It's Here - Embrace It

Early April Morning Port Canaveral

The magic sliver of springtime between the departure of the snowbirds and the arrival of the summer vacationers is well underway. When I walked to the coffee shop from my office this morning there wasn't a single car on southbound A1A in downtown Cocoa Beach. April opened up earlier this week with beautiful blue skies, temps in the high 70s and groups of cobia following giant manta rays just off the beach. Traffic in the aisles of the Publix grocery store is no longer a version of Hunger Games and the Cocoa Beach Country Club has available tee times and is actually able to put golfers without them on the course. I often wonder what snowbirds who have only visited during the hectic January to March season would think about Cocoa Beach the other times of the year.

Saturday - April 5, 2014

Mostly sunny. High 81F. Winds NE at 10 to 15 mph.

There were 59 MLS-listed condos and townhomes closed in the month of March in Cocoa Beach and Cape Canaveral according to the Cocoa Beach MLS. Eleven of those were under $100,000 and five were over $450,000. There was one short sale in the bunch and 12 foreclosures. During the same period there were 17 closed single family homes and one half-duplex. None were a short sale and two were bank-owned. Inventory remains at low levels with the percentage of distressed offerings continuing to shrink. 7% distressed today.

Total inventory of condos and townhomes for sale in the two cities is at 278 units with another 15 proposed units optimistically offered by the developer. At the current 50+ monthly burn rate it's going to take a lot of new listings to support the demand.

The beach renourishment work is currently on either side of Minutemen and will move into south Cocoa Beach in the coming weeks. You'd think in 2014 that there would be a better way to replenish beach sand without burying all nearshore life (sand fleas, periwinkles, etc.) and disrupting beach fishing and surfing for months/years. I wonder what would happen if those giant piles of sand from the shoals were placed just offshore south of the Port entrance rather than pumped onto the beach. I'd think (idiot thinking here) that the natural southerly flow of sand that the channel disrupts would replenish the beaches in a slower and less harmful manner. Oh well.

The International Space Station will be visible here tonight (Sat. April 5) barring no clouds. It will appear in the southwest at 8:38 and be visible for about six minutes as it travels overhead to the northeast. Golfers, our Cocoa Beach Business League starts back up next Tuesday. We play nine holes every Tuesday weather permitting and the cost is less than $20 per round which includes skins. Skins winners usually win around $300 but I've seen it as high as $700 on a holdover week. Come join us. It's fun even without a skin win. Ongoing handicapping.

"If your chute doesn't open don't panic. Just try and get it to work. You have the rest of your life to figure it out."  _____Jump School Instructor