Days 310 -313

Melbourne FL - Cocoa Village Marina, Cocoa Village FL

Start 8:35 AM
End 11:15 AM
Underway 2:30 Hours
Distance 21 Miles
Total Miles on Trip 4900
Av Speed 7.8 knots
Weather Sunny , 71 Degrees, Wind Knots 3 E

The ride from Melbourne to Cocoa Village Marina was a quick easy ride. The weather was beautiful and there was very little boat traffic, between the two the water was perfectly calm. Cocoa Village Marina is a small marina with maybe 40 slips but the dock staff is wonderful. We called them on the radio as we approached; their response was quick and concise as they guided both Cheri Baby II and Nothing To Plunder to our slips. Once in our slips they helped tie all of our lines, and hooked up our power. While we are very capable of tying our own lines, it is nice when the dock staff handles it for us.

Our original plans were to anchor out for one night between Melbourne and Cocoa Village, to see a rocket launch from Kennedy Space Center, but the scheduled launch was changed to Wednesday the 6th. We plan to go watch it when we leave Cocoa Village.

While in Cocoa Village we rented a car, and our original plan was to use it to go visit the space center, about 30 miles from the marina. Getting an Uber for 4 people has been difficult, and the space center is too far to squeeze the four of us into the back seat of a smaller car. Most Uber drivers are not allowing anyone in the front seat anymore.

Having the car was great we started by heading to the beach to look for a place for lunch. We wanted somewhere on the water and Cocoa Beach Pier seemed like the perfect place. There was plenty of open parking spots, and parking appeared to be free. There were plenty of people around but it was not very crowed for a Saturday afternoon, and we soon found out why! As we walked up to the pier, there was a chain across it and a security guard told us the entire pier was closed due to expected bad weather. He did tell us about another "waterfront" restaurant, The Sandbar Bar & Grill, about two miles south. We ended up there for lunch, and were pretty disappointed. The upper deck was closed for construction, and from the lower deck, if you looked very carefully down the beach path you could almost see the water. Not really "waterfront" dining, more like parking lot dining. The food was ok, but nothing special, but it was food.

After lunch we headed to the famous and original Ron Jon Surf Shop. The Cocoa Beach store is not only the original store it is also the world's largest surf shop. While we were browsing and shopping the "expected bad weather" that closed the pier showed up. The rain came in fast and furious, I could have used a surf board to get back to the car.

As with every stop, Angel googled "things to do near me" and found out that there is a Wizard Of Oz Museum in Cape Canaveral. So off we went, what a cute little museum. It was a little over priced for what it was, but still worth the money. The museum had a collection of books, games and all kinds of Wizard of Oz trinkets and junk. We spent about 45 minutes looking over everything but the highlight of the museum was the Immersive Wizard of Oz show where visitors can be placed into Dorothy's shoes and travel through a tornado, Munchkin Land, dark forest, and poppy filed into Emerald City. In addition to the Wizard of Oz Show, they had a Immersive Van Gough exhibit. The Immersive Show room is a room about 30' x 90' with over 30 digital projects that project the show on the walls and floor and you feel like you are moving through the show.

Our big decision for Tuesday was whether to go to Kennedy Space Center or one of the amusement parks in Orlando. Orlando is about an hour ride from Cocoa Village or Titusville (Our next stop), and Kennedy Space Center is about a 20 minute ride from either. We decided to go to one of the parks, and go to Kennedy Space Center from Titusville. Next we had to pick a park, we all were leaning toward Epcot Center. We were not looking to go on a lot of rides, but more of the theme park experience. When we found out the Disney Parks are $150 per person, we looked at other options. Sea World Tickets retail for $120 per person, but it is very easy to find discount tickets. One of the first discounts I look for is Military Discounts. Sea World has the best Military Discounts that I have seen yet. Active Duty Military gets one free ticket per year, and all other Military gets 50% off of their tickets, and for up to three of their guest. This made our choice very easy, and off to Sea World we went.

We had a great time at Sea World, Angel and I have been there before but it was Dan & Cheri's first time there. It was very interesting to see the differences between the dolphin show at Sea World and the Dolphin Research Center in Marathon. The Dolphin Research Center was more focused on rehabilitation and how they interact and train the dolphins, and Sea World was more on the end results and the "show". They were both a great experience and neither one was better, but very different. We spent the entire day walking from show to show but Dan and I did ride the log flume, and got totally soaked. Angel and Cheri did not want to get wet, so they watched and laughed at us. By the end of the day we walked a total of 6.5 miles.

Tuesday was our last day in Cocoa Beach, and we spent most of the day relaxing and recovering from Sea World.

Our next stop is Titusville, and we hope to stop on oyur way to watch SpaceX launch a rocket.