From Paddle boards to Kiteboards

Well... looks like I've been slacking off on the blog for a couple days. Things have been going quite well here in Honolulu, we have pretty much everything lined up for when the Aquila gets in today. Friday was certainly an interesting day. We have been starting every morning with some kind of salt water activity, it started with paddle boards, then Dad and Kinsi went to surfboards... This morning will be a kiteboard! Back to Friday, we rented our boards for an hour. after an hour and a half i brought my board back, everyone else was still out. I had my 2 meter trainer kite with me so i walked over to the park and put my kite up for a bit. When i got back to the rental shop about a half hour later, only Kinsi was on the beach. She said Dad and Chef Damien already went back to the hotel, but she can't find Mom in the surf crowd at all. Asking around the rental shop, its clear she's still in the water somewhere, we just can't see her anywhere. We walk over to the lifeguard shack and borrow their binoculars and finally find her. Shes sitting on her paddle board chatting it up with this other lady on a paddle board, not a care in the world that shes now about a mile offshore, in deep water, and getting blown further offshore. Anddddd she's just sitting there. I've already returned my board so i ask around if anyone will go out and get her. Everyone says no way bud im not going out that far!! So me being the genius that I am, I decide to swim out and remind her that her board rental was up two HOURS ago. When I finally made it out to her she got quite upset with me for swimming that far out without a board. Oh well, we're even cause she was out there first :P Anyway, we all made it back to the hotel, where i promptly fell asleep for a few hours even though it was like 11 in the morning. The rest of the day was pretty much spent on boat paperwork in the hotel. Thennnn it was time for dinner. We meet up with Damien again and walk down by the beach to find a place to eat. Since most places had about an hour wait without reservations, we ended up at this place kind of like a mongolian grill. We heard it had an all you can eat salad bar, and you season whatever kind of meat you're having and have them cook it. Well there was oneee smalll detail lost in translation. YOU cook the meet yourself! I am not kidding. They bring you a plate full of raw meat, and you take your plate over to a giant grill and cook it yourself. I wouldn't have thought this would even be possible from a liability stand point, let alone do it yourself kind of service. It was a pretty funny dinner though. Halfway through dinner it occurs to me. If you cook your own food and Bring the food out to the table yourself... do you still tip the waitress? For bringing you a glass of water? Still not sure what to think about that one... After dinner dad looks around, "Hey anybody have some paper? Lets write ourselves out a check!" That was a funny night. The next morning, I was trying to get our second GoPro to update so i stayed behind on the morning surf run. We all worked around the hotel for a while, then drove over to the north shore for a kiteboard lesson. After the lesson we had dinner with Cheech, one of the original Palmyra veterans. A three hour kite lesson sure wears one down so I was definitely glad when we finally made it back to the hotel. Anyway its almost 7 here now and my second lesson is at 8 so I'm going to jump off of here for now.
Quote of the day "Mom. You're grounded" (after her paddle board escapade)

Picture of the day, Sunrise over the Hotels

                                            Until next time,

                                                  Hang loose!

Thursday the 26th

Aloha from Honolulu!

Second night here in Hono, been great so far. Keep remembering things we forgot, but so far nothing too major. The next few days before the boat gets in on sunday will be spent gathering last minute supplies and provisions. At some point we will take a trip over to the north shore to pick up some kitesurf and wind surf equipment, but otherwise we will be getting mostly little parts and things like that. Also of note, today I met the new chef for the trip, Chef Damien. He comes highly recommended from our friend Bryan W and so far he seems like a great fit for the job. A totally chill guy, he says when he gets back from the trip he wants to open a surf school back home. Where's home for Damien? South Africa! Just around the corner eh?
Today was lots of fun, we started with a trip over to the beach to rent some paddle boards. Quite an adventure. Come to find out, the local surfers HIGHLY dislike the guys on paddle boards. After that we hit up the fruit smoothie stand and had some awesome coconut smoothies. No Jamba Juice powders or fillers, this was just fruit, ice, and apple juice. Sooo Good. When we finally made it back to the hotel room, I think we all discovered a two month shipyard and a three hour time change wears one down just a little. Dad got some work done on the computer, but that was cut short when we found out there is no Bank of America on Oahu. Our next stop was Jessie and the crew at D. Otani produce. They were truly awesome, even though we pretty much asked for a case and a half of everything in the warehouse. Somehow we spent the rest of the day in Costco and Walmart and by the time we got back to the hotel we were to tired to do anything but grab a couple dinners from the taco truck the next block down. After we all made it back to the room, we found out dad had done a little shopping as well... He surprised mom with a shiny new iPad 2, plus a case and wireless keyboard for it. After that i started typing this thing out... but it appears i fell asleep in the process, so im actually finishing this friday morning. sorry guys :P Looking at the wind outside, i think i might walk down to the beach and get my two meter trainer kite up in the air before its time to work. Aloha!

Some totally awesome towels mom made on her embroidery machine

Its always sunny at 36,000 feet

 Our 18 checked bags

Our lovely rental car. it was too big so we traded it for... a suburban!

The project!

Hello all! Welcome to my summer travel blog and thanks for stopping by. For those of you that haven't heard the full story, I'll give a little bit of background. My name is Tanner Keeling-Garcia, I'm 17, and I work with my family onboard the 165 foot R/V Aquila. This summer I will be traveling to several islands in the pacific in support of a multinational effort to rid these islands of rats. (say what???) You might wonder why anyone would care if there's rats on a couple islands in the south pacific. However rats did not originate on these islands. They are an invasive species, introduced to the islands on accident by sailing ships of eld. Being an invasive species, they face few if any natural predators, and pretty much run amok eating anything and everything, including bird eggs.
So how does one go about cleansing an island of its entire rat population?
Find a really big  boat, the 165 foot M/V Aquila is perfect.

Next step, call up Mike at Pathfinder aviation and order up a couple Bell Jetranger helicopters

Above photo credits: Pathfinder Aviation

And of course, Bell Labs for about 90 tons of bait pellets.



 Where will we be going?
 The baiting islands are Palmyra Atoll,  the Phoenix islands in Kiribati, and Henderson island in the Pitcairn group. We will resupply in Apia, Samoa between islands and in Mangareva, French Polynesia at the end of the project. On our way out to Henderson we will be making a quick stop at Bounty bay, Pitcairn island, site of the Mutiny on the Bounty and home to the descendants of the Bounty crew.

With a little bit of luck, I will be able to do a daily post/picture of the day type of thing from the boat, although satellite internet is rather spendy.
check back soon!