COCOA, FL TO NEW SMYRNA BEACH, FL

Tuesday, March 24th, 2015

Day 232
Miles Traveled: 51
Total Miles Traveled: 2921


  We enjoyed our stay at Cocoa, FL, but, it was time for us to continue our journey heading north on the Indian River.  We left just after sunrise.  It was misty and overcast and stayed that way most of the day.  

leaving Cocoa Village Marina

  Along the ICW channel are "spoil islands".  These are small islands that are created from the silt on the bottom of the river that is removed by a dredge to keep the channel deep enough for navigation.  These island make great habitats for birds.  The Roseate Spoonbills found the islands just north of Cocoa, FL a great home.  This time Angie was able to snap a photo of two flying overhead.  

Roseate Spoonbills in flight

  After being underway about two hours we entered Haulover Canal.  This canal is part of the Atlantic ICW and connects the Indian River with Mosquito Lagoon.  Before the canal was made, this location was a narrow strip of land where Native Americans, explorers, and settlers would carry (haul over) their canoes and small boats to get from one waterway to the other.  This history gave the canal its name. 

Haulover Canal joining Indian River and Mosquito Lagoon

  Mosquito Lagoon is part of the Indian River lagoon system.  It is a much broader body of water with not much wind block from north or south.  We had 15-20 mph wind out of the north which caused some chop and whitecaps.  They were on our bow, so "Seahorse" handled them well. 

entering Mosquito Lagoon - before we encountered the white caps

  Mosquito Lagoon is shallow and it was important to stay in the channel.  This is a common theme for the Atlantic ICW.  Since it is shallow it is a great habitat for manatees because they love warm water.  We saw several on our cruise of this waterway.  One appeared right in front of the boat, so we had to put the boat in neutral to prevent injuring the animal with our prop.  Mostly we saw them in the distance outside of the channel.  We have yet to be able to catch a photo of one.  All we usually see is their nose, back, or tail.  This is an image (taken from the internet) is of manatees in a warm spring.   

manatees swimimg

  

  Our final destination was the New Smyrna Beach City Marina.  We arrived late afternoon but with enough time to walk around the downtown which consists of one street.  The street was lined with beautiful palm trees.  There were plenty of eateries and shops.  

downtown New Smyrna Beach

  Since we had eaten out the previous two evenings, we choose to cook aboard this evening.  We spent the rest of the evening on chart review and blogging before going to bed.