Old Friends and New Friends

Yesterday some friends we met in Norfolk the first month of our Loop trip showed up here and docked next to us! So good to see their smiling faces again and catch up on their adventure.

Bob & Janet in front of their boat “Harmony”.

I had wondered how I would do walking over a nearby bridge since I have been a flat lander living along our NC coast for over 3 years now.  So today I walked across this bridge...the middle of the bridge is 1.24 miles from our boat.  I continued the walk to Merritt Island and then walked back over it.

It has a gradual rise and was not hard at all. The view from the center top of the bridge is looking down the ICW where we came from and that is a small island in the center...in the distance to the right is the Vertical Assembly Building at the Space Center on the Cape.

A new boat, "Knot Home",  came in late this afternoon. They are from Baton Rouge and the first mate was raised in New Orleans... I could have listened to her sweet accent all night! They have recently started the Loop from Kentucky where they bought their boat.  

Dock-tails tonight aboard Harmony.

The Newbies are to the right of the photo..Kaye has dark hair and her hubby, Al, sitting behind her has a gray hair.

As I write this I am pretty sure we are going to head north tomorrow but ever so slowly.....only going 4 hours to New Smyrna Beach.....IF we can find their odd shaped city docks.  But just in case we did make a call to the marina in Vero Beach to see if they had room for us...they did.....and if the wind is blowing very cold in the morning....who knows where Miss gg might be found by tomorrow night???

Titusville Sun Rise

This was our early morning view yesterday.

And just like the saying, “Red in the Morning, Sailors take warning”, we had thunder storms rocking the boat more than ever at the marina in the middle of the night!!

The weather has turned cold (54 degrees!..yeah, I know you have it worse up north) and looks like it will be this way for another week here.  We are anxious to move along & continue our trip up the Intracoastal waterway. However, we are now even considering going back south to Vero Beach....or maybe Costa Rico! WHERE is our warm weather anyway?!

In the mean time it seemed appropriate to share something that appeared recently on the America's Great Loop Cruiser's Asso blog ....Symptoms of being on the boat toooo long..............

1-The computerized voice of NOAA marine weather sounds sexy

2-Working in the bilges is the highlight of the day

3-Happy hour resembles a visit to a funeral home

4-Looking forward to a colonoscopy back home

5-Disassembled the windlass for the second time, just because it wasn't clean enough

6-Rotating clothes so those not worn frequently will be first to grab

7-A woman says "This is a great WalMart!”

8-Your crew is discussing a burial at sea, yours!

9-That one good door to slam on the boat just fell off its hinges

10-Thinking seriously of accepting a birthday party invitation from back home, for a neighbor's parakeet

Kennedy Space Center

Today I found out that I am the Captain's Sputnik!  As most know that Russian satellite started the Space Race. It's name means, “Traveling Companion”.

Visiting the Space Center is a bit overwhelming...so much to see & understand. Once parked and ticketed we walked over to the Rocket Garden.

The Apollo Saturn V Rocket was too big to fit into one photograph.

Notice the people below this huge rocket.  Standing it is 36 stories high and weighs 6 million pounds.  

This is one of the F-1 Rocket engines.  It is the most powerful liquid-fueled rocket engine ever made. Developed under the direction of Wernher Von Braun, the Saturn V rocket was the largest operational vehicle ever produced. It would take FIVE of these F-1 rockets to lift this vehicle off the launch pad.  It is 18.5 feet high and 12.2 ft wide!

We took the bus over to the Apollo Center on the other side of the complex...about a 35 min. ride. Here we are close to the Vertical Assembly Building (VAB) but Sunday was the last day anyone was allowed inside.

We are not sure but think they are getting ready to put together the new Orion Capsule that will, on its first test launch travel 3,600 miles into space at 20,000 MPH...a Delta IV rocket will be used for this test.  And what surprised me......they plan to use this new vehicle to explore deep space, Mars and other planets.  They expect to launched the first manned Orion by 2017!!

This is the launch pad seen here through the bus window  used for the Moon Saturn V rockets and also to launch the Space Shuttle.

Here you are looking at the graveled road way for the Crawler...the machine that takes the rockets/space shuttle/future Orion rockets to the launch pad...a trip of nearly 4 miles that takes many hours moving slow.

They are reconstructing the Crawler now to hold an additional 7 million pounds!  So this road is also getting upgrades: 7 feet deep concrete under the gravel, Alabama & Tennessee river gravel is used because of its low friction properties.

This is a picture of the crawler...you can see the double tracks.

The doors on the VAB open all the way up to allow the crawler to move out carrying its cargo (Rocket) to the launch pad. As it moves ever so slowly it gets 32 feet per gallon.

We went into a building that housed the actually controls for the launch used to send up the Saturn V rocket.

Then we got to see a simulated launch as the lights dimmed & we heard audio and saw films of a launch.

I was glad they did the vibrations along with the noise....turns out, except for an atom bomb, this is the loudest man-made noise ever produced!  No wonder when we lived in Daytona Beach that the early morning Apollo launches would wake us up!  I have always wondered if those Saturn rockets changed the orbit of the earth slightly, too?!

In the Apollo Center they had a Saturn V rocket with its stages slightly separated for one to see.  Here is Walter (blue shirt) standing below those enormous engines.

We took the bus back to the area where the shuttle Atlantis has found a permanent home after 33 Missions into space!  It took three floors to house this space ship...much bigger than I expected!  AND there was no way to get the whole thing into one photo.

The cargo doors were opened and the manipulator arm extended.

Some kids and a few adults were having fun crawling through the partial model of the space station.  One man complained about his knees hurting...well, in space they would be floating through this small place.

One side of this building had all the simulators that the Astronauts train on so Walter tried the one that is used to practice connecting to the space station....hard!   It was easy to see why the men that do this train many long hours.  Here the Captain is doing something he is more familiar with ….landing but this time the “plane” is a little bigger!

Outside is a full scale model of the huge (orange) fuel tank and booster rockets that the shuttle is strapped to....one engineer said it was like, “pinning a butterfly to a bullet”!  So many precision things had to be developed to make any of this possible.

This is a picture of a model to show you how the “butterfly” fit onto this assembly.

An Amazing Day!  Loved what we saw and learned about space craft but I think I am ready for some slow moving on our water craft......

Friends

A wonderful word, “Friends”, but never sweeter than when it refers to those who have known you since your children were little. The ones that were there for you in the middle of the night when there was a family crisis, or when .you just needed someone to remind you that all was in God's hands......

Yesterday we had a visit from just such friends, John & Gayle.  Here Gayle is checking out the Captain's view.

And John tried out the Captain's seat, too.

We had lunch on Miss gg and talked a long time getting caught up on each other's families. Then they took us to a place that is known far and wide!  A restaurant I have walked by all week never knowing it was famous, written up in several magazines and people come from near and far on the weekends to eat at this awesome seafood place called...

The grounds around this large building have plants and ponds.

 But mostly they have seats .....lots of them

....Many wait on weekends to get into this restaurant for their delicious shrimp.  I took these pictures mid-afternoon today when it was not busy.

Thanks John & Gayle for coming to see us!

We are hoping they will join us for a short cruise up the waterway before we leave Florida..........  

Cloudy Day in Titusville

I left for my usual long walk this morning because the Captain said there would be no rain until 2p. And I only walked through a couple of showers on the way back to meet him at a restaurant for lunch!

The lunch spot was called Caffe Chocolat. They make lots of fresh breads there and great desserts.

Their building takes up the most of the block with only one other small business on the end.  In this building the Caffe also has a gift shop and an ice cream parlor.

By 2p no rain had come so I left for a short walk. The sky over the sail boats at the next dock looked heavy with rain....

There is a City park near our marina where I took these bird photos.  I am guessing this first photo is a Great White Heron or Great Egret.

These three seem to be the same kind of bird....White Ibis perhaps....

These birds were interesting. There heads reminded me of vultures.  Who knows what they are?  I thought they were Jabirus but they don't have the red on their necks. I believe they are another type of Ibis.

The thunder came and then the down pour.... I ran for the pavilion but got soaked before I got there.  A young couple biking had taken refuge there also.

A white out of rain came along the waterway nearly erasing the moored boats from sight.

The wind and rain tossed Miss gg around today...the Captain needed to tightened the lines.  

We are snuggled down tonight ….....looking forward to the continuing Adventure after a few rainy days.

A Night Launch

We are awaiting a Delta IV Rocket launch from the Cape.....Launch Time is 8:40p.  In the meantime how about a trip down memory lane?   In 1962 on this date, February 20, John Glenn became the first U.S. Astronaut to orbit the Earth.  He flew into space on the Mercury Spacecraft Friendship 7.  The Youngsters are saying, “So?”  WOW! What an exciting day that was way back when......As we began to believe it might be possible to go to the Moon!......it would no longer just be a comic strip or a favorite sci-fi show on TV........

The mission tonight: to launch the Air Force's next-generation GPS satellite which will be used by the general public and for US Military operations.   It will provide greater accuracy & enhanced performance to users.  This is the 25^th use of this launch vehicle, the Delta IV rocket, since November 2002. 

There was a delay in the launch...we thought maybe it was too windy.....THEN the horizon lit up and we heard the rumble! .....from about 18 miles away.   

Lift Off!

Way below space here on planet earth another trip is taking place and coming to an end soon.  And I couldn't be more excited to think this shade gal, along with the Captain, is about to complete of another kind of “Voyage”!....

The french explorer, Jacques Cousteau, said,“The Sea, once it casts its spell, holds one in its net of wonder forever”. 

The spell is cast....the wonder is here...and I will never ever be the same!

Touring an N37 Great Harbor Boat

Docked behind us is one of the Captain's favorite boats, an N37 Great Harbor.....even though neither one of us had been on one. So we were excited to receive an invitation to tour this boat today.  I knew it was a nice boat but I was sure I would not like it as it would not have enough room inside......because unlike the taller Great Harbor, the N37 has a lower profile without all the extra decks.  I was surprised!

The owners are Don & Barbara Thayer from Cob Island, MD. Their boat, “Island Swan”, was one of the last Great Harbor boats made in Gainsville, FL before the economic downturn.

Here is Barbara on the back of the boat.

Looking forward from the back or cockpit door. There is a sofa on the right that makes into bunk beds.

The left has a surround sofa seating with a table...also makes into a bed.

We walked down to the roomy galley!

Full size refrigerator.

One head (bathroom) just outside the master cabin.

Master cabin with closet and drawers on both sides of the walk-around queen bed.  Closets go below floor in this cabin so they are full length.

This is the guest cabin which on some of these boats is an office.

This door is inside the guest cabin on the left as you enter & leads to the engine room.

Partial view of the engine room...there are two engines, one out of sight but the neatest thing about this room is one can stand up to do any work there.....the Captain was drooling!

Below the salon was a huge storage room with stairs going down into it.  Some models have a full size washer and dryer in this space plus lots of shelves.

They added the fly bridge.

Walter standing on the fore deck of the N 37.

Side deck leading down to the door to the helm which is forward in the salon.

After not seeing any Looper flags for some time now it was great to see our friends & Loopers, Rick & Margi aboard “Journey” cat come in this afternoon.

Rick and Margi on right and friends traveling with them on left.

We will enjoy visiting with them over the next few days....and they gave us news of other Loopers we know that are on the way here also!  

FUN FUN FUN!

(personal note to alice in Canada..have emailed three times today on replies to your messages and all have bounced!)