Snorts, Flappings and Trumpets

When Brenda awoke this morning, she joined Mike sitting on the sundeck of Velsignet with his coffee watching the many manatees swimming around our anchorage area.  Often times, a “snorting” sound warned us that one of these shy “sea cows” was nearby.  As we pulled anchor and began our departure, we watched and moved slowly to make sure those swimming around the boat got out of the way safely.

By yesterday, the storm experienced in the area had passed through, leaving continued strong winds of approximately 19 mph.  Despite the winds (and feeling that we needed to make tracks), we left Melbourne Harbor Marina in the early afternoon to seek a sheltered anchorage north of Titusville.  The ride through the waves in the ICW was smoother than expected.  But the flapping and rattling boat noises because of the windy conditions left us exhausted by the time we anchored at 6:45 pm.

Today we arrived in New Smyrna and enjoyed lunch in its historic downtown.  Afterwards, we continued on the ICW to the Rockhouse Creek inlet to anchor for the evening.   There were four sailboats already situated, so we cruised by them to claim our own space.  During our third attempt to set an anchor, Velsignet stopped.  We had run aground in what was supposed to be at least 10 feet of water!   It was 6:30 pm  Low tide occurred at 4:30 pm (which meant the water would not get much shallower).  High tide was at 4:30 am (which meant we'd have 2 more feet of water beneath us). What were we to do?  Wait it out?  Call for help?

Ta-ta-da-dah!  (Imagine a trumpet sounding)  Mike—the problem-solving superman came to the rescue!  He got in the dinghy and  roared its 7.5 horse motor while leveraging a length of the anchor rode, hoping  to move Velsignet off the underwater rise.  And it worked!  Velsignet creeped ever so slightly and the depth gauge indicated plenty of water for Velsignet's draft.  Brenda started the engine, Mike lifted the anchors, and we moved on to anchor elsewhere.  We’d had enough of the popular Rockhouse Creek.   

As Mike is working with the anchors, he has manatees swimming around the boat. 
We've never seen so many of them in one area!

Brenda was able to capture a photo of a manatee coming to the surface.  Their gray color blends with the water.

As the chain and anchors are pulled in, they often need a bit of cleaning.

This is Velsignet at a dock in New Smyrna.  They offer free docking for up to 10 hours.  This gave us time to walk to to the historic downtown for lunch, as well as for Mike to change a part on the generator.  By the dock, you can see a yellow bench, which was part of a waterfront park.

Also at the waterfront park was this impressive memorial to those who lost their lives in the Korean and Vietnam wars.

It was a perfect day to enjoy lunch at the "Corkscrew Grille" on their outdoor patio.

New Smyrna's downtown is quaint and quite lovely.

Besides manatees, we have seen more dolphins in the past two days than ever before!
 They're quick, so it's not easy to catch them on camera.

If you look beneath the water, you'll see the image of a dolphin.  This guy and a buddy were following us, seeming to enjoy their place in our wake.

We left the Rockhouse Creek area so fast that we forgot to load up the dinghy! 
Good thing we had it tied on tight enough to drag it to our next anchoring spot.

Another sunset.  So glad!

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