Cape Canaveral

It was another long day on the ICW as we had 55 nm to Cape Canaveral. We left at

7 AM and had to pass by this sign. Seems strange to see advertising in the middle of the channel.  I can see how Florida has a love/hate relationship with boaters, there are many wrecked or abandoned boats just off of the main channel as shown in these pictures. There are also boats that have placed themselves just off the main channel and have 6 or 8 anchors down all around the boat to hold them in position. A lot of Florida has very strict laws about anchoring due to these issues.

A lot of what we went through today was very open, in fact it looked like large lakes as shown, but stray more than a few feet off the channel and you would be aground.

We also had a canal with a bascule bridge to go through, there were some mangroves on both sides of the canal.

Coming into Cape Canaveral, but at a distance is the main launch site for NASA!

There is an opening bridge on request just before our anchoring spot but it will not open between certain hours – one of them being from 3:30 to 5:00, of course we made it to the bridge at 3:45 so we had to wait until 5:00 pm. We had looked at the information first thing in the morning but I had figured we could not get there til 4:00 to 4:30 but I forgot that the guide books for the ICW work on statute miles, where the boat is set for nautical miles so we were much closer in time to the bridge than I thought we would be – had I known I could have increased the speed to make it.

Anyways we anchored before the bridge, Heather cut my long hippy hair and we both got a shower in before the opening so it all worked out ok.

We were invited to Steve’s boat for home made pizza that had shrimp, pinapple, bacon and a white sauce on it, it was great! Heather brought over some homemade cookies.

On the row back to our boat the phosphorescent in the water with any movement was incredible!!! It was the colour of green glow sticks and was so bright. I can’t tell you how cool it looked when you pee in the water :) Even the little bit of current in the water lit up the anchor chain from the movement. Try as I might I could not get a picture of it with our camera however.