Year 2 – Day 215, Tuesday, November 29, 2022. Day 3 Anthem of the Seas 7-night Bahamas Cruise. At Cape Canaveral – Today we woke to a glorious sunny day. The seas are calm, and it is time to start wearing shorts. It is breakfast time in the Bistro. Watch the below video. It is guaranteed to make you hungry.
My favorite part of being on a cruise is that early morning cup of coffee outside on the back of the ship. I love just listening and watching the wake movement with the never-ending sea surrounding you with peace and calmness. The stress just flows out of your body into the sea and fresh new thoughts flow in of happiness, peace, and love. There are a lot of activities going on around the ship this morning since we are docking in the afternoon.
The departure area is all set up to go in the morning.
As we head into cruise terminal 1 at Cape Canaveral, Brevard County, Florida I am sitting on our balcony. There is a good view from stateroom 13552 of the officers as the bustle around in the bridge navigating the shipping channel to dock.
As you know I like to learn a little about the ports as we visit them. I am amazed to learn that this cruise port supports 32,000 employees. Cape Canaveral has a population of 10,000. 620,000 people live in Brevard County with the average age of 52 years old. Although the space industry is bringing in a lot of younger people. A medium price home is $340,000. There are no high-rise buildings in this town. There are building height restrictions. A Space X rocket was sitting right there as we pulled into the terminal. The rocket was the one that launched on Saturday and took supplies to the international space station.
I love balcony rooms. Look at the views from our room.
We also had a perfect view of the Exploration Tower. We took a motor coach excursion that included The Wild Cove seafood market commercial fishing facility. This is the second largest cruise port in the world.
There always are a fair number of passengers that elect to stay on the ship and enjoy the pools and hot tubs. We always get off and at least go for a walk even if we don’t do an excursion.
It was a hot sunny day. Tonight, there will be a launch at 3:36am of the Falcon 9 from LC-40 that we will be able to see.
It will go up release its payload and come back and land on LZ-1(Landing Zone 1). Our ship will be 120 miles away. At the Wild Cove seafood market commercial fishing facility, the owner gave a good tour. We learned a lot about the Commercial fishing industry in Florida. There are only two commercial fishing docks left in Port Canaveral.
Only ten percent of the seafood consumed in USA is domestic. From their dock we had another good view of the Space X rocket,
Rock shrimp are being caught now at night offshore. There is no annual catch limit on shrimp. The fish/shrimp boats stay out until their freezers are full. There are four to six crew on a boat. Fishing does have quotas. Everything that comes in has to be reported to the federal government every Saturday. Commercial fishing is on the top ten regulated industry list. All fishing boats must have oval basket turtle eliminators. Fishing/shrimping boats are monitored 24 hours a day seven days a week by law enforcement to ensure they are not in an endangered coral area. We were given a lesson in different types of fish. To tell if a fish is fresh, you open the gill area, and it should be red and gooey. I am not putting my hand in the gill to see if it is red and gooey.
White shrimp is the most commonly sold in the Restaurants. Brown shrimp are very flavorful. Then there is the Rock Shrimp. It was a gorgeous day and we sat outside and were given samples of the three different shrimp at the market.
Wood is the largest import here and is coming in from West Germany right now. There were many trucks in Port. They transport that wood all over the United States eastern coast. There are six cruise terminals in Port Canaveral.
Morton salt facility is also in the port. Morton brings salt from the Bahamas here to process and bag for water softener salt.
The Cape is 1,600 acres and runs 12 miles up the coast and is strictly for rocket launching. The second stop was the Sands Space center and SpaceX launch Ops facility. At the small museum room, we were given another very educational talk about rocket launching history.
The first 4 pads LC 1through LC -4 were built around the lighthouse. The first launch was in 1950 at Launch complex LC-3. Relativity space is building rockets with 3D printers here at LC-16. As we were leaving the SpaceX Launch and Landing control there were many photographers setting up for tonight’s launch. We are 9 miles away from the launch area and 6 miles from the landing area. It is very exciting when the rocket lands back on land. There will be two sonic booms when it lands. SpaceX is gearing up for 100 launches next year. We then went to Jetty Park Campground. All boat Ramps are free and open 24 hours seven days a week. We spent a little time walking around the water’s edge.
Then back to our comfy current home on Anthem of the Seas. Here are some random pictures from around the ship.
Everywhere you turn there is some kind of sports playing on the big screens.
Don’t miss the shows. We will Rock you is fantastic, but loud.
For additional information on the Royal Caribbean Anthem of the Seas click here: http://deestimes.com/anthem-of-the-seas/
To view the complete year 2 daily diary – Click here: https://deestimes.com/living-the-dream-year-2-may-1-2022-april-30-2023/
Today’s product recommendations are for preserving your memories. 1) We have many pictures, and we like to display some of them. These frames are so nice for those special pictures to hang on your wall. I love them. Here’s the link or you can click the picture below: https://amzn.to/3LfHYIc
2) This travel photo album holds 200 pictures. You may need a few to keep up with all your travel. Here’s the link or you can click the picture below: https://amzn.to/3ZFZoSG
4) Just the way I like to vacation it is nice to have that afternoon cocktail gathering at your house. Have a few friends over and plan your next vacation with them over some cocktails. You need some different glasses to make those exotic drinks. Here’s the link or you can click the picture below: https://amzn.to/3YIc36t