Sailing Intermezzo: Port Canaveral, Enjoying Warm

Finally, I'm warm.

I'm wearing shorts, t-shirt and barefoot. Warm at last. Thank god almighty, I'm warm at last.

Intermezzo is in a slip at the Port Canaveral Yacht Club, a nice little marina that hosts transient boats when they have space.

We entered the Port Canaveral Channel at sunrise on Sunday morning. The passage from Doboy Sound, Georgia was one of the best ocean passages I've experienced. Favorable winds, relatively calm seas. Intermezzo wanted to bound along much faster than I would allow, it was like keeping a race horse reined in.

(I posted via satellite en route. You can follow along starting here.)

We were treated to a rocket launch from Cape Canaveral shortly after arriving at the marina on Sunday morning, one of Elon Musk's SpaceX rockets putting a satellite into orbit. The rocket looked like a tiny rod with a bright flame coming out, leaving a white trail behind it. The sound of the rocket lagged its image, a deep roar from way behind it.

Our timing for eating dinner on the waterfront was fortuitous, as the first stage of the rocket was being towed by a tug back to its base on a barge. The boosters of these rockets land autonomously on the barge out at sea to be reused for another launch. Quite amazing technology, a lot different than the old days of the space program when the boosters would just fall into the sea to sink.

Today I slept in, then spent the day doing chores, laundry and boat cleaning. I also planned out the remaining days of our passage to Lake Worth. Kyndy helped with the cleaning and made a run on the bike to the grocery store to pick up bread, avocados and wine, which we are running low on.

Tomorrow Kyndy gets COVID tested for her follow-on crewing trip to Antigua and then we push off to continue southward inside on the Intracoastal Waterway. The wind and weather is not good for going outside along the coast. A cold front bringing "stronger winds and hazardous boating conditions" is forecast for Thursday. Looking at the winds, I think these words are for smaller boats than Intermezzo, but we'll be sure to have a snug anchorage to wait out weather if we need to.

We'll likely arrive at Lake Worth on January 30. We'll take a slip in a marina there to facilitate switching of crews. Kyndy will be leaving, Amy and Robin will by joining. Then, once we're cleared for COVID and the boat is re-provisioned, we're off to The Bahamas.