We're back in the U-S-A !!!!!
Hi All, I can honestly tell you that 10 days in the Cayman Islands was
perfect time for Tuppergal & I to enjoy ourselves without feeling that we just got there when it was time to leave!!!
Jim & Cathy Pappas were off on the twin otter for the flight back to Grand Cayman, continuing onto Chicago. Annmarie Strachan and her Mom Carol also departed with connections to LAX.
Our day started about 0730 (all times EDT) waking up, and getting the planes all packed up. We couldn't file our flight plans for the 5 minute flight from Little Cayman to Cayman Brac until 0900 when the tower opened (and then they told us to call back in 20 minutes :-(
We finally got it all together and were checked out of the villas and airborne, 4 ships in trail, around 0930. We flew one circuit around our dive company's boat, the "Sea-esta" and the Villas then flew over to Cayman Brac, cleared straight in, 1 mile in sequence, no problems with the tower (this tower is used to 1 plane in, 1 plane out so you can imagine their surprise when they get more than 1 plane in!) We kept it simple on the radio with plenty of separation as they will tell you to go around in a heartbeat "to avoid landing traffic."
Customs opened at 1000, and they too were not expecting FOUR private pilots at once. They told us the "Flying Physicians" used to come in with several planes but haven't in a long while. We got through Customs fairly quickly but then it was up to the tower to file the FOUR international flights planes....
Turns out their was a trainee working alone today, and he was a hunt-n-peck typist... It took him 1.5 hours to file FOUR flight plans :-( Oh well 'mon', we were island time! Thankfully the fuel guys were able to top off all four planes while we sat waiting for flight plans.
We each paid our $18.75 USD departure tax, headed out to the planes and loaded up. I was the first airborne at 1215. It was a nice flight to and across Cuba, and I had to dog-leg into Key West (which you can see
here) since there was some military dogfighting going out over the ocean between me and Key West
Bill & Sharon Souza departed behind me (~10 minutes) from Cayman Brac but landed right behind me at Key West. We both went into customs together, this after the agents ran the geiger-counter (no kidding) around our planes.
Key West customs was the
BEST, and they got us cleared in/out in less than 10 minutes, WOWWEE!!! Customs Agent Rahaim was very professional yet courteous, something we've not see on any of our trips arriving back into the USA. If you've read any of my other trip reports, you know what I'm talking about.... We were actually welcomed back to the USA!!!
After clearing customs, Jim & Vicki arrived to the 'penalty box' as Bill & I started our engines. We were already in our planes before Jim & Vicki got out of their plane so we 'yelled' at them that we'd meet them in Homestead. We were told by the customs agent that we were not allowed to be near them since we were 'clean'/cleared by customs ;-)
I requested a 2-ship departure from Key West, and we flew a tight 2-ship departure southbound around the Naval Air Station then east/northeast/north to Homestead. We were held at 2K' for a short time for separation from Gene & Janet Larsen who were inbound as we were outbound.
It was about a 40 minute flight to Homestead, and Jim & Gene's RVs showed up about an hour later. I even had time to take FBO owner John Roberts around-the-patch which he thoroughly enjoyed ;-)
We all fueled and decided to make one more flight (leg) to Perry Foley (40J), Fl, about a 2 hour flight. We intended to get 'around the horn' of Florida but thunderstorms prevented that from happening.
We all landed around 1830, fueled, tied down the planes for the night, and the folks at the Hampton Inn picked us up. The hotel is less than 5 minutes from the airport, and I highly recommend them for anybody heading this way looking to overnight as they are
TRULY 5-STAR!!! Their number is 850.223.3000, and you can contact them via
e-mail. Goodman's BBQ is right next door, and we left there 'stuffed' with excellent BBQ!!!
Victoria & I are going to try to meet up with Gary & Carolyn Zilik somewhere in a state to yet to be determined so we can spend the last week
of our vacation with them. Thunderstorms stopped the Ziliks near Lake of the Ozarks (MO).
Keep an eye on our SPOT track to see where we end up as our proposed trip towards Niagra Falls is now TBD
Rosie