NMZ Question?

weagle · Post by **weagle** » Tue Jul 10, 2007 7:03 pm

Hey guys I'm heading down to Banana River this weekend and was wondering if anybody knows if the east side of the NMZ is still closed?

stubb · Post by **stubb** » Tue Jul 10, 2007 7:15 pm

No. East bank .. east of the the shuttle recovery boats' channel, has been closed since 9/11/01. That includes the famous huge redfish turf of the spoil islands running east/west.
From what I hear, that's the way it will be forever. Your only launch site is off the causeway or at the Banana River Drive site at the barge canal. A dump with plenty of shady looking folks hanging about.
Unless you get lucky and befriend some body who can get you onto NASA Casueway, you are restricted to the west bank. Period.

weagle · Post by **weagle** » Wed Jul 11, 2007 9:31 am

Thanks Stubb for the heads up.

Rik · Post by **Rik** » Wed Jul 11, 2007 9:45 am

Keep in mind that Stubb is the same guys that reports seeing strange 12 foot birds running around over there.

LagoonAddict · Post by **LagoonAddict** » Wed Jul 11, 2007 1:26 pm

I was there last Friday....believe me, it's quite a haul...to and from the NMZ....not painful or impossible but be prepared for a good bit of paddling.....and "shady" is being generous to the characters there hiding in the trees!

I thought I had gotten caught up in a Sci-Fi movie when I came back in the afternoon! Looked like something out of the living dead movie. I would recommend that you don't leave anything at all, of value or not, in your cars/trucks. One man's trash is another's man's fortune.

Bob

BearsFan · Post by **BearsFan** » Wed Jul 11, 2007 2:46 pm

stubb wrote: plenty of shady looking folks hanging about.

LagoonAddict wrote: "shady" is being generous to the characters there hiding in the trees!

So what, I have become a Merritt Island local, whats it to ya.

The fellows at The Back Country in Vero seem to think that the launch just before the gate the CCAFB near the port is still open and that you can fish the area. Not sure if this is fact or fiction.

LagoonAddict · Post by **LagoonAddict** » Wed Jul 11, 2007 3:21 pm

....somehow Peter, I can see you fitting right in with your new friends!!

Bob

Mark R · Post by **Mark R** » Wed Jul 11, 2007 5:23 pm

LagoonAddict wrote:....somehow Peter, I can see you fitting right in with your new friends!!

Bob

Yup, right at home....

stubb · Post by **stubb** » Mon Jul 16, 2007 6:20 pm

Those that think any of the area east of the shuttle recovery channel is open are dead wrong. Some might try it, make it, but the Men In Black will send you packing .. Even before 9/11, I pulled into the mangrove shallows on the east bank to take a leak. I stepped out of the yak, looked up and into the barrel of an assault rifle. Guy never said a word, just waved the thing in a "get lost" fashion. I left.
At one time, prior to 9/11, we launched just outside the Patrick AFB gate, after using our pickups to nudge big gators off the road. But, no more.