Cocoa – Melbourne
Friday 3/13
As our dining cruise continues down the ICW, we chose to have another short day on the water. And again, it was a perfectly delightful, quiet experience with dolphins all around and water that was as still as a lake.
We usually stay at a particular marina here that has a Chart House restaurant on-site where we enjoy their happy hour food offerings. But, alas, that marina is currently under construction with no amenities available, and they suggested another one a few miles north of them.
Our short day, just got shorter.
We discovered a gem of a marina up a small river that is very protected. Multiple dolphins call it home as we watched momma and baby swim along and play.
The most stressful part of this marina is entering the slip as a fleet of canoers and kayakers are coming down the adjacent channel. There is a paddle club up the channel and competitive rowers and paddlers use this area for training. We weren’t sure if we were watching kayakers or canoeist as the boats looked very similar. So after some Google research we discovered that we were watching competitive canoeing with a long skinny canoe and the canoeist kneels on one knee and has one foot out in front of them for support. When you aren’t trying to dodge them while docking, it was great watching them train, making it look easy.
This marina is on the east or beach side of the ICW, so we are able to walk to the beach for a nice dinner.
We will be putting this marina on the list to return to someday.
