Our OPI

N28°31.964’, W080°45.154’

We're just knocking' 'em down now...  After several days (weeks?) of daily thunder boomers in the afternoons, we've decided that "taking it slow" is not working for us so well anymore.  We're ready to get outta Florida in hopes of avoiding any further such developments...

We left Melbourne earlier than originally planned so that we could knock a day off of our route and get to our NEXT-next destination early enough in the afternoon to be settled before the storming hour.  The hope of actually SAILING our boat fell flat on a river of glass.

Cocoa Beach, although boasting of a packed anchorage even this late in the Cruising season, will have to wait.  We'll be back through in the fall.

These guys were cleaning the meter board!

All eyes were turned to the shore as we passed beneath the bridge and saw that this little 'burg' looked more interesting than we thought.

I love a good old -fashioned water tower!

We were almost regretting our hasty decision as we slid by the City of Cocoa with their carpets rolled out nicely just beckoning us in...

But we were strong!  We were thinking that we would stop over at Titusville and find a way to get to the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral.

Bruce being a retired History Teacher, I thought this would be right up his alley, and we've neither been to KSC before, so it seemed like the living-on-vacation kind of thing to do.

I consulted the Launch Schedule for the facility as we drew near.  I had heard that the Falcon 9 was due to launch and had been delayed by the weather, among other things.  The next planned attempt was TOMORROW afternoon!!!

We could actually SEE a rocket on what we thought must be a lunch pad just right THERE!!!  Hastily, I consulted Active Captain to see where that anchorage touting "front row seats" for launches was exactly...

Our Own Private Island

We were approaching the NASA Causeway Bridge and the anchorage was just on the other side.  Our plans shifted once again as we headed for the anchorage and hopefully the opportunity to see a lunch.

This, our first glimpse of the anchorage settled any lingering misgivings about ditching our "plan" again as we realized that we would be spending two nights alone at our Own Private Island.

Once we got anchored as near to the island as I dared in about 7-8 ft. depths, we could almost see the bottom.  Bruce "suggested" we delay dashing over to explore OPI for a bit so that he could do some maintenance on the boat.  It's been a while since he checked the zincs and the visibility here would make the job an easy one.  In the end it was a good thing because although they hadn't yet fallen off, they would have soon.

So with the chores freshly done and sweat pouring from my skin, I turned my sights to the Island.  Time would be short now as those afternoon thunderstorms we were hoping would hold off... were NOT holding off!

Cooling our heels while this towering cloud had it's way with us was not on my agenda!  I was excited to get a look at our Island, even if it was only a brief one.  Bruce indulged my wishes and we splashed the dinghy.  It would probably be better to have it off the davits during the storm anyway...

Our island was surrounded by clear shallowing waters.  We have found that the waters near the inlets tend to be less murky than those further away, but with the Cape Canaveral Inlet being accessible only by way of a narrow canal, we hadn't expected the water to be nice here.  It has a brownish-green tint but is still very clear considering...

Creepy!

I jumped out of the dinghy as soon as we were near enough, and headed for the island leaving Bruce to toss the anchor.

Those clouds weren't cooperating with our wishes for them to hold off at ALL as I glanced back to make sure Bruce had followed me ashore.  I was suddenly a little creeped out as I heard unseen "things" thrashing about everywhere...

Lizard Ruckus

I was relieved to discover that the "things" were just lizards having little turf wars, seemingly unconcerned about our presence.  Although this was comforting, I continued to be nervous and made sure Bruce was near as we hastily explored our island.

Our visit was short as reason returned, necessitating our return to the boat to prepare for this new entertainment.  We arrived back at the boat just as the cloud was advancing to blot out the sun.

Most of our now familiar storm prep duties were already done.  We battened down the hatches and ports, and took our seats to watch the dramatic clouds advance.

What would it be like this time?  Big winds?  Just a gentle rain?  We would soon enough find out...

The freakishly cool winds hit suddenly.  We rolled down the remaining enclosure panels as the cats disappeared below.

I had some concerns about our position near the island.  We are situated in depths just about as shallow as I'm comfortable with as it is... When we suddenly reversed position to face the approaching storm, our depth dipped more towards the 7 ft mark than the 8 ft... Although we are gaining confidence in our anchor, you just never know when it might fail and doing so with the shallow waters of the island, now directly behind us... Well, lets just say that we're glad we have that Towboat US plan handy!

Our personal record.  Forty SIX knots!

Everything happened so fast.  One moment we were feeling the cool puff, and the next moment we were wrestling the winds and waves trying to keep our boat safe.  There were to be no daring pictures of this one as my position was at the helm.

The engine was running as usual, only this time I actually used it.  The winds went from zero to the high 30s in what seemed like seconds.

The waves appeared out of nowhere, whipped to a frenzy by the sudden winds.  Here we are again in a wide open anchorage in what looked like four foot fetch, oh, with the exception of OPI looming up on our stern.

I'm 98% sure that we didn't drag.  But our chain was straightened out making the vague shadow of the island seem uncomfortably close...  When the winds increased to the 40s, my mind rebelled and rejected this entire event.

I engaged the engine to try to keep our nose to the wind as we were straining wildly against our anchor.  This was a learning process as I realized we were actually making way incrementally, causing us to slack the chain.  When I disengaged the engine, we would fall back allowing the gusts to hit us broadside and heel the boat ominously.  I decided that this was not doing us any good and discontinued using the engine to keep us from swinging.  It seemed better to just keep an eye on the island and do nothing at this point as I watched the wind indicator and hoped for a speedy end to this madness.

Finally after what seemed like an hour, we began to see the winds drop to back to the 20s and then the teens... and then to single digits.  We were magically pointed back towards the island again, having somehow done a 180° swing when we weren't looking...  It's over.

Yes that's JETSAM sitting on my lap.  She does NOT lap sit!

Everything returned to normal with the having of a shower and a cat in the lap...

The rain became a gentle apology for the earlier frenzy.  We had our dinner and relaxed in the cockpit and talked over our latest storm experience...

We were decidedly too close to the island, and so just before sunset, we pulled the anchor and moved to deeper water.  Newly settled in 9-10 ft depths, we noticed that our only neighbor had not fared as well.  We saw that their jib had unrolled and hoped that it wasn't too bad.  They were on deck working on it and we were relieved to see that they were able to get it rolled up nicely before night fell.

Our meager sunset.

It was a strange hazy evening with the air full of moisture.  The sprinkles finally ended leaving a heavy sky that almost squelched the sunset.

Looking East toward Cape Canaveral

We were still too excited to head to bed at our usual hour, so we sat up until the no-see-ums chased us down below.  We retired hoping that there would be no repeat in the night but with minds at peace having repositioned our boat in deeper water.

We found ourselves still happily alive in the morning with big plans to enjoy OPI.  We could hardly wait for the sun to climb high enough to light the waters around the island.

We packed our beach chairs and our snorkel gear into the dinghy and set off!  We've spent so much time in anchorages surrounded by other boats which restricts our dinghy speed, I suggested that we zip around for a while to blow out the cobwebs from our little 8hp motor.

Bruce stood to get a better angle to see the shallows and the FISH!

Bruce obliged and we circled the island and headed towards the causeway.  We found the area behind the island to be much more shallow as we motored along looking for possible fishing spots.

We were disappointed to see very few fish or anything live, other than two or three small rays and some baitfish.  We turned towards our island and settled in to enjoy the afternoon...

We tried fishing.  There was a lot of activity on the Eastern side of the island.  We could see baitfish jumping out of the water but, as usual, nothing seemed attracted by our tired old lures...  I became distracted.

There was a fire ring, but I'm thinking all the wood is wet...

Brave lizards darted everywhere!

Luckily we wasted money on only one fishing license... I never fish long enough to make it seem worthwhile.  I returned to exploration of OPI while Bruce fished on...

Loving my new neoprene booties found at the Goodwill store!

I unpacked our gear and found myself a nice place to set up for an afternoon of lounging in the shade with my Kindle.

Amorous lizards provided all the entertainment I needed, causing the Kindle to lie unused in my lap...

It was just me and the reptiles until Bruce realized that I was having more fun than he was...

He joined me on the beach in the shade.  But wait...  There weren't only lizards inhabiting OPI.  There were armies of no-see-ums that have found us!  I KNEW I should have brought along that insect repellant.

So... what we've learned is that having one's own private island isn't always what it's cracked up to be... as we were driven into the water!

We donned our snorkel gear and floated ourselves on the surface in the very shallow waters near the island.  We were disappointed yet again to find that almost everything out there was dead.  It is disconcerting to find oneself emerged in waters where everything is DEAD, and wonder WHY???

But we were having fun on our grand adventure and, even with it's minor disappointments,  this STILL beats working!

And it's STILL a beautiful day!  We packed up our stuff and returned to the boat thinking... should we stay? Or should we go?  It's early yet and we could make it the short distance to Titusville.

Upon our return to the boat, we had some lunch and relaxed in the cockpit while I did some investigation into the offerings of the Kennedy Space Center.

So I'm looking over the website and reading it off to Bruce when he tells me that he isn't really all that excited about visiting the Space Center.... and would be just as happy skipping it.  So, we settled in for the afternoon with the intention of heading out in the morning towards Cocoa Beach.

Other than the last little bit of excitement of finding something mysterious floating in the water near the boat... With thoughts of rescuing some missing piece of Space paraphernalia... we clambored into the dinghy and raced over to pick up... this.  A weather balloon.  It was marked as being "not dangerous" and there was no need to call in the find...  AND, we were asked to dispose of it responsibly...  So not only did we NOT find something unique and exciting, but we now have to find a place to dispose of it PROPERLY!  Thanks!

Oh well... it was still exciting!  We ended our evening with fingers crossed that there would be no repeat of last evenings anchor drill...

Oh, and the promised rocket launch?  What happened to that.  Evidently it has been postponed yet again, and our front row seat was for naught.

But we were rewarded with sweet soft skies as we slipped between storms to our north and south.

Having our Own Private Island for a day was fun.  But it was also a learning experience.  Once again we confirmed that like Cruising... it isn't always fruity drinks in the shade.  There are rewards and there are trials.  But for us, the rewards continue to far outweigh the difficult times, and we will continue our search for that perfect private island.

Melbourne Beach

N28°04.013’, W080°34.308’

We picked the anchorage at Melbourne Beach as a stopover on the way to somewhere else...  Reviews on Active Captain about the wonderful little Market here had us curious.  How good could it be really?  We arrived early in the day and would have visited the market and the beach, and left the next morning... but the weather had other ideas.

Shortly after our arrival, the skies once again filled with full bellied rolling clouds that marched over our heads like an army.

We are really getting good at the storm prep these days.  Daily storm drills will do that for you...

Bruce busied himself with zipping in the enclosure panels we had taken out to allow more air circulation.  It's the time of year when we would have thought we would be leaving them rolled up in the v-berth, but with the daily deluge, it's nice to have a dry(ish) cockpit from which to manage the anchor watch.

We've learned our lesson about underestimating these daily downpours.  Now we go through our preparation every time and early.  No waiting to see if it's going to develop.  Just clear the decks, batten down the hatches and ports, and get ready.  I can't say the same about Jezabelle however... she seems to think this one will be no big deal.  She stayed on deck until she began to get wet with the first raindrops...

What was I doing while Bruce was saving our butts?  I was trying to get an awesome lightning photo of course...

I was actually able to catch three strikes this time.  A record!  Yes, I know...  I should be running for cover.

But how much cover IS there on a boat out in the open water?  How many pictures DOES one have to take to get three pictures of lightning?  That would be three hundred and thirty eight.  Yes I did...

This anchorage is a wide open space.  I guess some people would rather be in a tight, well protected spot in a storm.  So even though the small anchorage provides protection from fetch (waves kicked up by the winds that build as they travel across the open water), I'm almost thinking that I would rather NOT be in an enclosed space.  Having plenty of room to drag (should that happen) seems to be preferable to worrying about going aground should our anchor fail...  even if it means we have some wave action to deal with.

Unfortunately, our carefully chosen position here in relation to the other two boats was not so great when the wind direction changed and the larger boat began to drag down upon us.  What should we DO????

We kept swinging back and forth, sometimes in his path... other times not.  We had our engine running and were on high alert.  Luckily we could see that there was someone on deck.  We just hoped that he could get it under control in time...

The wind was whipping and driving the rain in sheets so thick that we could barely see the other boats for long stretches.  But when it let up momentarily we could definitely see that this boat was closer... and closer... and closer!

And then suddenly, we could tell that he was moving off across our bow and away from us.  Whew!  That was close.  What a relief we felt as we watched him motor off to a safe distance and re-anchor.  We felt sorry for the guy, but were glad the immediate danger had been averted.  Now if we can just get through the rest of this...

The waves and rain finally began to let up.  We saw 36 knots on our wind speed indicator.  Each storm seems to be increasing in intensity but with them, our confidence in our boat increases as well.  It feels good to know that we can be confident that our boat will protect us from a storm.  And as for the lightning?  Well, that's a whole 'nother story that remains to be told...

The sun came out just in time to set and to allow Bruce back on deck to grill our dinner.

Our night was peaceful after all the hoopla.  We awoke to a bright sunny sky and the prospect of a visit to the beach!

We docked the dinghy and walked up the LOOOOONNNNG pier to check out this cute little town.

It was a pretty sleepy little place, just a few touristy shops, a liquor store, and some B&Bs.

There wasn't a lot going on, but then it's Sunday morning... maybe we're out early and things will pick up.

It was fine with us though as we walked the short distance to the Atlantic side of the island.  We found the public beach access to be very nice in typical Florida style...

We spent an enjoyable hour or two basking in the sun with dips into the cool calm waters of the Atlantic.  Once again we marveled that so many people flock to the beaches of Miami and Ft. Lauderdale, when they could be hanging out in places like THIS!

Once the cooler morning began to give way to the sweltering afternoon, we packed it in and headed back to the boat, by way of the market.

I would not normally rave about a market, but this unassuming looking little place is a must-see on anyone's trip up the coast...

It had a remarkably eclectic collection of foods from other countries and the produce and meat markets were fresh.  Prices on these were also about half of what we've been paying in the Publix stores...  HALF!  We bought some necessities and picked up two nice pieces of fish.  We have only bought fish one other time in Florida due to the ridiculous high prices...  We will enjoy these dinners!

We left the cool interior of the market and hoofed it back through town carrying our load in the heat.  The wind was very light, making it seem even hotter!

Siesta is the way we spend these hot afternoons.  Get out and enjoy the morning, then languish aboard during the hot afternoon... waiting for the cool evening breezes (and the next rain storm) to come and cool things off.

We had a small shower in the evening but nothing like the night before.

If you have the time to stop here, a short visit is well worth it.