If you look back through a lot of my posts you see a lot of working on the boat and less of the having fun with the boat. Recently we've been trying to get some balance restored in that area. Are there things to fix on the boat...absolutely. More than I'd like to admit. But the sanity of the crew of s/v Rover has been in the need of a little repair too. Since we had a rental car while ours was in the shop having the damage done in Southport fixed, we decided a little road trip was in order.
We decided to take a trip a bit south to see the Canaveral National Seashore. This is a national park on the space coast that asks visitors to come see the "real Florida" the way it was before the invasion of the high rise condos and resorts.
We drove down to the northern half of the park that is accessible just south of New Smyrna Beach and spent the day exploring and hanging out at the beach. I even dusted off my old Nikon and took a few pictures...
Central Florida seashore without a condo in sight.
Ok...there are some...but they are off in the distance.
I think the Kennedy Space Center is that-a-way...somewhere.
Definitely not a hotel lobby here.
And this isn't a tourist. Almost ran face first into this little guy suspended across the path.
The park is on a barrier island. This is the river side. Seems like a nice place for a kayak ride.
Continuing our "let's be tourists" plan for the week, we decided it would be fun to see a rocket launch from Cape Canaveral. We got lucky (or SpaceX got unlucky) and their latest launch, SES-9, had been delayed 4 times. The latest attempt was scheduled for Friday, March 4th with a window from about 6:30 PM to around 8:00 PM. The weather forecast claimed there was a 90% chance of success, so scrubbing the mission this time around would likely be for mechanical reasons. It seemed like pretty good odds, so we made the 2 hour drive down to see about getting a better view than could be had nearby.
Credit: SpaceX
We thought about making a day of it and going to the Kennedy Space Center to watch the launch from there, but ticket prices dissuaded us. We have all been to the center before and didn't really want to spend the $50/person this time around. (We don't recall tickets being that much before...I guess NASA figured out how to counteract their latest budget cuts...or Florida has found yet another way to gouge tourists.) We also found out that they wouldn't have any special seating open, so the view from the visitors center is actually obstructed until the rocket clears a nearby tree line. I did a little research and found that the best free viewing area for the launch is just off Highway 528/A1A near Port Canaveral.
We got there early and tried finding a spot to park. Of course, not being overly familiar with the landmarks, we weren't sure exactly where the correct launch pad was. Fortunately there was an older gentleman there with a sign that read "launch info", had a display about the Falcon 9 rocket being launched, and even a radio setup to pick up the launch broadcast and play it out over speakers. We talked with him a bit and he pointed out where launch complex 40 is, so we parked where we had a completely unobstructed view about 8 or 9 miles from the launch pad. Now we had about a hour and a half to wait.
Getting some info from the guy who looks like he knows something about the launch
As the launch got closer, the parking area we are at started to fill up. What started out with 4 or 5 cars when we arrived slowly climbed to around two dozen as the launch neared. In hindsight, we probably would have been fine getting there between a half hour and hour early and still had a reasonable place to park.
Parking starts to get a bit more crowded as launch time approaches. Almost makes you want to look to the left doesn't it?
We found an FM radio station out of Orlando that was providing some information on the launch. They would go "live" when the launch occurred, but for now they were at least letting us know that the mission was still a go. The only problem with the radio broadcast is that it has a delay in it. If you were listening to the countdown on the radio, and didn't look up until they said it was launching, you would have missed the takeoff. We were warned of this fact ahead of time and so my wife started watching about the time they started the countdown on the radio. I got out of the car and was looking through my binoculars at the launch pad. (I highly recommend binoculars if you do this).
Pretty close to our view with the naked eye. Picture taken with cell phone through binoculars.
The launch occurred right at the planned time of 6:35 PM. From the launch pad you could see the engine start, the flames and smoke pouring out and then the rocket fighting it's way through the atmosphere. Even though it was a small rocket and we were a pretty good distance away, it was still an impressive sight to see. The rocket went up with a trajectory to the southeast so it got closer to us during the initial climb. I guess I could write more about all of this, but the information on the mission and videos are available for those who were interested. All I can say is that it was worth going to see.
Launch. Credit: SpaceX
The rocket vapor trail(s) as the sun sets. The break in the trail on the right was the first stage separation and 2nd stage ignition.
I do hope that the United States decides that space exploration is worthwhile once again. Far better endeavor than voting people off islands or dancing with washed up actors.
So, most of last week I got to forget about the boat projects and be a tourist with my wife and parents during their visit. Of course a boat won't just let you forget about it, so there were a couple things I had to deal with on the boat as well.
My parents made it to Hampton Virginia shortly after I got the galley faucet installed on Saturday. It was late in the evening, so we didn't really do much until the next day except try to figure out what to do. The next day we decided to take a trip to see Yorktown.
It is an interesting small town, but it's claim to fame is the battlefield. This is the location of the last major land battle of the American Revolutionary war. Continental army and French forces laid siege to the British, eventually forcing the surrender of Cornwallis.
The battlefield, only the sound of tourists today.
Some examples of the artillery used here.
The Moore House, where the surrender was negotiated.
The room where the surrender was negotiated...they think.
The next morning I ended up doing the oil change I had planned to do before my parents arrived...you know...when I was working on the galley. Fortunately, oil changes aren't terribly difficult on the boat so it didn't take too long. Then we did a little shopping and local sightseeing including another visit to Fort Monroe. We even tried stopping by the local Bass Pro shop one more time but decided that fishing off the boat just wasn't in the cards for this week.
Old downtown Hampton, VA.
On Tuesday, with recently serviced engines and nice weather, I took my parents sailing on the Chesapeake. This is the first time they have ever gone sailing with us and the first time they have been on our catamaran. It was a nice morning to be out on the water with reasonably calm seas and winds in the 15 knot range. We sailed south on a close hauled course until we reached the shipping channel coming out of Norfolk, then turned away to parallel the channel. My parents got to see a couple large container ships as they were heading out to sea. Then we turned back toward the marina. In an interesting twist, we were once again beating to windward on a course 180 degrees from our previous course. As it turned out, this was a nice thing as it gave us a nice cooling breeze on the boat. A breeze we didn't realize we needed until we made it back to the marina and felt how hot it was. This week would continue the trend of "unusually hot" weather for the region.
I think I (in combination with the hot weather that week) wore my parents out as they opted to go rest at their hotel after our late lunch. With the free evening we attended a pot-luck gathering that we were invited to at the marina that evening. Here is another one of those moments where it is nice to have something on board that you can put together in a hurry...of course we did not. Given how hot it was, I decided it would be refreshing to make a tropical "coleslaw" so we made a quick trip to the store for a few ingredients (the "coleslaw" includes cabbage, pineapple, cranberries, walnuts, and carrots). We had a nice evening talking with the other folks that were staying at the marina.
The following day we continued our tour of the region's historical impact by visiting the recreation of the Jamestown colony. This is a bit of a tourist trap, but it was interesting to see the museum as well as the recreations of the ships that were used to bring the colonists over (our boat doesn't seem like such a small craft to cross the ocean after all). I also found a live demonstration of a matchlock musket to be interesting.
Jamestown settlement replica. Tourists are the only thing they trap today.
Tobacco has played a role in Virginia for a long time.
Replica Indian settlement...the replica Indian doesn't seem authentic.
Each day we seemed to have some work to do on the boat, so our "tourist" time didn't seem to start until after 11 AM or so. This somewhat restricted what we could do in a given day, and in the case of Jamestown, we ended up making a second trip up to see the original settlement site where they are currently undergoing an archaeology dig to try and better figure out what the original settlement was like (yes, the touristy replica Jamestown is not on the actual historic site but is nearby).
The original Jamestown fort site.
The fort from outside the wall.
The Jamestown Church site.
One of the dig sites, you can see a fireplace/oven on the right.
It was unseasonably warm for the entire week, not cooling off until the day after my parents left. But I think we all had a pretty good time. It was nice to get a chance to finally show my parents the boat and take them out for a sail as well as get away from the boat and go be a tourist. It reminds me that I need to work more on the balance between fixing the boat and having fun...lately I've been too focused on getting a few major work items done in anticipation of future adventures and have been neglecting the "living in the moment" part of this lifestyle. Sometimes it is hard to change habits that have been ingrained in your psyche for 40+ years.
Well, the weather that was forecast for this Thursday appears to have moved in. A cold front moved through overnight and in addition to the colder temperatures and rain, have forecast five foot seas on a five second period in the Chesapeake (when the wave height = the period in seconds, that is a bad thing). So, it doesn't look like we'll be going anywhere today. I'll leave you with a couple more pictures from yesterday.
Motoring along the ICW.
Confederate Solider statue in Downtown Portsmouth.
The other free dock had more flooding at high tide.
Protecting the big navy ships are little security boats. Kinda like guard dogs.
The islands outside of Brunswick are known as the Golden Isles and are a reasonably popular tourist and sightseeing destination in the area. I took a few hours off from the boat work to visit Jekyll Island the other day. There is a $6 charge to get to the island and they apparently use the money to work on biking and hiking trails and other support for tourist activities. It is a more natural island than St. Simons (which is
I went and took a walk on driftwood beach. I took my good camera, unfortunately I didn't check the battery before I left and as a result found the battery dead after trying to take a picture. So, I only have a few images I snapped with my cell phone.
It was a nice walk and a good chance to see some of the more natural beauty of the area. Wish I had my mountain bike with me, this island seems like it would be a good place to ride around.
