Wednesday, March 29, 2006

Momma's Coming

Yay! My mom and her friend Ellen are coming to visit me next week. They are making the long trip from Long Island here. I think it is about a 13 hr flight to Hawaii and then appx 7 hrs from Hawaii to Kwajalein. Unfortunatly, they are only going to be here for a week.... but luckily I won't have to work while they are on-island so it will be concentrated visit time.

Also, I scored a house-sitting job! My boss is going off-island and offered me her place. It is a great house, great location - right on the lagoon with a patio outside :) That means it is prime sunset veiwing - the lagoon-side of the island faces due West. It is also nice because then we can comfortably cook meals, have guests over and relax in a home instead of a room or a rental trailer. The rental trailers are OK and furnished with the bare necessities, but not as homey.

I have lots of things planned! Hopefully they won't be too jet-lagged. I want them to experience certain things just so they have an idea of what my life is like. I want to get my mom on a surfboard. I don't think I'll put her in the waves just yet... but just to get the feel of what it is like to paddle on her belly!! Also, she doesn't SCUBA dive, but I thought it would be fun to don my SCUBA gear while she is snorkeling and let her breathe from my octopus - just to get the feel of what it is like to breathe underwater.... who knows maybe she'll pick up a new hobby. Although I don't know if there is really all that much SCUBA diving off Long Island, and if there is, I think it would be TOO COLD!

Speaking of being too cold...this weeknd I went on 3 dives (all in one day). The first dive was to a wreck at about 85 ft. It wasn't super deep, so we were able to stay in the water for quite a while... too long for me (60 minutes) the water temp was 82 degrees and I was so cold that I was shivering!!! It makes diving unpleasant for me when I am that cold. I had a 2mm farmer-Jane shorty wetsuit on with a 1 mm long sleeved rashguard and another 1 mm short sleeved rash guard on top of that!!! I need to get a thicker full-length wetsuit. I have also learned to take a thermos of coffee with me to warm me up after chilly dives.

Check out some great underwater photos on the KSC website.

So, the first dive was a deeper wreck dive, the second dive was shallow reef dive in the same area and we were looking for Manta Rays.... (we didn't see any). Then the third dive was with another set of friends where we dove "the wall" that is the Atoll drop-off. You go from beautiful coral reef with surge channels to a sheer coral "cliff" that drops down to a few thousand feet (whatever the depth of the ocean floor is around here). We saw a school of Barracuda, and I dropped in on a couple of white tip sharks hanging out in a little cave. I decided to leave them alone as they don't really like it when you corner them. We have a little understanding in that way. After diving (and generally lazing around the boat for a while) we saw a big bird pile so decided to put the lines out and see if we could catch any fish (my friends brought their fishing poles "just in case"). We didn't catch anything, so headed back to the marina tired, hungry, a little sunburnt and happy.

Ah, I can't wait to share all this with my mom and Ellen!