Home again

Florida to Texas

The weather improved a bit. We had a very full day of flying today, 8 hours. I started to really miss MissT, so Stevie flew his heart out.
We had quite a lot of IFR, but the lightening held off, so we were okay.

If all goes well, I will get to hug Miss T, tomorrow.
Of course, I am looking forward to seeing Sissy, Chris, and Russ and Lee too!
Really we are ready to be home.

Not where we wanted to be, but where we are happy to be.

We had a great day kayaking. We found an outfitter, rented a car and headed about 30 miles north of Gainesville, where we landed, and had a fabulous 4 hour kayak down the Santa Fe river. We saw so many beautiful birds: several heron, a pair of spotted owls, egrets, wood stork, and a whole flock of wild turkeys... This river is fed by many natural springs that we kayaked into from the river. It was so cool. It was raining hard with lots of thunder when we started but after about 30 minutes the rain stopped and we had nice cool cloud cover. Perfect for hot Florida.

Like the turtles, we are still in Florida

There were sigmets in northern Florida and VFR was not recommended, so we were able to get as far as Gainesville, just 1 1/2 hrs north of Fort pierce. This is a pic I took kayaking on Santa Fe River today.

Back to the US

We had a glorious day of flying. We started out in Turks and Caicos, Providenciales this morning, and flew for almost two hours to Exuma. From Exuma we flew just over 3 hours direct to Fort Pierce, FL

We had such an amazing trip. The last few posts will just be landing notices so our moms and Cassidy don't worry about us. We should be home sometime this weekend.

Thanks for joining our trip.
Steve and Heidi

Exuma

Long Island, Bahamas

Jet sandwich

Sunset on the Caribbean

Looks like our last evening in the Caribbean. We are planning on flying through the Bahamas, and if the weather cooperates we should end up back in Florida tomorrow.

Beach on West Caicos

How lucky to be back in Turks and Caicos

We spent the last three days in Providenciales, for some great diving.

Homeward bound

Today we had a most beautiful flight from Puerto Rico back to Providenciales, Turks and Caicos. We had a great tail wind, and the sky was beautiful.
We have decided to spend a few more days diving here before heading home.

El Yunque, Puerto Rico

Had a great day hiking El Yunque Peak yesterday. National rainforest

Exploring Old San Juan, Puerto Rico

Less than perfect weather

We shot an instrument approach(Lnav w/vert.) into San Juan, Puerto Rico today. The clouds were 2,000 broken with rain & turbulence. It was challenging and fun and about 10 minutes actual instrument time. Good practice!

Flight from St. Martin to San Juan, Puerto Rico

When in St. Martin

Local past-time is hanging out on the beach and watching airplanes on approach just overhead.

From Antigua to St. Martin via Barbuda

St. Martin, Grand Case Airport. St. Martin/ St. Maarten is a small island of both France and the Netherlands. We landed at Grand Case on the French side for a couple of reasons. #1 the landing fees are $26.00 compared to the price at Juliana International of $ 350.00. #2 We met some great folks in St. Croix who were flying their Cessna 172 to the US from their home in St. Martin and offered us their tiedown space for our plane. Thank you Andrew and Lyn.
Lots of planning goes into where to go, we have to consider landing costs, fuel availability, and most importantly interesting adventure.

Beautiful Atlantic coastline in Barbuda.

We rode our bikes to Two Foot National Park about 6 miles across the island. We found some small caves and cliffs to hike around.

We said goodbye to our new friends in Antigua and were off to spend the day riding our bikes in Barbuda, a thirty minute flight. Barbuda a a small, flat, rural island with only about 3,500 people.

Caribbean Gem, Antigua

The next several photos are an example of this incredible island. We had only intended to stay two nights but ended up staying four. We had a day by car,two days by bike to explore. We also had some great fun just hanging out and relaxing. "Yes, I can!"
The weather is fantastic.

Devil's Bridge

Beautiful day on Antigua

The weather seems to be improving! Yeah!
We had a fabulous day exploring this beautiful island.

What are these cute little guys called?

Landing in Antigua

Landed yesterday. Antigua boasts 365 beautiful beaches.

St. Eustatius International

St. Eustatius' aircraft mechanic

We met a really friendly French expatriate named Michele(sp?) at St. Eustsitus airport. He's a certified Piper mechanic and pilots come from other islands to have him work on their planes. He was kind enough to let us put the plane in his hangar when a strong storm blew in. The weather is pretty volatile here and careful planning must be done before each flight re: the exact location of T-storms and forecasted conditions @ your destination. International flight plans are required for every flight between countries & we get radio communications from several different authorities on most flights. There is no radar in most areas, so exact position reporting is necessary for VFR & IFR flight.

Afternoon Plans in Statia change

We had planned to hike "The Quill" today, the volcano on St. Eustatius, but the weather had other plans. Instead we went to the airport to further secure the airplane. The airport mechanic who has a hanger offered to let us pull the plane as far into the hanger as we could. The customs officer and our hotel manager lent a hand. This crazy storm came out of nowhere today. If you happen to be watching Caribbean weather lately, it is pretty nuts. Not at all the usual. I guess we have been feeling that all year.
Have no worries, we only fly when we feel it is safe.

Diving in St. Eustatius

We have had two awesome days diving. The manager of our hotel loaned us his underwater housing for his camera, the same as ours. This is a shot of Steve and a barracuda under a very cool wreck.
"Statia" as the island is called, was the first country to recognize the US as a sovereign nation.
They are pretty proud of this.