Brrr,
the day started sunny but only in the 40’s.
We were no longer in southern Florida and we could feel it. I had a call to make and Captain Randy went
over to say hello to After Taxes. We had not seen them since the TennTom
Waterway at Bobby’s Fish Camp. Turns out
they have had a myriad of problems with their boat and had to stop along the
way for repairs. This may have been a
foreshadowing of what was to come.
We
pulled our lines at 10:09 am and entered the Canaveral Barge Canal on the way
to the ICW because the ocean was too rough to travel with 6 to 9 foot waves. Another old river friend met us just past the
Barge Canal Bridge, the Port Canaveral Lock.
I scrambled to get the big white fenders out of the dinghy and into
position to go through the lock. There were
manatees swimming everywhere! The
lockmaster told us he stopped counting at 50.
I also saw white pelican and a “bearded” Black Heron. We entered the
lock at 10:23 am and exited at 10:34 am; we only had to go down a foot or less.
Running
8 miles west through the Barge Canal, we crossed the Banana River and Merritt
Island to get to the Indian River, which was the ICW route. It was narrow and very slow speed all the way
as it was a manatee zone. We saw a barge
and tug and a river tour boat, with people braving the cold. We passed 2 marinas, one had its sign painted
on an old boat. We went under the
Christa McAuliffe Bridge (she was one of the astronauts that died on the
Challenger Space Shuttle as it exploded on takeoff) and entered the ICW at
11:24 am.
The
shoaling was bad at the end of the canal and our depth reading kept dropping
although according to our chart and the red and green markers we were in the
center of the channel. We had readings
just over 2 feet and the Captain was going very slowly when it happened: with a boom, we hit bottom. “That was not good!” said Captain Randy. We had felt the keel hit and hoped it was
only the keel and not the props. We
turned north into the Indian River and continued slowly into the channel. This is a wide river with homes lining both
sides. Captain Randy pushed the
throttles forward to check for any vibration and sure enough, we could feel
it. Now we were pretty certain we had
damaged at least one prop. The closest
town with a marina that could haul the boat out of the water was Titusville,
about 15 miles away. We decided to stop
there so that the marina that could haul the boat, inspect and hopefully repair
the props.
As
we slowly cruised up the ICW, the NASA land on Merritt Island and the National
Wildlife Refuge on North Merritt Island were on our starboard side. We could see the huge Vehicle Assembly Plant
and one of the launch pads in the distance.
A large power plant with power cables crossing the river was on our
port. Smoke from forest fires was also
visible on our port, north of Cocoa, near Indian River City. We went under 2 more bridges, the NASA
Causeway Bridge (the 405) and the Max Brewer Bridge at Titusville.
Westland
Marina did not answer the phone or radio, so we tied up at the municipal harbor
next door and I walked over to the marina office. Luckily, they were able to haul us out right
away, so we brought the boat over and they put us in the sling. At first look, the props seemed ok but a zinc
fitting on the starboard shaft had lost 2 screws and was loose. The mechanics in the boat yard were sure that
the loose zinc was the cause of the vibration.
The boatyard ordered 2 new zincs so we could replace them on both
shafts, and they were to be delivered in the morning. Captain Randy had them power wash the props,
shafts and rudders as well. We were able
to stay in the sling “on the hard” (ground) that night, hooked up to power and
water and given a ladder to get on and off the boat. Another new experience!
We
walked into town, which wasn’t much, but there were a few old, restored
buildings that were nice. We ate in one
of them, at a restaurant named Chops and the food was very good. There was a nice waterfront park, Space
Memorial Park, but by then it was too windy and chilly to spend any time there.
The
boatyard was pretty active, with people in the boater’s lounge, walking around,
and doing laundry. I did a couple more
loads as well, taking them up and down the ladder. We hoped to be on our way fairly early the
next day to Daytona Beach.
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