About Flight of the Kestrel

    "Flight of the Kestrel" is a novel based on everyones favorite daydream  of winning the big pot in the lottery.
   The hero of the peice is a man called Ed Johnson, who happens to be a real Hill-billy, from the mountains of Eastern Kentucky.

Ed does a great deal of good for his fellow man, and also starts his own company with his family, building boats. They decide to build a pair of boats unlike anything ever before seen, But Ed and his family run headlong into a web of corruption, international intrigue, and criminality,unleashing the biggest scandal in history, in the process of all this he is alone at sea, robbed of his ships papers, his passport, and stripped of his citizenship, and very nearly killed, but luck interviens. This is because his boat has capability's he has no idea about, he learns this after picking up a Russian sailor who has been marooned at sea by a corrupt officer. The two of them team up and turn the tables on all pursuers, resulting in the most hilarious "Goose chase" ever heard of. They out witt three of the worlds biggest navys in the process.

Excerpt # 3 from "Flight of the Kestrel" copyright Bobby R Towe sr

There are zodiacs being launched from the old freighter, their occupants have weapons, I alter course, to stay away from her, I have spotted this from my mast camera, I bring Kestrel around quickly, heading due east again and go back to full sail while at the same time ballasting to compensate for the direction change, the result is a tight, fast “swoop maneuver” Kestrel goes from 30 knots to 65 knots within about 40 seconds and walks far above the chop which has built back to five foot swells, the zodiacs soon give up the chase, but I did get to watch a couple of them go airborne off the crest of the waves and flip, the rest had to give up the chase without ever being able to close on me. I hate to tip my hand but I have to report this before these bung holes kill somebody.

 I am on radio to the nearest coastguard station, and am hoping it’s not corrupted; I report the activity I have seen and the name of the vessel and her size and her current course as well.

   I also get on the phone to Su-ling, who is very alarmed when she hears about this,  giving her the position course and approximate speed of the freighter, I tell her not to worry they never even got close, I tell her that I took Gus’s advice and never let my guard down, my security man reminds me to make sure I am wearing my vest, I told him I had put it on before I left port and have not taken it off even once, and that after this you may have to pry it off me!

    I am about 100 miles from home, I plot this as a waypoint highlighted in red on my GPS.

I keep an easterly course for the next hour and then turn back south once more as the old freighter was headed northeast away from the coast, having spotted, and then evading trouble before it got me, I consider myself lucky, I will travel due south for another hour and then go back west towards the coast, another thing is that the weather was very much in my favor, Kestrel handles this type of weather far better than most others.

   Just in case I get jumped by surprise I reach down and turn the master arm switch to stand by on the anti-piracy system, this way I can hit any of several “panic-buttons” located in key places on board, should the need arise.

Excerpt # 2 from Flight of the Kestrel, copyright Bobby R Towe sr

   I fire up Kestrels diesel and the tender crews cast off her lines for me, and they nudge her away from the docks gently with the utility craft.

   Once clear of the docks they pull away, I am on my own from here.

I notice the rotor blades on the chopper beginning to pick up speed they will be airborne soon, I make my way down the channel, towards the open Atlantic, clearing the breakwater, at the mouth of the channel, I begin the process bringing Kestrel’s foils down and locking them in place ,once I am in deep water.

     I take note of wind speed and direction, and vector the main sail’s boom accordingly, I raise the sail fully, and once the sail fills cut the diesel engine, I am under sail power now.

   The boat foils as expected and I unfurl the two jib sails one at a time, she responds well, going to a bi-foil state quickly with an adjustment of ballast, I set the spinnaker, she is now under full sail, and doing a good 45 knots, and still accelerating, 50, 55, 60, 65, 70 holy shit!! 71 knots she levels out at 71, the chopper is flying to one side, a radio crackles, it's Su-ling, Ed you sure know how to put on a show. I laugh it’s Kestrels show honey, it’s all her.

     I vector the main sail a bit and Kestrel gains speed, 74 knots, and the roar of water on the hull gives way to a hiss as she climbs up to full bi-foil foil. The adjustments seem to do as I had hoped, no longer needed I douse the spinnaker, and she maintains speed.

   My course at this point is due east 90 degrees.

Flight of the Kestrel, A brand new novel, waiting to find a publisher

The following is from "Flight of the Kestrel"a novel by Bobby R Towe sr, it is copyrighted material, by permission.

    The Flight of the Kestrel

Forward:

My name is Ed Johnson, at least that’s the name I will use here (I do like to keep as much privacy as I can hold onto).  

    I wasn’t always rich, nor was I a self-made millionaire; the truth is I simply got lucky and won a pile of money playing the lottery, I won’t say how much of course.

I have donated and continue to do so; a huge amount to different charity’s doing a bit to help my fellow man (mainly children and rural families).

But now it’s time to follow a lifelong dream and have not only my own company but to build the boat of countless lifetimes. 

My life now is a far cry from my roots as a child in an area where you could have mistaken it for a third world country.

     I grew up dirt poor in the Appalachian mountains of Kentucky, living in houses that weren’t really fit to live in, made livable only by heavy applications of cardboard tacked up on the interior walls to block the wind and act as insulation in winter. Life then consisted of going to school, carrying water from springs in the earth, or drawing it from a well, if we had one, and the old outhouse for a toilet (dammed miserable in winter too), the kids in my family me included worked like little slaves tending gardens, and cutting fire wood, helping to make quilts for winter, and helping mom can vegetables to help make it through lean times, and there were plenty of those. As an adult I worked like a dog and fought hard to make any sort of honest and decent living, spending a good many days wondering if I was going to eat that night or not, and keep a roof over my head, while at the same time worrying about whether or not the tax man was going to take my home. And then the powers that be sent nearly all the work overseas!

It has been said that our ancestors once plowed rocks for a living.

 Coming from the mountains I can tell you that anyone who can do that is a formidable man indeed, it’s the meanest kind of living there is, and these are formidable people.

   Gone now is the old outhouse for the most part, replaced by modern indoor plumbing, but I fear they may return along with the hardships, as our people struggle to keep a foot hold in the world. 

 We are far from dumb; the truth is many of our people are simply under educated.

 I went back to school myself after having been out of school for more than 35 years (2 years college), and have also served in the military. 

  The following is from my ships’ log, memory, and from the memory of others involved.

As if things weren't bad enough

    A couple of days ago I learned the company we build the majority of our parts for is pulling their buissness.
  So here I go again, theres just no such thing as a break for us in this area or so it seems. To make matters worse I am told that they owe the company I work for something on the order of $600,000.oo and apparently they dont want to pay either!
   rumor has it they are offering stock in leiw of cash, personaly I think the offer is bogus, were it me I think I would file criminal charges against them, for theft by deception.
    My guess is that they would pay up pretty quickly rather than spend up to a year or possibly more in our "po-dunk" little country jail with some of the whacked out anaimals they have in there!!
   These are city boys from Newyork, so I think about a week in our little county slammer would get things done quick.
   I have seen this done before so i know there is indeed legal precedence for it .

The laugh would sure be on the deadbeats!!

Someone asked me if I would take a paycut to keep my job I looked at them and told them I would rather take a hike out the door, the truth is I just barely get by now so I cant even begin to think about any such thing!

Introduction

I live in the apalachian mountains of eastern Kentucky, a place where not so very  long ago you could have easily mistaken the area for a third world country.
    I grew up hard, my child hood consisted of a lot of hard work for me and my brothers and sisters, cutting wood, carrying water, helping to raise a garden and preserve what we raised for winter, money was tough to come by ( hint this wasnt during the depression of the 1930's it was in the 1980's).
    I have served in the military, ( honorabley discharged) after service I came back home with my family to live, things hadnt improved much at that time , people here still had the old out-house, and many of the homes were little more than tar paper coverd shacks  many of which werent really fit to live in as snow would blow through the walls in winter.
  You had to tack up cardboard boxes to shut out the wind and cold, and the houses were normally heated with wood or coal, and there was no such thing as insulation.


   The government built housing projects here, which did help some, but many found that once you got in you couldnt get out, due to the fact that if you made a little more money they charged you more for the rent, so you couldnt save enough to have a down payment on your own home.


     Still some of us did manage to escape the trap, I did and managed to have my own home , modest though it is by any standard. ( I just hope I can keep it!!)
       I think it a disgrace that rents here often exceed the cost of my monthly mortgage payment by a wide margine, and land lords often will do nothing toward up keep in rent houses.


   I had thought at one time that our area here might actually get better, we had a few jobs come into the area for a number of years, but as usual the greedy corporate heads weren't satisfide with cheap wages, they wanted near slave labor ,so they sent all the work to China and Mexico.
   We were never paid highly but managed to get by most never paid more than minimum wage and the majority never paid more than $8.50 hr and these were non-union shops.


     The plant I worked for built producs for General Electric, Frigidaire, and other large manufacturers, I worked there for a period of 12 years, when they pulled out and went over seas, I lost my retirement fund small though it was I had to use it to stave off bankruptcy. I already know that retirement for me will be when they shovel dirt over me ( what you dont know is that's the same thing you face)


   I took advantage of a chance to go back to school, and got my welding certificates, I did this because at 50 years of age no one wanted a warehouseman that age, this inspite of the fact that in several cases I met every qualification they had asked for , my track record is that i often work harder and longer hours than most men half my age.  I would have gotten a degree had the school listened to me and given me the courses I wanted, knowing that I needed them , after having been out of school for more than 35 years.
    This was to prove far from the only problem I would face the leadership in our state government didnt like having so many on unemployment and so they did everything they could to knock as many out of school as possible, a typical tactic was to goof up the unemployment at final exam time, just when you need all your faculties focused on nothing else, this created a huge stress in an already difficult situation, many never got as far as I did.


      I was no slouch in school either I maintained a 3.8 gpa, and was on the deans list twice, and even got invited to join one of those high-brow think-tanks ( I thought it was funny , a hill-billy with a bunch of Einestein wanna be's)  I also competed in skills USA took first place at state level twice back to back, at coleigiate level.


     I had a bad time getting a job after school, but finally did so, it will soon be two years on the job, I still dont make much more than I did before everything went straight to hell, and figuring in inflation, and the fact that I also now have student loans to pay or not even as much.
     The job I have only pays about half what it would elsewhere.


Needless to say if I get a better offer I will be out the door in a hurry, I hate to be mercenary about it but after all I am a "hired gun" so to speak.  I work 5, 6, and even 7 days a week 10 hours and more a day most of the time.


       I am not only working, but I have also developed writing skills as well after writing stories for the kids in the family for a number of years, I now have a novel nearly finished  and am hoping to get lucky enough for it to be published.


   the problems we have in my area arent limited solely to employment: drugs are completely out of control here as well, I honestly think if they arrested every drug addict in the county there wouldnt be a hundred people left who were straight, at my work today they tested 6 people and fired 3 for drug use. I swear you'd think people  would be smarter than that.


    At last I heard they want to make us more competetive with the Chinese, I know what it would take to do that and it's sooo not gonna happen.


 Wanna make us competative with the Chinese? here's what it'll take:


1. pay off or cancell all student loans, and nationalize all colleges,and give everyone who wants one a college education.
You wont have to worry about lazy people there's far to much work involved in getting a degree.


2. Round up all drug dealers and all drug users , place them in a public place and then shoot them, the Communist Chinese did that not long after they took control of China to solve the problem........it does work.


 3.   Pay off or cancell all mortgages nation wide for everyone period and provide free housing to everyone else.


4. Provide free health care nation wide, prescriptions included.


5. Nationalize all industry with the government owning 51% of all stock in the companies, no exceptions.


6. Be absolutely willing to shoot corrupt individuals wherever they are found anytime they are found.


7. Provide free utilitys to all the people.

8. Provide free transportation too, it's another major expense.


Do these things and we just might be able to work as cheaply as the chinese do.


     If we did these things we could all work for about $2 an hour maybe less.


   
    Now having said that the best alternative is: protection for our economy, and a permanent ban on outsourcing and the H1B visa's to force employers to hire American labor.

  Close our borders,slamming the lid down hard on illeagal aliens, and drug runners, maintain it with armed troops to enforce it.

   Penalize employers who dont pay a living wage with super high taxes.

   Do this and we still might have to resort to the chinese solution for the drug users, no joke intended, it's that bad.