P-MAN XV Update #2 - Ready, set... ready, set...

15 March 2013

12-13 March

Flip did not get to Palau on the 13th as planned. The winds picked up in Tokyo and were out of limits for the 747 to land. So the flight diverted to Nagoya, Japan which is under an hour flying time from Tokyo's Narita airport. The plane was refueled, the pilots got their paperwork and when the winds subsided, they took off for the correct airport for the connecting flight to Palau.

And of course by the time Flip got to the gate in Tokyo, his flight had left.

He retrieved bags and got to the crew hote (Flip flied for Delta). After getting cleaned up and downing two Guinnesses (for medicinal purposes) He figured that he could get to Guam and jump on United Air Micronesia and get to Palau one day late. But at 8:20 at night instead of 11:30 on his own airline.

14 March

Since Flip was going to be up at the crack of 0330 anyway, he got himself to the airport and rode the jumpseat down to Guam. Retrieved bags again, and got on the night flight to Palau. Along with Dan O'Brien, who was on schedule getting to Palau.

Flip emailed everyone he had appointments with to let them know he'd be a day late. But since the next day (15th) was a national holiday (Youth Day), every government office and a number of businesses would be closed, which meant waiting until Monday to get things done on an official level.

And of course the only email that did not get through was to the Bureau of Arts and Culture, where we had a 10 o'clock meeting scheduled to sign the permits allowing us to do our work. They figured it out that Flip was late, and suggested meeting at 9 a.m. on Monday morning instead.

15 March

Dan and Flip both were up at the crack of oh-dark-early. So, over a cup of instant Starbucks, they plotted out the day.

They got all of the team's boxes out of storage and found that they really had left behind useful stuff. Had a Filipino breakfast at Palm Bay Bistro.

Met up with the folks from Scripps and got an update of their mission and how we are going to collaborate. Eric Terrill and his team are working out of the Coral Reef Research Foundation, Pat and Lori Colin's place. Lori loaned Dan a computer monitor. Seems his computer crashed during his travels. Fell off the security table in Sacramento and the screen cracked and is inoperative. So now Dan has a desktop computer in Palau.

Eric Terrill of Scripps during our first debrief.

Mason Whipps issued us our loaner van again and off we went to do errands. Our pantry is stocked, our Internet is up and running, we have a good supply of water, sunscreen and Deet.

Met Dave and Margie (of Bandidos fame) for lunch at The Taj. It's an all you can eat buffet for lunch and Flip ate less than when we pay full a la carte pricing for dinner. It's the new calorie-counting Flip.

Steve and Cassandra from Cleared Ground Demining have an office in Koror now and went there and got caught up on that side of the news.

Back at the house, they did some research for some losses in Western Lagoon to help the Scripps effort. The Scripps team went out on the water in the afternoon while we were off getting our house in order.

We met them back at Coral Reef Research Foundation and then at the Drop Off at Neco Marine for dinner. Steve and Cassandra joined us and so did Suzanne from the Bureau of Arts and Culture (Flip's missed meeting from yesterday). We couldn't quite make this in lieu of our 9 a.m. on Monday but we did get caught up with her on things of mutual interest.

Out to the airport to pick up Pat Scannon, then back to the Drop Off so Pat could discuss things with Eric and his team. Now Dan and Flip finally have some adult supervision.

Lew Towler arrived at 11:30 p.m., so we went back to the airport to get him. He's excited to be back after all these years, and under better circumstances. We also found out that a Military History Tour company (that might even be their name) has quite a few Peleliu vets on-island for a visit to the battlefield. We're going to track them down and see if we can get Lew to meet his fellow vets.

Lew arriving!
On his immigration form he said he had been to Palau once before, in 1944.
The customs officer said, "Things have changed since then."

Tomorrow we'll take our time starting, since everyone is jet-lagged. We'll join up with Scripps in the early afternoon and start our collaborative efforts on the water.

Flip Colmer

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