Bumpy ride

Damn me for a liar if today's flight from south FL to the NY area wasn't the bumpiest ride I've ever had in an airplane. Holy hell we got our asses kicked... but we made it.

 If you're not in the area, FL got hammered last night with high winds and thundersqualls. It was blowing about 40 but warm and sunny this morning, thankfully, so we could fly out without delay.

 Well, without locally-caused delay. There was a 2 1/2 hour delay for anyone flying into Newark, which I was. FL got wind and thundersqualls and tornadoes to the north that killed people. The northeast is getting a nor'easter. 50kt winds and freezing rain at the airport caused the FAA folks to delay us at our departure airports, rather than in the air  around the NY area, which is a good thing, because the first 30 minutes of the flight, once we finally got off the ground, the wind was rolling and yawing the hell out of us, and the last hour of the flight, we just got our asses kicked. Hard.

  But you know, there were flights to Laguardia getting cancelled at my local airport, so I was just grateful that the folks on my airline gave it the 'ol college try, even with the sore back and ass that the flight gave me.

 Anyhow, I checked into the hotel my employers book for us, a one-star dealie, and I'm currently waiting on my Chinese food to show up. It's kind of lonely, but at least I've got a giant Somalian family screaming at full volume at the TV in the room next door.
 Judging by the cheering, they're probably watching 'Black Hawk Down."


            So, while I was at home, as I mentioned elsewhere, I got plenty of work done on my little boat, completing the planking. Since I stretched the hull slightly from what the plans called for, the planking included a couple of really shittily-fitted planks, which I epoxied into place and filled in the gaps, though I was disappointed in myself for not starting over. Truth be told, I'm planking the hull but fairing it to roundness, so no planks will be visible anyhow. It's going to look like a steel hull when done.

those joins at the turn of the bilge were just awful. I faired the ever-living hell out of them later. 

First cargo.

      I haven't uploaded the fairing pictures, but the hull was made with rough-cut balsa planks of middling-quality, so there was a LOT of fairing to be done. I'll post that, and a word about the dust storm involved, later.