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuse

Our greeting in the morning!

Well, we have a flock of birds around the marina that like to perch on the rigging of sailboats. They also like to eat some vile berry that becomes black when processed by their digestive system. It stains fiberglass instantly. The only thing I've found that gets rid of the stain is undiluted bleach. If anyone has other ideas, let me know!

Ann and I both just love wandering through the nature refuges

So after the morning's entertainment from the birds and subsequent clean up, we left for the Merritt Island Wildlife Refuge. It's a by product of the Kennedy Space Center since they didn't need the entire island for their launches, less than 2% in fact so they established the wildlife refuge on the unused portion. It's a great resource and we spent all day walking and driving through the area. It's a wintering over spot for a lot of northern species, just far enough south but not too far.

Now that's a large spider!

We could do this for hours, and we have at times

For those who have been following the blog for the past few months, our travels this year have come to an end. We'll leave Fleetwing at Titusville to take advantage of their $10/ft monthly rate and return north for the holidays. We'll return the first week of January to continue our cruise down the ICW to Key West to be followed by a return trip to the Poughkeepsie Yacht Club in late May of 2014. However, I'll keep the blog active as we explore the Titusville area until our departure on 11/21/2013. I do the blog for my own amusement but all are invited to read it - we're just not traveling down the ICW for awhile. For those only interested in adventures when we're cruising down the ICW, check back in early January - otherwise you're still invited to stick around.

Birds abound on all sides, notice the "watchdog" bird - one's always on lookout