Grills Riverside
We hadn’t circumnavigated Merritt Island in a while, so the merry crew of Captain Andy, Dinghy Admiral Annie, Skipper Troy and Boat Bunny First Class Miss Audrey Hopburn motored out of Marina Village on Friday afternoon and dropped anchor at Ski Island, just West of the Port Canaveral Cruise Ports.
The next day we proceeded counterclockwise through the NASA Haulover Canal, down the Indian River, and anchored off of Grills Riverside. Grills riverside has a great dinghy dock so we launched Bonus Track and with Annie at the helm we docked there and had a delicious lunch of fresh fish and frozen drinks. They even had a dinghy dock valet!
Annie, Troy, and Seadee at Grills (look closely over Annie's left shoulder for Seadee).
Back onboard, we rounded the southern tip of Merritt Island and snuck under the Mathers Bridge before anchoring for the night.
Saturday night was the very important rematch between the North Carolina Tar Heels and the Duke Blue Devils. Fortunately, the Tar Heels trounced the Blue Devils and everyone went to bed happy.
Sunday morning proved to be windier than anticipated and we were almost trapped on the south side of Merritt Island, but we did make it home by mid-day. We even fit in an impeller change on the way home. You never know what to expect in a weekend of boating!
The southernmost tip of Merritt Island once held a dragon sculpture known as Annie. The remnants of the green dragon can still be seen today.
Manatee Movie
We often mention manatees in our posts about the Banana River because they are visible year-round. Today I managed to catch one on video! I shot this footage after we got back from getting fuel this morning, as we were hosing off the fender covers on the dock.
The manatee starring in this movie (click here to watch) took a shine to the dripping water and treated it as his own personal wet-bar.
Coming up to see what the dripping is about...
The reverse roll is much more efficient for catching drips!
Don’t forget to watch the movie (click here to watch)!
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High Tea on the Water
High Tea and Riparian Entertainments abounded aboard Seadee this past weekend as the first “High Tea on the Water” was served. The menu included scrumptous tea sandwiches of the cucumber, egg salad, and ham varieities. There were also chocolate and carrot cakes, and of course tea.
Our guests were Frank, Barbara, and Troy (all the Smith-Bova’s). Troy and Barbara even managed to drink some hot tea in the warm weather. Pinkies up!
The Captain giving an order on the Banana River. Photo by Barbara Smith.
This is the Eco-Tour part of the cruise, when we all look for manatees (we did see a few); they are shockingly hard to spot! Photo by Barbara Smith.
Here's Barbara taking a moment to enjoy the seabreeze, and giving the camera a brief rest.
Troy practiced his trawler driving skills on the Indian River, with a pretty good quartering wind on the stern!
Launch of Space Shuttle Discovery
Space Shuttle Discovery finally launched into orbit on Thursday afternoon to a crowd of aprox. 1 million viewers. We chose to watch from the water, due south of launch pad 39A. Andy, Annie, and Frank (Annie’s Dad) all cruised Seadee up to the closest possible spot on the North Banana River, right next to the cruise port. There were already thousands of people on the land around there, but we were among the first few boats to get there in the early afternoon. Since Andy is a HAM operator, he brought along his portable HAM radio and we were able to listen to the NASA feed broadcasted from inside the launch command center — which made it very exciting, but also a little stressful when something went wrong!
The countdown proceeded flawlessly except for one “no go” from the RANGE computers (from my naive understating, the RANGE computers assure that NASA can monitor the shuttle’s launch and ascent properly). It got fairly exciting as the countdown proceeded with the single “no go” and we got down to T-minus 5 minutes, then they put on a hold and held for their maximum possible launch window, which on this particular day which was a little over 2 minutes. 2 minutes! So we all waited while the RANGE computer director was polled again, and finally he gave the “go” with 30 seconds to go in the launch window. Unfortunately, he forgot to flip the switch on his console from “no go” to “go” and apparently the shuttle will not lift off without that switch flipped. As we entered the last 5 seconds before which the shuttle would miss its launch window and have to abort the launch everyone held their breath. FINALLY the switch was flipped and the countdown was recommenced at T-minus 5 minutes! From there it was smooth going and it seemed like no time at all until it blasted off for the last time.
Watch NASA’s video of the launch.
We were able to see the shuttle from the time it launched until the solid rocket boosters separated, which is fairly good visibility. There were beautiful white puffy clouds about which did obscure the long view but Discovery found just the right hole in the clouds for us to see the solid rocket boosters separate, which was very exciting. The sound of the engines starting and liftoff actually hurt my ears a bit, because on the water it was totally unfiltered.
After all that excitement we stayed on the hook for the night and meandered back the next morning. We shall not see another launch of Discovery again, and may not see many more shuttle launches in my lifetime. It is exciting to see them go up — especially when you have a totally unobstructed view.
Here is the mission information for STS-133 if you get curious.
The cloudcover wasn't optimal, but you can see that the vapor trail left by Discovery was still lingering long after the shuttle was in the atmosphere.
About 200 boats showed up to watch Discovery from the North Banana River (luckily we got there early). It's important to mark your territory and declare your intentions with a cocktail flag.
There were several volunteer Coast Guard boats patrolling the security zone around Kennedy Space Center and the launch pad. As you can see from this photo, Seadee was anchored very close to the line!
The party crew listening to some tunes on the flybridge before the launch. Of course, as we entered the final 5 minutes we played the Europe song "The Final Countdown" -- what else??
This balloon is just awesome. Come on, who else has a shuttle balloon?! Needless to say, Annie was the one who actually procured this balloon.
New Snubber Revealed
At long last we had the chance to test our new snubber yesterday! Seadee was built with a bow eye just above the waterline, but until now we have been unable to take advantage of it. This snubber is simple: a loop around the bow eye, and a snap through the anchor chain. That means no messenger line to mess around with, since the snap won’t come loose when tension is released. We tested it out in the Banana River (you can see our SPOT trail
if you’re reading this post within a week of the excursion), right next to the cruise ship dock at Port Canaveral Lock and within (binocular) viewing distance of the space shuttle on the launch pad.
The snap end of the snubber -- this is called a "swivel eye snap shackle."
If it were possible to make the bow of Seadee more intimidating, we have done it. Look at this fine white snubber snaking gracefully up the wide shiny bow.
It's difficult to get an exciting picture of a snubber...I tried to get a dolphin to make a cameo appearance but they were woefully uncooperative.
And yet another riveting snubber photo (especially if you like toe cleavage) -- or you have to really like trawlers.
Memorial Day Weekend 2010
What could be more fun than anchoring off of an unimproved island in the middle of the Banana River? Anchoring off of an uninhabited, unimproved island in the middle of the Banana River with 300 of your closest boating friends!
Yes, the Clampets have congregated at the Space Coast and we have photos for you! Here are just a few of the things seen from the deck of SeaDee:
A car for sale on a barge, complete with bendoverman.
A blow-up bouncearound castle.
Inflatable water volleyball.
Pontoon boat Tiki-Hut drink and snack vendors.
Also, note the tents pitched on the island. No, there are no facilities on this island…yes, the tent people stayed overnight. Shudder.
More importantly, check out the exciting new lighting installed on SeaDee! I may be bias but I think this lighting also works as a catfish magnet.
Merritt Island Weather
