Titusville Dock Party

One of the joys of life aboard - a Saturday night dock party with old friends and new friends! Everybody brings their own favorite adult beverage and a dish to share. Our more talented friends bring their guitar play and sing!! And then the story telling starts!!

Space Shuttle Launches and Landings

I've wanted to post these two pictures for months now, but every time I think about writing about them I start to cry. It breaks my heart to see the shuttle program coming to an end. Jim and I were lucky enough to be "stuck" in Titusville, FL for fourteen months and to receive the gift of seeing at least six launches (including two at night) and a few landings. Jim took both of these beautiful pictures. The daylight shot was taken on June 2, 2009, when Atlantis was flown back from California on NASA's modified 747. Amazingly, it came right over our boat and was fairly low since they were landing just a few miles away. The other shot was the night launch of Discovery on August 28, 2009. We were anchored out in the Indian River just a few miles from the launchpad. Not only was the launch incredibly beautiful to see, the roar that came across the water vibrated the whole boat. I've always loved to watch the launches on tv but to see them "up close and personal" has been something to remember and appreciate forever. God bless the astronauts - past, present and future.

Two Pots of Gold?

At 7:30 this morning we had a very light sprinkle of rain here in Vero Beach, followed by an incredible rainbow. We could see the whole arch end to end. Unfortunately it was too big to get all of it in one shot but it was a lovely way to start our day!

Just another day at the beach

Yesterday was an absolutely perfect beach day so we went. You can get there by catching the free (my favorite word) bus at the marina, or walk to it in about 15 minutes like we did. These pictures were taken today. The waves yesterday were actually much bigger and the rip currents were pretty bad so we played it safe and didn't get into the water past our ankles. Took a nice walk along the beach and just sat back and enjoyed the sound of the crashing surf. What a treat!

Royal Poinciana Tree

This is just one of the prettiest trees you'll ever see! We saw this while walking to the beach yesterday and had to go back today with the camera. The homeowner, Dan, just happened to be outside and we chatted for a while. What a nice guy! This tree is about 50 years old. The Royal Poinciana tree is frequently seen in paintings done by the Florida Highwaymen, a group of black artists from the l950's who traveled around selling their paintings for next to nothing. They are known for their use of vivid colors. Today these paintings are famous. We went to a showing at the Backus Museum in Fort Pierce and saw some for sale for $500 or more.

Dolphin Orgy

We had about 10 Dolphin show up in front of the boat yesterday. After watching their antics for a few minutes we finally figured out what was going on. Several of them were mating. We have heard of this and have seen Manatees mating but this is the first time we have seen Dolphins mating. A little trivia: Dolphin and humans are the only two animals that have sex for fun! Enjoy the video!

Meet Bob

We meet a lot of people who travel with their pets on board. This weekend we met Bob, the Great Dane. I have no idea what his master's name is because as usual, I was only interested in the guy's dog. Bob is three years old, weighs in at 165 lbs and looks like a small horse. The guy on the boat has had eleven Great Danes. I just love the way he names them. This one is Bob, Bob's dad was named Mike, and Bob's grandfather's name was Arnie - what great dog names!

And if you think this guy's crazy to travel with one Great Dane, we met a couple last year that had three Great Danes cruising with them to the Bahamas. Hope none of them got seasick!