Now the ISS. Then Mars and Beyond.

The 1067 foot Norwegian Breakaway anchored five miles offshore Cocoa Beach. This ship would normally be carrying over 4000 paying passengers but for now it is anchored outside the Port along with several others waiting out the virus shutdown.

As of yesterday's report, our number of confirmed Covid-19 cases are unchanged with seven in Cocoa Beach and two in Cape Canaveral. Only 41 people have been hospitalized so far in our entire county due to coronavirus. Our governor is straining at his leash to reopen businesses and reports are we could see outdoor dining and elective surgery resumed by next week. I guess professional wrestling isn't generating the kind of tax revenues he'd been hoping for. The Brevard County Office of Tourism will shortly be launching a big marketing campaign targeting the "drive market" of visitors that are within a short drive of the Space Coast. They are hoping to curb the estimated loss of over $7,000,000 in tourist tax revenue in our county from the shutdown.

American astronauts are scheduled to be launching from American soil  late next month for the first time since 2011 aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule on a mission to the International Space Station. This is a long-awaited event and locals are excited to see the resumption of Human Spaceflight from the Cape.

Real estate inventory and sales in Cocoa Beach and Cape Canaveral are little changed since my last post. Activity is slow but far from stopped. Video walk-throughs have become the standard for property showings and are safe for everyone involved. Most agents are happy to Facetime or otherwise video properties that their clients may be interested in. Ask them.

As of yesterday more than 1.5 million Floridians had applied for unemployment benefits since March 15. Of those one and a half million jobless people, only 40,193 have received any benefits and about 90% of the applications have not even been reviewed. The system is working exactly as designed.

I commented in my last post that customers considering ordering takeout would probably appreciate and respond positively to knowing what coronavirus protective measures a restaurant is taking. A picture of the staff with all wearing masks would probably do more for takeout business than a 15% off coupon. The day after my post a local restaurant posted a short video to Instagram showing an employee dispensing food into a large container while not wearing a mask. Seems tone-deaf to go to the trouble of posting something intended to spur business that instead shares an unmasked food handler standing over the food they're hoping to sell. Better to be silent and assumed to be practicing safety than to post and prove that you're not. I was a germophobe before all this started so my opinion is probably too extreme. Be safe all and wear your masks in public. Even if you don't think masks are effective wear it as a show of solidarity with everyone who wants to get back to normal, whatever that is now. Thanks in advance from the germophobe community.

Happy 61st Birthday to Robert Smith of The Cure.

"Clusters anywhere are a threat to people everywhere." MM Fill, MD