Cocoa Beach, FL

 Nice to be at a free dock, but a little weird to be here while the adjoining park is closed due to Hurricane Nicole damage.  The docks are slightly damaged where we are tied up - the smaller docks have some substantial damage.

We watched TowBoat attempt to refloat this big sunken powerboat.  They worked on it for several hours but eventually left it in place.  I suspect they will be back with reinforcements tomorrow.

 

We went for a nice walk around Cocoa Village.

 

Amazing difference since last time we were here.  I believe it must have been a weekend when we were here because last time the streets were packed with people. 

 

Walking along the waterfront park (that is closed) there is a lot of debris left from the storm.

The highlight of our stay so far has been watching the Artemis rocked launch in the wee hours last night.  I set the alarm for 12:50AM to be awake for the 1:04AM launch.  Watching NASA Live TV on Youtube, they announced a delay but finally launched about 1:45AM.

We had a good vantage point.  As soon as the launch started, the sky lit up almost like dawn.

 

Was beautiful to watch as it almost silently arced upward.  Then about a minute into the launch the deep rumbling sound made it to us.  (We're about 5 miles from Cape Canaveral)