51. Hawk's Nest on Cat Island, Bahamas (MYCH). - Bartow Florida - 4.5. 2009, 560NM, 4:30 Hrs of flight

"27:56.6N 81:47.0W"

Our departure from Hawk's Nest on Cat Island Bahamas
was planned for 9AM that morning, and surprise, we in fact
managed this time,  to depart exactly on time. 

Initially we headed in westerly direction to Staniel Cay on
the Great Exuma Island chain, to Normans Cay
and then north, abeam Nassau the Capital of the Bahamas,
and to Freeport on Grand Bahamas Island, where we had
to land and clear customs. 

What a beautiful and unforgettable sight, all those countless
Islands in a chain; quite a lot of them with small settlements
and airstrips, and how impressive, the crystal clear turquoise
coloured water surrounding each island! 

At Freeport, we experienced a very straight forward and
efficient handling by the local authorities, for us to continue
onwards to the USA.
>From Freeport it was a flight of only 45 minutes on a IFR
flight plan over water to Fort Pierce Florida, our port of
entry in the USA.

In constant radio contact with Miami Air Traffic Control,
it was a real pleasure to follow their guidance and radar
vectors to our next landing at Fort Pierce on the Atlantic coast.

Remembering well the very complex and time consuming advance
filing of the required entry request with the US Transport  Safety
Administration (TSA) for us two and HB-PON, we expected
a lengthy and thorough entry procedure upon our arrival at our
port of entry into the USA.
To our great surprise, the entry formalities into the USA were then
simple-, efficient-, and were handled in a absolute friendly manner
by the responsible customs officer there.
 
The last segment of stage 3, of our Round the World Flight from
Fort Pierce to Bartow, not far from Orlando Florida, took us
mere 35 minutes.
Miami Air Traffic Control Centre guided us again with radar vectors
comfortably through a number of active and restricted airspaces
en route.

Now HB-PON is checked in at Bill Turely's Aircraft Engineering Inc.
at Bartow Airport for maintenance and for a little rest, before we will
continue end of June, our Stage 4 flight from here to New Found land
in Canada, then across the North Atlantic to the Azores and back to
Switzerland. 

Bartow is located very close to Orlando and its many Entertainment
Parks.
Before we each embarked onto our flights home, we could not resist
spending at least one day at Disney "Magic Kingdom" and enjoy
 likes mall  kids rides such famous attractions as "The Pirates of the
Caribbean’s",  "It’s a small world after all..." and others.
It was simply great again!
 
Stay tuned!


Here some impressions:

Farewell by Kathy and Russell Gervase at Hawk's Nest

(Russell being an ATP and company pilot at his magnificent resort)

Hawk's Nest on Cat Island with its small Hotel, the airstrip and Marina in
the background.

Staniel Cay

Exuma's chain of islands on our way north

On final approach at Fort Pierce in Florida USA

Bartow: Everything was removed from the inside of HB-PON: The 100 Gallon Cabin
Ferry tank-, the 6 man Life raft-, and about one thousand other items........

Disney's "Magic Kingdom"

"The Pirates of the Caribbean’s"

"It's a Small World after all..."