continued… From there, we went out to the platform. We climbed the stairs to the top floor. The top floor was enclosed. There was an exterior walkway around three sides with nice views. This was looking northwest.
Looking southeast, towards Cape Canaveral (the strip of land along the Atlantic shore where the launches were done).
There was a SpaceX facility just to the west of the above photo. Here was a zoom in of it.
Continue readingMonday, May 4, 2026 — In the early morning, Eric took a ride share to a rental car facility and rented a car. Then he went to Kosmos, picked up Christi and Keith, and we all set out for the Kennedy Space Center. It was located in the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge and was a 20-minute drive. We headed west on a bridge that took us over the Banana River, then north to the Space Center.
We’d been once before, four years ago. Like Colonial Williamsburg, it was only open from 9 – 5 and there was more to see/do than could physically be done in one day; it was recommended to get a 2-day pass to see/do everything. Last time, we’d only had four hours, so we didn’t get to see much. Eric and Christi wanted to see the rest of it. Keith didn’t remembered much, so it was almost like his first visit.
As we drove in, we were astounded by the size of the Blue Origin complex. We remembered being astounded last time, too. This is just a tiny bit of the complex.
The Kennedy Space Center parking lot entrance was just beyond the Blue Origin complex. We arrived at 0920. Parking was $15. The line to buy tickets was short. Tickets were $77 for 12+ for one day and $91 for 2 days. With sales tax, the grand total for three 1-day passes was $217.17. This was the entrance. You can see part of the Rocket Garden in the distance.
Sunday, May 3 — This morning, Eric scoped out the Yacht Club’s amenities, which were very nice.
However, it was a fairly long walk from club house to the end of the dock, where Kosmos was berthed. No, that wasn’t a building in the distance, it was a cruise ship.
On his way back, he met the owners of a Nordhavn 57 that was on our dock. He went aboard their boat and talked to them for several hours. Christi joined them for an hour.
Continue readingFriday, May 1, 2026 continued… They took the straps off, then we backed out of the slip and headed south down the ICW. Thankfully we only had to wait 7-minutes for the first bridge to open.
As we feared, the ICW was busy on a Friday afternoon. Lots of speed boats zoomed by and several tiny boats came terrifyingly close to us, but now we’re jaded and don’t freak out when the boats get close like we used to. We were pleased to report that the ride to the Lake Worth inlet was uneventful.
Continued… In the April 12 post, we’d also on the mentioned we having the gaskets in three portholes and in the hatch for the chain locker replaced.
And we’d also mentioned that the last three original through hulls were also being replaced.
There were quite a few more things done in the yard that we haven’t mentioned before:
They replaced the hose from the main engine to the water heater. It was a two person job, required a lot of boat yoga, and was kind of messy. Eric was glad that project was done; he was worried about a getting a leak in the hose. They said the old hose was definitely ready to be changed. They replaced it with a much stronger hose than was there before.
The work that Eric was most excited about was that they connected the inverter to the air conditioning circuit and added a new switch. With this upgrade we can run one aircon unit at anytime with a simple switch at the aircon panel — this means we can run AC in the pilot house while at sea without having to turn the generator on. Or, when at anchor, we can run the AC downstairs for a few minutes before bed to make it more easier to fall asleep without having to run the generator and all the units. Since we find it difficult to function when it is hot and humid, this will be a major improvement to quality of life.
