Mermaids and Thanksgiving on the hook
11/20
It was pouring down rain when we got up. That would not stop Judy and I from taking advantage of our late departure to see the Lightner Museum. The museum is located in the old Alcazar Hotel. As many times as I’ve been here, I’ve never gone through the museum. What an absolute gem! Judy and I just wished that we had more time to linger. The rain had stopped as we left the museum. When we returned to the marina, we just had time to untie the lines and jump on the boats. We are leaving at slack tide, noon. It was a beautiful warm day on the ICW. We made good time and arrived in Marineland at 3:30 p.m. Don and Judy took a walk on the beach. Carl filled the water tanks and I took a nap. We had leftover lasagna on Bay Breezin’. Judy brought me a beautiful hibiscus flower that she picked on their walk. After dinner, Judy and I did laundry and I cooked a turkey breast for our Thanksgiving dinner.
11/21
We left Marineland marina at 8:15 a.m. and had another beautiful, warm day for traveling. We made our way through a few bascule bridges. There were more dolphins today. We tied up at the New Smyrna Beach town dock at 3p.m. We all walked to our favorite seafood restaurant. We were disappointed to discover that it had closed, so we made our way into town to find a place to eat. We decided on the Corkscrew Bar and Grille. We sat outside and enjoyed Margaritas and dinner. We turned in early. We have a long day ahead tomorrow.
11/22 Thanksgiving
There were a flock of Ibis perched in our rigging. Carl had to shoo them away. We left the dock in New Smyrna Beach at 7:15 a.m. The water was like glass. It seemed to evaporate into the sky ahead of Nemo. We spotted 3 curvaceous manatees (aka mermaids) before we got to the Haul Over canal. We saw a few more in the canal. We stopped at an anchorage south of Cocoa Beach at 2:50 p.m. We rafted together. The wind picked up and we bounced around before dinner. The clouds have started rolling in. Rain is predicted tonight and tomorrow. At 5 o’clock we pooled our resources and managed to pull together a nice Thanksgiving dinner. We had turkey breast, cornbread dressing, mashed potatoes, gravy, yams with marshmallows, collard greens and cranberry sauce. The winds calmed down and the rain missed us. Tonight we are thankful for many things, including these good times that we are sharing with wonderful friends!