Ft Pierce to Space Coast (and almost a night launch!)

Once we got past Fort Pierce the bridges got substantially taller.  We don't have to wait for any of the bridges up here because they have 64 ft clearance and they're no longer draw bridges.  

After filling up with water and getting a pump out this morning we started out headed north again from Fort Pierce.   At this point the intracoastal waterway is very wide.  The channel however is very narrow.  We're talking a 150 ft wide ditch under the water that is a half mile wide.  One has to be very careful to be watching the charts and keep the boat in the deep water.  

Now sometimes the water isn't that shallow but occasionally it is and you have to be very careful to know where you are.  This is where an autopilot comes in handy.  While the autopilot won't put the boat and exactly the right line It gets it very close and it maintains it better than I can manually.  

It also helps that today there was very little wind and that it was coming from behind us.  There were really no waves other than the waves caused by boats which are mostly also in the channel.  

As boating days go this is about as optimal as you can get.  It was partly cloudy most of the day with high in the mid-70s to low '80s depending on the time of day with very low humidity.  There was a decent breeze because we were moving.   All around it was very pleasurable boating today..

The scenery today became much more natural with islands and empty spaces rather than constant giant houses.  I much prefer the Space Coast area to the southeast Florida insanity.    The houses are also much more "normal" here.   They may still have high prices but they look like a house most middle-class people live in.  

 

Okay, not that one.   That was one of the prettiest houses we saw on the route today...

Some of the houses on the route today had great big spacious landscapes and owned huge amounts of frontage with no neighbors.  These estates were quite remarkable.  

I am continuously amazed at how many sunken boats there are in Florida.  I would think there would be rules that force them to be cleaned up and if people don't comply there would be punishments.  That said perhaps most of these people walk away because their judgment proof, meaning they don't have any money to go after....  

But when you see a carbon fiber try tune like this that was obviously a million dollars trashed and lying and ruins it makes you wonder why they couldn't find the owner of that... 

Of course some of the boats are just high and dry.  These are often boats that the hurricanes picked up and set down on shore.  I'm certain there is equipment that can pick these up and put them back in the water or put them on a barge but then again that takes money.  I'm surprised the environmental protection agency, department of natural resources or some other federal agency doesn't get involved because these are pollution hazard.  They often contain chemicals and almost always contain fuel.  

Thankfully the vast majority of the shoreline is just beautiful and there isn't much on it that would qualify as pollution.  Most people take very good care of their waterfront because it took serious work to obtain it.  

We ended our day today anchored in the middle of the Indian River near the Kennedy Space center.   

There was supposed to be a launch tonight from SpaceX.  They were supposed to be deploying 23 starlink satellites.  Not only have I never seen a launch live I've definitely never seen one at night!  Update, they scrubbed the launch 2 minutes before ignition. No launch tonight, unfortunately.  I guess we'll just enjoy a beautiful night on the water. 

Thankfully there's not much wind or waves so we can be anchored in the middle of a mile wide river without much fear.   We are way out of the channel and the anchor held really well so I'm pretty sure we won't move.  The wind is also supposed to die down tonight to almost nothing.  

83 miles today of beautiful cruising...  We are now moving north and east rather than North and West.  From the keys up through Palm Beach the bottom of the coast runs Northeast.  The rest of the way up Florida it runs northwest.   Once we get to Georgia we'll start going north east again....