Titusville

Titusville

Tuesday Dec 15, 2020

We travelled past a trailer park today.  I noticed there were no Trump flags.  Maybe those who live there aren’t finding things quite so “great” in this country.  We tend to see lots of the “keep America great” and “no more bullshit signs” at the mini mansions with the docks and boats.  It seems everything is going “great” for those guys.

We left our strange anchorage in Rockhouse Creek fairly early.  Within a few miles we had to negotiate a bascule bridge with restricted opening times.  Once through that obstacle it was on to New Smyrna Beach.  We had a little confusion over the preferred route around an island and got on the wrong side of a red/green marker.  Thankfully, it wasn’t shallow on either side.  We had to beat ourselves up about that one!  

Then we were into a section called the Mosquito Lagoon.  There’s a name to start you scratching.... This area appears very wide with small islands (possibly dredged material).  However the reality is that the channel is quite narrow and the rest of the water is only 1-3 feet deep.  You can’t afford to lose focus.

After a long, fairly straight run the ICW takes an abrupt right turn into the Haulover Canal—a cut through to the Indian River.  I remember this section from 2012 because no sooner than you make the turn you see the Haulover Canal Bridge.  It has a clearance of 24 feet, nothing like adequate for our 62 ft mast.  Very quickly, you have to get on the radio to request an opening.  Right before we got to the bridge we saw 9.6 ft on the depth sounder.  Just a little extra excitement if the narrow cut and bridge transit weren’t elevating the heart rate quite enough.  The passage down the Indian River to Titusville went fairly smoothly. (We saw our first Roseate Spoonbills of the trip.)  We picked up a mooring at the Municipal Marina and plan to spend two nights here.

Gloria

28 37.610 N, 80 48.335 W

Not many photos today – actually just one! This afternoon we did go to shore with the aim of hiking to the nearest liquor store and stocking up on beer. It came down to a choice between carrying my camera (which is not light) or the beer … you can guess how that worked out.

A green marker (you can tell because it's square rather than triangular) marking the east side of the ICW channel in Mosquito Lagoon. Water for miles around, but only a 300 foot wide channel with any depth. The Cape Canaveral space center is on the barrier island to the east of this lagoon.