Later the same night

We finally arrived in Fort Myers later this evening. The weather radar South of New Smyrna Beach continued to look terrible, but by about 530pm we decided the air felt cooler and less humid, and the storms seemed to be dissipating somewhat. We set off into the Florida evening, then flew South to Space Coast and turned inland to the West to cross over to the gulf side. Air traffic vectored us around some of the build ups, which we could see in any case as we were flying at only 2500 ft (Mary and I both agree that flying IFR in the clouds is not advisable when there are thunderstorms!).We wove around some pretty nasty looking storms, staying well in the clear the whole time. Our backup plan was to land at Punta Gorda, because during the whole flight Fort Myers was buried under a massive thunderstorm with heavy rain - but as we got closer the storm moved off to the South and we decided to go in. We saw not one but three rainbows during our flight, one during approach to landing - must be a good omen. So now the plane is tied down, and we're checked into the hotel, both pretty tired. We already met a couple of old friends (Camelia and Bill), plus some new racers that we know from the 99s (Debbie and Linda), and there will be many more tomorrow.

Rainbows in flight