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.