12/27/15  Sunday

Morning sun salute today was on the New Smyrna free dock, face lifted, arms stretched to a rainbow sundog. Beautiful sunrise!

New Smyrna Beach from free dock

Long travel day today...8 hours with a stop for fuel, water and a holding tank pump out (in case you wanted to know). There were waves (!) on Mosquito Lagoon, a place we'd considered anchoring so I could go to the ocean beach.  Sweet David keeps looking for places for me to indulge my ocean passion. We decided against Mosquito Lagoon. Beautiful but huge, and windy/wavy and we wanted to get farther south. (Soon I'm going to look up the difference in further and farther but not now because my computer battery will run out.

A couple of wonderfuls today -

Manatees! Never got a great view but several noses, a couple of backs and one alongside the boat was a full head, neck wrinkles and back. The "entrance" to Mosquito Lagoon where the mangrove islands are close to the ICW was where we saw them. I was at the helm and watching the water so I had the most views. It would have been fun to really slow down or stop to have a better viewing chance but we were the leaders of the boat parade - 3 sail boats and a power boat - so....

There is a right hand turn - that would be 90 degrees to starboard - the leads through a short cut in several mangrove islands leading to a Bascule bridge named Haulover Canal Bridge. It's pretty narrow (25-30'). It was FULL of little power boats with people cruising and/or fishing. Our sailboat parade wove its way through them, avoiding fishing lines and boats coming and going in all directions - a real social occasion. And both sides of the canal/cut were filled with people fishing from the banks. At one point we counted 20 boats of about 15', small-ish boats. They were a swarm! A delightful swarm. Then we were under the bridge and back in open, big water.

Now on anchor in Cocoa (Beach???) listening to swish of traffic going over the bridge, called a causeway here, and the music of Diane Krall. Earlier there was a conveyor belt of white and red color as cars' headlights, taillights kept apace. Now the color and sound is less regular. The warm breeze is gentle. A lovely night.

I'm thoughtful, and grateful, about my abundances being conscious of so many people with much less...the young, hopeful couple we met yesterday and the day before, a friend in very poor health who is less hopeful...grateful for all the homes I have, FB photos of my NC family's Christmas gathering, and of the smaller ME gathering.

When we started this journey and everything was new....and dangerous!... I thought about the possibility of death, daily. As I've become more confident (in self, David and boat) the ever-present possibility of death has not diminished but my attention to it has. This is not about fear, and I don't think the awareness is a bad/negative thing...something like Don Juan in that series of books by Carlos Castaneda.  The Teachings of Don Juan, I think, was the first one. Perhaps time to re-read...at least to remember the constant possibility. Remembering adds to my gratitude.

white dots under the tree live are more white pelicans/snowbirds