Thunder Over Michigan 2026 - The Red Arrows

Even with the Smoke over Michigan, leading to the cancellation of the Friday show due to weather being below minimums for safe flying, the show went on Saturday.

Smoke was still present, and having the show run from 3pm to 9pm with the airshow performances themselves taking place from 6-9pm made lighting conditions rather unpleasant for photographers.  The joy of dealing with smoke and the sun shining right in your lens through breaks in the smoke made a less than ideal photographic environments.

For all that, the airshow offered some neat performances.

The highlight of the show was the Royal Air Force's Red Arrows, with this being their first time performing in Michigan, on a special tour for America's 250th anniversary. 

Flying here via Iceland, Greenland, Newfoundland and on down to Michigan their next and final US performance will be at Oshkosh.

The Red Arrows did a staggered formation takeoff of  3, 2 and 2 for sevena aircraft in the air.

They quickly assembled into formation and the show began.

It began with a unique formation that may never occur again:  The Red Arrows with the US F-16 Falcon Demonstrator jet:
 

 

 

Very cool.

 

After the F-16 departed the formation, the main Red Arrow show began, starting with their namesake: a  Red Arrow formation:

 

 Lots of cool formation acrobatics then took place.

 The pilots were having an interesitng time keeping sight of each other in the smoky conditions which made it a tad harder than a typical show.

It ended with a formation break 

 

and then a landing in beautifully timed, spaced, and tightly executed sequential order, with a perfectly spaced formation taxi back to the ramp.

An impressive display of precision team airmanship under difficult conditions. 

The RAF Red Arrows did a phenomenal display and very well represented the best of the Royal Air Force and the United Kingdom.

Everyone in Michigan Right Now

 Ron Swanson speaketh the truth.

Dive 1 - North House Reef

Dawn broke on Sunday as we awoke at the first dive site.

 A good breakfast and a dive briefing and we got ready to hit the water.

 This group was different form my previous two voyages. A lot more teens on board and most of the racks were taken up by a group on a trip organized by Blue Planet Scuba from Washington DC. They had their own instructor and dive master (trainee) with them and most were open water divers so limited to a 60 foot depth.  Some were there to take the advanced or deep course in the Bahamas. So it was not a highly experienced bunch of divers, with some exceptions.

This cruise would not be a group of hard-diving, hard-drinking pirates.  But, it would be fun all the same.

The first dive was a nice bunny hop on North House Reef.  With a max depth of 21.2 feet, it was an easy first dive, even though the waves and swell at the surface made it a little more interesting than anticipated - especially when getting back on the boat.

The water was basically bath water,  with the surface at 95 degrees and the lowest temp the whole dive at 87 degrees no wetsuit was needed, just a rash-guard and swim shorts.

Descending, I soon got to see some pretty fish:

 

 Lots of coral and small fish abounded:

 

Being at such a shallow depth,  I had a solid one hour dive and was back on the boat with almost 1000 psi still in the tank. I did get back on the boat without issue, being used to having waves and the ladder kicking around a bit during boarding so it was no problem.

Not a bad first dive in the Bahamas at all. 

Where There's Smoke

There's more smoke.

Thanks to Canada's mismanagement of their forests, currently pumping out 200 tons of carbon per hour, we have haze and Low IFR conditions in the area.

 

Wisps of smoke are actually visible, not just this all-encompassing haze.

The only upside? This entire town smells like BBQ.

Mmmmm, BBQ. 

In Other Nautical News

The historic World War II submarine USS Silversides has safely made her way under to a shipyard in Wisconsin for overhaul and preservation work.

Fox 11 News: WWII submarine USS Silversides reaches Sturgeon Bay shipyard for repairs

 USS Silverside's home is a fine museum in Muskegon, Michigan, and its always a delight to visit the well-preserved historic submarine.

The $3.5 million dollar project should keep her preserved and ready for visitors to learn of her and her crew's gallant service, and that of all US submariners in the Second World War for many years to come.

Back From Diving Paradise

Returned from a great time on a live-aboard doing some diving in the Bahamas with Blackbeard's. I had arrived in the Bahamans the day before departure, meeting up with Jay from the last dive trip.

Six days at sea with this lower rack being the only area for myself and my dry gear:

Blackbeard's is still the best value at sea, so long as you understand that it is camping at sea.

On this trip, we dealt with some harsh weather, rolling seas and difficult dive conditions,  so we had to cancel some planned dives and locations we did only 17 of the planned 19 dives due to the conditions and need to move out of the heavy winds and waves.  

We dove in the Exumas and off Eleuthera changing sites and maneuvering to avoid the conditions as much as possible.

Still to say the boat was a rockin' was an understatement.

18 divers, 5 crew on a 65 foot boat meant for tight quarters, but a lot of fun and getting to meet people and dive till you drop.

Sharks were seen and fed, stingrays seen, and other denizens of the diving depths were admired as sites both new and familiar were dove. 

On the first day, we met up at the boat at noon, got our safety and dive briefings done, setup our gear, had lunch, and began the trip to the exumas.

 

If You Need More Fireworks After Last Night

Tons of fireworks shows around here last night in preparation for Independence Day. People may have run out already.

If you need more, before you go out to buy some, understandthat  you can get all sorts of different color fireworks, as seen below, based on the wonders of chemistry: 

 

 

Have a good one, be safe, soak all fired firework tubes in water for at least 24 hours before throwing them in the trash.  Don't burn your house down, and may you end up with the same number of fingers you started out with as you celebrate our Independence Day in the traditional manner.

Happy 250th Independence Day!

The Semiquincentennial (say that ten times fast) of American Independence is today.

250 Years ago a new nation was declared that brought forth a  constitutional republican form of government with the promise of individual rights, liberty, and freedom and the pursuit (but not the guarantee) of happiness the word had not seen before.

I'd say the United States of America has done well to meet that promise and even though many mistakes occurred over time, this nation continually corrected those mistakes, as it continues to do so now. 

There is a serious level of manufactured political division, as seen in the surveys that show 93% of Republicans being proud or very proud of our country as opposed to only 45% of Democrats.

But for all that division, every American should still be proud to be an American for the blessings this country has given you, even as you have the right here not to be proud.

250 years of the greatest country in the world.  Here's to 250 more!

 

 

Democrats Love Illegals So Much

They will even pardon convicted pedophile rapists to stop them from being deported.

Yes, really. 

The Daily Mail:   Minnesota's Democrat Governor Tim Walz pardons illegal migrant PEDOPHILE who raped girl aged 10 to stop the predator from being deported

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz has pardoned an illegal immigrant who was convicted of raping a ten-year-old child to stop him from being deported. 

The Democrat was part of a three-person panel that granted clemency to Tou Lue Vang, 42, who was set to be sent back to Laos due to his horrific child sex crimes. 

Vang admitted to repeatedly sexually abusing the child for four years when he pleaded guilty to first-degree criminal sexual conduct in 2006, and at the time he justified his actions by claiming it is a 'cultural thing' to 'marry and have sex with girls as young as 12.' 

 This gets even worse as the scumbag had been given a reduced sentence and no jail time on the condition that he was to be deported. 

His plea deal allowed him to avoid jail time but face deportation, a fate he has now been spared by Walz and the other two members of the panel, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison and Minnesota's Chief Supreme Court Justice, Natalie Hudson.  

Yep, they really did it, and let a pedophile walk.

AG Keith Ellison even defended it and compared the pardon to those made by Trump - which is quite the what-aboutism. The reaosning seems to be since Trump pardons people, Ellison can pardon pedophiles.  Quite an argument, that.

So yep, the Party that keeps yelling "Epstein"-- even when it is clear that had Trump been in the files having done anything criminal it would have been leaked by Democrats long ago now, seems to have no problem pardoning pedos.

Funny, that. 

Rapper Reinforces His Rap Sheet

And his rap sheet goes back as far as 2001.

One might say that Detroit Rapper Brian Brown has methed up.

The Detroit News: Detroit rap mogul Brian Brown gets in fresh trouble with feds

A Detroit music mogul, once described in a sealed federal search warrant as one of the largest heroin dealers in the Midwest who used his rap label to launder drug money, is in fresh trouble along with his wife after being accused of heading a nationwide drug ring linked to Mexico's Sinaloa Cartel. 

Right after being celebrated for turning his life around, post-incarceration (for apparently a far too-short sentence that did not, in fact, cause him to reform) too: One West: Reformed Detroit Drug Kingpin-Turned-Grammy-Nominated Music Mogul Releases Documentary, Detailing His Unconventional Life Of Crime And Transformation Into The World Of Entertainment 

Who knows, maybe his turning point was going from heroin to meth?