We were one of the first to land but it was a steady stream of Cirrus coming into North Eleuthera airport. We were quickly moved through customs, met by the Bahamas tourism official with a welcome rum punch and wisked to the ferry and our hotels. In our case the Coral Sands, but others were staying on the harbor side at Valentines, where the water taxi took them directly to their hotel.

Once settled in, everyone started exploring Harbor Island. In our case we had lunch with some of our group at Coral Sands them did some sight seeing. By the way golf carts are the preferred mode of transportation and many rented one. Harbor Island has many sites to see.

The opening reception was held at a great Bahamian place called Gusty’s. Dirt floor, local band playing, local drinks, lots of Kahlik and rum punch poured and all of the appropriate arrival festivities. Door prizes of course and we discovered that COPA had hidden talent on the fashion runway from two of our legal professionals one from Texas and the other from California. The trip got off to a great start.

It turned out that our arrival day was my birthday. We had dined at a place called the Rock House were we stayed on our previous visit, so that was our choice for our dinner. It turned out to again, be superb and we had a delightful evening trying to remember how the hell old we are.

We woke up to the sound of rain, heavy rain and talked to Flight Service and filed. The disturbance had moved north but we could skirt the real bad stuff and get to Fort Pierce safely. We left the hotel in the rain, took the ferry to North Eleuthera in the rain and arrived at the airport in the rain. When we cleared customs and they pulled the plane up the rain stopped and ceiling lifted. We left at 9:30 climbed to 3000 feet got our clearance, climbed to 8000 feet through moderate rain showers and clouds, got between layers at 8000 feet and asked to stay there. We were in and out of showers to Grand Bahama Island then out of the clouds and landed in Fort Pierce with a visual approach on time at 11:00. We cleared customs, refueled, grabbed sandwiches to go, and were in the air at noon and home in Hilton Head by 2:00, in the afternoon in time to see the end of the golf on TV and have dinner with friends.

It was a fun trip thanks to Joe McMonigle, Nancy and Jim knowllenberg for all their hard work and all of the attendee’s who joined us from all across the US and Canada.

We had a very nice dinner outdoors at one of Gil’s favorite restaurants and celebrated his up coming birthday. The next morning it was off to the Bahamas.

We only had Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday morning so we did a quick tour of the whole area, took in the airshow Tuesday evening and then focused on areas of specific interest. We attended the Avidyne customer appreciation cookout, to get the latest from my avionics supplier. Harold was interested in checking out light sports, so we spent considerable time there. We both enjoyed the war birds as well as the vintage aircraft. By Wednesday we had done a pretty good job of covering the bases we set out to cover and headed back to the airport. We plowed through lots of build ups going home, but made it back in around two hours. Overall it was a intense aviation experience rubbing shoulders with lots of other people that automatically look up when something flies over.

The main reason for the trip was to attend our best friend, Bruce Edwards award ceremony held at the Jacuzzi Winery in Sonoma Saturday night. It was a black tie affair with appropriate splendor to toast the recipients. Bruce was honored for his support and service to UC Davis and we were proud to join his family to honor him. One of Bruce’s other guests was Ken Sandy one of our high school football team mates, (he was good), who brought a picture from our high school period. I am posting it here and there should be a prize if you can name the characters. It does provide some insight into our beginnings in Danville, Calfiornia in the fabulous fifties.

And from Ken Sandy’s photo archives:

In spite of what you may think, I don’t think any have a prison record and one was the Sheriff of Contra Costa County, California. Isn’t the United States of America Great?

After a great lunch, we checked into our hotel and watched Kyle Stanley, a PGA golf pro from Bluffton South Carolina, execute a come from behind win to redeem himself. We then watched the NY Giants beat the Patriots in the Super Bowl. If the 49ers couldn’t be there the Giants would do. A celebratory dinner, a good nights sleep, a flight to Hilton Head via Charlotte and we were back home Monday evening. It was a whirl wind weekend, but fun.