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