| P-MAN XIV Update #10 - The kids are learning patience and diligence. Lots of patience and diligence. 27 March 2012 It was repaired. It was bench tested. It even floated. But it still leaked. Panther 4's end cap has a hairline crack in it. So the team, having prepared for all eventualities BEFORE they left Michigan, pull out the spare end cap and built it back up and now it is curing. They're adding more epoxy, switching out the rubber outside seal and rehabbing the vehicle so that on Thursday, Panther 4 will image the Corsair.
Once again, these students have impressed us with their ability to absorb disappointment and take care of the task at hand. The bot is being worked on and they are still touring Palau. They just got to the museum earlier than they thought they would. If James Cameron had to cut short his visit to the Challenger Deep due to a hydraulic leak, well then the SHS students are in good company. As for us, we moved on to our own plan B. The only problem: we didn't have a plan B. We thought maybe we could go out to the eastern reef and find the wreckage Cut was (some day) going to show us. But, if that wasn't the "smart-man" way to do it yesterday, it still wasn't today. We could go to the channel that the elder described an airplane crashing in on the east side, but Joe said it was too rough today. I voiced the thought that we could go look at pretty fish, but Pat said it was way too early for us to have a day off. So we unloaded the boat, headed back to 'la casa' and found that Dan had already scheduled us for an after-lunch meeting with the past President of Palau. We like to stay in touch with those who have helped the BentProp Project in the past. Tommy Remengesau, Jr., when he was President, was a big help. When we found B-24 #42-73453, he even declared it off limits to the general diving population. From what we can tell, no one has dived it and done any damage to the site since JPAC finished recovery work there. President Tommy even led Tommy Doyle, son of the B-24's nose gunner, on a SCUBA dive at his father's underwater crash site, when Tommy and his wife Nancy came to Palau in 2005. We did have to eat lunch so we went to Bem Ermii and lo and behold, so did the entire ROV team. So as far as the kids know, when we're not on the boat, all we do in Palau is drive around in a van and occasionally grab burgers and shakes at Bem Ermii. Got some errands out of the way and that pretty much was our day. Met up with Jon Vogt and his wife Siska. Jon and Sisca met in Michigan many years ago. Jon's an American ex-pat and Sisca is a Palauan who went to Grand Valley in Grand Rapids, MI. They filled us in on more Palauan happenings. Met the entire ROV team at Kraemer's for all-you-can-eat spaghetti night (every Tuesday). No one accepted the standing challenge to eat for free if you can successfully down three full plates.
We were talking at the table about what our plans were for the next day. We had failed to call Melvin on Monday to confirm our Wednesday trek in the forest. We were working on a plan to track him down first thing tomorrow morning to see if he was still available, when...in walked Melvin. So we're on for a hike in the jungle on Wednesday. Jeff and Cassie from OTV (local TV production) came in and met the team. They are going to do a 45-minute interview with them some time later in the week. They want to hear the students' stories about coming to Palau and share them via television with all of Palau. We'll be back on the water on Thursday and we dearly hope to be able to share a photo of the Corsair taken by Panther 4. Victory will be sweet for the ROV team. - Flip Colmer |
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