I decided to take last Friday off. What with my upcoming flight exam and having been busy and away from home all the previous weekend, I was feeling in need of stress relief. Friday was not that, but I was hoping to get enough done that I could go have fun with Tyson Sunday.

Friday I went out flying with my flight instructor. We went through the set of expected things for the check ride, and he said I did them all well enough to pass. There was one point doing turns where I turned to face a USAir Dash 8 kind of thing. I was properly at my altitude and they at theirs, but I still aborted the maneuver and let them pass by.

For lunch, I went out with my instructor and the other student who owns the plane I fly.  I was hoping to do more comparing notes about how our experiences learning to fly. Instead the conversation rambled all over the place.

Then, in the afternoon, my instructor and I got together for some ground school. Apparently on the check ride, some portion of the time is spent quizzing the student on knowledge questions. I did ok with my instructor.

Saturday was mostly house chores. Tyson was off doing stuff with his parents. I did actually manage to catch up with some of the chores I was way behind on. And to finish the day, I did some more ground lesson. My instructor had a hard time finding things on the chart I didn't know. I guess loving staring at maps paid off.

Sunday we got a lazy start and debated just paddling locally, but I really wanted to go out to the ocean. So we threw ourselves in the car and got to Portsmouth about noon. The ocean was forecast to have not much for waves, so we paddled up into the harbor. The currents mostly favored us, but the winds were quite strong out of the west. Tyson was dressed warmer than I was, so he did more rolls than me. He still got icecream heaches though. One of the rolls I tried failed miserably. It was supposed to be a reverse sweep, unfortunately, when I capsized, I failed to actually sink and roll around under the boat. Tyson thought this was absolutely hilarious.
We paddled by the Portsmouth naval yard. They had a submarine in dock, but it was not clear if it was a permanent exhibit or in for service. Then we wove our way around the islands and headed out to sea. Part way there, we picked up a strong current going our way. Once out around the last island we had a good view. The ocean had very gentle long period one foot swells. Off in the distance the Isles of Shoals were visable. Around the corner at the mouth to the smaller harbor where we put in, we found some waves and surf as the swells broke over a submerged rock. We, of course, had to stop and play. I was tired and stiff enough that I got capsized rather than working with the wave, but all fun. Then we had the slog back to the car against the tide and wind. In all, it was great stress relief. The exercise and cold wore me out, and the water and wide ocean are just lovely.