Family Visit

We had a great day with Joe and Jo on Thursday, March 28th.  They came on board about 1030 and we immediately set out on a little tour of the area.  While the four of us caught up on each other's lives, we cruised up and down Haulover Canal so the Joes could see some manatees.  We also saw dolphins and several herons.  We had a good lunch, and chose a spot to watch the launch of the last of the Delta rockets. This was supposed to take place at 1:40 pm, then 2:40 pm, and then it was scrubbed altogether.  Oh well.

We turned back to Titusville and had dinner out at Pier 220. It was Joanna's birthday and the very kind waitress put a candle on her dessert and organized other eaters into a birthday chorus.  We all had a great time.

They helped us untie and we left them to their Uber back to Orlando while we relocated to a more protected anchorage to ride out the wind.

We've been here ever since, in the northeast corner of this section of river, anchored in the lee of the NASA railroad bridge.  We've seen two more satellite launches.  Dan has spent much of the days washing and waxing the topsides.  I learned to bake bread with einkorn flour, and ancient, unprocessed wheat that is very healthy and gut-friendly.  The bread-making process is very different because the dough needs a lot more time to rise, but the result is worth it.

Today Dan spotted what we thought was a manatee in distress, tangled in a crab pot warp.  We watched at the pot buoy bobbed and jerked and the manatee kept surfacing to snort and cry out.  Other manatees were hanging about.  We called the Florida Wildlife people to report it and their first question was does the buoy have a radio antenna on it?  Sure enough, it did.  This is a tagged, manatee, they told us, tethered to that buoy by a four foot line attached to its tail.  It probably wasn't in danger, but they asked Dan to make sure that other manatees weren't endangered since it is mating season, and manatees can form a ball of activity.  Dan carefully took the dinghy out to see.  No entanglement, but the nearby manatees seemed to take exception to his intrusion and surrounded him, splashing a lot. Dan agreed to get right out of their way.  

That was our Easter Sunday excitement.  Hope your day has been just as lively and as interesting!