To The Moon Alice

 You're probably not old enough to know the title line, it's from The Honeymooners, but it doesn't matter, neither am I. This is what matters:

That picture is Artamis II launching from Cape Canaveral on April Fools Day. No wonder why people think the moon landing was fake. Come on NASA!

As usual I am getting ahead of myself, I didn't tell you how much fun it was getting there. So, there I was, in Fort Pierce weighing anchor before dawn on April 1st, right in front of the US Coast Guard station, I like to hide in plain sight, keeps them guessing. I had 64 miles to sail to get to the anchorage at the south end of Cape Canaveral, there is also a bridge and a lock to traverse to get to said anchorage, nothing to it. 

I motor out of the Pierce inlet at first light, 45 minutes before sunrise and already have a couple of miles behind me when the sun reluctantly rises after my usurping. After turning north it's a straight shot and my next log entry is at 4:05pm, "motoring into Cape Canaveral harbor", easy day! I only have three miles to go and two and a half hours before the moon launch .

I call the draw bridge and ask for the next opening, which is normally at the top and bottom of the hour. I'm informed that they are on "curfew" due to high traffic volume and the next opening would be at 5:15! I would still have to deal with the lock, which I had no idea how long it would take; lock virgin. I motor in circles for a while and get bored immediately. I test myself at keeping the boat from moving at all in the channel despite the current and wind. This confuses other boaters as one should not anchor there. I don't care, it's the bridge's fault. Finally the bridge announces the pending opening and I race towards it and luckily it opens in time, then I hit the traffic jam waiting on the next lock transit, but a few boats immediately exit the lock and then it's our turn, I may still make it to the anchorage in time. 

All the little motor boats spread out and take up too much space and I'm left drifting like George Cloony in Gravity until someone offers up a spot to the big boat, thankfully. The transit commences and fifteen minutes later we all rush out of the lock, less than three feet higher than we started. I sped around the corner into a shallow bay and dropped my anchor, killed the engine, and turned on the live launch control feed on my phone. I'm ready!
 

The first minute is a silent movie, just light from the exhaust so bright you can't look straight at it and a huge smoke plume, then, finally the roar reaches us 15 miles from the launch pad! An incredible rumble from dozens of miles away at this point, conveying the immense power that was being generated by the rocket engines on NASA's SLS rocket pushing Artemis II into orbit.  

A minute later the rocket boosters separate from the spaceship, the second stage ignites and a few seconds later, it's gone, into space, invisible from earth. It was incredible that the launch went off without a hitch as so much can go wrong, especially with a new rocket system, NASA did a great job!

The only thing more amazing that this feat was the amount of planning I had to do to see this launch. The answer is, none. I just planned on going to Cape Canaveral on my return trip to see what I could see since I sailed right past it back on the evening of 21 January. I only planned on sailing when the wind was right, so when I found out the moon launch was happening on my intended date, I just left a couple hours earlier than I normally would have, such luck!

As it turns out it would have been okay to go another day, I actually saw three launches in four days. There was a Space X launch the next morning that was even quicker and at 1am on the 4th was another launch of Amazon satellites, yep, Amazon and Jeff Bezos is now competing with Musk's Starlink. The night launch was cool, I wish the moon launch had been at night also!

On the morning of the 2nd, after the Space X launch I made my way to Titusville, home to more engineers per capita than anywhere else in the USA. There are many astronaut memorials and and a space museum there, I wanted to see more than just a launch. Unfortunately, there is no public transportation to Kennedy Space Center which was also expensive, so I skipped it. Instead I went to the Titusville space museum that is filled with stuff donated by people from NASA over the years, and it was great. The docents are mostly former NASA employees or contractors and have so many interesting insights into the history there. I talked with one docent for almost three hours, he was an electrical contractor for 30 years and had so many cool stories, it was a great time. 

And they let me take the helm at mission control for a while, they love engineers!

Here is a picture of the night launch of Amazon Leo satellites; what was completely dark a moment ago was now like daylight. It was quick, but it was worth waking up at 1am for. 

Titusville was a nice stop but had to keep moving; I had gone 18 miles, mostly north, from Cape Canaveral and I didn't want to backtrack or fight my way around the cape; the other option was the dreaded ICW. I would show them, whomever them are! After zig zaging around a bit I hit the straight section, just a few boat widths wide where I killed the motor and made over half the trip under sail alone. Some of it was slow, but I was in no hurry, it was just 31 miles and then I would wait for morning before going out the Ponce de Leon inlet and make way for St. Augustine. Of course I had to anchor right in front of the Ponce Coast Guard Station, it was becoming a tradition. 

Come the morning of April 5th it was a bit of scary departure through Ponce Inlet, while the picture doesn't show the other side of the boat trust me when I say people could have been surfing in the south half of the inlet. I talked to a Sea Tow captain the previous evening, he said to stay 75 feet from the rocks of the north jetty, so I did, and two waves still swept over the bow; it's a game of going just fast enough thaty the waves don't stop your forward momentum and push you into the rocks, but no so fast that you bury the bow into the next wave and become a submarine. It was about ten tense minutes, then I passed the outer channel marker, the water became ten feet deeper and everything was fine, thank goodness!
 

A little later some friends visited. I was lucky to get perfect timing on this picture. 

 

And after sailing 61 miles I got to race to the famous St. Augustine Bridge of Lions. It opens at the top and bottom of the hour and at 6:25 I radioed them and said I was five minutes out, but it was more like ten but no body else was transiting, so they waited for me. I buzzed the tower and grabbed my mooring ball on the other side. Another day in the logbook, which, for the record makes 76 days at sea. I should be right at 90 when I get back to Chesapeake Bay and will be able to take my captain's exam, as planned.

Plenty of time for that, if you'll excuse me, It's time to go find a happy hour. 

Until next time, dear readers,

Cheers