Water like glass..perfect for a dinghy
The next day we left Titusville and went down to Cocoa. We anchored right by the causeway in a nice little sheltered spot. There was a grassy place close by for walking the dogs, and just on the other side of the bridge there was a dinghy dock for downtown Cocoa. We easily could have spent several days in this location. I remember in high school driving to Cocoa Beach, but I don’t think I had ever stopped in the city before, or if I did I don’t remember it being this cute. There is an area right near the waterfront with parks and little shops and restaurants that are fun to explore.
Kim adjusting the dinghy. I was hoping to catch a photo of her falling on her head
Great Dinghy dock at the waterfront
Fountain in the park
Cooling off
The kids and I went ashore and explored the waterfront shops. We even found a great little ice cream place.
Aislin did some fishing while at anchor and caught some catfish.
Sunset from the cockpit
We had a little bit of trouble when it was time to leave. The channel under the bridge had a barge parked on the western side. We contacted the Coast Guard but they didn’t know anything about it. We then tried hailing the barge operator but there was no one on board. The marina near the downtown area overheard us on the radio and they said we should be able to fit. But take a look at what we were facing.
The barge easily took 1/2 that channel, plus at the top of the bridge there is construction which decreases its overall clearance over the water. The kids and I dinghied to the channel and took a rope with us. We stretched the rope across the opening to measure its width. We decided we had about 44 feet of width between the fenders and the barge. We greased up with crisco to shimmy under the bridge and Kim drove the boat through the channel with only 8-10 feet of clearance on each side and a marker that said we had 10 inches of clearance for the mast. We whooped and hollered when we made it through that spot.
P.S. We didn’t really use Crisco on the boat