We’ll just park on the beach

 

I find myself recalling a line from the movie 2001 A Space Odyssey. "My God, it's full of stars". There are still places where you can look up at night and never want to look back down. This would be one of those places.

 

 

 I’m glad for the Goose. This rock is bigger than I thought. A jeep would be nice but the Goose allows for stops in secluded coves and plenty of room for Linda’s stuff. We had to only load 75% of our capacity for fuel to accommodate the weight of her …stuff.

 

 

 

This must be where color was invented. If so the private island resort on Nukubati has got a ton it to spare each sunrise.

 

 

Palmlea Eco Farm

We’ll park at Palmlea Farms tonight. The owners have built an eco resort and organic farm in Vanua Levu. It appeals to the hippies in us. It is one of the most beautiful settings I’ve seen. I do find myself saying that a lot on this adventure. Joe and Julie strike a chord in our hearts with what they’re doing with their business.

I’m sure the owners of an eco resort will understand us parking our less than eco friendly Goose on their beach. We did arrive before 0800 so we’d not disturb the beach goers.

This would be where'd we'd kick back to count our blessings.

 

Sneaking in a Goose, in the dark

Why fly a Beaver when you can ride upon the wings of a Goose? Can't sit around, we've got to fly with the sun.

There is so much to explore here. These places jump off the screen with a beauty I can only imagine would be breath taking in person.

 

I’ve got such a place to drag Linda off to once the sun rises. I’ll be entertained while waiting by trying to convince myself that performing a pre-flight at 0300 in a dark Goose anchored off a Fijian beach is cooler than just about anything I could imagine. Just about.

She snuck in this morning to replace the Jet Ranger. How could the arrival of a 1953 Grumman Goose be anything but subtle?

 

Keep the Kava coming

Yasawa-i-Rara is where our virtual day will end. It started yesterday on the Marshall Islands. We paused in Nadi for a few hours after a missed approach from strong cross winds on our final into NFFN. I can say Linda was impressed;  "...weren't we going to land there?" Just what every pilot needs on a missed approach, a smart-ass co-pilot.

Now, after an enjoyable 6AM helicopter flight over towns and islands with names like Waya, Naviti, Yaqeta and Turtle Island, we find ourselves at the Blue Lagoon Resort in Yasawa.

 

There are a lot of islands and small pockets of paradise all around us. We hope you enjoy finding these places with us. May just one of us find ourselves in just one of these places someday.

Once I can virtually pry Linda's virtual butt off a virtual beach chair at the very real Blue Lagoon Resort we'll grab an old Beaver (float plane) to continue our adventure. The Jet Ranger is too slow to see what other jewels Fiji has in store.






For now ...keep the Kava coming. I don't fly for 24.


Parked in Yasawa

The Blue Lagoon on YouTube

Contrails to Bungalows

Making Contrails @ FL49

Flying across the Pacific I started thinking about the Polynesians from the Marquesas Islands. They were the first people to reach the Hawaiian Islands. I turned to Linda and said, "dang, this 4 hours to the Marshall Islands is a long ass boring flight". I then thought to myself; what would the tribesmen, paddling their canoes across an open ocean, think if they saw my contrails racing across the sky at velocities approaching the speed of sound? Would they think it to be a divine sign? Would their wisest say "...no problem brah. It's just a Lear 45"?

Our trip into Fiji from Honolulu required a gas stop. I must say that it was comforting to find a light blue spot of water shining bright in the dark ocean below us. It is a welcoming sight after watching your life blood (Jet A)  closing in on empty.

It’s another 5 hours to Fiji from here so we’ll enjoy some Marshall Island hospitality for the evening. The Hotel RobertReimers has Bungalows. We choose one facing the lagoon.

Linda is all about clean and comfortable. You can’t expect to find Seattle’s Metropolitan Grill in Majuro but you can get a good meal and a clean room here. Don’t bitch about the price …you are on a rock (Atoll) in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, where else you going to go?

Tomorrow we continue on to Fiji. Hopefully Linda will find enough stuff to keep us there for a couple of days.   

A $4K box of Chocolates

We started out chasing time by flying towards tomorrow. What that ends up meaning for us is waking up on WA time in Hawaii.  It’s all good if the plan is to fly out to Kawela Bay for sunrise.

Linda’s idea is to use this virtual trip to Christmas shop (for our real time world).

She made this announcement on our early morning flight along the John Burns Fwy, a lit path through the mountains between Honolulu and Kaneohe. I think this is one of her better plans.

 We left the Hawaii North Shore after sunrise. Saying goodbye to Turtle Resort we turned right to follow the beach back to the little bird parked at Honolulu Intl.

Just South East of Honolulu we found the little beach town of Kaaawa.

Linda’s first gift find is: fineasschocolate.com

She likes the Dark Ass with a Kick chocolate balls. Luckily for me she can have them shipped home, it’s that weight and balance thing. Linda smiles one of her infectious smiles and says “…and they were only $7 a bag”. I thought, yeah baby, that and a virtual $4210 for the 762 gallons of Jet A we burned getting here from Bremerton.

 On our short trip back to PHNL honey says, “I love Hawaii but I need options.” I know what this means, it means a change of plans …

Virtually waiting for Chocolate in Kaaawa, HI
 

…tomorrow we’re off for Fiji.

Welcome aboard.

My wife Linda says I’m high maintenance. She may be right. Given that thought I’ve taken a virtual vacation to ponder her idea. Welcome Aboard!

I’ll be using FSX SE as my virtual world to travel in. I do it this way because my main mode of transportation will be a Learjet 45. I’ve chosen this “Little Bird” for her range, speed, short runway abilities and ceiling …plus she darn near goes straight up on climb out.

We'll  be traveling using the real time, real world weather engine, FSX Active Sky. It provides us with the weather and information we use to navigate through.

For this blog I’ll attempt to keep my aviation lingo to normal people terminology ...as far as I can. There are a lot of acronyms in the world of aviation.

Yesterday we left Bremerton WA (KPWT) @ 10AM local on the first leg of our vacation …Around the World.

After five hours @ ¾ the speed of  sound (0.73M) burning through several hundred pounds of fuel, 60 MPH headwinds @ 44,000’ and a bone headed fast climb attempt to FL49 (49,000’), we arrived in the Hawaiian Islands at Honolulu Intl.

I use “we” because my virtual travel companion is Linda. We have been married over 4 decades. With over forty years of experience I'm calculating she will easily bring 200 pounds of …stuff.
Our "weight and balance" calculations tell me how much fuel we get to carry …after her baggage of course.

Tomorrow, and for the next few days we’ll grab a Jet Ranger and do a little sightseeing on the islands.  

High maintenance? …yeah, right. What’s she know?