P-MAN VIII Update #16
1 March 2006

Today was another day mostly in town. We borrowed some of the Japanese maps from the PALARIS office and got them scanned, made a bunch of calls, finally got through to Bena, visited the Civic Action Team (Air Force at the moment, to be followed in a month or so by another SeaBees team), and dropped by the office of the Army Corps of Engineers. Some of the members of the CAT team may go with us within the next week or so when we head down to do some investigating on "Flip-Flip" island.

We also visited with Pat Colin, the man who owns a homebuilt aircraft and takes some excellent aerial photos as part of his work with the Coral Reef Research Foundation. He's shared a bunch of his photos with us - they're invaluable in visualizing search areas.

Tomorrow we'll go out with Bena if he can go, or go down to the Scullin Avenger to see what else may have been uncovered by wave action, unless the weather is too bad (it's raining this evening). Or if Bena can't go and we get weathered off the eastern reef, we'll do something else. The past couple of days have been restful and the rest is welcome, but we're getting pretty antsy to get back in the field.

- Reid