When Dawn and I bought land on a Puget Sound-area airpark in 2019, we were still living aboard Windbird and cruising the Caribbean. Part of our “sell everything and sail across the horizon” scheme had always been to use that time to dream up our perfect post-boat life—one built around GA—and put that plan in motion. When we found the ideal plot on the grass strip of our dreams, we quickly modified our sailing plans to place us in a good position to build our bucket-list house and hangar in 2022. Our plans, it turns out, failed to account for a worldwide pandemic.
In the early stages of COVID-19, it was almost certain that I would lose my Boeing 737 captain seat and be downgraded to first officer with an attendant decrease of income. A furlough or my airline going bankrupt were possible too. As the situation evolved and my position appeared safe, the geographic and mental separation of being a continent away from our land combined with the restrictions of quarantine to ensure that our focus drifted and deadlines slipped. And then the Pacific Northwest real estate market went nuts, supply chains went FUBAR, the cost of lumber quadrupled, and available construction workers became rare as hen’s teeth.
