Stranded on an Island - On Purpose

This weekend was one of the best weekends I have had in a long time.
There are quite a few medical students in town now, which means quite
a few people my age. It was one of the girls birthdays this weekend
so I organized a camping trip to Kennedy Island, named after JFK who
spent a night there over sixty years ago. So Saturday afternoon we
set off for Fatboys, a resort near the island for a big dinner and a
few drinks, then at sunset I borrowed a boat and we dropped everyone
off on our own private island in the S. Pacific for the night. It
felt like the first episode of "Lost" as we arrived in the dark.

The group is quite disorganized (medical students never do anything
without being asked here) so I split the group up to go find firewood,
move all of our stuff into a nice pile, and to lay out some sheets to
keep the bugs off, and of course pack the cooler to keep the beer
cold! It took about an hour to set up our small camp, mainly building
the fire and getting enough wood, then I set back to Fatboys to pick
up the managers Dave and Chelsey, two good friends of mine here and
the ones that found me adrift at sea. They brought their four year
old son Karion who was excited about his night time picnic, he packed
his spider man backpack with tongs, a spoon, and coloring books.

The night was spent just swimming, drinking, lying around, and finally
around 2 am everyone was asleep in the sand in different spots, truly
like the first night on "Lost". Most people would never get cold
here, but I guess I truly have thin blood. I woke up shivering
throughout the night and tried to use a tea towel to keep warm, and
keep the fire going. The next morning most people just laid around,
we ate some tinned tuna and biscuits for breakfast. Then picked up
camp and waited patiently for Fatboys boat to come pick us up. It
finally came around 11am and we all decided to go to Fatboys rather
then return to town. Back at Fatboys, this seems to be a trend for
me, but we went and ate lunch and had some drinks while swimming and
shooting pool. Then Dave made a generous offer to let everyone stay
for the night at no charge! So we split up and everyone got their own
beach side bungalow to relax in for the night, a perfect end to a
great weekend!

Monday walking into work, my boss noticed I had not had a shirt on
since Friday, and was wearing the same board shorts as I did last
week, while I might not have smelled very refreshed, my mind and body
were defiantly refreshed.

Go With The Flow, Even If its A Rip

My Horoscope for April from a magazine here "Go With The Flow Even If Its A Rip"

Well I am writing this to everyone to let you all know about my
learning experience with tides, rip currents, and bobbing. I made
some foolish mistakes yesterday while diving that made a lot of people
worried here in the Solomons. I was diving for fun on a day off and
jumped in on a gorgeous reef, that had a strong current. I had a
great dive, and saw lots of sharks, eagle rays, and a school of 10
Mantas. As the dive finished I came up and my safety stop, then
surfaced at 1:10pm. I surfaced about 500 M from the island the boat
was on, so I took off one of my yellow fins and waved it to the boat.
The boat then started driving towards me, but I was wrong they had not
seen me.

At this point I was stuck in a strong current going out to sea. And
still thought the boat had seen me, it took about 20 min to realize
they never saw me and by this time I was out in the middle of the S.
Pacific. I knew going back to where I dove was against the current
and I wouldn't be able to do, So I started swimming accross the
current, towards the next set of islands, probably about 4 km across
Ferguson Passage. This is important because JFK PT 109 Sunk in
Ferguson Passage and he swam to Plum Pudding Island. Well Plum
Pudding or now Kennedy was really far away so I set my sights on
making it to Naru Island. So for the next 4.5 hours I swam as hard as
I could to make it to an Island before dark. It was tiring but I knew
If i could make it to the reef line and through the surf, I could rest
on the reef, then swim to Naru where I knew there was a house with a
radio. As I was swimming I could start to hear the surf break, and
that helped me push further. I made it to the surf and used my dive
gear as a buffer for when I had to dive under the waves and hold the
reef. I made it through then walked up on the reef just in time to
see a boat!

A boat from a resort here Fatboys was out searching along with about 8
other boats. So I then had to swim back through the surf, exactly
what I wanted to do, and get on the boat. I got on the boat and drank
lots and lots of water and went to Fatboys where the response was, Ya
Your alive. Everyone was told the good news and the party was then at
Fatboys. Its not nearly as bad as people thought I am a strong
swimmer and knew I was not going to be seen out there, and so I took
it into my own hands, or legs and swam.

So now to get to my mistakes:

- I didn't stay near the reef
- I was diving alone
- I didn't get confirmation from the boat that they had seen me
- It was the one time I was to lazy to bring my Surface marker (A
large orange float that stands 4 feet tall)
- I underestimated the currents

So just to let you all know how well the rescue was organized

- They had two cop boats out
- All three of our boats
- 3 other boats
- 4 divers in the water looking for me
- 4 snorkelers looking at the surface
- A plane was being routed to run a search grid

Everything went great, and the only flaw was, the US consulate here
just now returned the call of a missing persons here. I guess they
should mention there emergency line for US citizens in Honiara is a 24
hr turn around.

I am fine just sore legs from swimming minor cuts from the reef, and
some sunburn (my shorts were chaffing badly so I swam naked for a bit
haha), and never panicked, and learned alot from my mistakes, and I
hope you all do not get too worried about this, but just though I
should let everyone know so that if I bring it up I don't have to
explain it 20 times :)

Gizo Town: Still Here

Well last Friday I arrived back in Gizo, and was welcomed by all the
staff, and lots of Cats! It was nice to get home where everyone knows
your name. I was greeted at home by 8 winging cats, all that wanted
food and something to play with. That quickly became my feet as the
constantly terrorized me trying to walk through the house. The house
smelled like cat pee so I decided Monday was moving day for the little
ones.

That morning we packed them all up in a box and brought them to the
shop, where a temporary cage was made by lining up scuba tanks. I had
gotten all of them good homes by lunch time, what a success and a
relief. I have been out on the boat diving, and one day visiting a
cruise ship for lunch, and mingling with the guests, nice to have good
free food and wine! Today we dove a spot Grand Central station and
spotted a hammer head that was about 2 Meters long, I was doing the
last dive for an Open Water student, what a treat for him.

I hope all is well, and you all have more power then us!

Luke