We had hoped to make a small move today. We wanted to leave the marina, go through the bridge and the lock and then anchor in the Banana River. The bridge does not open until 8:15 am and we would like to be on our way sooner than that tomorrow. We may need some help getting out of our slip and the dock hands arrive at 8. We learned we need to give the bridge an hour notice as they are doing some painting and have to have extra time to clear the crew from the bridge.
We worked on getting ready to leave but by mid day, the winds had really picked up into the 20’s. It would be really difficult to get out and rough at the anchorage. We made the call to stay an extra day.
We had refueled, reprovisioned, filled our water tanks and were ready but could not leave. We decided to go to a park and beach down by the inlet. There was a nice trail from the park entrance to the beach. Just off the trail was a cat feeding station that we thought Beate would like. The cats vacated when we got there before I could get a picture. On the way back, some others were taking advantage of the meal.
The beach was firm sand but sand was blowing around. Some surfers were in the water and there were also some swimmers even though it was cold. We walked along the beach.
A sailboat was anchored just off the beach. We were worried that he was having trouble but we could see someone on deck and they were not waving like they were in distress. He was rocking and rolling. It did not look like much fun.
We walked back to the jetty and there was a sign announcing a possible space x launch from 5-9 pm. We planned to monitor and possibly watch it. It started to rain and winds became high but we were hoping the weather would improve so the launch could go.
We walked back to our favorite restaurant, Rising Tide and shared the nacho normal nachos. They had shrimp, mahi and crab with the usual queso, beans and jalapenos. Delicious. We then walked back to the boat and listened to the launch. David found a youtube live chat with a guy who talks and interprets the feed from Mission Control. It was excellent. We listened as they solved a pressure problem and the rain clouds moved away. The only thing holding up the launch was wind. It did not calm down and they scrubbed the launch around 850 pm. The wind won today, letting us know that it was still in control. We hope it will will rest tomorrow.
