Space, Wands & Wookies
After spending 2 weeks at anchor in Lake Boca Raton, we finally had a weather window to move further north to Cape Canaveral and Titusville, FL. It was predicted to be a smooth ride up the Gulf Stream then a bumpy ride into Port Canaveral and that’s what we got. I would have to say that sailing in 12-16 knots + having 2-3 knots of Gulf Stream current made for a grand adventure. We hit 9.5 knots over water when our max/hull speed is only 6.7 knots. Once it started to get dark, we were out of the gulf stream and we had to head more into the wind as it picked up to 18-20 knots. This made for a very uncomfortable point of sail as we were slamming into the waves as they were hitting the front of the boat. Needless to say, we didn’t get much rest overnight. Our float plan took us from Boca Raton to Cape Canaveral Inlet via the Atlantic then through some bridges, a lock and a canal to get to the Titusville City Marina for a total of 182 nm / 31 hours.
After a few days of recovery from the passage, we were off again, via land this time, to Orlando with our friends Joe and Bree. We had 2 days planned at Universal Studios for The Wizarding World of Harry Potter to be followed up by 2 days at Disney World’s Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge. We walked over 20k steps and over 9 miles each day to hit all the hotspots plus some. We did Harry Potter world in 1 day and had a bonus day to ride all the scary roller coasters and spend more time in other areas of Universal Studios. We also ended up doing Galaxy’s Edge in one day which gave us time to hit the Animal Kingdom, Epcot, and the Magic Kingdom for fireworks and rides. We loved our time at the “happiest place on earth” but man were we tired and needed time on the boat to relax and put our feet up!
What a beautiful place to be with friends. Dobby is happy to be with his friends.
– Dobby (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1)
With our Orlando trip under our belt, we were ready to explore the small town of Titusville. Just a short walk from the marina was the Historic downtown area with a smattering of small shops, restaurants, and bakeries. Of course we were return customers to the Playalinda Brewing Company for stellar craft beers and the The Café Paradiso Bistro & Social Club for their cajun food and bottomless mimosas. We finally got bikes out and did a bit of exploring the neighborhoods and to venture further from the marina. Since the marina and this section of the ICW is 25+ miles from an inlet to the Atlantic, the water is a mixture of fresh + salt water and quite murky but home to plenty of alligators and manatees.
Of course we couldn’t go to the Space Coast and not visit the Kennedy Space Center. We spent a bit extra to do the Explorer Tour to get a close up view of the Vehicle Assembly Building and Launch Complex 39. We were able to see the historic launch control center, space shuttle Atlantis along with the Apollo Capsule and SpaceX Dragon. There were so many other cool things to see at KSC and it’s definitely worth the visit. We were even able to watch SpaceX launch the Falcon 9 to put more Starlink Satellites up for our internet on the boat.
Even though we loved our 2+ weeks in Titusville and Orlando, it was time to keep moving north. Since this passage was quite uncomfortable, we really took our time to get a good weather window to move to St. Augustine. This next stop is a long time coming and we can’t wait to get there and explore. Skål
Difficult to see; always in motion is the future.
—Yoda, The Empire Strikes Back
