P-MAN XV Update #4 - Actual work begins.

First, a correction. I listed as a caption in my last update Dan as the embedded reporter. His name is Andy. Really. Andy. And for some reason I kept calling him Dan on the boat as well.

Andy (aka Dan, but only to Flip) interviewing Pat

19 March

We spent the morning reviewing everything we have about the last B-24 to find. We reread AARs (After Action Reports), looked at charts, scoured photographs and have come to the conclusion that our collaboration with Scripps is happening in the right place, with the right priorities and is the only way we're probably going to find this aircraft. Unless a fisherman comes by and says 'It's over there.'

Out to lunch with Lew and then on to some State Offices. Not everyone was in today, but we have secured one permit and have made appointments with all of the other Governors we need to see, and with the Officer in Charge (OIC) of the Civic Action Team (CAT or SeaBees as everyone around here calls them irrespective of which service they're in.). We like checking in with the CAT Team just to see a bunch of young Americans representing their country out in the Pacific.

And we are getting onto the calendar of The President of Palau for a future meeting that may include scuba diving. President Remengesau, who just got elected in November, is a past president of Palau and when he was, he dove with Tommy Doyle out here when Tommy got to dive his father's B-24 that we found.

Derek, Lew, and Flip up at the Capitol.

Up at the Capitol takes on new meaning with Derek.

Pat has declared that he has contracted a case of poison tree already. Poison tree is industrial strength poison ivy, and Pat gets a rash from it every year we go into the jungle. But all we've done so far this year is go out on a boat. The closest he's gotten to jungle is the wooden tables we eat off of. But he now has a rash on his leg. The only explanation is that although all his jungle clothes (which he wears on a boat to ward off the sun) were cleaned thoroughly upon return to the U.S., his backpack was not. And our first day on the boat was a rain-soaked day. So we're guessing the rain pulled some of the poison out of' the backpack and onto him.

We did not get to brief with Scripps for tomorrow's mission. They had a long day on the water. However, tomorrow should be back out onto the water for all of us. So let's go find something interesting.

20 March

Since Scripps had a long day yesterday, we had a late start today. We showed up at 0830 at Coral Reef Research Foundation, and probably pulled away from the dock at 1115.

Pat Colin at the helm

Pat Scannon at the rail

We had a couple of planned tasks, and we could do them at the same time. We have some targets of interest from the side-scan sonar work that we started in 2009. It would be really nice to verify those with the Echo Sounder and the Scripps AUV. So the Scripps team went to work setting up the mission for the AUV and its support equipment. It would swim a large rectangular search pattern that also covered our points of interest. Then we launched the fish.

Derek making friends with the (Scripps AUV) fish

AUV being launched

Our sticker is in good company

Ian, hard at work while the fish is doing its thing

Dan O'Brien filming all the events going on around him

While the AUV was doing its autonomous thing, we used the Echo Scanner to take a look around our targets. We did see one thing that was of interest and it was dubbed the Starship Enterprise. You can imagine what it looked like - in fact, you'll have to, since I did not take a picture.

Actual work taking place on the Echo Sounder

That was about the only thing we saw that was interesting. We did bring our SCUBA gear with us, intending to dive if we saw anything really interesting, but we decided it was better to do scans of a bigger area than jump in for every little thing we saw.

Sometime around 4 p.m. we called it off, pulled in all the gear and headed back home.

After a quick change and a bite to eat, we sat and reviewed some of the SSS data with the Scripps crew. A lot of interesting things popped up and we will most likely do video scans of these items to see what's really there.

Meanwhile, Lew went to the Belau National Museum and had a ball learning about Palau. He even added a Palau national flag to the collection that he flies at home. So far, he's putting up with our shenanigans pretty well.

Tomorrow we have appointments again, including one with President Remengesau.

- Flip Colmer

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