Preston on Roi-ds

It’s been another active weekend here on Kwaj.  It started off with an excellently played practical joke on yours truly.  It all started out with a walk through the jungle with Jerrod’s machete.  We do this to go look for bananas that might have ripened during the time between walks.  We do this to take a break from our stress filled days of working on an island (Basically breaking up the monotony).  We set out on our hunt to visit the banana trees that we frequently check for ripe bananas.  We spotted a few green bundles, and then walked around the corner where I spotted the mother load of ripe bananas.  I immediately brought it to the attention of the rest of the guys.  I grabbed the machete and started jumping and hacking away at the bounty.  I finally hacked the bundle down and we were on our way back.  We made it back to the office area and I tore one off and started eating it.  I was impressed by the taste because usually they are a little tart.  I then ripped another one off for Dexter and noticed a wire wrapped around the center of the bundle.  My mind started wondering why on earth there would be a wire wrapped around these bananas.  I didn’t know if it was some sort of Marshallese trick to help pull the bananas down from the tree once they were ripe or what.  Then I realized that the ripe bananas were actually wired to the center of the bundle…  Bellowing laughter, red faces, and reenactments of how I brought in the bananas followed the next words that came out of my mouth…  Apparently they went out early that day after lunch and hung the bananas in the tree.  Then they set me up as a patsy and pretty much guided me to them to see what I would do.  Jerrod and Dexter did this to Jon a few weeks ago while I was on vacation and they wanted to see if they could get me as well.  Jon, being out here for 3 years, was a little savvier and noticed the wire while it was in the tree.  They must have concealed the wire a lot better for me… :)  Anyways, the joke was on me, and it was a good one.  Now I must hit the books to figure out what I have to do to get them back!

Now, on to fishing…  We set out yesterday afternoon to go fishing with a few different people in hope of learning what Jerrod, Jon, and I do wrong when fishing as well as possibly picking up some new techniques.  The day started off a little slow, until about an hour and a half into the trip we caught a 35lb Ono (or Wahoo).  After we had him in the boat, we usually had a hit every 30 minutes or so.  We ended up bringing in 5 Ono and 1 Rainbow runner.  The day was definitely a success!  I’ve uploaded some pictures of the fish as well as some pictures of the dolphins that swam with the boat while we were fishing.

Today marks my first day back at work after a nice 4 day weekend.  I don’t know how many of these I can take.  We had a Martis Gras party, a fishing tournament, a round of golf, a dive class, a deep wreck dive, and lots of beer spread through all of those activities.  Needless to say I was glad to get back into the comfort of my own office where I can do some work (aka relax).

Over all things I did this week, I must say the fishing tournament was probably the most exciting.  The day started out like any other fishing tournament we’ve been in.  We all obviously stayed out way too late the night before (this time at the Martis Gras party) and were dragging ass getting to the marina early in the morning.  After we loaded up the boat, we set out and was the first group out of SAR pass.  We decided to troll the reef around the south tip of the island to see if we could get any early morning Ono or Mahi before we set out towards the open ocean to search for bird piles.  We caught a few Aku (a variation of tuna) and a Mahi right off the bat.  We spent a little more time trolling the reef until we spotted a bird pile a few miles off the reef and decided it was time to go catch bigger and better things.  The first bird pile proved to be fruitless, but the second one was a jackpot.  We had 4 lines in the water (2 reels and 2 hand lines) and all 4 of them were hit by fish at the same time.  Keep in mind there were only 3 of us on the boat (Jon, Jerrod, and myself) and 4 fish in the water.  What happened at that moment was the biggest cluster I’ve ever been involved with on the water, but we pulled through as a fairly cohesive unit to get all the fish in the boat.  It consisted of everyone barking orders at apparently the right time while no one was at the helm of the boat, we all took turns steering the boat in between reeling in fish and pulling in hand lines.  Rogue waves hit us a few times to give us a little shake up when no one was paying attention, but no one went overboard and the boat didn’t flip so I guess we couldn’t ask for anything more.  After a short celebration and a round of high fives, we set out towards the next bird pile when we saw what looked like a bunch of seaweed floating on the water.

What happened next was by far the coolest/scariest thing that has happened to me thus far in the ocean.  As we approached the seaweed, we realized it was alive and figured it was a whale due to it’s enormous size.  When we got it next to the boat, a sense of fear set in when we realized it was a shark!!!!  Not only was it a shark, it was bigger than our boat!  This meant it was well over 30ft long!  Jerrod, Jon, and I could barely speak.  As the boat crept passed the shark I felt like it had the potential to swallow us whole.  Once we were away from it we decided to make another pass to inspect it further.  This time we went even slower to get a better look, and our mouths were gaping in awe.  Apparently, we were looking at a whale shark which is the largest living fish in the ocean!  Luckily the fish is docile and not a blood thirsty predator that likes to feed on the flesh of young radar engineers as we originally speculated.  Unfortunately, none of us had brought a camera, which is rarely the case.  We usually have at least one HD video camera and a point and shoot camera to catch any idiotic dares and bets we somehow survive.  Just trust me on this one, there’s no exaggerations here.  This mother was huge!

We’ve learned our lesson on taking photography equipment with us, never leave the marina with out it…  I have some pictures from the wreck dive we did the next day as well as all of the fish we caught during the fishing tournament.  I’ll try to post them soon.

When I was asked to join the Guppies softball team I gave them the disclaimer that I was never a spectacular (mediocre at best) player.  Last night was the first game of the season I was able to play in due to my month long vacation.  Since I hadn’t been to any practices or games, I was declared a sub and put in right field halfway through the game.  As soon as I was put in, a smokin’ grounder was hit to the 2nd baseman.  I was on the move to back him up while screaming in my mind “please let him get it, please let him get it”…  It went screaming past him…  Luckily I was there to make the play, even though I didn’t want to.  I scooped up the grounder and “threw” it to the short stop covering 2nd base.  I say “threw” because when I released the ball it went flying over his head towards the 3rd baseman (which was Jerrod).  Jerrod got into position to make a play on my overthrown ball when the ball hit a rock or some other anomaly in the dirt and shot straight right, out of play…  I think the other team scored one run and got another guy on third because of that play…  We ended up losing the game 5 to 4 in the last inning.  While I know the loss of the game was a culmination of events that lead to the end, I know that play didn’t help the outcome…  I think think some practice is in order.

On a lighter note, I start my dive master certification tomorrow night with the initial pool session.  I think I have to tread water for 20 minutes with my hands out of the water for the last 5 minutes.  Should be interesting.  After the water treading I believe we have to swim a 1000m within a certain amount of time or we have to train and do it over again.  Hopefully the lap swimming I did in the Keller natatorium will give me an edge in this.  Anyways, life seems to be back to a state of normality with a weekend of diving and a fishing planned.  The 85 degree weather is welcomed after the bone chilling night walks back to the hotel in NYC! :)

Once again I’m sitting in a hotel lobby in Honolulu preparing for my exit from reality back to the life of a beach bum/engineer/scuba diver (no particular order).  I had a really great time while I was back in the states.  If I didn’t get to see you, I’m sorry.  I was roaming from couch to couch and making as many stops along the way as possible.  I appreciate the time off work anyone took as well as any distances traveled to make time to hang out with me.  It’s nice to come back to an amazing and caring group of friends and pick up a conversation as if I never left.  It is exactly what I needed after a year of semi-isolation!  Thanks again!

After a little over 24 straight, vigorous hours I have arrived in the DFW area.  I made it to my brother’s house around 11:00PM last night.  I’m extremely exhausted to the point where I don’t know if I can fall asleep.  That’s where Mr. Nyquil will come into play.  ETS = 30 minutes (ETS = estimated time to sleep)

I’m extremely pumped about being back and look forward to seeing as many of you as possible.  If you get a call from a random 979 number, don’t hesitate to pick it up because it’s probably me.  Unless of course you don’t want to talk to me… :)

Today marked my first of many 10 hour days here at TRADEX.  I have officially started working 4x10s as an initiative started by KRS to cut back on commuter flights.  So you guessed it, 3 day weekends every week!  All for the low low price of one extra hour of work per day and getting paid to commute.  If it gets any easier out here I’m going to forget how to spell my own name!

Prstn

Homesickness that is.  My plane leaves in 6 days and it feels like it’s a month away!  I’m ready to get outta here for a nice month long vacation!  I’ll be in the DFW area for a little over two weeks starting January 14th and ending on January 31st when I fly to NYC to hang out with the old college roommates.  My cell phone will start working on the 14th as well (fingers crossed) so if you see a strange number calling you, be sure to pick it up :)

I can’t believe it’s been so long since the last time I’ve written an update.  I’ve been so focused on my upcoming annual leave that I can hardly sit still, much less take time to write about day to day activities!  This weekend marked my 55th dive.  I think the century mark is going to be the about the time when I hang my fins and start taking on a different hobby.  I’m thinking wind or kite surfing, haven’t decided yet.  This weekend was the first time I had gone diving in over a month!  I’m slacking…  Anyways, I don’t know how much will be going on in the coming months before I head back to the states for a month of vacation on January 14th.  If I don’t talk to you before Christmas, have a merry one and I’ll see you all soon!

A guy took this picture of the sun rising behind TRADEX, the radar I work at here in the Marshall Islands.  There are some really dramatic picture opportunities out here if you have your camera on you at the right time!

By my post you can deduce that I’m still alive and have at least one or more digits that can allow me to peck at my keyboard to write this blog.  While all my appendages are indeed intact, I believe I left a little something in the ocean at around a depth of 55ft after I reached behind my back and felt something slimy…

Let’s take a step back and go over what all had happened leading up to that moment to get an idea of what kind of reaction the mysterious, slimy substance induced upon yours truly once I pulled it from my tank banger (a rubber hose with a hard piece of plastic on it used to make loud noise underwater as to get someone’s attention) and shone my dive light on it at around 8:30PM on November 18th, 2007.

A few weeks ago while riding the bus from the airport terminal to the radar where Jon, Jerrod, and myself work, we were talking to a fellow engineer that works at one of the other radars about doing night dives.  It turns out that he and his son regularly take people out to places out of the B-boat range to do dives during the day as well as night dives since we can’t rent boats to take out during the night hours.  After arriving at work an email thread between Jon, Jerrod, Donna, and I started circulating about the idea of an ocean side night dive.  As to not be the one to “chicken out” we all agreed that it was an excellent idea and talked to Steve to set a date we would partake on the adventure.

The day came (which was yesterday) and we met at the marina at 3:00PM to set out to our first destination.  Our first stop was going to be an island called “lone palm” which was named that because, you guessed it, there’s only a single palm tree that resides on it.  I have NO idea how this is possible unless the palm tree uproots in the middle of the night and kicks all of the coconuts it sheds off of “its” island like unwanted children into the sea.  This will be one lonely palm tree in the end…  Anyways, we arrived at the island, threw the anchors in, and started our first of two dives.  The dive was perfect in all aspects except for the fact that it was the dive preceding the second dive, which was going to be the night dive…   The lone palm dive went off without a hitch except for the fact I started to get pretty cold under water, which usually does not happen.  It seemed to be pretty severe this time.  So severe that the tip of the ring finger on my right hand went numb!  We finished the dive and once I got out of the water and into the warm setting sun my finger returned to its right state and all was normal again.

We started up the boat and headed back towards Kwajalein.  The second stop was going to be just north of the island of Carlson.  This was going to be the location of the night dive.  This is a place we frequently go during the daytime as a second dive following a deep wreck dive.  It’s somewhat familiar territory.  On the way there we jawed back and forth, trying to get a feel for how everyone was feeling about jumping into the pitch-black ocean with a flashlight.  Not knowing or seeing what could possibly be circling around you.  The anchors dropped and our ship crew secured the boat and informed us we were good to gear up and hop in.  The boat we were on made it easy for two people to get on the rear of the boat and roll into the water while two divers faced each other.  Jerrod and I were the first two divers ready, which was odd because Jon had talked about wanting to do shark check and be the first on in the water.  So Jerrod and I sat down on the rear of the boat.  He looked at me and said “So we’re going on 3, right?”  I agreed and grinned.  He then got this look in his eye and said again “We’re going in on 3.”  This time his voice had that “if you don’t roll back at the same time as me I’m going to stab you once we get in the water” tone.  So he counted down and we both rolled in.  It seemed like an eternity before I hit the water like I had done so many times during the day.  There were bubbles everywhere, so my light was useless.  I signaled that I was ok and headed towards the bow of the boat where the anchor line was located.  Jerrod was there with me.  We were both in a slight state of panic, waiting for the 20-foot tiger shark to charge from the depths and swallow us whole.  We waited for the rest of the group to get in the water.  Donna had rolled in not long after Jerrod and I.  We were waiting on Jon.  We were beginning to think he was having doubts.  Just when Jerrod, Donna, and I were about to say screw it and go under with out him we saw him swim around the bow of the boat to where we were waiting.  Once he arrived we hurriedly descended and followed the anchor line down to the reef.  The boat was anchored to the reef, but they had let out enough scope so that the boat was past the drop off.  As we descended, there were 4 flashlights pointing wildly around, trying to look everywhere at once.  The reef finally came into view and we hadn’t spotted any sharks so far.  This was good.  At the reef, a surge channel came into view so we took refuge in it.  We began to investigate the dark world around us.

The dive was going great.  We swam all the way up the surge channel and headed back down towards the drop off.  As the drop off came into view, we slowly emerged from the surge channel and headed south along the reef.  We literally hugged the reef, thinking that it was some sort of home base that let sharks know we were off limits.  While we swam down the reef, I decided to check to see if my tank banger was still on my tank.  Jerrod regularly removes it because he thinks I use it too much to get peoples attention.  As my hand made it back to the familiar rubber hose, I noticed that it was elevated like something was underneath it.  I followed the banger around my tank to the farthest point on my tank away from my body.  I felt something slimy.  It felt like the round sea sponges do when you find them floating along the bottom of the lagoon on the many walk in dives I’ve been on in the past.  I figured Jon or Jerrod had found one and stuck it to my tank as we are constantly trying to find ways to mess with each other in every aspect of our lives.  I grabbed the slimy object and gave it a tug.  I brought it around to the front of my face so I could get a good look at what had been stuck to my tank.  I shone my light on it and realized it was a freakin’ raw rib eye steak!!!!!!!!!!!!  I almost shit myself.  I threw the piece of meat away from me as fast as I could, thinking a gray reef shark was about to bite my hand off!  I looked around and everyone was cracking up underwater.  Their masks were flooded because they were laughing so hard.  Jon was slapping his knee as to indicate he thought it was hilarious.  I, for one, did not think it was very funny at all.  We continued our dive after I thoroughly gave everyone the bird and swam on my way.  The rest of the dive was fine.  No sharks made appearances and we all safely made it back into the boat.

Apparently, Jon was taking his sweet ass time making it into the water because he was inconspicuously unwrapping rib eye steak.  Once we made it to the reef, he attached it to my tank via the tank banger while I was messing around with some coral.  Everyone, including me, got a big kick out of it after we were headed back to the marina.  He admittedly went through the thought process of “I wonder if sharks are going to be attracted to raw beef, oh well, this is going to be funny.”  It was, only because I didn’t have a gray reef shark trying to hump me to get a 16oz. rib eye that was attached to my tank!

Anyways, that was my weekend.  A tail of certain death and impending doom that was met with a swift kick in the ass off steep cliff.  What else are friends for???