And… I think I was largely unaware that NASA’s shuttle program was launching Challenger, again — that morning (the launches were becoming more or less routine)… we were shocked, mid-air, to look backward, out toward Florida — from about 300 miles down-range… and see a horrifying but crystal clear plume of white smoke, at about 46,000 feet, overhead.
All the lil’ puddle-hopper pilot could muster… was “that doesn’t look… good.”
He was certainly right. When we landed at a small airstrip, an hour or so later, to board the sailboat — for the Outer Abacos, we saw on network TV there in the airstrip offices… that all seven shuttle astronauts were dead.
That was a very somber way… to start a long awaited break from big law, on the high tropical seas, indeed. [Next year — I will post in great detail, on the fortieth year, since that tragic day.] Yet and still, we all must move forward, even against longish odds — on all science fronts. Especially… now. This too, is a time of… chaos.
But it is chaos, of a different kind, to be sure, this time — entirely man made. Onward.
नमस्ते
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