| P-MAN XII Progress
Report #03 - The first wave arrives in Palau As is my custom, Lessons Learned will be an important part of my story. You would think after all these years, we’d have it all figured out. However, we don’t. Well I don’t, anyway. So let’s start with this year’s Lessons Learned: 1. Even if you pay for tracking on your bag of stuff through the postal
service, don’t try to track it. I sent my 70 pounds of stuff to Palau via the Postal Service on February 2nd. It’s always gotten there and has always returned. However, Rick Smith sent his stuff last year and some of it still hasn’t surfaced. So, this year I thought I would pay for tracking so I could see the progress of my big red bag. Around the 12th, I went to the Post Office for some other business when one of the Postal Agents asked if I had ever tracked my stuff. We do live in a small town and I had completely forgotten. She inserted the tracking number and came up with nothing. It showed my bag leaving Chelsea and then it disappeared into a big black hole. That was unnerving. But before I went into panic mode, I emailed the hotel in Palau and my bag was there. So, between Chelsea and Palau, DTW-ORD-SEA-HNL-GUM-ROR, no one thought to scan that BIG BAR CODE TAG. You've already read (Progress Report #2) that Marine Sonic Technology, Ltd. has donated a full side-scan sonar unit to The BentProp Project. In addition, we had four of our folks get training on it last month at MST's factory in Virginia. Marine Sonic even boxed it up and in conjunction with Val Thal Slocum and FedEx, got it shipped to Palau. Having this equipment full time in Palau will be a game changer for us. I left Detroit on the 15th, slept when I wanted to stay awake, couldn’t close my eyes at all when I wanted to sleep and did not get through enough of my physics course on DVD that I wanted to work on. As you all know, I am not just another pretty face. Had a little scare in Tokyo as the flight that used to have 60 seats open to Guam went 25 oversold in the back. Seems that United AND Continental both cancelled a flight to Guam that night. But I got on. Left a little late due to a mechanical and a requirement to shift load from the aft cargo bay to the forward cargo bay. Slept great on Guam and actually slept until a very reasonable hour. Usually, I’m up at 0400 staring at the ceiling. And it usually takes me a week or more to get used to the time zone change. Maybe with this first night sleep going so well, I will adjust easier this year. While scanning my email today, found out that Paul Schwimmer not only is a great land surveyor, but also seems to be a fundraiser. I’m not sure of the details, but I heard we just got a sizable donation to help defray this year’s costs of the mission. Whoever is our benefactor, thank you! Got to Palau early enough to go out and hang with the ex-pats at Kraemer’s. Had my first fresh sashimi and Red Rooster of the trip. Met the chargé d'affaires of the U.S. Consulate, so I guess I started my pre-mission duties the first night I was there. Today, I ran all over town taking care of stuff: got a van from Surangel and Sons, bought groceries, got the DSL order put in (should have our own Internet again next week) made an appointment to see the President tomorrow, started the permit process for the five States we want to work in and met up with team member Rick Smith and his daughter Nicole for dinner. Rick is this year's water mission commander and I thought for sure he said he was coming on the 21st. He got here early with his daughter and they started playing. Nicole is a 14 year old who is going to learn about Palau while the rest of us are in the field. We even have her set up to go on an archeological dig with Jolie Liston, Palau's pre-eminent archaeologist. I’m going to head to the airport in a couple of hours to pick up Pat, Paul and Mike. That will make five of us on island tonight. Warren shows up late in the month and Jack from Marine Sonic shows up next week. No pictures today. Forgot to take my camera when I started my adventure and I missed sunset altogether. - Flip |
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