P-MAN VIII Update #28
13 March 2006

Today involved more analysis and report writing, and some errands in town. We needed to have a scan made of the large, taped-together Japanese map that was translated for us. We stopped by our favorite copy shop, where they have a 36" scanner. They also made a bunch of copies of several reports that we have to deliver over the next couple of days.

We stopped by the Coral Reef Research Foundation to pass the scanned Japanese-map file to Pat Colin, and to ask him if he'd share some of his relatively recent overhead photos of Koror and Arakabesan. He graciously obliged. Pat has a very sophisticated digital camera setup in his homebuilt airplane, which is a "Cozy," a variation on Burt Rutan's VariEze - stretched like a LongEze, and widened to allow side-by-side seating in the front. His camera mount is set up to shoot straight down, and to take shots at regular intervals as he flies along. He can also record the latitude and longitude of each shot as captured from a GPS receiver. He does this photo-mapping under contract to support the Compact Road project, and he's been very generous in sharing some of his photos with us. In return, we've shared with him some of the photos that we've been able to track down at NARA, and we have a list of things that we're going to try to get for him next time we're in D.C.

According to Bert Yates, who ain't no diving slouch himself, Pat Colin is really Mike Nelson reincarnated.

We still expect to take a boat ride over to Aimeliik tomorrow morning, with a friend of Joe's who believes he knows where there's some aircraft wreckage in the mangroves, which as you know is the favorite environment of BentProppers and crocs. And snakes. And bugs.

For what it's worth, the word on the street is that some of the young members of the Air Force CAT who accompanied us to Mecherchar on Saturday felt that they got a little more of a workout than they let on to us after our little 6-hour hike in the jungle...

- Reid