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cmartell21.bsky.social
@cmartell21.bsky.social
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Reposted
theupfront.media
The final part of this incredible long-read from @garius.bsky.social is genuinely epic.

Out now for all to read for free — but you can support our work bringing you more incredible stories like this by subscribing for the price of a couple of coffees a month!

theupfront.media/bringing-her...
Bringing her home: The remarkable journey of the California Clipper, Part 5
The crew of the California have to deal with their biggest challenges yet: African rivers, and a flight longer than their flying boat was ever designed to make.
theupfront.media
December 9, 2025 at 10:12 AM
Reposted
theupfront.media
Also out today: part 4 of 5 of @garius.bsky.social's remarkable history of the California Clipper, the feat of commercial aviation that brought a Pan Am flying boat the wrong way around the world from Auckland to LaGuardia.

This time: it's Christmas in Sri Lanka.

theupfront.media/christmas-in...
Christmas in Sri Lanka: The remarkable journey of the California Clipper, Part 4
The crew of the California Clipper are forced to spend Christmas in Sri Lanka. While there, their thoughts turn naturally to home.
theupfront.media
November 21, 2025 at 4:54 PM
cmartell21.bsky.social
A little pre-Christmas jaunt to the Carrington in Katoomba, New South Wales, Australia.
A photo of the hearth in the lounge at the restored Carrington Hotel (built 1882–1913). The hearth is decorated for Christmas with a garland of evergreens and coloured bobbles, and lit with warm white fairy lights. A decorated evergreen Christmas tree stands before brightly sunlit leaded glass windows. Temperatures have dropped below 20C (~68F), so naturally there’s a fire crackling in the grate to keep things cozy.
December 14, 2025 at 11:35 AM
Reposted
garius.bsky.social
Part 3 of my ongoing series about the incredible WW2 flight of the California Clipper is now up and free to read.

Imagine having to fly your aircraft on regular gasoline, which it has never used before.

Now imagine having to work out how to do that while you're flying over the vast Indian Ocean...
theupfront.media The Up Front @theupfront.media · Nov 14
In 1941, Pan Am's California Clipper had to do something no commercial flight had done before: circumnavigate the world.

In Part 3 of our series looking at her journey, the crew must work out, mid-air, how to fly her on regular gasoline. Something her Wright Cyclone engines were never designed for.
Into the unknown: The remarkable journey of the California Clipper, Part 3
Unable to source military-grade aviation fuel, our crew are forced to cross the Indian Ocean using regular gasoline. Something no Boeing 314 has ever flown on before.
theupfront.media
November 14, 2025 at 11:18 AM
Reposted
garius.bsky.social
More from me over on the Up Front.

One of the most extraordinary moments in aviation history.
theupfront.media The Up Front @theupfront.media · Nov 7
Part 2 of our history of the remarkable flight of the California Clipper in WW2 is now available.

To get back to the US after Pearl Harbor, Ford and his crew are asked by Pan Am to do something no commercial aircrew or passenger plane has done before:

Circumnavigate the world. #history #aviation
Flying blind: The remarkable journey of the California Clipper, Part 2
What Pan Am were asking of Ford, his crew and his aircraft was to do something that no commercial flying boat had ever done before: complete a circumnavigation of the world.
theupfront.media
November 7, 2025 at 7:01 PM
Reposted
theupfront.media
In December 1941, Pan Am flight 18602 was trapped the wrong side of the Pacific by the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

To get home, her civilian crew would need to do the near-impossible: circumnavigate the world in commercial seaplane.

In our new series, we tell tell their remarkable story.
The Long Way Round: The remarkable journey of the California Clipper, Part 1
In 1941, the Japanese attacked Hawaii, leaving Pan Am flight 18602 trapped the wrong side of Pearl Harbour, To get home, its civilian crew would have to do something incredible: circumnavigate the wor...
theupfront.media
October 31, 2025 at 10:21 PM
cmartell21.bsky.social
Spring is upon us!
An orchid starting a flowering stalk. An orchid flowering stalk with buds forming. An orchid flowering stalk with the first bud starting to open. An orchid stalk with one white blossom open and a second just starting.
September 21, 2025 at 2:52 AM
Reposted
alepresser.com
*Marilyn Monroe intensifies*
In a realistic style, brought to you by the artist VinWerneck, Prince Leopold is coming out of a pink cake with a 3 on his head (and a tiny crown). He is singing "happy birthday to you...". There are two speech bubbles from outside the frame saying "oh my gosh, Leo, it's not--" and "shush, let him, this is awesome!". The text below says "Side Quested 3rd anniversary, special guest art by vinwerneck. See you on June 9th for Chapter 3!"
July 7, 2025 at 5:21 PM
cmartell21.bsky.social
A photo of Chuckanut Island in Chuckanut Bay from a car travelling south on Chuckanut Drive in Larrabee State Park. Lummi Island is clearly visible in the distance, sporting some artistically lit puffy clouds above its crown. Gorgeous day, ten of ten.
June 19, 2025 at 11:50 AM
cmartell21.bsky.social
An aerial view of the Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge looking towards Fremont (left) and Milpitas (right). The Guadalupe Slough (right) and Guadalupe River (center) wind their way into the south San Francisco Bay here. To the left, the Cargill Salt ponds reflect shades of pink and white in stark contrast to the adjacent coastal marshlands.
June 15, 2025 at 10:23 PM
cmartell21.bsky.social
You know what you did.
June 5, 2025 at 8:31 AM
cmartell21.bsky.social
A photo looking down at a low-lying stretch of forest at the edge of the dunes. Heavy rains have flooded the basin and the placid waters are reflecting the canopy and sky like a mirror. It gives the impression that the forest in the middle distance is somehow upside down.
May 24, 2025 at 4:52 AM
cmartell21.bsky.social
A panoramic photo of Hyams Beach near Jervis Bay, NSW, Australia. To the right of the photo, a creek, swollen from the previous night’s rains, has cut a channel to the bay. The Bindijine headlands are visible in the distance, in the shadow of an approaching storm cloud.
May 16, 2025 at 2:31 AM
cmartell21.bsky.social
A panoramic photo of Lake George, Victoria, Australia with the glass-like waters reflecting a dusky sky and the distant hills.
May 2, 2025 at 9:20 AM
cmartell21.bsky.social
Photo of a four year old kid in a dark blue baseball cap and light blue fire truck shirt, wearing aviators indoors, and raising his fist to the sky in fabulosity. Somehow he turns nineteen tomorrow.
April 24, 2025 at 9:44 AM
cmartell21.bsky.social
A photo of a laughing kookaburra just chilling on the railing, being a good fluffy boi.
April 18, 2025 at 5:16 AM
cmartell21.bsky.social
A dusk view of the Ponte Vittorio Emanuele II from the Ponte Sant’Angelo, looking toward the lit dome of St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican. The placid waters of the Tiber River reflect the city lights and the cobalt sky.
April 8, 2025 at 9:24 AM
cmartell21.bsky.social
A panoramic view of Samish Bay in the Puget Sound south of Bellingham, Washington, USA. The photo is taken from the edge of freight train tracks that seem to disappear in the distance to either side. The Taylor Shellfish Farms wharf is just visible to the left and you can just make out the southern point of Lummi Island to the right. The sky is a bright summer blue and appears ringed by fluffy clouds.
March 30, 2025 at 8:10 AM
cmartell21.bsky.social
Dimorphotheca ecklonis (a.k.a. osteospermum, Cape Marguerite, or African daisy) growing in the garden box near our home. They’re beautiful, but alas, also an invasive nonnative in Australia.
March 11, 2025 at 10:32 AM
cmartell21.bsky.social
A view down the Grande Galerie de l'Évolution in the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle at the Jardin des Plantes in Paris circa 2009. Two large dinosaur skeletons stand towards the foreground, with a mammoth skeleton visible toward the back. Elevated wrought iron viewing galleries line the long walls of the hall. Plentiful natural daylight filters in through the frosted glass ceiling. (Indeed it was a beautiful day.)
March 5, 2025 at 9:22 AM
cmartell21.bsky.social
A photo of the Bergdorf Hot Springs north of McCall, Idaho, USA. The photo looks out from under a rustic wooden awning toward the main pool, wooden bathhouse, and the valley beyond. These natural hot springs flow off the mountainside, through a set of smaller hot pools, then into a large, man made, gravel bottomed main pool before flowing out into a creek down into the valley below.
March 2, 2025 at 8:48 AM
cmartell21.bsky.social
An aerial photo of Crater Lake, Oregon, USA, after a late spring snow. Mount Scott stands in the foreground while light clouds hover in the background. The lake is a deep blue reflecting the sky, with the cinder cone of the volcano reaching just above the waters of the far side of the caldera lake to form Wizard Island.
February 19, 2025 at 8:57 PM
cmartell21.bsky.social
A panoramic photo of Sydney Harbour on an overcast summer day from Circular Quay (left) through the Overseas Passenger Terminal, Harbour Bridge, and Opera House (right). The Opera Bar is lies the foreground.
February 11, 2025 at 1:40 AM
cmartell21.bsky.social
A photo of the Heidelberg, Germany, old city toward the Heidelberger Schloss overlooking the Alte Brücke and Neckar River, taken from the Philosophenweg.
February 5, 2025 at 9:17 PM
cmartell21.bsky.social
One of my favourites:
A young Monsieur posing atop a shorn column in the Temple of Jupiter, Capitoline, in Pompeii, Campania, Italy.
January 28, 2025 at 7:42 AM