Titusville, Florida - Rockets and Boat Work

 We arrived in Titusville, Florida on May 14th and decided to stay at least a week. We actually ended up adding one day to make it 8 days.

  

The mooring field at Titusville on a calm morning. We had an Island Packet 31 right next to us. 

The moon was full while we were in Titusville. 

A nice sunrise while we waited for a rocket launch

The price of the moorings are $20 per day or $100 per week. We saw the first of three scheduled rocket launches the first day we were there that I wrote about in my previous entry. The other two were going to be on the 18th and 19th. We also wanted to check out Titusville, do some minor provisioning and spend some time with our friends Kevin and Christine on "Twist of Fate". 

The mooring field is very exposed to the prevailing SE wind. It makes the anchorage kind of bumpy in the afternoon when the on shore winds kick up to about 15 knots. The good news is that the wind died off each evening and was glassy by morning and we had no problem getting a good night sleep. We had  no bad weather while we were there. 

The first order of business after we arrived was to fix our genoa. We had a tear on the outer edge of the sail where it rubbed on the spreader when it gets backwinded. We carry a heavy duty sewing machine just for this need. 

Kim using sail tape to add strength to the area

Kim has gotten good at this type of repair.

I didn't get a before picture, but this is the finished product. The repair has held up fine in some strong wind since it was completed. 

I did some motor checks and went through visual checks on the boat. All looked good. Doing repair and maintenance on the boat is constant and extremely important. I must say, we do well as a team. 

We enjoyed a nice evening with Kevin and Christine. They just got back from the Bahamas and convinced us even more that we need to go this next winter. It won't be easy, but it is worth the trip. It was great to see them again and we hope they continue to enjoy their full time sailing adventure. 

We took a long walk around Titusville. It is not the most scenic town, but it does have some interesting history. It claims to be the capitol of the "Space Coast" being only 15 miles from Cape Canaveral. There were some monuments and historic buildings to see in the downtown area that was about a mile walk from the marina. We really needed the walk. 

Downtown Titusville is kind of cool.

I liked this historic home that has been turned into an office.

Looking out over the water you can see the Vehicle Assembly Building at the cape. It is over 50 stories high. You can see if for miles in this very flat area.

I walked out on the pier and saw these two rays. 

There are a number of parks in the downtown area. These monuments are dedicated to the Apollo program. The statue in the middle of this picture is JFK giving his let's go to the Moon speech.

We think these Ibis's look and act like chickens. 

We went out on another bridge and saw this manatee swimming by.

On another day we decided to take a bus to the grocery store and the pharmacy and back. That turned into an all day ordeal. We were really missing the excellent bus system in Vero Beach. It was fine, we really had nothing better to do and the busses were air conditioned. It is getting warm and humid, time to get moving north, but first we had two rockets to see.

On the morning of the 18th, we were up at sunrise to see another Falcon 9 Space X launch. The clouds came in and the view was not as good.

Another load of satellites heading to space to complete the Starlink system

Interesting early morning sky, but it was kind of hazy.

The power and sound does not get old.

I was very excited to see the launch on the 19th. It was an Atlas 5 with the Boeing Starliner Capsule aboard. This was an unmanned orbital test flight. I was expecting a much larger rocket, but it did not seem much different from the Space X flights. It was an evening flight, but a cloudy sky made it hard to see. 

The Atlas 5 rocket with the Boeing Starliner Capsule

We could barely see the first stage separation 

Sorry about all of the rocket pictures, but I am fascinated by it. I grew up with a father that was an engineer with McDonnel Douglas for a few years, and worked directly on the Apollo program. I am kind of into exploration, whether on earth or beyond. 

Well, that is about it for Titusville, it did not disappoint. We were now ready to move further north. Hurricane season is coming, and we need to get out of the hurricane belt. Come back to see what interesting days we have. Like one of my good friends say: "We are makin' memories".

I will leave you with a few more shots from Titusville. 

A flock of White Pelicans

A really nice sailboat came in to the marina while we were there. I think it is a Tayana 42, but I am not sure. 

This is the way I want to remember Titusville.

Departing Vero Beach and A Rocket Launch

 We finally departed Vero Beach on May 13th. We had a couple of busy days getting last minute provisions and getting the laundry done. We really enjoyed our time in Vero and we would love to go back when we are passing through. 

SHIFT and Painted Kite, got along fine while we were together.

The bridge at the end of the cut that makes up the Vero Mooring Field

We were heading to Titusville. We wanted to go there for a few reasons. The big one is that we can see rocket launches from there. We also know that the mooring field is very affordable and we also had some friends staying there that we were looking forward to seeing. 

We were not in a big hurry to get going. We decided to break up the trip into two days. The total distance is about 65 nm. That makes a little over 30 miles each day. That still takes us about 6 hours of motoring, but that is the reality of our life in a sailboat. I found a good anchorage in Melbourne, that was about half way. I was able to confirm it was a good place to stop with a friend that we saw in Vero. They are very experienced with the Atlantic ICW. It is always good to have good intel before going to a new place. 

We had some storms behind us for much of the first day of the trip. They seemed to be moving at about our pace. They finally caught us in the afternoon, but it was just a bit of rain and no wind. Thank You Lord!

Our view forward as we cruised down the ICW's protected waters. 

Our view out back. We decided to keep the sails in with the storms around. In this shot you can see one of the cockpit shade covers we set up for the first time. They help with both sun and rain. We got them for free in Marathon.

We anchored in an open lake area in Melbourne. It was a little choppy at first, but after the sun went down it got very calm and we slept well. 

There was a threat of rain in the evening also, but that missed us. 

 We awoke on Saturday May 14th to bright blue skies and slight breeze. We got going early because we had a date with a rocket. The Space X launch was scheduled for 4:40, but they have some exclusion zones that start 2 hours earlier. I thought that we would be OK, but I did not want to take any chances. 

We were able to get the genoa out for part of the trip and it gave us an extra knot of speed. We did notice a small amount of damage on the edge of the sail where it rubs on the spreaders. We will need to fix that. 

The wind died as we were approaching the bridge at Cocoa Beach. Sorry Dad, no time to stop. 

We passed another Island Packet going south. Pretty boat.

We made it to our anchorage at about 2 pm. We went ashore and got checked in and decided to pay for a week. $100 for a week is not too bad. Then we got out the cameras and binoculars and got ready for the launch. We were able to get a live feed of mission control, so we could hear the check lists and countdown. We could actually see the rocket on the pad from our boat. How cool is that?

Liftoff, we have liftoff!

Zoomed in a bit.

I thought the contrail looked cool. 

The sound took about 75 seconds to reach us 15 miles away. When it did, it was pretty loud. The whole experience was very cool.

The good news is that the reason that we are staying a week is that there are two other launches scheduled while we are here. One is another Falcon 9 Space X launch, the second is a much bigger Atlas 5 rocket that is part of the manned space program. This is a crewless test, but we are looking forward to that launch on May 19. 

So, now we are in Titusville and we like it here also. I will write all about our time here and hopefully some more rocket pictures in my next entry. 

Full moon over Titusville

Vero Beach City Marina

 We arrived at Vero Beach on May 4th. The force was truly with us on that day. We signed up for a week, but we extended that to get through some bad weather. So, we ended up staying in Vero for 9 nights. The cruiser community has nicknamed Vero, "Velcro Beach", because it is a very comfortable place and people end up staying much longer than they had planned. We can see why. 

The first thing is the harbor is very protected from weather. We were there with some 25 knot winds from the worst direction and it was not bad at all. The second thing is that the marina staff is very helpful and pleasant. The marina has been here for a long time and the grounds are beautiful.

Large live oak trees out if front of the main building at the marina. 

Our first day there we needed a long shower and a walk. The showers are clean and private. We took a long walk to the beach. We could have taken the bus, but we really needed a walk. The walk was about a 2 mile round trip, but then we had to take a long walk on the beach.

Of course we need another picture of Kim on a beach in her stylish hat. She got that for free in Marathon.

The walk was a little longer than Kim wanted, but we really needed the exercise. That evening we took the dinghy to a local restaurant on the water. We really like to go to dinner in our dinghy. We could even look out the window at the restaurant and see SHIFT while we ate dinner and enjoyed some live music. 

We enjoyed some cold drinks. 

The next day we got clued in on the city bus system. It is a really nice bus system and it is totally free. We rode all over town. 

Vero Beach City Bus system is totally free.

I decided that we needed to do what Kim wanted to do to celebrate Mothers day. So, first we went to McKee Botanical Garden. It was OK, but the mosquitos were bad and the flowers really were not in bloom. Kim enjoyed it and that is all that is important.

The water flowers were the only thing blooming

Bamboo tree

Kim and a metal parrot

We then went to a mall and went to a movie. We saw the latest Marvel called Dr. Strange. It was pretty good and we enjoyed our time in the air conditioning. 

On mothers day we went to the Driftwood Resort and ate at Waldos. They had a very good live band that played old rock and roll. Driftwood was built in the 1930's and is one of the original building in the area. The place is built out of Cypress wood. 

The Driftwood Resort and Waldo's Restaurant 

We spent the rest of the 9 days doing domestic stuff like laundry and grocery shopping. We rode the bus somewhere just about every day. The last 3 days we were there it was very windy, but we could still get off the boat and go to town. It also got cool. We even had to put a blanket on the bed. 

Well that is about it for our stay in Vero. We really like it and would love to go back if it fits in the plans. As far as our future plans go...Well, we have decided that we are just going to head north as weather and desire allow. We may make it to Maine with the boat and we may not. I have promised we will make it to Acadia National Park in Maine either by boat or rent car. We will just have to see how it goes. 

We did finally leave Vero and Friday, May13. Come back to see how that goes and see what we do next. I will tell you now, it was very cool.