May 27, 2009: Cape Canaveral, FL

This morning we watched dolphins looking for their breakfast while we were having ours. Our table has a great view. We continued up Indian River today and saw serveral unique sailing schooners, one with square brown sails that were raised the old fashioned way. We saw two large dolphin cruising along close to the boat – I just wish I could get some good pictures of that.

Farther north we decided to take a side trip to see Cape Canaveral. We took the barge canal eastward that runs from Indian River to the Banana River; parallel to Highway 1A and cuts through Merritt Island. We saw fishermen along the way enjoying the opportunity to "wet a line"

Mid island we found a couple of large Marinas; Harbor Town had a huge storage warehouse for shelving boats; and hundreds of boats tucked away off the narrow canal.

We also saw the first long leaf pine trees that I had seen in a long time... sort of remined me of the dark green woods of North Carolina.

Entering the Banana River, straight ahead we could see the Canaveral Lock that connects the river to the Atlantic Ocean. It is the largest navigational lock in Florida and protects the river and surrounding shore line from the tidal currents and hurricane surf surges. We heard from the USCG that the lock was closed today due to a malfunctioning door so it was good we were not planning to go through to the ocean.

We continued up the river until we were across from the John F Kennedy Space Center, where we anchored just out of the 9 foot deep channel for a swim and lunch. The salty water felt great and there wasn’t much current – it was fun to take a dip in such a famous place. This is a 10,000-acre federal manatee protection area and part of the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. So in addition to being where the space shuttle launches occur, it is also a pristine estuary. Because the fish are unmolested by outboard-motor noise (you could not go beyond where we were in a motor boat), and food for them here is so plentiful, the giant redfish and black drum feed easily along the grass banks of the Banana River and some grow to world record sizes.

On the other side of the bay at some distance we could see the US NASA complex inclulding the huge American flag drapped across the end of the building.

We retraced our path back to the Indian River and continued north to where the ICW crosses

over into Mosquito Lagoon through the Haulover Canal. There was a historical marker at a little park at the entrance to the canal documenting that American Indians carried their canoes across this narrow strip of land to reach the excellent fishing in the shallow lagoon on the over side. In 1835 Fort Anne was built here to protect the haulover place for military supplies during the 2^nd Seminole War. In 1887 the canal was dredged to allow passage for steamboats to navigate to the river. Then in 1927 the passage became part of the ICW and was taken over by the Army Corps of Engineers. While we didn't see any manatee there, we did see some fishermen standing waist deep in water as a dolphin slowly fished in the water right behind them!. We also saw some snowy white egrets fishing; so it must have been a great fishing place.

As we looked for our anchorage near New Smyrna was the storm clouds rolled in. We were trying to beat the rain, but there was current and a shoal to be dealt with so Tom got soaked on the bow as we set our anchor. After we found our storm again this afternoon, the good news was that it was over quickly and this time we were blessed with a rainbow. So we had both a rainbow, and as the sky cleared, a beautiful sunset.