Judy and I had last weekend free, so on Friday afternoon we loaded a few days’ worth of food, Julie, and Khepera onboard, and cruised for about 16 miles north of our home marina to an area in the Banana River just north of the Barge Canal and west of Port Canaveral. We like this spot because there is some boating activity in the locks from the river into Port Canaveral, and we can watch the cruise ships come and go, particularly over the weekend.

This weekend was no exception. There was a big party on the first spoil island north of the locks (locally called Ski Island) on Saturday sponsored by BoatBrevard.com with live music, food and what appeared to be a generally good time for all! We were anchored a short distance north, and could watch the water activities and even took the dingy for a short spin around Ski Island where the party was being held. There must have been 200 small boats, and a couple of larger ones anchored on and around the island.

We played with the new windlass a bit, and got a good feel for how it worked. It is actually a pleasure to anchor and de-anchor now, where before it was always a PITA to raise anchor. Now, with the press of a button, the anchor goes down, the anchor comes up, and the chain stops about where we want it! We have the chain marked at 25 feet, 50 feet, 75 feet, 100 feet and then every 50 feet after 100 feet so we can tell how much chain is out.

We were given an unexpected opportunity to test the windlass when after dinner on Friday night as we were enjoying an espresso on the top deck after the sun had set and the moon was rising. A Coast Guard patrol boat approached us and turned on it’s flashing lights – indicating the crew had something to say to us. They politely informed us that we had anchored in a security zone, and that anchoring at night wasn’t permitted while the shuttle was fueled and preparing for launch (which occurred on Monday). We were only several hundred yards from the southern boundary of the security zone, but it was dark and we had gotten settled in, so it was inconvenient to move, but move we did. Judy took the helm, I raised the anchor. Judy then conned Sanderling out into the channel, around the high-tension wire poles and guy-wires, and into an area between two other spoil islands. We used moonlight to light our path to avoid crab pots in the area, dropped the anchor, made sure it was set, and settled down for the rest of the evening. With the old windlass this maneuver would have been extremely inconvenient; with the new windlass it was mildly inconvenient – just a matter of having to break the reverie of a quiet evening.

The remainder of the weekend was spent checking out the dingy (and cleaning it up), finding things and moving them into their proper storage areas on the boat, and re-learning how to use some of the systems. We returned to our home marina on Sunday afternoon, only to have the bow thruster fail to work when we tested it prior to entering the slip. We made it into the slip, however, without any difficulty.