Dec 4-6: Wind and a Rocket Launch

     We left St. Augustine on a very gray morning.  It was windy, foggy, and threatening to rain all day.  Many of the vessels anchored or moored around us stayed put.  We got a shove from the tide and made good time - almost sixty miles in one day, passing a fort that stood all alone in a marsh. Our depth perception is a little off because everything is so flat, but it looked like this building arose right out of the wetlands. We turned off into a little creek where there used to be a cement plant.  Now it’s partially occupied by a Sea-Ray manufacturer and will soon be a large development with waterfront condos, docks, and a golf course.  For us it was a quiet anchorage, sheltered from the wind, protected from the current, and a good place to spend the night.

Fort Augustine

Willie Dawes anchored bow and stern in the cement plant creek.

     The next day was still overcast and windy, and became progressively windier as the day moved on.   We made steady progress down the coast, however, and passing through narrow sections lined with houses and docks and wider, wilder places of mangrove swamps.  Florida is another juxtaposition of wetlands and development.  (At least this part is.  We have heard that Southern Florida is much more developed.)  We’d been listening to Securite announcements by the USCG for two days now, warning of restrictions in the offshore area of Cape Canaveral, and wondered if we’d be close enough to see the possible rocket launch, or if the mission would be delayed because of the weather.  We put in another long day at the helm and ended up anchoring in fairly unprotected Mosquito Lagoon.  Dan set two anchors to hold against the wind.  We were close enough to the barrier island to hear the surf.  The wind howled much of the night and blew itself out by morning.

Sunrise, Mosquito Harbor

     Sunday dawned warm and sunny with much less wind.  Funny how much you appreciate a blue sky and sun after a few days of gray weather.  We could see the looming towers and large buildings of Kennedy Space Center and speculated on whether or not they had launched that rocket, as there were no more announcements about restrictions.  Then we heard another boat ask a bridge tender about it, and learned there was to be a rocket launch at 4:44 pm.  Instead of making another long day, we decided to drop anchor just after noon next to the NASA Causeway.  We had a clear view of a red rocket on a launch pad and our anchorage guide informed us this was the best spot to watch launches.  We were not alone in this spot - six other vessels ended up anchoring there as well.  Cool!  We’d never seen a launch in person!

The red rocket we thought was ready to launch.

     Dan launched the dinghy and rigged her for a sail to go exploring.  I stayed behind with the cat and tended some housekeeping duties.   After about an hour he came back for me, saying he might have seen a manatee.  We replaced the sail with the outboard and went back out.  Fish were leaping out of the water all over the place - squirting up two or three times like skipping stones, while osprey, pelicans, and a kingfisher kept watch.  We made our way slowly along the shore of the causeway and then along the mangroves, enjoying the show.  Then we both saw - something.  A boil in the water a fair distance away.  Then a large gray - something.  We were too far away to get a good look at it, and as we watched it sank back into the water.  To me it looked like a large rock had appeared and disappeared.  Dan turned the motor off and we drifted, watching, waiting.  Then, much closer to us, part of a head appeared above the water: an open mouth.  It happened too fast for a picture.  We waited for awhile longer, but apparently that was the end of the show.  

     Turns out the manatee was more exciting than the rocket launch.  When we got back to the boat, it was nearly 4:44 pm, and we both climbed onto the cabin top to get a better view of our red rocket.  The wind had grown stronger now, and thick dark clouds were moving in, and we wondered if maybe the launch had been canceled when we heard the rumbling.  Binoculars trained on the rocket showed no smoke, no activity and Dan said “Well if we can hear it, it must already be in the air.”  So we looked up and sure enough, there it was, already leaving the atmosphere.  We don’t know where it had been launched from but at least we heard it and saw its contrail.  Again, no pictures, sorry, we just weren't that prepared.