Boating with Sunset Delight: Titusville, FL

Sunday 11/19/2017
Depart: Marineland, FL 8:30
Arrive: Titusville, FL Anchorage by bridge 5:15
Distance: 68 NM

The skies threatened rain when we left the Marineland marina, but the rain never happened and by the end of the day we had sunny skies.

Stormy-looking clouds in Marineland, FL

We are having trouble with our house batteries - they cannot sustain us for an overnight stay. We have to run our generator to charge up the batteries before going to bed, and by morning, running the microwave sets off the low-voltage alarm on the battery bank. Since we planned on anchoring out to save time and money, this is very annoying.

Our plan to get new batteries while we stayed in Vero Beach got complicated when we looked at the calendar and found the supply store closed for Thanksgiving and the day after. At our current plan and pace, we would arrive on Wednesday with no time to get to the store before they closed for the holiday. We decided to do a couple of longer days to get there by Tuesday.

Our day’s travel from Marineland to Titusville, Florida took us through some areas where the docks showed clear evidence that Hurricane Irma passed through not so long ago. At first we saw a damaged dock, but as we continued on our way we saw another and another and …

Long Dock damaged by Hurricane Irma

On occasion we saw boats that fared none too well beached or hiding in the bushes. The scenes were all too familiar and brought back memories of the destruction we saw that Super-storm Sandy brought to New Jersey.

Fishing boat on land, in the bushes

New Smyrna seemed to have taken a beating – some areas more than others. We saw many newly built or repaired docks and many storm ravaged ones as well.

New Smyrna Lighthouse

Sunken Sailboat

Damaged Dock

Some dolphins came to play by our boat to lighten our mood and distract us from dock damage. The fact that they show no visible signs of movement but easily travel at 9 knots by our boat's side fascinates Clark. He is trying to figure out how they move so fast. We have had a few times that dolphins swam beside us - usually two or three together.

Good one! Clean out of the water!

Here the dolphin is looking up to be sure we are watching!

Typical view on the ICW - Bridges and Kayaks

Besides boats and docks, Clark found a small island that was torn asunder by the hurricane. What used to be a small island with a tree on it split into two parts.

Island split in two by storm

Whenever we pass through a railroad bridge, Clark likes to try to get the photo looking directly down the tracks. He is pretty proud of the shot captured below.

Looking straight down the tracks - "to infinity and beyond"

After what felt close to forever on the water today, we finally arrived at the anchorage Clark selected for us. As the day progressed I wondered if we would make it there before sunset. We did - but just barely! To say I was less-than-impressed by his choice of anchorage would be an understatement when I saw that the other vessel in the anchorage looked a little shall we say "sketchy"!

Tarp covered boat in foreground and storm-ravaged docks in background.
Perfect anchorage?

On the north side of the Titusville bridge, I could see numerous sailboats anchored / moored and wondered why Clark picked an empty anchorage with one "derelict" boat. He said the south side of the bridge would give us protection from winds he expected to see overnight. Besides with only one other boat, we would have plenty of room to "swing" on the anchor as the winds changed direction.

The fact that the docks running along the side of the anchorage were almost entirely destroyed meant that we had no boat traffic coming in or going out of the channel beside this anchorage. We anchored south of the bridge near CJ's Tiki bar. Their live entertainment provided us with free music for the evening. Given that, in combination with spectacular views of the bridge throughout the evening, the anchorage turned out to be pretty near perfect.