Monday, April 11, 2016

Titusville - Last day, a new VHF and one last look at the Space X launch

Friday's launch - telephoto
I still can't get over the speed that Elon Musk's Space X has matured. Where's Boeing and Lockeed in all of this? How can a raw startup company like Space X succeed so quickly? Elon, the founder of PayPal, is also the CEO of Telsa, the electric car company and the man behind Hyperloop. He's a one man dynamo, he reminds one of Tony Stark of the Ironman films.

More down to earth are the mundane affairs of keeping a boat running. I had thought I ordered a Standard Horizon GX1600 with the RAM mic. I've always liked the idea of having a mic in the cockpit that controls all functions of the 25 watt VHF below in the nav station (with the antenna mounted high on the mast for maximum transmit distance) The mic arrived but the VHF radio did not. So now I was off to find one locally at a nearby West Marine 16 miles away. After making the round trip, I opened the box in the boat and discovered that although the mounting hardware for a free standing VHF was including, the hardware for a flush mount at the nav station was "optional", groan. So it was another round trip to West Marine and back so the mounting could look professional. I'm keeping track of all these discoveries under the heading, "I make all the mistake first so you don't have to". After all, why suffer through learning things first hand when you have someone so skilled in making mistakes first? Unfortunately, there are a lot more items in the same category which I plan on including in a special section in the future,
Always on the lookout for a nice sunset
Things look good for moving on to Daytona on Tuesday. We're due for a south wind of 10 kts or so which is perfect for going north in the wide bay above Titusville.

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