Manatees, manatees, manatees everywhere ...

Yes- you will see pictures of manatees - but you have to look at these first. This is the helm station and I thought you might like to see the equipment that is used on a regular basis: 2 pairs of binoculars, charts (2 sets), 2 VHF's (one portable) and 2 chartplotter GPS's. All these are used without letup all day while cruising - Linda generally on one set of electronics and monitoring the charts and talking on the radio and me trying to figure out what all the funny red and green floating things are. You'll also notice on the top of the dashboard little red and green plastic pieces - because the ICW northbound is red on left, and all the harbor entrances and inlets are red on right, these pieces of plastic are on velcro and can be changed to remind me the proper orientation - a mistake in these shallow waters is immediately punishable!

A better pelican photo for Alison- this pretty young girl was off our stern as we fueled up in Ft. Pierce.

This is Linda, all tanned and relaxed sitting in the living room. You can see the kitchen to her left and the master bedroom behind her. She can easily reach the bathroom to her right. It's a little tight.

Cory meets his first manatee - this one is sleeping behind our boat slip. He comes up for air every once in a while. I can't imagine what Cory is thinking because a couple of minutes ago this guy let go with some bubbles, if you know what I mean, and the bubbling lasted for about 30 seconds. However, I am unaffected. Ken

Linda here- I am proud of this shot of 2 manatees playing "kissy face" right near our dock. They are so homely/cute/huge!

The gray mass in front of the dock in the foreground is our sleeping manatee- to show you how close they are to our "Venture". This marina is a nice place.

This is the manatee that is drinking the drips of water from the hose at the dock. They roll on their backs to drink it. A face only his mother could love!!!!It's illegal to touch them or to initiate contact with them, but it seems all the dock people here do it regularly. These guys don't seem to be suffering at all, but they each have propeller scars on their backs.

We're now at Titusville Municipal Marina- MUCH nicer place, but not the Hyatt, either!! But we were greeted by dolphins, and we are surrounded by manatees! Ken had seen one earlier in our trip ( in a lock with us), but this is the first I've seen of them. Very big & slow & gassy! Must be all that roughage(grass that they eat)!They love fresh water from a hose, but you're not supposed to give it to them- a man walked by & turned on a faucet just so that it leaked- and said- watch them flip on their backs to catch the drips! I took tons of photos of the same manatees - right near our boat. I LOVE being so close to them- I will definitely go swimming with them next year. One of them even snorted at Cory!

We now have 35 hours on the engine and I am getting some kind of noise that sounds like it may be bearings on the fan belt. They go away after the engine is run a little. The only hope for a Volvo dealer is in Daytona - so I hope we make it - if not, I am on a first name basis with SeaTow and BoatUS tow. The landing today at the Titusville Municipal dock was the worst one I have done yet. It was a simple back-in to a slip. The nose got caught in the wind and I could have saved my dignity with some fast action - well, my action was rather fast, it was just wrong, and I made the situation worse. I got sideways and had to throw a stern line to the dock master to be rescued. No harm done - except to my pride.

We moved from the last marina to this one this morning. It was only a 5 mile ride. We got 35 gallons of gas - I didn't completely fill up because the dock master said, "Don't even think about dropping one drop of gas into the water." It sounded like I ought to be careful - so I was. The price is still reasonable for the waterway - $2.99/gal. The dock master said there are about 40 manatees in this basin we are in. We immediately found a bunch of them. They are the sloths of the water - they aren't concerned with, or very interested in, people. They are all around the boats in the slip eating sea grass. One is sleeping directly across the finger pier from us - he has been there for about an hour - his back out of the water and he comes up to breathe every minute or so. I saw their mouths and they have teeth like a cow or a horse. They have 3 toenails at the end of their front flippers. It's neat to see them after being warned every 1/2 mile that they are here.