Rockets, Linda & Lynn - Sailing February 21 & 22, 2019

As a rocket launch was scheduled for 8:45pm EST on February 21, I decided to anchor off Merritt Island in the Indian River to observe the night launch.  The forecast called for northwest wind 8 - 14 knots, but actual conditions were a steady 15 - 18 knots from the southeast!  As a result, I didn't allow enough time to motor into the breeze and chop to my preferred anchorage for the launch and tucked behind a small island and shoal just south of the Max Brewer Bridge in Titusville.  Irish Rover and I were about 2 miles further away than we intended, but the view of the launch was still very clear including the reflection off the water.

Launch Pad 39 B was due east of Irish Rover

Similar view of launch, courtesy of SpaceX

Unfortunately, I had significant user error with my smartphone, yes, it is much smarter  :-(  so I had to borrow a photo from SpaceX which is similar to the view I had from Irish Rover.  In addition, there was a full moon that burst over the horizon just minutes after the launch to provide a fine reward for making the evening motor into the wind and waves most worthwhile.  For the post about the Falcon Heavy Launch, Click Here.

Linda and Lynn, experienced cruising sailors joined me for a nice sail the next day.  You may recall they had recently sailed aboard Irish Rover on February 6.

Daysail with Linda and Lynn

We only had a couple hours available to sail the light shifty puffs, so we pointed Irish Rover upwind to the south to create as much apparent wind as possible, but that left us having to rely on the motor to return downwind to the marina.  Going with the breeze dropped our apparent wind to zero and our VMG to not much better than zero.