Monday, December 10, 2012 – Yep, we’re still in Cocoa:

            Happy Birthday to Aunt Marion who is 98 years young!!  She still travels the world, cleans her own house, and walks like at least a mile every morning!  I wish I had her genes!  Aunt Marion, we hope you had a great day!

            So, last night Bob and I were playing cards, and he (for some reason unknown to me) glances up at the panel above the helm station where there are some mysterious lights that if they come on, warn you that some untoward event is about to happen if you don’t do something RIGHT NOW!  And he sees this particular light brightly glowing, and says, “hmmmm….wonder what that is?”  So this, of course, causes us to cease playing cards immediately, and a check of all engine systems becomes necessary.  Actually, the light indicated that the forward bilge pump was unhappy, and that could be a cause for concern.  So a cursory check of the engine room yielded nothing amiss, and the mid and aft bilge pumps were ok – so, of course, the only thing left was naturally the forward bilge pump.  Now - the forward bilge pump is not easy to find or get to.  Bob opened the hatch in the floor in the forward cabin, and you could hear the bilge pump working away, but in order to actually get to it, you have to completely tear the forward beds apart and I don’t mean just unmaking the beds.  You have to take the beds out.  At least you have to take the mattresses out and remove the “hatch” covers under the mattresses and climb down into some space I don’t want to know about.  But, before we did that, Bob, proactively, asks me to check the electrical panel and see what position the bilge pump switches are in.  Good idea – and it so happens that the breakers are all in the “on” position, but I discover that there is some discrepancy about the bilge pump switches.  Everything on this boat has at least three systems to check before it works correctly.  There are three positions for all three bilge pumps, “off, manual, and auto,” and it so happened that the forward bilge pump somehow had gotten into the “manual” position and was constantly running it’s little self like a hamster on a wheel.  I switched it to “manual” and it shut off, no mechanic needed to be called in the middle of the night, and all was well with the world (boat) again.  Phew!

            So we woke up again to foggy, but we are going to rent a car and check out the wildlife refuge on Merritt Island, and buy ice cream at the Publix.  It’s going to be a good day.  This time we get a Chevy Malibu (sorry, I wouldn’t go out and buy one), but it’s a nice car, and we head over the bridge to Merritt Island and turn left on Rt. 3 towards the Kennedy Space Center and the Wildlife Refuge – big mistake.  We thought we were taking a short cut to the Wildlife Center, but unfortunately, the Kennedy Space Center is in the way, and it’s restricted, and the nice, but very firm, lady at the guard station says we have to turn around and she actually gives us pre-written directions (because other idiots apparently do the same thing) from the space center to the Wildlife Refuge which takes us back over the Indian River and through Titusville.  It took us a few days to get there – no, no, but it did take us about an extra 45 minutes. 

            When we finally did arrive at the wildlife center, it was getting very overcast, and I was thinking there wouldn’t be many good photography opportunities, and I was right.  The Visitors’ Center was very nice, and the guides were very helpful and gave us directions to the manatee observation area, which was what I really wanted to see.  Unfortunately, there wasn’t a manatee in sight, and I stared at the water for over half an hour.  We were starting to run out of time as we had some errands to run, and we were having a couple we met at the marina over for drinks at 5:00 p.m.  There were many other wildlife sighting opportunities there, including a 7 mile drive that was highly recommended to us, and a drive out to Playalinda Beach which is supposed to be one of the only completely natural beaches left on the east coast – or thereabouts (I can’t really remember!)

            We had quite a drive to get back to Cocoa, so we decided to go back to Merritt Island, have lunch at the Olive Garden again, hit the Publix, and we needed a USB cable from Office Depot. 

            Finally, all errands completed, and we arrive back to the boat deciding that we really need to go back to the Wildlife Center and see more of what it has to offer – maybe when we come back in January.  But I don’t think we will see any manatees unless we head farther south to warmer water.  Our new friends came over at 5:00 and we spent a lovely evening talking boats and boating adventures, and believe, they had some funny stories to relate, especially about anchors getting wrapped around their wing keel.  Yikes!  I’m glad I didn’t have their experiences!

            Just like when we left home for this trip, I find I am now making “to do” lists to go home for a month.  Tomorrow, we start checking things off the lists!  I am looking forward to going home for awhile.