Spring has Sprung

We haven't had any rain for about a week now, which is a big change from the deluges of the fall, and the daily morning showers of Dec. and Jan. We'll probably be complaining about the windblown dust soon. :)

The Bonaire parakeets are starting to show up around the house in the early morning hours. This seems to be a seasonal thing too, depending on which flowers and seeds are popping on the trees, and maybe the lack of water out in the fields.

There were a bunch of them in our neighbor's tree the other morning.

Project Hannah - Women of Hope

Project Hannah is a Trans World Radio outreach to women, by women. Prayer, raising awareness of women's needs, and radio broadcasts are the three international elements of Project Hannah. Local action groups in many countries add a "hands on" element.

The international team produces radio programs in 30 languages (including Papiamentu on Bonaire), organizes prayer groups in 80 countries, and distributes a monthly prayer calendar in 20 languages which highlights current women's needs and issues.

One of the newest developments is a Spanish language web site. The new Web site presents Project Hannah’s vision and mission and includes photos and biographies of the program hostesses. In addition, it contains audio of the week’s program, support material like PH’s prayer calendar, a station listing and a discussion forum for visitors to talk about the program’s themes.

So, if you speak Spanish, or if your church, like some of the Churches that sponsor us, has a Spanish speaking group, be sure to check out the new Proyecto Ana web site.

Brandaris

Ha-ha, another day, another Brandaris photo.

I think the seasons are changing from rainy to dry. It usually happens in late January. We get low winds, the clearest skies of the year. One year, when we were living on the waterfront, we saw the green flash 10 evenings in a row.

It's been pretty clear since Sunday, so I'm going to try to get some relatively haze free scenery shots. I hope it stays clear until after the full moon, so I can get some astronomy pix.

This shot is from the top of the ridge behind the Bopec oil terminal.

Landsailing on Bonaire

On our way back from Rincon on Sunday, we stopped off at the new land sailing site.

It wasn't very windy at all, I could not have gotten going on my windsurfer for sure, but the carts were zooming along quite nicely with a three meter sail. If I were here on a windsurfing vacation and it was not windy enough to boardsail, I know where I would want to spend the day.


We talked with Nelson Croft, one of the owners, who was very friendly and very enthusiastic about these little gizmos, called Blokarts. Zooming around in these things looks like a LOT of fun, and Nelson said that it is quite easy to learn how to sail/drive one, even for kids.

The landsailing venue used to be in the middle of nowhere out in the Washikimba area, which was dusty and hard to reach. Now that they are located right on the main road to Rincon, I think that this sport could really take off.

The carts can be packed in a canvas duffel pack for transport to the site and assembled quite quickly. The crude shelter reminds me of Jibe City in the early days. If I didn't already have too many hobbies, and a garage full of windsurf gear, I know I'd surely be hooked immediately.


Based on how nicely the karts were zooming around in "no wind" I can bet that they would be a riot when the wind kicks up to 20 knots or so.

Two Pairs

There was not one, but two cruise ships in port downtown today. You can see them as white blobs in the background of this picture.

Richard and Nancy Engaged

Yahooie! Our son, Richard, and his girlfriend, Nancy, announced their engagement Sunday. The wedding is scheduled for July 15 this summer, in Montclair, NJ.

It turns out that there were some who suspected things were serious when Richard appeared on Nancy's family's Christmas photo this year.

Walk-A-Thon

Today was the forth annual walk-a-thon to support the Bonaire Special Olympics teams. Participants started at White Slave on the south end at 5 am. and walked, biked, ran, roller bladed, and ? to Rincon.


Buddy, at the Sand Dollar Grocery, reports seeing the first bike go by at 5:30 am. The first runners went by around 6am. I saw power walkers storming past our house around 7 to 7:15 and groups of more relaxed walkers were streaming past as I rode my bike to set up the sound system at church around 8am. I'd guess that Hato is about the half way point maybe. Whew, that's a lot of walking.

Any pioneer visitors to Bonaire remember Larry Theilgard, first director of the Solar Salt Works, and a regular walk-a-thon participant on his trusty bike. I hope I'm still out riding the roads when I'm 77.


Bob Lassiter and I had church responsibilities this morning, so we couldn't do the walk-a-thon. We did zoom out to the finish in Rincon after church to say hi, and to sample the good food.


One reported highlight of this year's walk is that no one got rained on! Ah, life's little pleasures.

Washington Park Pix

Here are a couple pictures from my bike ride yesterday.

I'm beginning to suspect that I might be suffering from some sort of Brandaris obsession. Kind of like "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" meets Bonaire. Seems like every time I take a camera into the park, I come out with a picture of Brandaris hill.


On the other hand, the cute goats and exotic flamingos all zoom away and hide before I can slam on the brakes and get my camera unlimbered.

Ahhhh.... a picture of a hill (below) that is not Brandaris. Check out the road. Those ruts are pretty typical. Some places are better, but others are worse.

I find I'm riding pretty slowly in the park these days, so I can look around at the scenery. When we ride really fast, a major tunnel vision effect sets in, 'cause if you don't keep your eyes glued to the road; a rut, rock or pothole will do you in.


I think that if I were to try to better my hour and a half personal best right now, I'd end up passing through the whole park, and seeing absolutely nothing but the blurry brown road rushing past my front wheel.

Hmmm... does have an odd sort of appeal doesn't it? Maybe on Feb. 18.

If I could get Miguel, DJ, and Frank to come along, I'd succeed for sure, 'cause I'd have to ride all out just to keep up with them. And they'd have swept the road clear of goats, iguannas and cats. So I could just focus on avoiding the ruts and rocks, and on maintaining consciousness as I peg my heart rate monitor.

Antenna Testing Results

The data has been crunched and the results are in from the field testing of the Bonaire Medium Wave (AM) directional antenna array. I recently posted some pictures of the testing here on Bonaire. Here are a couple pictures from the Dominican Republic, where Joe and Helmut performed some additional field strength measurements.

We are very pleased to learn that the measurements confirm that the antenna array is shaping and directing our radio signal just like the computer models predicted.

TWR, Dominican Republic, is one of 12 Trans World Radio offices and studios in the Americas region. This team produces Spanish language programs that are aired on four stations in the DR, covering about 60% of the population. Three of the programs from the DR are also aired on about 100 stations in 12 other countries, including TWR, Bonaire. The DR office also produces programming in the Creole language for the neighboring country of Haiti.


The February edition of the Lausanne World Pulse missions web site has an overview of some Trans World Radio's Spanish language ministry initiatives.

Here we see Joe and Helmut in action, as they measured the signal from Bonaire at a few locations around the Dominican Republic.

Washington Park Bike Ride

A bunch of us are planning a bike ride in Washington Park on Saturday, Feb. 11. We'll meet at the gate a little before 8am. so we can start as soon as the park opens. If you are on Bonaire, you are welcome to join us.

I rode in the park today, and followed a different route than the one we'll take next week. It was windy, fairly cloudy and cool for Bonaire. There were flamingos on the salt flats near the entrance, but hardly any at Slagbaai. I've been in the park 3 Saturdays in a row now, and the flamingos seem to be consistently in the same places. I may try to get some flamingo pix next week. There were also lots of goats, and two cats; all of whom ran away as soon as they saw me.

I've become enthused about GPS receivers, after working with them again on our recent TWR antenna profiling project. I found some software that has allowed me to digitize and calibrate some maps I have, so I can use the computer to plot the GPS tracks of my bike rides on them. It works great and it is really cool to see exactly where I rode. I won't publish any of the maps here, 'cause there may be copyright issues.

However, the software also lets me make graphs of speed vs. time, speed vs. distance, altitude vs. time, and altitude vs. distance. Even without the map image, these graphs are really interesting. It reminds me of the TV coverage of the Tour de France where they show you the course profile at the start of each stage.

This plot is altitude versus distance. You can see that there isn't much flat riding on the roads I took. I used feet and miles here, but you can display the results in meters and Kilometers too. You can click on the picture if you want to read the fine print.


This graph shows altitude versus time. The sloping straight line from 26 to 40 minutes is from when I was stopped taking pictures. I haven't looked at the pix yet but don't expect any winners 'cause it was hazy and cloudy.


I'll probably post graphs from our group ride next week, in case any of the riders want to see or download them. The terrain will be noticeably flatter on the first half of the ride because we'll be going along the coast.

Club Photo

Now that I can post pictures right on my blog, I've kind of been neglecting my online photo albums at Club Photo dot com. In the early blog days, I had to write about stuff on the blog and link to the photos on Club Photo.

Now that I've just paid the Club Photo subscription for another year, I think I'll do some reorganizing and updating over there. By the way, you can always get to my Club Photo site, by clicking on the "My Photo Archives" link on the right side of the blog page.

There are lots of Trans World Radio and Bonaire pix in 39 albums right now. For example, you can see for yourself why people recommend that you be sure to visit Kunuku Rooi Lamoenchi when you are on Bonaire.

I'll probably consolidate things some, so I can upload some new stuff. I've got webcam photos of the moon in one album and webcam photos of the planets in another. They could go together. Then I'd have a place to put my new DSLR astro photos, if the clouds ever go away so I can get out and take some.

Some of the Club Photo links in my blog postings will probably get broken. If you spot a broken link, let me know and I'll see if I can fix it.

Rainbows Revisited

We usually think of Oct. through Dec. as the rainy season on Bonaire. The grounds of the TWR transmitter site were all under water again this past November. The antenna field has pretty much dried out now, although when I was out there getting some GPS readings for our antenna tests, I did still see some flamingos nosing about.

I took a picture of them, but it came out kind of blah. This photo is showing lots of standing water in an area east of North Nikiboko and Amboina, where the APEM (CEF) youth camp is located.

After the heavy rainy season winds down, we still have early morning showers in January. We had one this morning just before sunup for example. These showers, together with the late sunrises, mean that I usually get in my bike rides after work rather than before work.
(Here in the Tropics, the earliest sunset occurs in Nov. and the latest sunrise is in Jan.)

I saw a great rainbow yesterday afternoon around 5:20 or so, as I was riding my bike through Sabadeco on my way north. It formed a complete arc, and the middle section was unusually bright. That experience reminded me about an interesting Bonaire rainbow phenomenon.

You see, one has to look to the West to see morning rainbows, because the sun is shining from the East. In the afternoon, you see the rainbows in the East, because the sun is in the West. Now on Bonaire, since the trade winds are coming from the East, the rain arrives from the East as well. So you can plan on getting wet when you see an afternoon rainbow, as I did on my bike yesterday.

On the other hand, the rain has usually already passed by your position when you see a morning rainbow. I've seen lots more morning rainbows than afternoon rainbows, because I can go outside and look for one after the rain hits. The rain shower serves as a sort of Rainbow alert.

Driftwood

My mom has had a special place in her heart for the satin silver Bonaire driftwood, ever since the '60s, when Sandra's dad brought back some samples to us in NJ.

Now that I've lived here for a while, I've noticed that the sun and the salt air tend to turn any exposed wood into that "driftwood" color, even if it is part of a structure etc.

We also saw some cool gnarly tree stumps on Brandaris. Here is one of them doing a great driftwood imitation.

Washington Park

I rode my bike in Washington Park this morning. It was my first Washington Park ride since we returned to Bonaire in early December. The roads are super mega bumpy and washed out right now, but they are also packed down hard, so you can roll along quite quickly if you don't mind the rough ride. It was windy, cloudy, but dry; Perfect weather for bike riding. Today was the annual Lora (parrot) count all over Bonaire. The parrot counters were finishing up when I entered the park at 8 am.

Brandaris is the highest point on Bonaire. We drove to the Park and climbed it last Saturday. This is the best time of year to climb Brandaris because it isn't that hot out. The sun can be brutal during the summer months.


You can click on the pictures to see them bigger. Hmm... maybe I should put that as part of my permanent blog intro, so I don't have to say it every time!

The roads in Washington Park are really bumpy right now, because we are at the end (hopefully soon) of the rainy season. Our Samurai is super stiff riding and really gives us a pounding on these roads. Our VW based dune buggy was a lot more comfortable back in the day.


We saw two rainbows that day, but didn't actually get rained on ourselves. That's good because the moss on some of the rock climbing sections on Brandaris gets slippery when wet.


Some of the ascent of Brandaris is a rocky path, but the second half of the climb involves scrambling up more challenging terrain.


The top of Brandaris is only about 784 feet or so, but the climb starts pretty close to sea level, and the sides of the hill are steep, so you can really tell you have accomplished something once you get to the top.


Here is the second rainbow we saw last Saturday. We could look down on it from the top of Brandaris. We couldn't see much of Bonaire or Curacao because of the clouds, rain and haze, but the rainbow made up for that.

Election Day

Friday is election day here on Bonaire. The voting is for Bonaire's three representatives to the central government in Curacao. This may be the final vote of this particular type because the Netherlands Antilles is scheduled to be split up in 2007. These representatives will have their work cut out for them during the transition.

The Bonaire Youth Outreach Foundation, that meets at the TWR Activities building on Saturdays, hosted an election information night and a debate between the leaders of the two political parties contesting this election. Issues affecting youth were the primary topics, but there was a time for questions from the floor, so all sorts of things were addressed.

Three of the govt. officials charged with overseeing the election presented information about how the election process works, voter eligibility, what sort of ID to bring to the polls, and how to fill out the ballot. I think the young people can vote at age 18.


You can click on the pictures to see them bigger.

Then the political leaders addressed some prepared questions, followed by questions from the young people in the audience. One of the radio stations carried the event live, and I saw it on TV the next evening.

Ramonsito Booi is the leader of one of the parties.


Jopi Abraham is the leader of the other party.


I manned the PA system and recorded the proceedings on my laptop. I also shot some pictures from the back of the room with my trusty camera and handy dandy 210mm f4 zoom lens and asa 800. Am I enjoying my new camera? Yup!

Antenna Testing

Long time blog readers will know that we've done some antenna testing on the ground and from a boat over the last couple years. It was decided that we needed to do a comprehensive test in a full circle around the antenna towers. So Helmut Menzel came back from Germany and Joe Barker came from the Cary office. We rented a plane from Curacao and did some flying on Monday and Tuesday mornings.

The guys flew around the towers in a 12 kilometer radius circle. The signal strength meter and a GPS receiver were hooked to a laptop computer. That way we had signal strength and position information synced together.

This is a plot (yellow circle) of their actual path on two of the trips around the towers.


You can click on the pictures to see them bigger.

Here Rich F., Udo, and Rich W. are mounting the antenna to the wing strut.


Helmut gets some baseline readings with the signal strength meter.


Here is a shot that puts the Cessna 175 and the Bonaire airport in perspective. The airport security guys must be scratching their heads at how that ocean liner sneaked in, heh-heh.
No Photoshop tricks here, just a small island and a telephoto lens.


Taking off... you can see the antenna mounted under the wing on the left side of the plane.


It was an interesting ride because the trade winds were a solid 26 knots, but initial indications are that they got good data.

Astro Photo M42

This is the time of the month when the moon is absent from the evening skies. But it has been super cloudy and rainy. I got out one night last week and took a few pictures in between the clouds. New moon is Sunday, so I have a few more nights of darkness, if it ever clears up, that is.

This picture is of M42, the great nebula in Orion. It is a combination of two time exposures of about two minutes each. I used a 300 mm zoom lens and cropped out the extra sky to zero in on the nebula. The aperture was 5.5 and I had the camera set at asa 800.

If you have ever seen M42 in a small telescope, you will recognize it from the picture, but I have to say, based on the images I've seen on the internet, that there is a lot of room for improvement here. You can click on the picture to see it bigger.

I also shot some webcam video of Saturn, but haven't tried processing it yet. The modified wedge I made for mounting the telescope let me get a really good polar alignment, but it isn't rigid enough for high power viewing. The slightest breeze had the image of Saturn wiggling all over the place. I'll need to find a piece of half inch aluminum or steel to use for my tripod wedge mod.

Birds of a Feather

The Bonaire parakeet or Prikichi is quite social, and vocal too. There are certain times of the year when we awaken in the morning to the squawks and screeches of hoards of them in clustered in our trees.

There was a flock or two hanging out by Dos Pos on Sunday when I rode by on my bike. That area is quite lush, especially for Bonaire, and the Prikichis made it sound like a tropical rainforest.

I had my camera along, because I often see flamingoes near the road in the late afternoon. The flamingoes didn't cooperate, but I was able to photograph a couple Prikichis, who stayed put long enough for me to stop and get my gear out of the backpack. You can click on the picture to see it bigger, 1024x768 in this case.

The camera weighs a ton, (speaking as a longtime cycling weight weenie) but I may start taking it along more, so I can record some of the cool stuff I see out on the road. If nothing else, I'll feel lighter and faster when I'm not carrying it on those speedy Sat. afternoon group rides I occasionally join.

Playa Pabou

Here is a photo I took when we were flying to Curacao last week. The highlights are blown out, but I can still see an amazing amount of detail on the orig. image. If you click on this picture, you should be able to see a 1024x768 version.

Karl's beach bar is at the bottom towards the right corner.

Moving up the right side you can see the tennis club, where we used to play volleyball, and the big white roof on the far right is Cultimara. A little above Cultimara is a green roof that sort of looks like a Lifesaver candy. That's Dr. Van der Vaart's office. Across the street is the Hospital. Above that is the main cemetery and then towards the top right, is Kooymans hardware.

Along the shoreline opposite the catamaran, (fourth yacht up from the bottom, not counting ones that are at the dock) you will see a house with a blue roof. That's where Sandra lived when she was a kid, and where the Van den Akkers lived when I first came to Bonaire.

In the Air

Here we are inside the Divi Dive plane on our way to Curacao on Monday. It holds the pilot and eight passengers, nine if you use the co-pilot's seat too. It's really a fun flight, unless you are claustrophobic.

You can click on the pictures to see them bigger, especially the one below.

The plane never gets very high in the air, so we get great views of the scenery below.

Here we see the waterfront from downtown in the lower right, to Playa Pabou in the upper left.

Klapchis Revisited (klapchi = firecracker)

When we were talking to Sandra's doctor in Curacao yesterday, he mentioned that he had heard that Bonaire was pretty quiet this New Year's Eve. We reassured him that the Bonairian pyromaniacs were alive and well this year.

Doug B noted that the super efficient Selibon street sweeper would make it hard for kids to come by later looking for unpopped firecrackers.

Well, you just have to act quickly and glean those babies out of the debris before they get swept up. Pictured here is TWR missionary Rich West hunting for treasure in front of Playa Trading. Of special note are his New Years Eve camouflage pants designed especially for blending in with firecracker debris. Click on the picture to get the full effect.

Car Hunt: too big, too small, just right

We went to Curacao yesterday to see Sandra's doctor. I'll post some cool photos I took from the teeny tiny Divi Divi airlines plane over the next few days. You can click on the pix to see them bigger.

The doctor visit went very well, and we had some time left over to continue our search for the elusive Maruti Gypsy King, pictured here. We have a '91 Samurai with the mighty 1.3L engine and five speed trans, and a '93 Maruti long wheel base variant with a 1L micro engine and four speed. The Gypsy King has the best of both worlds, with a 1.3L engine and the dog and bike friendly long wheelbase.


We stopped by the Suzuki/Chevy/Subaru dealer where we bought our white Sammi back in '91. We saw lots of cool cars, including a nice blue WRX, drool drool.

There are a couple of these Chevy trucks on Bonaire and they look really huge on our small roads. It's one of those things you just have to see to believe. They caught our eye 'cause one can open up the back to let one's dogs run in and out. Too bad they don't make a smaller Bonaire friendly version.


At the other extreme is this pint sized Chevy van. Someone ought to bring this picture in to their friendly local North American dealer and ask for one, heh-heh.