July 28, 2022
The excitement, the nerves, the anticipates for Airventure builds as the days get closer. Flying into the busiest airport in the world single-handed is not for the faint of heart and I’ll openly admit there is a big sigh of relief each time I am on the ground at Oshkosh. Then the fun begins talking airplanes, checking out cool airplanes,…
May 11, 2022
Early on, after joining Fly Aweigh, there was talk of a cooking class in Loreto. LeAnn and Alison stumbled on a family who offers classes while looking for a bathroom in Loreto. With the rally and my flight home it was looking unlikely. But after the rally it looked like we could make it work and on the hike up…
May 10, 2022
I was woken to the sound of rain. Knowing that wasn’t possible I headed for the swimstep. The millions of sardines we swam through yesterday were going crazy. A constant boil with occasional excitement where large fish jump out of the water chasing the little guys who jump out trying to avoid being eaten. To top it off hundreds of…
May 9, 2022
Technically the rally was over but Bill had heard about Ralph’s multihull rally tradition of a final day French toast extravaganza. But not before we earned it. So Bill, Ali, Alison, Allan, and I got up at the crack of dawn to hike the volcano. Truth be told, our boat got a 15 minute head start but it didn’t take…
May 8, 2022
A day of motoring to Isla Coronado. Whelp at least we weren’t banging into waves. Up the outside of Isla Carmin, around the point and what is that? Wind? Yes! We had a gorgeous downwind sail. Again Free Luff took the east course and managed to sail the whole way. Mad props to them! Again faster than the fleet (gawd…
May 7, 2022
Light wind day so there was no rush to pull up the anchor. The rally plan was a 11:30am line up for a sail race. That gave Allison and me time to paddled into shore to bushwack through the cactus and brush, scraping and poking our way. Eventually we made it to the top of a hill with a cool…
May 6, 2022
Whelp, connecting with friends has taken precedent over blogging. Once arriving in Puerto Escondido I helped Gato Loco get fueled up and rinsed off before a farewell lunch, sort of. From there I jumped aboard my old boat Strikhedonia (now Fly Aweigh II) and the new owners Allison and Allan who let me join them for the West Coast Multihull…
February 19, 2022
Our neighbor in Steamboat Essi is from Rovaniemi. She was a great help reaching out to friends for suggestions on what we should see and do while visiting Finland. Even better than that assistance was the offer to stay with her parents. How cool is that! The only challenge is that her Mom (Leena) doesn’t speak any English and her…
November 15, 2021
Just about a year ago my childhood friend (and maker) Andrew came and spent 10 day helping me build N241VP. It was such a blast working together and it only seemed fair to make a visit out to his home in North Carolina. First, it is a haul to get there from Steamboat, so we opted to break the flight…
October 3, 2021
I have a group of friends who I met whitewater kayaking and we have been doing a yearly mountain biking trips for a number of years. Last year we were overwhelmed with the crowds at Cuyuna and with my friend Nora moving to Duluth we decided to change it up and use her house as a base for the weekend.…
August 1, 2021
I’ve attended Airventure a bunch of times. Always camping but sometimes driving and sometimes flying. I’ve experienced the mass arrival at KOSH, I’ve spent hours waiting to depart after the show, and experienced the nearly every year big storm. Well this year checked most of those boxes but the most important new one, flying a plane I built. Big shout…
July 18, 2021
Our tour moved up a few months due to my friend Steve’s son starting a job soon and as luck would have it the weather turned out better than expected. There was a seven day window there with lower than normal temperatures and let me tell you that was greatly appreciated. With my delay in getting to Steamboat I met…