The Cocoa Beach Super Boat Race held this weekend was a lot of fun to watch with boats racing just off the beach. The race, Thunder on the Beach, sanctioned by Super Boat International and was the first in what appears to be an annual event for Cocoa Beach. Pictured above is Superboat Vee Unlimited winner Instigator with an average of 96.12 mph.

Super Cat winner Popeyes had an average speed of 94.8 mph.

Superboat 750 class winner Warpaint had an average speed of 92.78 mph.

Local favorite Doug Wright, and his entry Mapei won the Superboat stock class with an average speed of 88.13 mph.

Continue Reading »

I shot the larger photo above on 4/10/09 behind my place in Cape Canaveral as this Orion spacecraft mockup was being towed by one of the shuttle booster recovery ships as it was undergoing water testing. The inset photo is courtesy of NASA.

President Obama was at Kennedy Space Center today trying to calm fears over the upcoming layoffs and the potential economic disaster on the Space Coast that will involve laying off thousands of workers when the last space shuttle launches. One plan being offered by President Obama is to use the Orion Spacecraft as a rescue vehicle for the International Space Station.

There’s a scene right out of Pirate’s of the Caribbean playing at Port Canaveral. The first ship to enter the ghost fleet was the Liquid Vegas in May of last year. The company filled for bankruptcy and the ship has been sold, however its still docked at the port.

Then SunCruz Surfside Princess was the next to enter the abyss, it last set sail on Dec 13 and its parent company Ocean Casino Cruises also filed for bankruptcy.

Then two more ghost casino ships appeared out of nowhere, the SunCruz VIII from Myrtle Beach and the SunCruz VI from Jacksonville. We’ll keep an eye out for Capt. Jack Sparrow and more casino ghost ships.

Yesterday I photographed the Liberty Star at Jetty Park towing one of the solid rocket boosters (SRBs) from the STS-129 mission in which Space Shuttle Atlantis launched from Kennedy Space Center (KSC) on Nov 16 at 2:28 p.m. EST.

The way the SRBs are retrieved from the Atlantic after a launch is pretty cool. The SRBs themselves will be refurbished and readied for a future shuttle launch from KSC.

The SRBs are 149.16 ft long and 12.17 ft in diameter, weigh 1,300,000 lb at launch.

A view of the spoil islands along the Indian River, this photo was taken behind Capt. Hiram’s.