This was another 90 mile day. Our plan was to leave the boat this evening and spend the night with friends, the Williammees, in Melbourne, FL. It would be our first day off the boat since we were in Wilmington, NC on Day 8.
The anchor was up and we were moving at 7:15AM..also time to get a couple of good photos of sunrise over Daytona Beach!..and it was cold..47 degrees in Daytona Beach, setting a record low for the date. The winds continue out of the north at 20+ knots..it is still just darn cold!
Ou schedule today was driven by work on this NASA railroad bascule bridge that is located on the vast grounds of Cape Canaveral. It has been under refurbishment since March, and due for completion at the end of October. It is only open from 11AM until 1PM each day. It is 45 miles from our starting point. We are averaging between 9.5 and 10 miles per hour, so a 7:15 AM departure should get us there by 12:15 PM. If we are late, we will have to hang out for another day at this location.
We made it almost exactly at 12:15PM. This was part of our long run in the expansive areas of Cape Canaveral. We passed through 4 different movable bridges in about 45 minutes, including a swing bridge that almost hit us.
This was a scary event. We were #1 with 3 other boats behind us. We were waiting for the opening. When the operator finally opened the bridge, it was quite quick. I started to go through and was almost inside of the "boards" when the operator seemed to lose control of the bridge in the wind. Instead of stopping at 90 degrees, it kept going. I was able to hit reverse and get the boat stopped about 50 feet before getting smacked! The bridge had swung almost 135 degrees before he got it under control and was able to reverse it..lesson learned..even with folks behind me, WAIT until the darn thing is stopped!
As we were headed south, I came across this great real estate opportunity..anyone interested in buying an island?
Heading south from Daytona, the next community that we passed was Ponce De Leon. This is the lighthouse off to our east.
Of course, there were a ton of bird shots. Here is one of many that I took today of pelicans....
And another of an osprey..I was told to expect to see more bald eagles as we got down to the Keys. I will be looking closely!
Most of the next two days will be spent in the Indian River..it looks just like this for miles...and miles..and miles.....actually several hundred of them.
There is very little tide change in the Indian River, typically less than 0.3 feet. Most of the change is caused by the winds. When the winds blow from the east, it drives water back into the inlets off of the Atlantic Ocean. With the north winds, the levels seem to be down about 6-9". I will take it..makes the bridges easier on my stomach!
During the day, the Vehicle Assembly Building at Cape Canaveral was within view for at least 5 hours. This is one huge building. They were supposed to move the Shuttle out of it today for the launch pad, but delayed until tomorrow..bummer!
Here it is from 3 different vantage points taken over a 5 hour stretch.
South of Titusville and Cape Canaveral, we passed by Cocoa FL...
About an hour before we got to Melbourne, we crossed paths with another sailboat, "Sail Mate". These folks had just picked up their boat in St. Augustine and are headed for Pensacola, FL. Supposedly, their mast height is 62.5' with stuff above it. However, they hit the mast on the bridge at Flagler Beach the day before. They apparently were at high tide when they went under. They lost their windex as well as the "Anchor Light" at the mast head...brand new boat..what a shame. However, I am inclined to think that they are taller than they think.
We went under many bridges today, scraped most, but not by much and seem to be getting more comfortable in believing that the bridges really ARE at least 65' above MHW (mean high water).
Here we both are, sailing in to Melbourne Harbor Marina for the evening. It is about 5PM. Sail Mate plans to leave well ahead of us tomorrow as we will be leaving the boat for the night and doing some provisioning tomorrow morning before our departure.
Vic and I spent the evening with Nancy and John Williammee. John and I have been friends since the 80s. We are also involved in a couple of business opportunities together..seems as if neither of us has quite figured out how to retire.
Vic started two loads of laundry, Nancy fixed a great "beef stew" for us, and we had a good chacne to catch up.
We finally ran out of steam around 11PM and called it a day.
We ended the day at MM 919. We are 1089 miles into our journey..still looking at arriving on Sunday!
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