The Space Center, Daytona Beach, An Early Valentine's Dinner, and A Month with No Problems Now Over--Kaput, Kaput, Kaput.

Our tour of the Kennedy Space Center raised the hairs on our heads and toes. What a well done tribute to America's space history and inspiration about it's future! From the visitor center's rocket studded arrival point to the "inside the gates" special tour to the last exhibit detail, it was amazing.

For a boy growing up in the 50s and 60s, Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo infused the mystique of America and our science. I stayed home from elementary school to watch Alan Shepard blast into space in 1961 and was home from college with my parents the night that Neil Armstrong walked on the moon on July 20, 1969. Incredible.

And who could forget Walter Cronkite and others bringing you the news live from Mission Control? We got to sit right there and watch a video of a real countdown!

But, of course, time moved on and we created the Space Station, the Shuttle, and more. The Shuttle, Atlantis, hangs in the building commemorating the shuttle program. It orbited the earth a total of 4,848 times traveling more than 126,000,000 miles during its 33 missions into space. And then, that program stopped too.

The Admiral, consummate planner and organizer that she is, had organized a special "inside the gates" tour of the working space center for us. This tour took us to many special places. The Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB), originally used to build the Apollo/Saturn V moon rocket, then the shuttle, and now used to assemble and prepare launch vehicles for the Artemis progam was the largest building in the world when built in 1966. Covering more than 8 acres, it is 526 feet high with multiple doors from floor to ceiling to move rockets, etc., in and out!

We also got close up to launch pads 39A and 39B--the former of which was used for the SpaceX launch we saw the day before and the latter of which can withstand the incredible forces that the Artemis launches will generate. Artemis, by the way, will reestablish human presence on the moon.

We also saw the crawler transporters and the special road they use to carry assemblies from the Vehicle Assembly Building to the launch pad. While I don't have a pic of the crawler transporter, here's one of the path it uses as it ramps up to the launch pad. The path itself is made out of iron-free river rock from Alabama and Tennesee rivers which supports the crawler without the risk of sparks. The crawler itself sports a finely tuned leveling device so that launch vehicles stay perfectly upright while moving up the ramp. Fun fact: the crawler transporter achieves 32 feet per gallon of fuel burned!

While we could easily have stayed another day at the Kennedy Space Center, the north calls our name and we moved on to Daytona Beach. Clean and modern, Daytona Beach pleasantly surprised us--a very nice and prosperous city and we would spend longer there next time. We nonetheless enjoyed a very high end day before Valentine's Day dinner at the Cellar--an Italian restaurant in a wing and basement of Warren Harding's former home. The Admiral insisted on three courses--insalata, pasta, and secondi--all delish--and, who could pass up affagato? What a dinner!

As for Kaput, we enjoyed just over four weeks without an equipment meltdown and then had three in one day. Biggest and most concerning, the Admiral went to start the generator and it was 100 percent totally non-responsive--not a flicker. I reset its very hidden breaker--still nada. For a small fortune, the Cummins repair service will visit us Tuesday morning to diagnose it and tell us what's wrong. Fixing it will be another story. Sadly, its warranty ran out in December.

Then, our center windshield wiper motor died--again, kaput. Nothing. I took it apart and it is well and truly toast. The very helpful folks at Back Cove provided the part number and a wonderfully customer friendly company called Imtra will have it here in St. Augustine for us no later than Tuesday. As an added challenge, it is located over the companion way stairs--a strong 10 feet above the berth deck--not sure yet how I'm going to manage that.

And finally, as we were docking in 25 knots of wind at St. Augustine, the stern thruster lever broke off in my hand. If that had happened a minute earlier, we would have had a huge problem. As it was, the Admiral had already passed a stern line to a dock hand so the extra docking challenge was minimal. Again, with thanks to Back Cove and Imtra, the entire thruster panel component will be here on Tuesday as well. We are spending our kids' inheritance even faster than we expected.

I talked with the bosun this morning. He says he has some thoughts he'll share with you soon.

'Til then . . .