May 2 – May 8, 2026: This week has been tiring. On Saturday, we arrived in Cape Canaveral. The marina we went to was nice, and there were a ton of people there to help us dock.
Cette semaine était fatigante. Samedi, nous sommes arrivés à Cap Canaveral. La marina était sympa, et il y avait beaucoup de personnes qui nous ont aidés.
The sunrise on Thursday, May 7 was blocked by low atmospheric clouds. Also note the sailboat to the left was the one we were complaining about yesterday. It didn’t look that close in this photo, but it was close enough that it made pulling into our slip more challenging.
Eric went to the marina office as soon as it opened to ask if we could move to an empty spot three slips away because it was dredged deeper than the slip we were currently in. The dock master confessed to Eric that he’d only been on the job for a few days and said he hadn’t realized that the slip we were in wasn’t dredged as deep as the slips farther away from the estuary. He asked for a screenshot of the chart that showed the depth of the slips. The dock master said yes to moving. We waited until high tide, which was at 1300.
Outside, It felt like Southern California during the Santa Ana winds. The temperature was 91 degrees Fahrenheit, but it actually didn’t feel nearly as hot because there were strong, dry winds. And, like Southern California during Santa Ana winds, there were fires. In the morning, it smelled like chemicals were burning, so we shut ourselves up in the boat and ran the AC to filter out the contaminated air while we did our normal routine of school and boat chores.
Continue readingWednesday, May 6 — We arrived to entrance of the St. John’s River as the sun was coming up, so we had good visibility for entering (marked by purple dot).
A big tanker also arrived at the same time we did, so we changed course to be behind him. The ride along the river was nice — it was wide and calm. There wasn’t much traffic. We passed another tanker and a couple of tugs on their way out.
The river meandered east and then turned south, where it widened out even more. We passed a small commercial port.
Monday, May 4, 2026 continued… As we left Kennedy Space Center, we discussed a dinner plan. We’d liked the food at Rising Tide so much that we decided to go back again tonight. It was another great meal, and with the happy hour specials, it was great value for the money. They had some really yummy mocktails, too.
Eric and Christi wanted to take advantage of the car to do more sightseeing, but Keith wanted to go back to Kosmos and talk to his friends online. Eric and Christi dropped Keith off, then took a drive south to Cocoa Beach to go to the famous pier.
continued… We hustled over to the building the Astronaut Talk was in and took a seat in the mostly empty theater. The astronaut of the day was Bob Cenker, who did one mission aboard the Space Shuttle as a private contractor — he wasn’t an actual NASA astronaut.
Bob was chosen for the mission because he was a satellite specialist and they needed his specialist services on this particular mission. He talked about what it was like to be in space – the first day, he was very sick. Once he adjusted, he could eat fine, but preparing food was a challenge. He also talked about the challenges of using the toilet. He was very detailed about his experience — what day to day life was like, how his body changed, etc. He also talked about adjusting back to Earth upon return. He told a funny story about dropping dishes because he forgot they didn’t float.
Next on the to-do list was an exhibit called Journey to Mars, which was in a building across the way from the theater. On the way over, we stopped to look at a vehicle called the Mars Rover Vehicle Navigator that was parked near the Journey to Mars. According to the signs, it was a prototype of a high tech mobile laboratory. The vehicle was electric and designed to traverse the demanding landscape of Mars. It could seat 4 people, cruise at 2 – 4 mph (3.2 – 6.4 kph) and had a max speed of 5 – 6 mph (8 – 9.7 kph). We found it interesting that the sign said “Not funded by taxpayer dollars.”
