Salvage operations

Hello! Happy Sunday :)

I've been away from the boat all week, starting early on Monday with a 2-day trip to Denmark for their first international balloon fiesta. It's been glorious, and we were up and away on Wednesday evening for the first flight:

On Thursday it was too windy to fly, so instead we went to the nearby lake for a swim. The pilot, David, and I found a sunken dinghy, and with a few waves got it floating, with what felt like half an hour of bailing to empty it (and re-housing 2 trapped fish). Then Andy, part of our crew, made some edits for our submission to Dirty Jobs:

Unfortunately we came back the next day to find it half submerged :( the leak wasn't obvious, it needed dry-docking for a refit.

Anyhoo, the morning balloon flights were stunning:

The 4am wake-up call threw me, but it's worth it when you see the giants inflate and take off.

I flew again last night and did most of the burning, which was brilliant. We skimmed the treetops at one point, and figuring out the power you'll need is a lot of fun — the "throttle" lags by nearly 20 seconds, so heading level is tricky. Anyone can blast up or drift down, but keeping a steady altitude means short, regular pulses. The farmers, locals and crowds were lovely, and I took great delight in introducing the others to rundstykker med øst og syltetog, smørkage og danske hotdogs med det hele.