Kennedy Island, Solomons

January 19, 2008 Mbambanga Island, Solomon Islands

So I’m not quite sure how I got my days all screwed up, but I missed a day somehow. I spent a day painting all the white touchups on the deck and I also put another coat of primer on the boom piece. John and I cooked eggplant parmesean for dinner on Friday night, just to try it out, and it was a hit! Complete with bananas and chocolate sauce for dessert. Even Michel complemented my eggplant parmesean as he’s noticed the extra effort the cooks have put into the meal tonight. Today we were supposed to be leaving after Clementine’s flight arrived, but it arrived late because the weather was rainy and stormy. Glad to see that one go. No that’s mean, but she was just a drag to have around really. So we’re not leaving for the our holiday weekend either, we’ll just have to have a holiday here in Mbambanga before the science study starts. It is the rainy/cyclone season down here in the Southern hemisphere. There is a huge cyclone south of us in Vanuatu so that is where all this rain is coming from.


January 21, 2008 Mbambanga Island, Solomons

So we’re still here in the pouring down rain. It was a pretty uneventful weekend, just lazing around the ship. I’ve started to get into the TV series ‘Heroes’ that Max has, probably a mistake to get sucked into a series (like ‘Lost’ a while back), but oh well. My upset stomach came back with a vengeance yesterday and a fever. I did a night watch, which turned out to be a bad idea, I felt like death. I’m really trying to get over this thing before the science study starts later in the week. I took worming medicine midday today, because back when Michel and I had this a few weeks prior, he took the medicine and it cleared right up. I didn’t take anything, I let it run it’s course, and now it’s back. I’ve just been resting and really sleeping a lot. The stormy weather helps me sleep, which has been nice. I think that cyclone is still roaming around out there, headed for Fiji now. Not so much more to say about the weekend, just same old, same old.


January 22-27, 2008 Mbambanga Island, Solomons

So for the past few days I’ve had this stomach bug again. It’s so weird that I had it for 4 days, it went away for 2 weeks, and now I’m on the up rise again and feeling better after 4 days of sickness. I tried to go to the doctor in town again and found out that I don’t have malaria. I had a high fever so they did the test anyways, even though I haven’t had a mosquito bite. I’m starting to feel better again though, and I’m widening my eating options farther than bread and water now.

Paul and Katie arrived! With my package from home! So nice to get some news, prescrips, and a Jimmy Buffet CD/concert DVD! Ha! These crazy hippies can’t handle Jimmy. So nice to be so sick, and watch the Jimmy concert on the beach in Anguilla. I’m really counting down the days to NZ now. Never really had met Katie before but she is super nice and really smart. Crazy to see Paul again though, good to see a friend from home. The second since Paul got here, Max made a little friend. It was cute at first, but he really tries to change who is freakin is and is so clingy now to Paul. Max is acting like such a big surfer, drinker….ya right Max! You used to tell me and Zack that drinking is the devil and brings out the worst in people and you’ve surfed twice in your life and they have both been here on the crap waves in Gizo. As usual, he’s so annoying and really getting under my skin.

We’ve had 2 days of science study now. It’s going good. I’m really running the whole show these days. I’ve been training with Heidi and TJ, and then trying to get out and do some data collecting myself. It was Zac’s birthday on Saturday night which was fun. We had dance party. There was a Jimmy Buffet intro complete with margaritas at sunset and crab puff appetizers I made. Burgers for dinner, and then a few hours of seriously fun dancing, and then a big group of us went skinny-dipping. Not sure how I did it, but the next morning, Sunday morning, I went on a fun dive with Heidi, Paul, Katie, and Nicole in an area near Kennedy Island. It was a wall dive, with 5 nudibranches, a small whitetip shark, and a large diversity of corals. On another note, I think I might be allergic to lobster here, so I’ve had to steer clear of it when it’s been served for dinner. It’s so hard to miss though; I love lobster! I only have 2 more weeks! I’m still trying to figure out NZ and how I’m going to be getting around when I’m there. I’d really like to see the country, while I have the chance there.


January 28-29, 2008 Kennedy Island, Solmons

We haven’t moved the ship to Kennedy Island, but I’ve been spending a lot of my time there where the study site is. Running the science study is going well, everyone respects me and wants to get the study done as much as I do. As of now, we’ve finished with 1200 corals classified for shallow vitareef and 439 corals for deep vitareef. On one dive when I was training Heidi, I was swoshing the water over a coral head, and a startled white tip shark swam out from under the cluster of corals! Scary! Just a baby though, so it wasn’t a big deal; we kept diving. It’s been a real help having Paul and Katie here, so eager to dive and do the science study. Max, of course is resisting the science diving and tending, trying to stand out…really had it up to here with him. Only another week… On another note, I had the chance to mail a package of souvenirs home for $40 US, that will get there in about a month. I sure hope it does eventually make it there.


January 30, 2008 Kennedy Island, Solomons

It’s so nice to be able to send my dive teams out and they come back with the vitareef data, and I just have to make sure it gets entered into the computer. I went on the second dive of the day as a coral observation dive with Kitty, Katie, and Kris to really get a handle on the harder corals to identify down there. We took a camera and reviewed the pics afterwards with Heather. There were still a few confusing ones, but we finally all agreed on several ones. The coral ID team for transects is Katie, Kris, and I, so we really need to all get on the same page. Really helpful to do a dive all together though.

After the coral ID dive, I had a quick bite to eat, and then I was out training with Heidi to collect the last of the vitareef data. And we finished vitareef! Feels so good to get that out of the way. Just as we are done with vitareef, Heidi is trained up and competent in collecting data! She’s the first one I’ve trained really start to finish, and she’s good. Really into it, which always helps. TJ on the other hand, I tried my best with him, but he’s just not into it. He has a bum ear to dive, but wouldn’t even get in the water to do a snorkel trip with me to learn the corals and conditions. Oh well, his loss, I’m outta here in a few days.

I’ve noticed as the science coordinator, I have so much extra ‘homework’ almost. Everyone is done with their day, and I’m still working through for another hour or two. It’s ok though, it’s working out good.


January 31, 2008 Kennedy Island, Solomons

A rainy day, but the first transect still went out. Man, they’re troopers. What a team! I’m not even on the first one, which is fine with me. I have plenty of other little things to catch up on. I’m having Katie and Kris going out to collect coral data on the first transect. We have to do 6 transects here, 2 a day, so we’re going to be a rotating team. The invertebrate team of 3 is going to have to do that too. It’s just too hard to go such a long distance to the study site with 6 divers and a tender in the boat, so we cut it down to 5 divers. In the afternoon, I was able to get into town to spend some time online and I had to do some food shopping around town for the ship. In Gizo, I’m starting to realize it’s more like food hunting, as everything you need becomes a mission to be able to hunt it down. I cooked dinner with Zack tonight and we made delicious chicken satay with peanut sauce. Zack had this killer recipe from his dad. A lot of work, but so good, and we have plenty of left-overs. I ran Thursday night tonight. It was Al Gore night. Sure you’ll love that one Dad. It was really interesting (for once on a Thursday!), and everyone was talking and wanted to make their point. I think it helped not having Michel there too. We all were able to get our two cents in. (He’s been in Simbo for the past week. Sad to say, but our science days have flown by a lot better without him being here.) Oh back to Gore, it was interesting because some people love him and others sure hate him. Big day tomorrow, we’re going to try to get through 2 transects.


February 1, 2008 Kennedy Island, Solomons

We woke up this morning to the sunniest, clearest day since before Christmas. It was great! John suggested we do some of the immersive media track today, so I said sure. The transect team went out first thing and got one transect done, and then we came back and immersive media went out for a few hours over lunch time. It was 106 degrees outside by the time we were supposed to do another transect, but everyone was beat, so we’ll just catch up on it next week. Max was our tender for the transect, and he actually wasn’t horrible. He did put all the other tanks on top of my gear, but other than that, he really listens to his buddy Paul and got us right on the site. Glad he at least respects his new, little ‘friend.’ I did coral ID on the transect with Katie, and it went great, she is really proficient in her corals.

In the afternoon, everyone was spent, and Michel had just come back from Simbo with all of Stanley’s family. There was no energy for anyone to do another transect, so we held off, and just had a low-key afternoon. Zack, Kris, and I finally made a trip to the clam farm that’s on the airport island. We’ve been meaning to go there for weeks now. It was a real small scale facility, growing giant clams, sea cucumbers, and scallops, but it was very eco-friendly. They use water directly from the lagoon, and don’t put anything in the water to supplement it. It’s also great as they grow the clams to a certain size, and then give them to different communities to grow and look after, and then eventually set them up with the right aquarium people so they can make a profit from the clams. They get about $10 solomon dollars for one clam. ($7 solomon= $1 US) So not too much, but at least it’s something to help get these communities back on their feet after the devastation from the tsunami. We will make another trip back to the clam farm with more people and hopefully to snorkel around, next Wednesday.


February 2-3, 2007 Kennedy Island, Solomons

Ahh, the weekend. It’s been a busy week of science work. We had our normal Saturday morning with acting class and cleanup, and then I had a relaxing afternoon. I watched two pointless movies and played Scrabble while sipping on a glass of red wine at Sanbis resort. The resort wasn’t really back open yet, but we finagled our way in there. It was a great afternoon. Paul and some others went out snorkeling to this beautiful beach, but I was just content hanging out around the boat. For dinner we had Stanley and his whole family from Simbo, over for dinner. A weird dinner, we just ate like normal, and nobody really talked it up with our guests. Whatever, I guess, I don’t really know them. They all spent the night in synestia. I woke up at 10:00, which is super late for me these days. Woke up just in time to go out on a dive that was going out at 10:30. We dove near this channel by the study site. Another wall dive, with a lot of fish, and I saw 10 nudibranches! I wasn’t even trying to find them, I was just swimming along, looking at the wall! Schools of jacks, rainbow runner, parrotfish, and snappers were all there. It was a nice dive. We did 3 divers down, and 2 on the boat, so Kris and I got some sunning in when we stayed up on the boat. The rest of my afternoon was spent reading and relaxing. I am helping out with dinner this Sunday night, so I’ll be setting the table, and acting out in Orla and Katie’s skit. Next week is a big science week, and I also need to think about booking some hotels in Honiara and Fiji. Oh and we get a new girl, Samantha, and I have to start thinking about packing up all my stuff.

February 4, 2008 Kennedy Island, Solomons

I tended a transect in the morning as Max desperately needed to go into town and couldn’t tend the dive. I had a little engine trouble, but it worked out ok, as Zack was right there to bail me out. During our lunch break, the Americans and I went to Fat Boys to watch the end of the Super bowl (NE Patriots and NY Giants!). Max and TJ managed to jump in on that trip too, after they spent the morning in town buying fresh food and using the internet. They seriously almost sunk the boat as we were 5 divers and a tender in the boat already. Despite their trying to ruin our fun, we gave them a ride to Fat Boys, and then went out for another transect dive after the game was over. It was a great day, and I’m exhausted. We really got a lot of science work out of the way, and it was nice to sneak the Super bowl right in there too! It was surreal Super bowl Monday (b/c of the time change) here in the Solomon Islands. We watched it live with horrible Australian commentaries. I was like, “Oh I know that coach!” And “Oh there’s Tom Brady!” Felt a little at home. I do know if I was at home though, I would barely be watching the game, and probably party hopping between different Super bowl parties all night. Another crazy science day tomorrow.



February 5, 2008 Kennedy Island, Solomons

I went on another transect dive this afternoon. A better looking reef this time, so that’s good. I think I might have mixed up the sites from the 2006 study, making a shallow one and deep one, but it really doesn’t matter as there is no significant difference between shallow and deep zones here anyways. I was going by Paul’s paper, and he had renamed them differently. When we got back from the dive, my afternoon/evening was never ending. I was running around doing all sorts of science tidying up with different people, and I just wanted to relax! I finally did for about a half hour before dinner. Danny Kennedy (owns Dive Gizo in town, and does conservation work in the Solomons) and his wife came over for dinner to show us tsunami pics. It was a great evening to have actually a stimulating conversation with real people not crazy hippies like Michel. He did manage to show video from his trip to Simbo about the tsunami, but it was so out there, with all this stupid voice over and video of flying birds and tree branches. Going to be a busy diving day tomorrow, really finish up this science study.

February 6, 2008 Kennedy Island, Solomons

So the weather seems to have turned for the worst again. We woke up to gray skies and rain. I had all these plans to send the 2 boats out and really knock out this science study. Well Kitty can’t do the GPS in stormy, cloudy weather, so we’ll just finish up the last 6th transect with the one boat. There’s a town trip and a trip to the clam farm this afternoon. Internet will probably be down, but I can still make some phone calls, I haven’t had a chance to make. I’m leaving soooo soon!