Like when we got a new toilet, Ed and I are gleeful over a new member of our boating family — the sleek Yamaha outboard that just dropped into our starboard hull. It sounds strange I’m sure, but her quiet purr, started with just one crank of the ignition, is clearly the highlight of our visit to Cocoa Village.

Ed swung the motor into position and lowered it, then the mechanics bolted her down in all of about 30 minutes.

Today and tomorrow Ed is working with Chris and the welder Sunshine Dave to install the new pole supports for the short stay rigging in the salon. Once they get that done Miss Toucan will be ready to sail the seas again! Or at least the waterway if the weather/wind is bad.

As for me, I’m off to Wilmington via Orlando airport to welcome the kids home for Thanksgiving. It will be great to see them.

But leaving my boat family Ed and Ziggy is hard. I made Ed a meat loaf and bean casserole, feeling guilty about him being here with Just the dawg on Thanksgiving.

But he’ll have a car so I’m guessing he’ll find a sports bar somewhere that’s open. The heels are playing in Nassau, where we coulda-shoulda been, only if.

And I’m betting Ed will be crewing on the paddleboat by the time I get back. Or at least a dockhand for the marina.

Maybe he’ll get a new uniform! Stripes and stars.

To be continued…

We’re only about 10 miles from Port Canaveral, the area called the Space Coast. It’s a fancy name for the bus system, but they look like regular buses.

Being over 60 and entitled to a senior discount, we decided to try out the bus ride over to the Merritt Island Mall, just over the bridge heading east toward Cocoa Beach.  Handing over our 75 cents each, we took seats on the bus with a fairly full group, with most looking at their phones.

It was a short ride to the mall, and the bus stopped there for transfers.  Since it was cold and windy outside, we were glad to have the chance to do our daily walking inside.  Mall-walkers, we had become.

I was on a mission to find a small baking dish so I could make casseroles and meat loaf.  Hadn’t made the latter since I was in my 30’s and the kids were small, but I figured it might be a good boat dish.   I had only recently discovered the broiler oven is a convection oven, so we can bake in it!

We searched Sears, no luck.  Then Penney’s.  They had Pyrex casserole dishes for $35 – $70!  I couldn’t see that.  Then I found a small baking metal pan, bought two of them for $24.  I had to measure them to make sure they would fit – the cashier was curious why I needed a measuring tape.

Everything on a boat is designed for efficiency; you take storage space in your home for granted but not on a boat.  And Ed is always concerned about weighing down the boat.

The pan doesn’t weigh much.  And he’s good with the meat loaf idea.

But unfortunately we’re not there.  Ed checks the temps every day of the Bahamas and Southport. Most days we’re better than the latter, most days we’re worse than the former.  Today we’re in 48 degree rainy weather, rolling a bit in the dock at Cocoa Village Marina.

Should get warmer but still messy conditions today.  It’s a good thing we did the work we did yesterday with rigging adjustments.

Ed had noticed a slight crack in the pole in the salon that connects one of the shrouds (wire) to the mast.  We called on Chris, the alpha male on the dock who has a background in rigging sails, to take a look at it.  He didn’t like what he saw.

So he came back with his tools and the two of them took out both poles in the salon.  Chris’ friend Dave at Sunshine Welders (now that’s an oxymoron) came and looked at it too, and promised to weld a stronger plate to the pole and re-install them within a week.

So since we’re on pause waiting for the engine, we might as well strengthen the rigging connections.  Looks like Ed had the sharp eye on this one; I was skeptical we needed to change anything.

My gosh, by the time we get to the Bahamas we will have Super-Boat – she will be Toucan-on-steroids.

Only problem now is the propane tank we exchanged for our little one is too big to go in the hatch. Ed rigged the big one so we can use it outside of the hatch.   And he found out the U-Haul nearby will fill up our baby tanks.  Yay!

Ziggy enjoys her walks and makes a daily effort to get an extreme back rub in the grass.  Her version of a spa massage.

We keep ourselves occupied with daily projects and small victories.  Yesterday when I tried to boil water for oatmeal, the gas did not light on the stove.  Hmmmmm.  Maybe we’re out of propane?

Ed checked the tank and found it was truly empty.  We have a second tank that we hooked up and got the gas going again. Now how would we exchange the old tank?  We asked the marina dockmaster and he said we could walk about a half mile to the closest BP, under the water tower with the American flag painted on it – they would be able to exchange it.

So off we went, with the empty can strapped to the trusty luggage rolling cart I had brought along, thinking it might come in handy.  Ed had said we didn’t need it, the tank was light.  I said we need it coming back, the new tank will be heavy:)  He reluctantly agreed and pulled the cart up the street.

I had Ziggy on the leash; Ed had the cart.  We must have looked a little like those homeless people you see pushing a shopping cart.

We spotted the water tower and walked up.  No, the BP doesn’t have propane, but they will in December.

That doesn’t help us.  The Indian guy across the street at the Chevron said he doesn’t have it either, but the Texaco up the highway two lights up has it.  Two lights doesn’t sound like much, but this was Highway 520, a major four-laner.

Ed was not sure about this.  But we had come almost a mile already, so we trudged ahead.  Alas the two lights were at least another mile hike.

We passed a couple of vagabonds on the way – they eyed the blue-eyed dog and the man pulling the propane cart – no doubt our strange caravan kept them at their distance.

Success!  We got to Texaco and the propane tanks.  The manager checked out our empty tank and shook his head.

“Don’t take those, that’s an old one.”

I said yes I know these are from the ’90’s and our boat surveyor had told us they were out of date when he inspected the boat.  But we need a new one!

“OK, I know, but I will buy a new one.”  I was getting nervous he wouldn’t sell us one.

But he did, at full price of course.  And we took off back for the 2+ mile trek to the boat.  I stopped off at Advance Auto and told Ed to keep going.  I needed a hand vacuum for the dog hair.

Success again!  I’m carrying the bag with the vacuum and the dog is pulling me back to the boat.  We made it and now we have a brand new propane tank.

Small victories make your day.

Not to mention the social events that perked up our weekend.  Like the Friday night social where we met other boaters and enjoyed BBQ chicken on the big grill.  And last night a wedding reception on the paddle boat was our entertainment.

Not to overlook the Tar Heels whooping ass yesterday – we enjoyed that victory (undeserved, according to Ed) at Murdock’s Bar and Grill yesterday afternoon, while Ziggy waited patiently tied to the fire hydrant.

Who knows what joys await us today??

Just like any community, the marina at Cocoa is full of an assortment of characters, each contributing his or her own quirks to the overall fabric of the village.

There’s the family on a live aboard sailboat that has more junk stored on top than I’ve ever seen, including an old air conditioner, 2 propane tanks, boxes and crates of assorted supplies. Oh, and two little Jack Russell dogs that bark at Ziggy every time we walk by. They are named Lila and Adee, and the father Tim comes out each morning with his baby on his back and throws the little dogs on the dock so they can walk together and do their business.   Tim is a friendly Brit, and told me they were anchored out at Merritt Island for a long time, but when his wife got pregnant again she couldn’t get up and down in the dinghy as easily.  So they moved to this slip and he had to get a job to pay the fees.  I’ve never seen the wife/mother and second child so I don’t know if they really exist.

The staff is interesting – there’s Kelly the animated dockhand who laughs at everything and is always upbeat.  There’s Ken, the solemn dockmaster who never says much.  Johnny is the maintenance/web guy who’s friendly but can’t figure out how to keep their router from blocking my attempts to stream video through googlecast.  Then there’s Trisha the part-time dockhand who lives with her husband Chris on a sailboat in the marina as well as an RV in the parking lot.  They’ve been all over the place on their sailboat and are now going to try the roving RV lifestyle, heading to California and other parts west.

Every morning at the coffee shop we see the same group of old white guys convening at the same table over coffee.  One is a salty dog from the marina, who’s there every morning for a couple of hours.  I’ve spoken to him on the dock a couple of times, he just nods and goes on his way.  Kind of like Vero (Velcro) Beach, where a group of guys just live on their boats and never go anywhere.

We’ve met our neighbors on the big paddleboat “Indian River Queen”and they’ve given Ed the tour of the boat.  The owner is Penny, a former Miss Maryland, who runs the boat with three others.  They do wedding cruises, sunset dinner tours, etc.  They told us they made the mistake of doing a frat party cruise once a few years ago, and the guys got really drunk on the way back, then got naked and jumped off the boat once it docked.

Reining those characters in must have been a challenge.  We have a wedding this weekend on the paddleboat so that will be interesting.

One of the things you have to do when you change your lifestyle dramatically is to find a new routine that is comfortable.

When we set off in the boat we were traveling each day. Now that we are stuck in Cocoa for 10 days or more waiting on a motor, we are working on a daily routine.

We are walking to the little general store to get a USA Today each morning and heading to the little coffee shop nearby. We have noticed a couple sailors from the marina who hang out there each morning, at the same table with a changing cast of characters over the span of an hour or so.

It’s a replacement for Ed’s Port City Java morning social, I think. But we haven’t broken into the men’s club there yet. Maybe when I go home for Thanksgiving Ed will join them.

Heck when I come back he will probably be on the staff here as a part-time dock master. He’s already helped a boat dock so it’s just a matter of time.

Changed our mind. Not driving home, we are renting a car and hanging out in Cocoa, will wait for a new engine then head down to West Palm Beach.

It’s nicer in Florida!

We have to hit the pause button and go to commercial break. Meaning our trip south is now on hold.

The mechanic got the problem child motor out and they are ordering a new one, which could take up to two weeks. I was planning to go home for Thanksgiving anyway so we decided to go ahead and rent a car to head home.

Last night was entertaining though. We had spaghetti on the boat and listened to the steel band play on the big paddle boat beside us. They loaded up 30 people at $60 a head and headed out for a two-hour cruise on the Indian River. Quite the party boat!

But the paddles didn’t really work, they were just for looks. Just like our starboard outboard motor.

Bon voyage Toucan, we will be back in three weeks, rest up for the next leg of our trip.

I’m not complaining, there are far worse places to be stuck at. Beautiful village with lots of cute shops and restaurants.

We wandered around yesterday when we arrived and met the boat mechanic to look at our motor situation. He wasn’t sure we could pull it out and replace it without hauling the boat out of the water.

To do that we would have to move the boat back a few miles north to the Port Canaveral area to a boatyard that could handle it. Because her beam is 18′ some yards don’t have a wide enough lift, but apparently this one does.

So today we are hanging out in Cocoa Village, waiting to hear from the mechanic. If they can get the motor within a week and haul it out we might just wait rather than drive back and forth.

We made a trip to Tanners Hardware store for a few supplies. It makes you feel like you’re back in the 40’s, a two-story building full of everything, on dusty shelves throughout. I’m working on organizing the storage room better.

It’s that nesting thing I guess

We thought yesterday we had to go to the closest place to get a new motor. That would have been north 10 miles towards Daytona.

We were both bummed about having to backtrack north after those hard-earned hours at sea. Ten miles by car is nothing but with one motor on the waterway that’s almost 2 hours.

Then it occurred to Ed this morning after a great nights sleep and breakfast that maybe we could find somewhere further south to install a new motor.

Duhh. South is where we are heading anyway, right?

So we called around and found a place in Cocoa Beach that could do it.

We headed there, about one day’s trip, to find safe haven and boat engines.

And on the way we figured out our roles. Ed is Transportation Director in charge of sailing and motors. I’m Public Works Director in charge of plumbing, electrical, provisions and electronics .

If my kids are reading this I’m sure they are shaking their heads.