The wife and I are heading to Melbourne FL this weekend to visit some friends. I plan to sail Kelly park sometime Sunday - Tuesday.
Any tips for someone who hasn’t been there before? The current forecast shows east wind.
I’m hoping that the boat traffic won’t be horrendous in the that area.
I’ve seen some YouTube videos of folks windsurfing at Kelly Park.. looks like a ton of fun!
-Clayton
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Jump on in here Pat Toolman, who sails there regularly after his move to Fla.
In the Good Old Days -
A million years ago, we used to do road trips down there regularly, camp at Jetty Park, sail at Kelly Park, always bunches of windsurfers there even when the wind wasnt blowing. The Mid Winter's windsurfing races used to be ran there, and even not racing it was fun to hang out at. Saw (and felt) a space shuttle launch from Jetty Park.
Kelly Park (Cocoa Beach) and Howard Park (Tarpon Springs) always had LOTS of windsurfers hanging out. So when you were thinking of places to retire where you had lots of windsurfers to play with, these were two places to consider.
Gene
PS I dont think think there was ever much boat traffic and I think any wind direction except west works.
Gene Mathis
iirc, SE is the seabreeze direction and it's a very long fetch across the Banana River, so not gusty. Tinho and Susie own Calema Windsurfing right there at the park. (Sadly, they might be on hiatus right now as I saw they recently lost their adult son, John). It's a mile to the main channel where you'd see some larger boat traffic. Chop gets bigger there too. There's a boat ramp and basin in Kelly park where small boats launch and head out the channel to the right. Water gets shallow along the shore to the right/south of that little channel. Manatees abound.
Port Canaveral has some ok restaurants right across the bridge (all geared to hoards awaiting their cruise ships– avoid if you see the throngs). Jetty Park campground used to be a bit sketchy (long time ago, so not sure now). Cool day use area there where cruise ships tower over you going out the narrow channel. Good rocket launch viewing there too. Manattee Hammock campground nearby is county run, very clean and tree shaded if you can get in. RonJons in Cocoa is a must, if only for the spectacle of it... or if you need a ukulele with hula girls painted on it.
photo is from 2015 Midwinters
Sorry I missed this post before. Hope you had a good visit and sailing at Kelly Park. Please let me know ahead of time if you are planning another trip.
There are some other good spots to sail