A Hot Florida Weekend and a Cold War Victory

Sunday, July 26, 2026 – Orlando, Florida

Hi, everyone.

It’s a scorching midsummer day here in Central Florida. We’re in the middle of a particularly brutal heat spell—official temperatures in the high 90s, barely any rain, and a stubborn drought that refuses to break. I’m in good health for a 63‑year‑old man, but even so, I’m trying to stay indoors as much as possible to avoid the extreme heat and punishing UV levels. I can’t avoid going outside entirely, of course, but I do my best to limit my exposure to the harsher edges of Florida weather in this age of global warming.

As much as I’d like to dive into my next story now that The Jim Garraty Chronicles is finally completed and published, I decided to give myself a quiet, restorative weekend. So between yesterday and today, I tackled a tough “optional mission” in Sea Power’s Pacific Strike ’85 Task Force campaign: Holding the Lombok Strait.

In this scenario, I had only one ship from my task group—TG‑77.3—to defend the Lombok Strait against a strong Soviet surface raiding force led by a Sverdlov‑class light cruiser, all while hunting a Kilo‑class submarine. A tall order, even with my flagship, the Belknap‑class cruiser USS Horne, as my sole asset. The rest of my ships had to stay behind, though Pacific Fleet did loan me an SH‑2 Sea Sprite and the Royal Australian Air Force contributed a P‑3C Orion to supplement Horne’s own helicopter.

It was a tough mission. I eventually met the victory conditions by destroying the Soviet surface force attempting to transit the strait and sinking the Kilo with the P‑3C. But most of my Harpoon missiles missed their targets, and I had to burn through nearly all of Horne’s Standard SM‑2ER missiles to finish off the enemy ships. The Soviets’ flagship—the 1950s‑era, all‑gun Sverdlov cruiser—took eight Standards to sink, and not before she managed to inflict light damage on Horne with her 6‑inch guns.

As I mentioned, this mission is optional, as is the submarine‑only Run Silent, Run Deep scenario. I chose to play it anyway because it looked like a fun challenge—something like Star Trek II’s Kobayashi Maru, but with at least a fighting chance of survival.

The risk came with rewards. Completing Holding the Lombok Strait unlocked better weapons for future rearm/repair phases. And even though Horne will begin the next mission (Sunda Strait) with depleted ammo and light hull and systems damage, the ships, aircraft, and submarine that I destroyed won’t appear again in the enemy’s order of battle for the rest of World War III. I also earned 150 campaign bonus points, which I can use to repair ships or purchase more powerful (and expensive) assets.

Considering the mission is rated four out of five stars in difficulty, I acquitted myself better than expected. I sank eight enemy surface ships and one submarine, shot down two Yak‑38 Forgers and two Tu‑16 Badgers, and only suffered light damage to Horne.

On a different note, I’m expecting Amazon to deliver a copy of the revised edition of The Jim Garraty Chronicles today—supposedly by 10 PM. I ordered it after discovering several flaws in the omnibus, especially in the Reunion: Coda segment. I’d missed a duplicated paragraph in one vignette, inconsistent details in another, and a few minor proofreading issues in the back matter. I also changed the series name from The Reunion Duology to the more expansion‑friendly The Jim Garraty Chronicles, now that there are four stories instead of just two main entries and the related novelette Comings and Goings – The Art of Being Seen. That required updating the “Books in this Series” section.

So yes—I needed a new paperback copy, and I ordered one last Thursday.

Amazon still claims it will arrive today, but the tracking information hasn’t budged from the “Ordered” stage. No estimated delivery time, no “Package is being processed,” no “Out for Delivery.” If I’m lucky, it’ll show up by 10 PM, but realistically I expect it tomorrow—maybe in Prime’s early morning run, but certainly by the afternoon.

That’s all the news for now, so ciao for now.