Cocoa Village Marina, City of Cocoa, Florida

We left Loggerhead Marina and Eddie and Nancy this morning. We have thoroughly enjoyed travelling with and sharing this trip with them, and will very much miss them as we move on. Nancy and I have shared the cooking for so long that it will be quite different cooking alone again. It was a very peaceful trip up to Cocoa Village, light breeze behind us, very calm waters. There were a few other boats out there, but traffic was light. Saw dolphins and manetee as we travelled, lots of pelicans.  No bridges needed to be opened for us. As we travelled, we saw smoke rolling up to the west of us. We asked after we arrived, there is a range fire covering about 50 acres inland. Authorities are working hard trying to get it under control.
Went for a walk around town after we arrived, the marina is close to several shops and restaurants. A group in Cocoa has preserved Historic Cocoa Village in remembrance of Florida from the 1920's tothe 1950's. In fact, the restored town centre was recently chosen as the location for a movie set in 1960's Key West.

Leaving Vero Beach

Travis Hardware has everything, even a skeleton dressed in pirate costume

We stopped in at S.F.Travis & Co., a huge hardware store that fills several buildings. They have everything you can imagine in the way of hardware; I've heard it called the ultimate shopping area for men. Came back to the boat for dinner, then walked around the docks looking at the boats here. Many nice ones.  Will spend tomorrow visiting the town again. On Thursday, Nancy and Eddie are meeting us and we will go for a tour of the Kennedy Space Centre.

As we left Vero Beach this morning; Nancy was taking pictures.

The smoke from the brush fires was visible to the west as we travelled.

Many beautiful homes along the waterway. The water was very calm this morning.

The Historic Derby St. Chapel in Cocoa; built in 1924 by the Seventh Day Adventists, purchased in 1955 by Church of Christ, Scientist, then in 1964, purchased by the First Baptist Church.  It was designated to become a parking lot, but a community group purchased it and it has become a community use facility.