Day 102 - 17 March

We woke up to the sound of someone behind the boat making a lot of noise and obviously not trying to be quiet or respectful of anyone's privacy...then we remembered we were in Florida. There was dredging going on...as previously mentioned, we did touch bottom coming in to the marina. However, it was a bit annoying to find the dredging contractor parking his equipment within inches of Windreka's stern and dinghy without even the courtesy of telling us they would be working next to us. The operator of the work platform in the photos walked by our boat a half dozen times during the day without speaking to us.

The east winds today were still higher...gusts over 25 knots...and the intracoastal waterway chop was choppier than our relaxed cruising comfort factor allows. So we decided to lay over another day and go back to look at the historic Cocoa Village near the marina.

We spent a relaxing morning reading and relaxing on Windreka and a nice afternoon walking around the shops in Cocoa Village (http://www.cocoavillage.com/). The little fellow on the right came out to welcome us and decided to visit for a few minutes. Among other things, we discovered the Village Ice Cream and Sandwich Shop (http://www.cocoavillage.com/directory/listing/index.html?id=893id=893) and Joe found a real hardware store (Travis Hardware...http://www.cocoavillage.com/directory/hardware/). It's always reassuring to know that there are still real hardware stores in existence and there are alternatives to Home Depot and Lowes! Wonder of wonders...we were welcomed, asked once if we needed any assistance or were looking for anything specific, invited to look around on both floors, and never once treated as if we were shoplifters.

Now here's a historic character!

After our trip "downtown" we returned to Windreka to get ready to depart in the morning. We can probably count on the dredging crew to wake us up and we have to make our way out of the marina before we are blocked in by them. Hopefully, the wind will start to clock around to the southeast a bit to reduce the chop and rolling motion of the waves.