Poprocks & Coke

Captain's log. May 25th. Crap! As I typed the date, I realized it was my mom's birthday. I'll call her tomorrow... Let's try this again...


Captain's log. May 25th. The weather God's are angry, my friends. It's the undeniable truth. Tornadoes are taking their big hand of destruction and wiping through the states with no remorse. Meanwhile, it's rain season all along our flight path. As if that wasn't enough, I seem to be behind on all the paperwork required. This sucks... but in the end, I won't complain. This is an epic adventure.


Today we woke up 10 minutes before check out time (noon). Man, it felt good! It was some much needed sleep. We leave our bags at the bell desk and go get some grub. We had some local food the previous night, so what do we get this time? Wendy's. As we head out we realize the beach was only a block away from our hotel. It's a gorgeous day, too! Little did we know that it was about to take a turn for the worse.


We eat and head back to the hotel lobby to figure out all the logistics for our flights. Right away, as I was squaring up issues with Brazilian officials, I came to realize that my "co-pilot" didn't have a current medical certificate. This put a halt to our plans.






We scramble to see what we could do. You see, because we couldn't get a Brazilian visa in time for this trip, we are working it out so that we enter the country as "crew members" of a vessel/airplane. However, part of the certification required for a pilot is a VALID medical certificate. This is what Robert (my "co-pilot) didn't have, at least not for commercial operations. Thankfully we were in a US territory, so maybe there was a doctor nearby who could administer the medical exam... there wasn't.


So the next thing we do is start calling the U.S. Virgin islands, which lie at about a 30 minute flight to the East from San Juan. Luckily we find a doctor there. However, we wouldn't make it by the time he left the office and he was booked up the following day. We explain the situation to the receptionist, she puts us on hold and comes back with good news. Success! The doctor is willing to come in early to accommodate us. Cool, dude (a la Michelle from "Full House")!


So we head to the airport, ready to take a short flight to St. Thomas. After I pay all the fees I call to update my departure time. I ask the guy to give me an updated briefing... Gulp! There's a thunderstorm just South of us and slowly moving right into our flight path. He says, "It looks strong and doesn't look like it's dissipating." F word! I tell him to change my departure time to a later time because I don't want to leave in the next fifteen minutes and hit the storm. He says that if I leave within 15 minutes, I should miss the storm. I take his advice and run out to the airplane, where Rob was already putting stowing our luggage.


I hear thunder. I go on double-time. I check the fuel and the essentials and start up. Let's go!


We takeoff, curious as to what will come of it all. The weather briefer said that St. Thomas was clear, so I should be in the clear as soon as I left the Puerto Rico island. 10 minutes of flying through gray clouds and bam, we were in the clear. Phew!! Oh, and did I mention I was wearing my life jacket en-route? Yeah, I was flying real low to the ocean.. you never know when shit may hit the fan.






A short time later, we land at St. Thomas. We go to the FBO (the place where private airplanes park) and are greeted by cool people. As Rob pays for the landing fees and what not, they give us a door prize, complimentary gifts for pilots... 2 bottles of aged rum! Score!!! They wouldn't do that in the US.. these people obviously know what's up.


So here we are again, in the hotel. After a day of chillin here and grabbing some grub, it's time to head to bed and see what tomorrow brings... still not sure where we'll end up. Trinidad & Tobago or Barbados...