The Wakula Castle

Well, it’s official now. I’ve finally built something from the sands of Cocoa Beach.

The location:  behind the Wakula Motel near the infamous Ron Jon’s Surf Shop. 

My initial concern for this project was the quality of sand that we’d be working with. Because the beach had been “re-nourished” (in other words, offshore sand had been blasted onto the beach) I thought would have a difficult time finding any suitable sand. This was almost true.

Wally, Dana and I hit the sand around 10:30 am, packing our foundation with the dark, cleanest, “re-nourished” sand we could find. We had just filled the first form, when I noticed a patch of sand that looked different. A quick test, and yep. It was good stuff. Much better than what we were using. It was sand… the real stuff! (Ok, let’s just say it was some of the best that I’ve found along the Brevard coast so far.) It was fluffy and light grained (with just a hint of oregano. Ha ha.). We used this better sand in the rest of the upper forms. So, consequently the “Wakula Castle” (Thanks, Elaina for the title) ended up being light on top, dark on the bottom. (Character, that’s what we’ll call it.)

There was another interesting characteristic to this sand…. It was thirsty. In all my sandcastle building, I’ve never had sand that seemed so dry. And dried out so quickly. I estimate that we used around 500 -- heavy, hand-carried -- gallons of water during the construction. That’s a bunch of water. Don’t know why, but it seemed to need it all.

Somewhere around 75 Orlando Northland Church families had come to the Wakula for a special getaway weekend. Wally and I enjoyed meeting and talking with many of you. We hope your time was an enjoyable getaway. That’s why the front sign reads “Northland Family Weekend”.

A special thanks to Cathy Mitchell and family for providing us lunch (Yay!), and to Dana Mitchell, many, many thanks for shoveling, watering, and cleaning equipment – plus carrying it to the van. (Why, I can hear all the sandcastlers out there cheer for that one!)

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