We decided to stop in Cocoa Village (NOT Cocoa Beach, as I have previously been calling it!) for a few days because JR wanted to do some boat work and we have some blog writing friends that are living there on the hook.

It was a big old anchorage, pretty exposed, but right off of the ICW with a public dinghy dock and a cute little town.  We arrived on a beautifully calm and warm day and settled in quickly right behind some other blog writing friends of ours!  What a small cruising/blogging world :)

I’m not really sure why lots of us cruisers have blogs, but it seems a requirement, if you are computer literate, you gotta have a blog!  This fact helped me a ton while we were preparing to cruise.  I was obsessed!  It was great to see live pics of places I’d soon be and it was great to hear real tips about boat life.  I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again, blogs got me ready for this trip!  Unfortunately now that I’m out and about, I spend very little time reading blogs and lots more time doing cool stuff to blog about, but I do manage to stay up to date with bloggers who post on Facebook, which is how we were able to meet up with friends in Cocoa! It’s been fun hearing the different reasons people blog.  Some are strictly personal, hoping to reflect upon their writing when they are old and gray, some for the publicity of it, hoping to get a sponsor and score some free stuff, and some to return the kindness that was made available to them.  I think all of us do it to keep our friends and family in the loop too.

The first night we were there, we got a dinner invite from Kelly and Jason from s/v Chance.  Kelly and Jason are from NYC and gave up their super cool city lifestyle for a slower pace on a sailboat.  They are almost ready to figuratively “cast off the dock lines” as they are currently living at anchor while they finish up the last of their boat projects before heading south.  Their plans are a little more ambitious than ours at the moment, with hopes of cruising all the way down to South America for a bit.  You’ll have to read their blog to find out more details, but we had a nice time getting to know each other and seeing s/v Chance.  They fixed us burgers (both beef and turkey), fries, and baked beans for dinner.   The burgers were a nice treat because we haven’t busted out our grill yet on Journey, it’s been too cold and we’ve been moving too fast!

The next night we got an invite for happy hour aboard s/v Magnolia, which is a double blog havin’ boat!  Anthony writes about daily adventures on Magnolia’s main blog, and Annette writes about all things sewing on her blog, The Seamless Sailor.  You might remember my plug for The Seamless Sailor waaaaaaaaaay back in March.  In our debut post on Sailing Journey, I was at my wits end trying to make winch covers for Journey and somehow I came across Annette’s FB page for The Seamless Sailor.  I private messaged her and she solved ALL of my canvas problems with one amazing tip: use staples.  That tip changed my life!  Yes, Anthony, your wife changed my life!  Anyway, these lovely folks are from Virginia, and I have been sort of following their blog as they traveled down the ICW, but they left in September so they were waaaaaaay in front of us.  Not too long ago, however, I noticed that somehow, we had caught up to them and that we’d be together in Cocoa Village!  Yay!  So we joined them for drinks aboard their beautiful boat and then dinghied to shore for sushi!  Yum, yum.  Oh!  And the best part is, Annette and I talked sewing!  Remember, I’m having a little trouble figuring out how to top the cover for our generator?  Well I took my project on over to Magnolia and we talked through it!  Private tutoring from The Seamless Sailor!  Almost as good as a pirate tour of St. Augustine!  We are lucky folks :)

The blogging world didn’t make an ounce of sense to me before we devised our plan for cruising, but boy has it been a godsend.  It’s been such a great way to learn, and such a wonderful way to meet new people.  Any bloggy friends in Vero, Florida?  We’re headed there next, y’all!