Titusville - Obamacare and holding tank monitors, somehow it fits together

A calm night, what a contract from last night!

We were busy sorting through Obamacare today and it looks like we'll  be okay on costs, we think... Actually, it's not with a government sponsored health exchange, it's s private one chosen by IBM. We  couldn't get an appointment for an interview until 12/7, such crowds!

The wind abated here and it was a pleasant day with light winds, only in the mid teens. I received a holding tank monitoring kit today. It has a printed circuit board you stick to the holding tank and it measures the amount of fluid in the tank so you can tell when you have to empty the tank. Note very exciting but boy is it necessary! My old system stopped working and I won't tell you about the results... The installation of any such system is mainly a chore in running sensor lines. You have to connect the tanks sensor with the readout display at the nav station - lots of threading of electrical lines through very narrow openings, only took about 2.5 hours to do! And that's only for one of the two tanks! Somehow, such things do not make the usual highlights of a cruising experience  but you get the unvarnished truth from me! I have to complete the task on Friday, hopefully.

Ann's returned to her pastel work but it's not finished enough for publication, I'll take a photo when she's done. Right now, it's like being on land, such calmness, welcomed. 

Titusville - we get 46 mph winds!

Three boats dragged ashore here

We were awaken during the night to increasing winds and a severe rocking of the boat, around 4:00 am. When I peeked out at the wind gauge, it read 35 kts! We were tied securely since we had experienced an earlier high wind condition during the week but not this much! Let me tell you from personal experience that there's a world of difference between 30 kts of wind and 40 kts of wind! 30 may sound like a lot but it's nothing compared to 40! Humm, I seem to  be using the exclamation mark a lot, but it sounds right. One must remember that the force exerted by the wind is proportional to the square of the speed. So 46 mph (the top gust we saw, equal to 40 kts) exerts twice as much force on the boat as a 32 mph gust. Let me tell you, that's a BIG difference!

Another boat hit the rocks nearby

The problem we saw today was that it wasn't just a short lived thunderstorm or line storm, the 35 to 40 mph winds lasted all day long. The Titusville crew was kept busy adjusting lines and putting in fenders to cushion boats. Almost nobody was prepared for such winds. They were not predicted by the weather service (to top out at 30 mph, ha!). Needless to say, nobody left the marina today but there were four boats that dragged into the rocks by the marina. Their ground tackle couldn't handle the winds. None of the boats on the mooring were affected, they have massive ground tackle for the boats to secure to. Plus, they have anchors that screw into the bottom, they are not moving.

The palm tree wa sin hurricane mode - all fronds to the left

The boat was moving around so much that it was not possible to do much of anything in the boat. I mainly just read some and took photos and helped other boaters secure their boats. Invariably, the lines get stretched and need readjustment. We found the rubber mooring shock absorbers to be invaluable in such conditions. The shock absorbing characteristics quiet the boat motion at lot.

And some hardy souls spent the day on a mooring.

Today we were thankful for the massive pilings and over built construction of the docks, I guess they knew what they were about when the original marina was constructed. We'll hope for a better day Thursday.

Titusville - the storm clouds gather...

No! This is not Florida! It's a view from our webcam at home in New York! Our first snow up north. 

A storm awaits us. The leading edge of the storm, the one that dropped snow in the northeast is due to arrive here around 4:00 am. We're due for winds in the 20's with gusts perhaps up to 40 mph in the marina. So we're snugged in and tied up with multiple lines, we should be okay.

We were sent a photo of our grandkids playing in the snow in Connecticut, so naturally we had to send a photo back.

Meanwhile, when we logged into our webcams back up north around our house, we saw snow!  We had enough to turn the ground white, the first of the season which is kind of early for us in Lagrangevile, NY. Perhaps there's a new ice age coming... The marina here is almost full, lots of boats came in anticipating the high winds and wanted to be secure in a marina, us included.

I'm sure Wednesday will be spent in the boat, not much outside activity planned. Unlike last time, it's only predicted to last one day and then return to normal weather of temps in the high 70's with light winds. 

Titusville - Turn car in, clean boat

Looking towards the dog park - near sunset

Well, what can you say, it was housekeeping day, even on a boat. I turned the car in around 10:00 am Monday morning and got the free ride back to the marina as provided by Enterprise. We have a bunch of stuff on order but nothing is here yet since it's Veteran's Day so we just cleaned the boat, not very exciting but required now and then.

Our diving team of "Donald Brown Diving" saved us from a worn zinc!

With the extra time, we took Hoolie over to the dog park and the routine is to run Hoolie constantly for about 30 minutes - at which time he's totally exhausted, tongue hanging out, panting, etc. He'll always chase a tennis ball but seldom brings it back. So I walk around, picking up stray tennis balls and giving them a pitch in the direction away from Hoolie, he runs.

For Bill Spencer - a Nonsuch from Essex - unfortunately, don't know the name yet

I had a diver come by today to replace the zinc on the prop. It's been three months and a zinc will not only reduce in size cataylitically, it will also abrade just from prop rotation. The local diver will replace the zinc at no charge, as a service but I've only found this offer in Titusville, the usual charge is $35 to $40. Our zinc was down to less than 25 % left so it was a worthwhile replacement.

Several manatees came by to partake of the fresh water while I was washing down the boat

Tuesday is our last good day, Wednesday is due with winds up to 35 kts and rain. They're predicting 9 to 11 ft seas out in the ocean - but of course not where we're at. We'll hunker down and do inside things on Wednesday.

Titusville - a trip to Canaveral National Seashore

A pristine shore

For our last day with the car over the weekend we decided to visit the Canaveral National Seashore. It's a stretch of 24 miles of undeveloped beachfront property. What I didn't know is that it's home to nesting turtles, over 7000 nests this year, an all time record! We've been going to Ocean City, NJ for the past several years during the summer with the kids so the view of the beach here is very different. As far as the eye can see, there's nothing but sand and ocean. The sand is different here too, it is more coarse - as if the beach were still being built by the waves.

A walk to the top of Turtle Mound - a 50 ft oyster shell pile

There's a 50 ft high mound in the park called, Turtle Mound that was built up by the Indians from 800 to 1400 AD mostly from oyster shells. In a land where everything is flat, a 50 ft high hill looks huge. The park service built a wooden pathway to the top of the mound, a wonderful walk through the woods.

He was scooting across the road

At our next stop, Castle Windy, we saw an armadillo cross the road before parking the car for the walk along the trail. He didn't stay around for a photo op but Ann snapped him just before he disappeared into the brush. I never tire of the sights along a Florida trail that are so different from New York, it still mesmerizes me.

A walk just like the Indians did over 1000 years ago, right through here!

I'll turn the car back in on Monday and get down to boat work for the rest of the week, whether in a house or on a boat, there's stuff you've got to do.

Titusville - a trip to Orlando

A popular pastime in the marina - watching manatees - they like to sip from the rainwater runoff pipe

Well, we didn't actually get to Orlando, only the outskirts and that was bad enough as far as traffic was concerned. Manhattan has nothing on Orlando for traffic, terrible. Ann wanted to visit a Barnes and Noble so we went to the nearest one in a new style shopping center where the stores are arranged as if downtown in a village, there's no indoor mall as such. The new arrangement involves a lot of walking to get between stores since there are parking lots separating them.

So we did our thing and turned around and headed immediately back to the coast and our boat, enough of city traffic! The weather has turned nice with temps in the low 80's and the winds have finally abated to the low teens, a welcomed relief from the 20s to 30s of the last week. Hoolie continues to protect the boat from attacking manatees. There are about 20 in the marina and Hoolie listens intently for their sounds when they come up for air - and lets us know when the boat is threatened, good dog Hoolie.

On Sunday we plan on visiting the Cape Canaveral National Seashore. Dogs are not allowed in many areas of the park so Hoolie will cool his heels on the boat but he'll get a treat of peanut butter and hotdogs packed in a Kong, he seems to like it.

Titusville - we rent a car for the weekend

A shower had just passed by on Cocoa Beach

Enterprise has a special deal where they rent a car for the weekend at only 9.99/day, that's $40 with all taxes and fees for a pickup on Friday morning and returning the car Monday morning. For us it's a good deal at a very reasonable price.

Noe the long, horizontal branches, typical of live oaks

We headed south to visit Lori Wilson Park and found that it was located at "I Dream of Jennie Lane". Upon further investigation we found that the television series was based on being in Cocoa Beach although most of the episodes were actually filmed in California. Cocoa Beach named a street in her honor when she visited for a celebration several years ago. It was a windy and overcast day but we walked out on the beach anyway and took the hammock trail. You'll note the profusion of live oaks in the photo with the peculiar characteristic of the long horizontal branches. It's a very strong type of tree and was sought after for the building of wooden fighting vessels for that reason.

The beach has a red flag posted which was a sign that it was closed for swimming due to the high wind and waves. The danger was the potential development of rip tides due to the high surf. Needless to say, we did not go in the water, it looked rough. On the way back we discovered Harvey's Indian River groves, the best source of fresh oranges and grapefruit we've ever had.

We plan on exploring Orlando on Saturday (minus Disney World, Ann does not like theme parks...) and the beach again on Sunday.