A Night by the Lock, into the yard and AirBnb

After a load of laundry, we filled our water tanks, we took showers and our mail had arrived at the marina, so we drew in the dock lines and departed the Cocoa Village Marina at 12:15pm, Monday, January 8th. We motored north in the ICW towards the channel of the Cape Canaveral Barge Canal,  eastbound. I called the Christa Mcauliffe Bascule Bridge and learned that we could pass through the bridge during a 2pm opening. We did that and continued eastbound across Merritt Island and into the Banana River. We followed the channel and turned just south of the Cape Canaveral Lock to anchor for the night near two boats that were unoccupied and possibly aground. One was certainly damaged from Hurricane Irma or before. The wind remained in the low teens and by morning it was calm. It was a great anchorage.

I called the Port Canaveral Marine Service Yard to see if we had a haul out time. Cheryl had no knowledge of the haul out, so we waited a bit for her to call back with news. Cheryl said we could bring our boat to the haul out pit at 11am. I radioed the Highway 401 Triple Bascule Bridge and got a 10:45 opening time. At 10:15 we weighed anchor and arranged to transit the lock. We waited a full cycle of emptying the lock and waiting for a westbound boat to come through before we could pass eastbound. The 401 Bridge was not ready for us because workmen were on the bridge, so we got our opening about ten minutes late. Just beyond the bridge, we motored down the fairway of the yard, spun Jupiter's Smile 160 degrees to port to line up with the floating dock in the haul out pit and backed into the pit. Barb hooked the bow to a dock cleat and I got the stern. We looked around and no one from the yard was headed our way so we off loaded the gear we would need for the next few days and our empty propane tank and Barb called Cathy from Sea Star asking them to drop off the vehicle they would loan to us while our boat was in the yard. Cathy and Dan arrived just as the travel lift was hauling the boat. With the boat on land, we sat down and enjoyed the submarine sandwiches Cathy had brought. They departed after lunch and we departed to our AirBnb at about 3pm. We met Tom and found him to be very welcoming and after a short adjustment period, the dog and the cat were welcoming as well. Deb came home at about 7pm from work then Barb and I went to LongDogger's for pretty good, inexpensive meals of fish sandwich and Key Lime Chicken Salad.

We had moved the boat about 1 1/2 miles, but we were exhausted from the logistical challenges of the day.