mile 846.5-897
We left early for the run to the Cocoa Village area. That will put us within a day’s trip to Vero Beach where we hope to visit another of our favorite Floridians.
We headed out at sunrise. There was little wind so we were able to ease out of our slip without any difficulty. We clocked some relatively straight waterway miles, sometimes through wide bodies of water with a narrow channel in the middle.
One of the more exciting parts of the journey was Haulover Cut which is a narrow section. It is full of wildlife and fishermen. We saw a several manatee, dolphins, and two small motor boats with redfish on the line. It is something to remember.
After Haulover, you get to Titusville. That is where the Fishes lived when they were on land. I sent them some pictures and they responded with greetings from St. Lucia and pictures of the boys decorating their tree.
We had chosen the Cocoa south 2 anchorage for the night. It offered some wind protection from the north and seemed to have plenty of room. Shore access may have been possible but we opted to stay on the boat.
A Starlink rocket was due to launch at 326 but got delayed to after 5 pm. One website I looked at showed launches from all over the world; there is one almost daily. China has the most launches. Brazil is launching one in a few days, the first in 22 years. Russia is launching from Khazakhstan, New Zealand launches frequently and we launch from east and west.
Today’s rocket was a Falcon, and will be launching starlink satellites. We watched the sky as we listened to the countdown. The sound took awhile to get to us so finding the rocket initially was purely visual, unless you are very near. David spotted it fairly early, heading southeast and we watched it disappear.
The booster is reused and sometimes lands back at the launch pad. This particular one was scheduled to land on a drone boat called Read the Directions, about 8 minutes after take off. The drone boat/booster rendezvous point was in the Bahamas. We could not see the separation or any booster activity but followed the successful boaster recovery on the internet. We hope to see a night launch in a few days.
The evening was cool but not uncomfortable and we worked on some logistics before bed. The anchor was in deep mud, we were well spaced from other boats and there is no current in this area that is far from ocean inlets. We expect to point into the wind and feel very secure.