An Odd Kind of Day

Wednesday November 25th 2020

Last night after I published my daily blog entry I went outside to watch the launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. The launch had been scheduled every night since Saturday, but the weather had always got in the way. At 9:13PM Tuesday night the launch happened without a hitch. It was a fairly clear night which allowed the spectacular nature of night launch to really show. The exhaust fire from the rocket was visible through the first stage cut off and second stage ignition. It might have been visible through the second stage cut off, but it’s more likely that it was finally too far away when I lost sight of the exhaust fire. This is the second and by far the best night launch I’ve observed. The first one was blocked by clouds not to far after lift off.

Recreation boat traffic through the port. Some of the boats come from the marinas deep in the port and others come through the lock from the Banana and Indian Rivers.

There was plenty of commercial traffic too.

Today’s weather was very nice. The wind was down in strength from the previous couple of days and the direction was out of the southeast. With only a few light fluffy clouds in the sky the temperature made it to the upper seventies.

The middle of the busy inlet seems like a strange place for sailing.

Watching the activity at the boat launch.

This morning I had a hard time figuring out what kind of day it was. The TV programming was clearly a week day. Once I got out into the park it became very ambiguous. All of the people and activity were more appropriate for a weekend day or a holiday. The inlet to the port was filled with recreational water craft of all kinds. The shore was lined with fishermen. It turned out the Spanish Mackerel were hitting. During the day I saw three caught by fishermen and one by an Osprey. At the beach lots of families were on the beach and in the water.

Osprey back on the high perch of the surveillance tower watching the water.

A while latter I saw the bird return with a nice fish in its talons.

A half an hour later the fish was partially consumed. Yummy lunch!

At one point this morning the boat traffic drew the attention of the Coast Guard. They deployed two boats to the mouth of the harbor. I’m not sure if they were on an enforcement mission, a rescue mission or just some kind of exercise. Shortly after I got to the inlet to watch the action, the boats departed the area for the depths of the port.