Report From Onboard Jenny

[Da...@schramm-family.net]

Friday, February 18, 2011 2:16:23 PM Location: Indian Harbor Latitude is 28 degrees 9.199 minutes north. Longitude is 80 degrees 36.52 minutes west. This weather observation was taken on Friday, February 18, 2011 2:16:06 PM local time. Observation location: Indian Harbor. Latitude is 28 degrees 9.2 minutes north. Longitude is 80 degrees 36.52 minutes west. The air temperature is 74, and water temperature is 65 degrees fahrenheit. The forecast is Sunny. The current weather is dry. The sky is clear or a few clouds. The wind is 6 knots from the southeast. The visibility is 10 nautical miles. The wave height is 0 feet with 0 foot swells. The barometer is 1019 millibars and steady. We had a wonderful day today, winding our way up the ICW. The further north we have traveled, the more pristine some parts are. Today some areas were through a national sanctuary and were stunning. Dolphins, manatee, hawks and eagles, egrets and herons. We only had to open one bridge at the start, and another at the end. The rest were 65 feet high and no problem at all. Melinda and I took turns at the helm. Parts of the waterway remind me of cruising among the Canadian islands between Sidney and Nanaimo, except we have seven feet under Jenny's keel instead of 400. I am surprised at how nice it is and looking forward to the even more remote areas as we head north. We are now anchored in Indian Harbor, just a few miles south of Cape Canaveral. It must be mating season for dolphins, for the anchorage here is filled with them cavorting by the boat. Melinda is taking photos and movies, loving the nearness of this wild nature. Tomorrow we will put the dinghy down and go visit Tom Lawler, who owns Lucent, another Nordhavn 46. He has a home and dock just up the way. We will load a little more water, then head up to the launch area on the 20th. Cool! David Powered by BoatExec http://www.BoatExec.com

[Da...@schramm-family.net]

Monday, February 21, 2011 12:16:35 PM Location: Port Canaveral Latitude is 28 degrees 27.912 minutes north. Longitude is 80 degrees 38.087 minutes west. This weather observation was taken on Monday, February 21, 2011 12:16:16 PM local time. Observation location: Port Canaveral. Latitude is 28 degrees 27.912 minutes north. Longitude is 80 degrees 38.088 minutes west. The air temperature is 78, and water temperature is 72 degrees fahrenheit. The forecast is Overcast. The current weather is dry. The sky is clear or a few clouds. The wind is 11 knots from the south. The visibility is 8 nautical miles. The wave height is 1 feet with 0 foot swells. The barometer is 1022 millibars and steady. We had a good stay at Indian Harbor, anchoring just north of the Mathers swing bridge. A lot of this had to do with the hospitality that Tom Mackey (Nordhavn 46, Lucent) gave us. We visited Lucent, tide up behind his home here and caught up on our various projects and ideas. He also lent us his car for a quick vegie run to Publix and filled our water barrels so Jenny was fully provisioned this morning. The bridge tender at the Mathers bridge noticed us raising our anchor and was all ready for our call. We had a nice short 3 hour ride up to the Canaveral Launch area. When I got to the turn to go north up the banana river, I called the USCG on the radio to see if there were changes to the charted security area. The lady verified that anywhere west of the channel was ok. So, up we went. I had expected to see some boats here already for the launch, but we were the first. We got to the end of the area deep enough to settle Jenny in, and got anchored. The river is a couple of miles wide here, and we were out in the middle. Melinda was not happy being all alone so far from land and the wind was out of the south, causing a one-foot chop. The spot was perfect. We could see the Discovery on her pad. Cool! I was even able to get a weak internet connection with a county access point 5.3 miles away. :-) But, no sooner than I got it going, a coast guard patrol boat came up the channel and came over. I knew we were in trouble... They came up and we exchanged pleasantries. They had thought we were a NOAA research boat since no other motor boats of any sort were permitted up where we were. So, we had to move. Then they saw Melinda and decided to board. Oh well. It was the usual stuff and then they were on their way. So were we. We are back by the cruise boats now, still with a good view, but just about 3 miles further away. Ah well. The water is calmer and slightly deeper here. We also have a tiny island just to the east of us that will give us nice protection if the wind goes back to its normal side. :-)) David Powered by BoatExec http://www.BoatExec.com

[Da...@schramm-family.net]

Friday, February 25, 2011 3:14:36 PM Location: Rockhouse Creek Latitude is 29 degrees 3.715 minutes north. Longitude is 80 degrees 55.842 minutes west. This weather observation was taken on Friday, February 25, 2011 3:14:15 PM local time. Observation location: Rockhouse Creek. Latitude is 29 degrees 3.711 minutes north. Longitude is 80 degrees 55.841 minutes west. The air temperature is 80, and water temperature is 70 degrees fahrenheit. The forecast is Sunny. The current weather is dry. The sky is scattered clouds (10 - 50% clouds). The wind is 13 knots from the southwest. The visibility is 10 nautical miles. The wave height is 0 feet with 0 foot swells. The barometer is 1016 millibars and falling. We were pretty much all by ourselves in Cape Canaveral until the day of the launch. Around noon, the bay around us began to fill with small local boats. The largest was a Nordhavn 62, that came in from somewhere in the area. We had a good internet connection, so we started listening to Mission Control around noon. Melinda did not know much about Earth's real life activities in space. She had never seen a photo of the shuttle or space station. So she drank it all in, amazed to be seeing it all live. Aside from one down ??? glitch, all was go for a clean launch all day. The down ??? glitch was a red light until two seconds before the final sequence was initiated. No one said, but I think the folks with the glitch just decided the piece of malfunctioning equipment was not that important and decided to give the launch a go anyway. I was looking in the wrong direction! I thought I could see the shuttle on the pad in one place. Melinda pointed out there was another splash of orange in another place on the horizon. So, when the engines were fired, she saw the whole thing and while I was looking through the camera at the wrong site. The shuttle was about 100 ft. in the air before I saw it! UGH. I am glad Melinda saw the whole thing. Too cool. This morning we pulled the hook, hit all the bridges we needed to open right on schedule, and steamed the 45 miles up to Rockhouse Creek. This is a little cove off of the intercostal. North and south of us is are wilderness islands. To the east we can see the ocean over low sandbars and to the west we can see a line of homes on the western side of the ICW. It is nice here. While we had hoped to latch onto someone's home Wi-Fi, there weren't any good ones and we have a marginal connection. Yesterday I asked Aquamarine Marina in Daytona what it would cost to stay there for a month instead of the ten days we reserved. They gave us a break on the monthly rate and it netted out at only $33 more. Wow. That made it a no-brainer. We signed up for a month stay. Too cool. I'm really excited. Bike Week is one of the biggest events in Florida and we will have front row seats! We will stay here through the weekend and then take our slip on Monday! David Powered by BoatExec http://www.BoatExec.com