John and Joe’s most Excellent adventure

Day 1

We are riding glassy water with 25 other boats in Pelican Bay.

Departure was a hoot. We escorted the Admirals club out of the Yacht Club and into the river. Burgees were flying, there smiles everywhere. It was all good. Cheerfully we raised the carbons and turned South.

At the turn to Ponce de Leon. I went below to organize the mess of gear, thrown onboard just prior to departure. Within seconds, I realized that the electronics and video kit was missing. Nothing to do but come about. And so we did, back to the entrance , right along with the fleet of lady Admirals. I hollered over that, “we forgot the beer” and everyone had a laugh.

Light breeze , with #3 Jib, occasionally motoring . Mostly Close hauled sailing with a 20 minute motor sprint to get on hook before dark. Spicy Brats and spinach salad.

I’m liking it.

Flight #1013 Placida

This was a pleasant surprise. At three o’clock, I had finished a day of meetings and while driving home I noticed that the sky was clear and the winds were light. I said to myself, “This would be a good day to catch a sunset flight.

So… at 5, I was arriving at Placida and there were several wings in the air. A group of guys were down from Michigan for a winter fly trip. 8 pilots.

I launched and caught a good half hour flight.

Flight #1012

Happy Veteran’s Day!

15 minutes after dawn

Short and Bumpy. Cycling between 7 and 12 mph at surface and 40 mph at 400 feet. After getting tossed to port and starboard a few times I finished the circle and landed at the truck. I could/should have probably let out the trims and cranked and banked around the patch but I wasn’t feeling it.

So. … Guess I’ll go sailing

Flight 1010

No Drama

Picked up 94 year old Skip Mansfield and we drove out to Placida.

Air was rowdy up to 600 feet and blowing 20+

I did a few laps to show him the game and landed without problems.

Thinking of having Terry make me a new machine. We can probably use all the important stuff off the old machine.