Laura is now a Betty.

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Good surf this weekend. On a whim Laura decided she would come out with us and give it a go, I couldn’t believe it. I thought she must have been still half asleep when she said she’d go with us that morning. But she did great! She caught her first wave on her first attempt, and was showing no fear out there. We all sat outside the break waiting to see her board come flying back over the wave but it never did. She rode it all the way in and had this huge ear to ear grin on her face the whole way as she paddled back out! She was hooked! After that she was going after the biggest waves she could find. We had a wonderful time. To complete the weekend the very next day she tried windsurfing (she was hurting too bad from some nasty board rash to go back out surfing the next morning, that soft top ate her up pretty bad) while Miguel and I worked on his Cape Dory. To think just a short while ago she hated even getting wet and was scared to death of being anywhere near sharks. It didn’t seem to bother her this weekend. We had a grey reef shark hanging out with us the whole time we where surfing. By the way, we where surfing in a spot called the shark pit; so to even have gotten her to swim out into a place called the shark pit was an accomplishment in itself.

The last photo is of the aftermath of Laura's attempt at her last wave of the day. I wish I could have snapped this a few seconds earlier so you could have seen the look on her face as she started to perl (perl = nose of the board goes under). Her eyes were as big around as saucers.

Work and Play on the Atoll

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I know… I know, you are all waiting to see the photos from the Amsterdam and Pohnpei trips. I see that you all have been checking in at the website ShareOurLife.com and I’ll try and find some time to get them up. It just takes so long to load photos with my slow internet connection (never able to connect any faster than 22 kbps, no broadband out here yet!) and more than 80% of the time the upload or post fails so I have to keep trying over and over again until it goes through. Really busy at work. The manager I was working with moved on, now it's time to train a new one. I went surfing last night, waves were pretty small. Just ankle breakers. I still had fun. It's like meditation time for me, getting out in the water helps me clear my head and relax. What's my friend Miguel call it? "Going to the temple." It's as close to a religious experience that I have ever come. :) Paddling is great exercise too. Expecting a 7-9 foot swell out of the South any day now. I went fishing this last weekend. It's been a while. Slow day for fishing, caught one small tuna, turned him into poke (Hawaiian dish made with cubes of raw fish) for Scott's birthday party the next night, good stuff. I also got a few photos of dolphins while out fishing this weekend. So it was still a good day. I'm waiting on my replacement power inflator from Halcyon now. I hope it gets here soon so we can get in some more scuba diving. I'm kind of excited about it now that I have the new underwater camera housing. Now I'll be able to share some of the underwater world with the rest of you. I'll have to swim out into the waves with it and get some surfing photos of my friends too. Take care, talk to you all later!

Back at Work

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Pohnpei was fun but now it's time to get back to work. Coming up is the busiest time of year for me at work. No one in my department is allowed to take any time off between July 1st and October 31st as we are busy putting together next years budget for the project during that time. That means long hours in the office and less time out playing. Oh well, no traveling for a few months, but there is plenty of fun stuff to do around here. Take care...

Pohnpei and back

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Had a great time in Pohnpei; and yes my underwater camera housing arrived right before I left. I got some great video of a large manta ray that swam right up to me and some shots of Laura and I playing in the waterfalls. Pohnpei is beautiful, covered with tropical fruit trees. Hawaii must have been like that before it was developed and commercialized. We visited the ancient ruins of Nan Mandol, saw the giant stone currency used previously by the natives (Damn, I just realized I forgot to go back and take a picture of that, maybe next time), swam with manta rays, played in the waterfalls, had a jungle adventure with our taxi cab driver, bought a bunch of native arts and crafts, and ate a lot of great food. I think I’ll be going back for another visit. Honestly I didn't want to leave.