West Palm Beach to St Augustine

I had the best night watch ever on this trip. My watch was around 12-4 in the morning and took us past Cape Canaveral. Although we’d been experiencing heavy thunderstorms since Fort Lauderdale, the night sky was as clear as crystal and the light pollution from the Florida shore was much less than expected. Usually it’s hard to fill a 4 hour night watch but this was incredible.

The launch pads and the huge Vehicle Assembly Building of the Kennedy Space Center were lit up like 3 enormous Christmas trees and through the binoculars you could clearly see the details of the launch pads, the gantries and supports and struts. We’ve visited Space Center before: once with the kids on a tour which conveys some idea of the scale of the facility and once in a light aircraft which NASA traffic control allowed us to fly above the shuttle landing runway (pre 9/11). Surprisingly, sailing up the coast quite some distance off shore, brought home how big it really is -- we were in sight of the buildings for at least two hours as they continuously moved in relation to each other. There were many aspects of Floridian/US civilisation and culture that we found depressing in contrast to island living, but the magnificence of the engineering and the achievement of the space program is truly awe-inspiring and for that, you do need the infrastructure and investment that a nation like the US can provide.

I have been fascinated by stars and space since my Dad took me up to Harefield Common to identify the Plough and Orion when I was about 7 or 8. He would have loved seeing the fabulous clear skies where it’s difficult to identify constellations because of the number of bright stars rather than the light pollution we have in the UK. Jamie had been given a simple stargazing book by one of her friends at school and I used it that night to great effect to identify constellations that are too dim in the UK and to try and extend my tiny repertoire. Usually I sit huddled at the helm on night watch, but conditions and motivation were such that I walked round and round the boat with book and torch until I was dropping.

One of the wonderful aspects of this trip is that it gives you the opportunity to construct your perfect world: I’d live near a Bahamian beach that backed on to mountains, with a perfect clear night sky every night and access to Waitrose...