My Story!

Hello all! Welcome to my travel blog for the summer of 2011. My name is Tanner Garcia, and I work with my family aboard our boat, the 165 foot Research Vessel Aquila. This summer we are traveling the Pacific as part of the Pacific Islands Restoration Project, a multinational effort to rid a number of islands of invasive rat species. This summer we will also be the worlds smallest aircraft carrier (ha!) with a full air wing consisting of two Bell Jetranger helicopters and four remote-control models our chief engineer brought along! For those that aren't familiar with the process, the main method we are using for the eradication is arial broadcast of poisoned bait pellets. Where needed, the helicopters will also be supported by hand broadcast teams on the ground. So that's what is goin' down, but where?? The baiting islands are Palmyra Atoll, the Phoenix Islands of Kiribati, and Henderson Island. The Aquila and our family are based out of Seattle, Washington. All of the major prep of the boat happened in Seattle, but the major resupply ports for us are: Honolulu Hawaii, Apia Samoa, and Mangareva in French Polynesia. This is the condensed version of our summer, for all the juicy details, keep reading!! Adios!
-Tanner

Friday, May 27, 2011

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!

1 comment:

  1. A great start to an outstanding adventure! Wish i could tag along with you guys!

    ReplyDelete