Childhood Wish

Not on my bucket list but something I really wanted to do as a kid. The weather station here releases a balloon twice a day. Today, I got to launch one. As the balloon rises to about 100,000' in an hour and a half it expands, getting as large as the hanger before it burst and falls back to the ocean.

It’s Kwajalogical

Everything is a little bit different here on Kwaj, the easy slow pace is contagious. Things happen here that really does not surprise anyone. We have a limited selection and availability or about everything and add to that a tight budget will really bring out things that we refer to as simply as being “Kwaj-ja-logical”. Maybe for an example the problem and solution of a leaking roof in an airport office. The heavy rains began leaking in; water following some pieces of rebar pipe and were leaking into the room. The guys were called in to repair it. They “fixed” it, check out the picture. Garden hoses attached so that the rain water would follow the hoses down from the ceiling an into the waiting trash can

Check Out My Ride

I missed seeing the Minute-Man Missile; it hit near one of the islands mid-atoll, just before 2300 hours; I was on a night dive and went on in, thinking that with all the cloud cover could not see it. The guys working said that it was visible but only like a small shooting star.

SURF'S UP!

Talked to surfers today, got some hints; now looking for a board to borrow.

More

Snorkeled today but had two dives yesterday, close to 100’ maximum depth and over 90 minutes total down time. One dive was in the ocean (clearer & bigger fish) the other in the lagoon (a shark hang out but not many sharks but not many visible when we visited. High points include the sharks we saw on both dives (grays), a Napoleon Wrasse (one of the biggest fish I have seen but was told that it was a “baby” and a big flying fish as we changed locations. There, only two sharks (were seen) but a “group” (7) of spotted eagle rays that flew past us several times and a small turtle. There was a huge school of Rainbow __?__, each around 7” long, that swarmed all over us. Just right in front of your face and all around were hundreds of big fish eyes looking back at you—impressive.

Good Times

Another great Friday night dive here on the Rock. Maximum depth for the dive was only 45’ but was down for over 85 minutes. Nothing can match the feeling of slipping into the clear water at the start of a night dive, not knowing what you will see. I’ve not been disappointed on any of my dives here. It was not a large one but saw my first cuttlefish here. There were some large crabs hiding in the rocks and shrimp eyes glowing, when hit by the flashlight beam. There was a brilliant blue color star fish. Along with two different needle fish (one very large), which followed us around for a while. We had another encounter with a sting ray (which was ½ the size of his brother the other night). At one of the wrecks saw a turtle inside one of the rooms, while looking at him another turtle came up behind us, (wondering what we were doing there?)