High on Harry’s list was to get as close as possible to a rocket launch and so we arrived in Mosquito Lagoon Wed. Dec. 8th in time to drop anchor before nightfall. Mosquito lagoon is a large (about 2 miles across) undeveloped lagoon surrounded by the protected lands of Canaveral National Seashore and Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge and is about 15 miles north of NASA’s Cape Canaveral launch site. An early morning (1 am) SpaceX rocket launch was planned for the morning of Dec. 9th. So we got up, and saw the glow of the engines against the night sky shortly after it lifted off. Pretty cool.
During daylight, we were the only boat to be seen in Mosquito Lagoon as the sun shone down but winds were about 10-15 out of the north so it was a little cool. We dighied to the National Seashore where the park ranger forewent the $40 monthly landing fee since we were only going to be there for a few hours. Surprising as remote as we were, there were a few other sunbathers on the “clothing optional” beach who had driven down from New Smyrna to the north. We found flock of terns by the water’s edgeto be more interesting than the naturists.
Since we decided we’d rather hang on the anchor in Mosquito Lagoon than in the Titusville Marina where we’d made a reservation to leave Juno for the Xmas holidays, we stayed Friday Dec. 10th as well. The sun shone brightly and it was warm enough to put on a bathing suit for the first time in many weeks. Temperatures were in the 80’s and privacy led us to shower on the stern for the first time in a long time (bathing suits not required), and then we took both sails down as Harry has ordered a new jib and needs to have some cars on the mainsail replaced. We spent the day relaxing on Juno, writing Xmas cards and aired out clothes from the hanging locker in the warm sun. We weren’t sure, but in the calm of the early evening, we thought we might have spotted a manatee (on our list to do spot) but by the time you see something break the water’s surface it would be gone. Anyway, we enjoyed gin and tonics as the sun set. Eventually three other boats joined us in the lagoon and discovered that mosquito lagoon is aptly named as the mosquitoes did descend at sunset.
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