Hitchcock and dragons
02 January 2009 | Titusville to Dragon Pt, Merritt Island off the Banana River.
Cloudy, lower 70s
Friday, January 02, 2009
After a last shower and checking out, we left the marina and headed south once more. It was a nice stop - the time spent with our little boat laced in her berth was very busy and constructive. After pulling out I decided it was time to catch up on my journal while Wayne had the helm.
We anchored inside of Dragon Point after letting another boat push us out of the spot we were trying to anchor in. He could see we were heading there and trying to anchor and he raced to beat us there, then pulled forward - so we continued on, then he came around again and started backing into us and gave us that double armed "What! What are you doing" posture. We ignored him and backed up a bit then anchored further back - what the hell, it's not worth his attitude, he can have that spot. There's supposed to be a 100 ft, 20 ton dragon that guards the point, but it's fallen into disrepair - majorly. You can't tell that it was ever a dragon - the statue is just a conglomeration of green concrete pieces in the water and on the point. A shame really - it sounded like it was quite awesome so I'm sorry that I never got to see it. I guess it was traditional that on the 4th of July it would breath fire and its nostrils would actually emit smoke. It would have been terrific to see! They're trying to raise funds to have the dragon rebuilt - I hope that they do it. After all what sense is there in having a point called Dragon Point, with no dragon to guide the way in or protect it? It was a nice travel day but a little weird. There were sea gulls following us the entire way and I had to keep looking behind the boat and into the water. I felt like I was in an Alfred Hitchcock movie. This had never happened to us before - we hadn't fed them or anything to precipitate this kind of attraction to them. I really had to keep looking behind the boat to see if we were dragging a manatee carcass or something (we weren't Thank God!). I still don't get it - we're not fishing boat or anything like one - yet. I did pick up that "Sport Fish of Florida" book that Diana had though! Awesome book with great pictures and techniques - Wayne is looking forward to fishing! I'm looking forward to learning how to cook all his catches. I'm not in a hurry yet though.
Nice anchorage on the Banana River, it feels good to be here...to be moving south again.