The only downside to Titusville is that the anchorage area on the north of the bridge (for winds from the south) is way out near the middle of the Indian River outside the Titusville mooring field. The mooring field is just about as far offshore so there is little advantage to picking up a mooring. Just as easy to anchor and pay the $6 dinghy landing fee for use of the showers and laundry which is exactly what we did.
Fortunately by the 19th the wind had come around to the northeast so we moved over to the south side of the bridge. Here you can get much closer to shore and behind the causeway so much better protection from the waves. We stayed here for the next few days even as the wind came around to the southeast, but not so strong, as we now had a prime spot to watch the upcoming SpaceX launch.
The launch finally went Monday morning and we had a prime viewing spot. Didn't get any great photos as we were both watching with binoculars. Lots of flames from the rocket and a short stretch of contrail that Sue photo'd. We finally got to watch a launch from the Titusville area (we had 2 cancelations last Spring) and were able to hear the roar. Couldn't quite see the boosters come back down even with binoculars, need to watch on TV to observe that.
The sea breeze would come up each afternoon in Titusville with winds to 18kts and 1-2ft waves which made for a wet dinghy ride into shore, but each night the wind went down to near zero. The bridge over to the Cape Canaveral seashore park is quite pretty each evening. We walked the bridge each day getting in 8-10 miles a day and one long walk of 14 miles. The weather was perfect our whole visit.
Our favorite spot in Titusville is the Playalinda Brewery. Last year we really liked their grapefruit IPA, but it was not available this year. This year's favorite was the Java Mocha Mint Stout (in the smaller glass). Sue also loved ordering the Nitro Stout just to watch the foamy head dissipate from the bottom of the glass up. She has a couple videos on her phone she will show you.
After watching the rocket launch Monday morning we went on our long hike over to the lagoon on the other side of the bridge where locals had told us the alligators live. Sure enough, we saw 3 recent trails across the path where alligators had crossed from a canal to the open water side. We could see the foot prints and the muddy trail left by the swaying tail across the white sandy trail.
Back on the city side just down the road from Playalinda where a city drainage creek runs into the river we saw a small alligator sunning himself on the creek bank. He was still there a couple hours later as we passed back on our return to the marina.
After getting pretty wet the first time we dinghied to the marina through the main bridge opening we learned to pass through the low opening near shore. That only left us with a short couple hundred yards of open water into the waves returning to the boat. Going slow we kept relatively dry.
Warm Florida weather is finally here and Rivah is enjoying the sun along with the rest of us.
Next stop is Cocoa Village but we will probably have to anchor on the east side of the river because of the wind. There is no sidewalk across the Cocoa bridge so no hiking across the bridge each day.
