Titusville FL (2013-12-12)

N28° 38.924', W80° 49.032'

Tonight finds us anchored near Titusville FL, just south of the railway bridge causeway, seeking shelter from the strong northerly winds that have plagued us for the last two days.
We left Hidden Harbour Marina Wednesday morning, with cloudy skies and what seemed like calm winds.  As we retraced our track back out to the ICW we started to realize how much shelter we had had at the marina, and we found the northerly winds still in force.

Surfin Santa is fighting the winds too!

The winds didn't affect our travels that much through the morning, as the relative narrowness of the ICW south of St Augustine prevented the buildup of any significant waves.  This changed by the time we reached Daytona Beach however, as the ICW is wide and quite open in this area, and is oriented mostly north-south.

By the time we reached Daytona Beach there were waves of 1-2 feet rolling down the ICW.  As a following sea, this wasn't too much of an issue, but it was very much going to affect our evening when we dropped the hook.  We tucked in behind the Seabreeze bridge as far as we could, and while we managed to eliminate the worst of the waves we still ended up being rocked through the night as a residual of the waves wrapped around the bridge.

At anchor in Daytona Beach

After a quite restless sleep we were happy to head out this morning.  The winds were still strong and northerly, and were forecast to pick up throughout the day.  At least it was a warm day, and the sun was present most of the day.

An hour after leaving Daytona Beach we entered New Smyrna Beach.  This was a big thrill for us, as we had spent two different winter vacations here in years past.  It was a lot of fun to see all of the familiar sights while we motored along the ICW as it wound through the town.  Unfortunately we weren't able to stop and spend time re-exploring the town, but perhaps on our trek north in the spring we'll stop here for a day or two.

Ponce Inlet Lighthouse

New Smyrna Marina

After leaving New Smyrna we entered the Indian River, which runs north-south and gets quite wide and open as you enter a section named Mosquito Lagoon.  The waves really started to pick up here again, and made for a bit of work for the next couple hours dealing with a strong following sea.

After we passed through the Haulover Canal we ended up with the waves on our beam for about half an hour before making the turn towards Titusville.  By 1500 we were safely tucked in behind the NASA railway bridge causeway, and while we were still dealing with strong northerly winds we didn't have the huge waves bouncing us around any more.  This should be a much more comfortable nights sleep.

NASA Railway Bridge

Titusville is an interesting area for the geeks that are into space flight, such as myself, as it is just to the west of Cape Canaveral.  From our anchorage we can see the Vehicle Assembly Building as well as the launchpads further to the east.  This would have been an incredible spot for watching Space Shuttle launches back in the day.  In fact, looking at all of this makes me want to go play some Kerbal... :-)

Vehicle Assembly Building