“See Ya,” “Freedom,” and “Baby Grand” departed Fort Pierce on 4//27 and had a wonderful anchorage in the lea of 15-20 knot winds at Milepost 918.2 north of the Melbourne Bridge. Plenty of stars and a great night’s sleep which is perfect as far as we’re concerned.
“See Ya” and “Baby Grand” journeyed to Titusville Municipal Marina on 4/28 so that we could tour the Kennedy Space Center. However, at 3am, the inverter alarm sounded and it we lost power and thought that we might have to forego this trip. Bob had the foresight to order a replacement panel for the inverter, and after installing this and rebooting, the batteries recharged and we left the boat. However, when we got back from the Space Center, “Houston we have a problem”-- power was off again so back to the drawing board. It turns out that the Titusville Marina was generating 130 volts and our inverter was set to shut-off at that level so Bob changed the default setting to 131 and voila’, power again.
The Kennedy Space Center tour was very impressive. The next NASA launch is the Atlantis scheduled for lift-off on 5/11/09 at 2:01pm. It is the last service mission to the Hubbell Telescope which has been orbiting for 19 years, 350 miles out in space. Scott Allman, who did the real test pilot flying in the movie “Top Gun,” is the Commander. This rocket land tour takes you from the initial fledgling failures, the space race with Russia, the Apollo moon landings, the Space Shuttle programs, International Space Station to the new Constellation program which will again put astronauts on the moon.
One astronaut described his spacecraft as “a butterfly flying on top of a bullet.” We had the chance to experience some of the thrill of this on the Shuttle Launch Experience. You get a real appreciation for the genius and dedication of the NASA employees and how much the space technology they developed have changed our lives (satellite navigation and communication, water purification systems, medical advances in lasers, ultrasound scanners, programmable medical devices—the list is endless).
I was washing the boat later when this beautiful, gentle, 8 foot adolescent manatee appeared and cavorted in our neighbor’s reverse cycle water stream. Manatees are 6-10 feet long and are herbivores that graze along the grassy bottom and surface every 3-5 minutes for air. They were mistaken for mermaids long ago by Columbus and crew, but when you see their jowly, Rubenesque frame or 200-300 lbs., you know these sailors probably had rickets and had been too long at sea. Still, there is something very hypnotic about them and we would have followed their siren song anywhere.
“See Ya” and “Baby Grand” journeyed to Titusville Municipal Marina on 4/28 so that we could tour the Kennedy Space Center. However, at 3am, the inverter alarm sounded and it we lost power and thought that we might have to forego this trip. Bob had the foresight to order a replacement panel for the inverter, and after installing this and rebooting, the batteries recharged and we left the boat. However, when we got back from the Space Center, “Houston we have a problem”-- power was off again so back to the drawing board. It turns out that the Titusville Marina was generating 130 volts and our inverter was set to shut-off at that level so Bob changed the default setting to 131 and voila’, power again.
The Kennedy Space Center tour was very impressive. The next NASA launch is the Atlantis scheduled for lift-off on 5/11/09 at 2:01pm. It is the last service mission to the Hubbell Telescope which has been orbiting for 19 years, 350 miles out in space. Scott Allman, who did the real test pilot flying in the movie “Top Gun,” is the Commander. This rocket land tour takes you from the initial fledgling failures, the space race with Russia, the Apollo moon landings, the Space Shuttle programs, International Space Station to the new Constellation program which will again put astronauts on the moon.
One astronaut described his spacecraft as “a butterfly flying on top of a bullet.” We had the chance to experience some of the thrill of this on the Shuttle Launch Experience. You get a real appreciation for the genius and dedication of the NASA employees and how much the space technology they developed have changed our lives (satellite navigation and communication, water purification systems, medical advances in lasers, ultrasound scanners, programmable medical devices—the list is endless).
I was washing the boat later when this beautiful, gentle, 8 foot adolescent manatee appeared and cavorted in our neighbor’s reverse cycle water stream. Manatees are 6-10 feet long and are herbivores that graze along the grassy bottom and surface every 3-5 minutes for air. They were mistaken for mermaids long ago by Columbus and crew, but when you see their jowly, Rubenesque frame or 200-300 lbs., you know these sailors probably had rickets and had been too long at sea. Still, there is something very hypnotic about them and we would have followed their siren song anywhere.
