Puppy Pix

You'll have to bear with me 'cause there will probably be a plethora of puppy pix for a while. That table top is a safe haven from the rampaging puppy, for now...

We were over at our neighbors, the Barkers, for some socializing, both for us and for the pup. He did great with the kids and with their four dogs.

Sandra is Back

Sandra was in Florida for a while helping her parents. She came back today and brought a little friend along as carry on baggage. It's unanimous, the grass is greener on the other side of that metal thing.

Puppy chow, yum yum.

Jellyfish Jamboree Update

The jellyfish team had a great time at Karl's Beach Bar last night. The saw a bunch of jellies and got to meet quite a few people from Bonaire who are interested in the jellies for one reason or another. It is actually been amazing to find out how many people here have been stung over the years. Many of us (that is an editorial us) here on Bonaire spend a LOT of time in the water, and I suspect that makes a difference.

Dr Allen Collins from the Smithsonian Institute and Dr Angel Yanagihara from the University of Hawaii will be speaking at the CIEE starting at 7 PM Monday night. Everyone is welcome to come hear and meet two of the world's top jellyfish experts.

I haven't met Dr Collins yet, but I got to spend an evening with Angel and the Gillans at Johan and Esther's house and I can report that Angel's work and the innovative ideas that kept popping up in her conversation were very interesting.

New Use for TWR office wing

Today, TWR and EOZ signed an agreement regarding the use of the TWR office wing at our studios on Bonaire for an expertise center for learning disabilities on Bonaire. This learning center will serve the public education system; supporting parents, teachers, and students regarding assisting students with disabilities.

TWR is pleased to make this part of our building available in support of the educational needs of the people of Bonaire. This is the second time in recent years that TWR has hosted an educational institution in the office wing of the studio building; the first being the launch of the Basisschool de Pelikaan, which has grown and now continues in the former TWR activity center.

Christmas in June

We just received in the mail yesterday,a Christmas card from my brother and sister in law, who live in Colorado.
The postmark says they mailed the card on Dec. 15, 2010 and a bold red stamp indicates that it was mis-sent to Aruba.
Must have been Aruba on the moon.... no, the card has clearly gotten soaked with water at some point, and I think the moon is dry for the most part.... wonder where it's been all these months?

Sunday Sunset

We're really hoping for one night this week with super clear skies, so we can see the summer milky way in all its glory.

Sunday looked promising, but ended up cloudy. The clouds and haze made for a great sunset though.

Wheels in Washington Park

I remember the "Where's Waldo" books from when our son, Richard, was young. Here we have a variation, "where's the mtn. biker? It is easy to disappear in the wilds of Washington. Frank Bohm and the Freewieler Bike shop sponsored a bike ride in Washington Park today. I think there were 15 riders. Frank, left, is talking to Bud Gillan, right before the start of the ride. The Gillans volunteered to drive behind the riders in case anyone had any problems.

Below, Brad and Ethan ponder the restorative properties of Gatorade as they take a break at Slag Bai. The road from Slag Bai to the exit is still not open, after sustaining damage during the super rainy wet season. We rode in on the long route and back out on what is usually the short "in" route.

Below, TWR interns, Ethan (left) and Andrew (right), check out the whale skeleton with Smithstonian intern, Daniel.

Snorklers in Action

Sandra's cousins Bud and Nancyann Gillan are here on their annual visit. We're doing lots of snorkeling, star gazing, and generally enjoying the great Bonaire outdoors. Bud's enthusiasm for jellyfish has come to fruition in the Bonaire Jellyfish Jamboree, happening right now. You can learn more about it from this Bonaire Insider story and from this Florida newspaper story.

Ethan and Andrew, our hard working TWR summer interns are also turning into serious snorklers. It doesn't hurt any that there is a great beach right across the street from where they are living.

Drift Snorkel

We did a great drift snorkel Saturday morning from La Dania's Leap to Karpata. The coral was abundant, the fish were ok, and we saw a bunch of turtles. There is a lot of water movement along here and lots of soft corals and sea fans flapping around.

We saw some cool schools of fish.

Look for the old anchor chain running from the lower left to the upper right of the picture below.

Windsurfing Update

The PWA freestyle championships finished up yesterday (Thursday) and our local sailors did very well indeed. You can read a brief overview on the Bonaire Insider.

The wind was great on Monday and Tuesday, a little soft on Wednesday, but kicked back in on Thursday, and it seems to be blowing pretty good today (Friday) for the Pro Kids competition that is now underway. Some of today's PWA stars were ProKids not that long ago...

You can read and see more about the windsurfing action on Bonaire this week here.
There is a great Day 4 interview with Daphne Cchman and Robert McCormick about the upcoming documentary about the Bonaire windsurfing community on there.

Windsurfing Clips

While I was watching the PWA freestyle championships at Sorobon on Sunday, I shot some video clips with my trusty pocketcam.
I was only there for the early rounds and I suspect that the best sailors were saving their really good moves for the final rounds.
But it is still pretty cool to see what they were doing out there.

8th annual Bonaire Mini Triathlon

The eighth annual Jong Bonaire fun triathlon was held early this past Sunday morning. This is a fun oriented, family friendly event and all ages were represented this year. Proceeds from the triathlon are used for the Jong Bonaire center and for activities for the youth of Bonaire. The fun category consisted of a 850 meter swim, a 11.6 kilometer bike ride and a 5 kilometer run. The "pro" category included a 1500 meter swim, a 23.2 kilometer bike ride and a 10 kilometer run. Both categories were open to solo competitors as well as three person relay teams.

Everyone started in front of the Regatta House. The fun category competators swam directly along the coast to the fruit market in front of City Cafe. The pro competators swam to the north for a while before making a u-turn and heading to the fruit market boat ramp.

Did I mention that this was a fun, family friendly event?

New Washington Park Video

There is a nice new video on YouTube featuring George "Kultura" Thode talking about Washington Park.

PWA Freestyle Finals on Bonaire

The Professional Windsurfers Association (PWA) freestyle world championships kicked off today in great windy conditions at Sorobon. After events in Vietnam and Austria, three of Bonaire's own are ranked first, third and fifth in the world this year. You know they are going to pull out all the stops to to consolidate or improve their positions, as they perform in front of friends and family, in this the final event of the season.

There is massive media presence here for the championships.

US Vice Consul visits Bonaire

This past Thursday, Vice Consul Winifred Hofstetter from the US Consulate in Curacao made a working visit to Bonaire. Some passport related matters require one to sign papers in the presence of a US official, so consular officers come to Bonaire from time to time, so we don't have to make the trip to Curacao. I hadn't met the Vice Consul on her previous visit to Bonaire. We were probably on one of our medical trips to the States. She is a kind and helpful person, not officious at all, but she definately knows her stuff.

Trans World Radio has traditionally provided office space during these consular visits and this year was no exception.

Vice Consul Hofstetter also visited Jong Bonaire to make a donation of books. Jong Bonaire, in return, presented her with a copy of the Papiamentu/English dictionary originally published by TWR, but currently reprinted and distributed by Jong Bonaire.

The Vice Consul also had a working lunch at my wife's favorite restaurant, the Bistro de Paris. Those present included the chief consular warden for Boinaire, Michael Gaynor, and two new consular wardens, Bob Lassiter, and Pastor Baran of the International Bible Church.

In the photo from left to right, you can see: Pastor Baran, Vice Consul Winifred Hofstetter, Donna Gassert, Bob Lassiter and Michael Gaynor.

Summer Interns

Andrew and Ethan are two mechanical engineering students who are here for a couple months to help out wherever than can. They are at the left end of the front row in this picture, which I shot during sunday school at the International Bible Church this past Sunday.

We went snorkling Sunday afternoon at Tori's Reef and saw three spotted eagle rays! Pretty cool.

Bonaire Animal Shelter Video

The Bonaire Animal Shelter has a great new video on YouTube.
If you like cute puppies and kittens, you'll love this one.

Milky Way Time Lapse

We had a very clear night last week, the first one since February. So I zoomed out to Red Slave to take pictures of the Milky Way rising over the huts.

At the start of the sequence, you can see the red Eta Carina nebula towards the lower right edge of the frame. The Southern Cross and Coal Sack nebula are to the upper left of the Eta Carina Nebula.

Scorpius looks like a giant fish hook on the left side of the frame. After a little while, the Sagitarius Teapot enters the frame from the lower left side.

A bunch of planes fly by, there is lightning on the horizon, and a car zooms by. And then after about three and a half hours, clouds start rolling in.

I drew some lines in the picture, above, to show what some of the constellations look like. You'll probably need to click on it to see it large enough to see the lines. This frame comes from the middle of the sequence so Eta Carina has already set and Sagitarius has already entered from the left.

Scroll down the page to see the video. If you select the 720p version, it looks reasonably good, even at full screen size.

Braced for Action

Ivan is busy prepping new parts for our next round of tower rebuilding action, which will probably take place in early 2012. Notice the giant fan in the background. There was little to no wind last week, here on Bonaire, which made for great bike riding, but hot and nasty working conditions. The new cross brases are cleaned, taped, primed and painted. The braces have to make good metal to metal contact where they connect to each other and to the tower legs.

After all new parts are bolted onto the tower, the joints are all primed and painted in place.

Better Mousetrap

We've got guys up painting the towers again this year. Lately they have been painting in between the rain showers. I suspect that is why they are working down low, so they can escape the rain when it comes along. Lionel designed and built this trap and it is working great. They caught a number of rats last week.

Church Construction

Some of us stuck around after the monthly Saturday morning men's meeting at the new church site and did some work on the roof.

Walt hopes to get the last windows installed in the next day or two, which will make the building weather tight.

He also hopes to construct the platform/stage this week.

As you can see, there are lots of clouds these days, but we still felt pretty fried by 1pm.

Morning Planetary Parade

Four planets are putting on a beautiful show in the pre-dawn skies here on Bonaire. It's been pretty cloudy here, so I've only seen three of the four planets so far, but I'll keep looking... The triangular pattern will change from morning to morning because the planets are on the move. The view is best here on Bonaire from around 05:15 t0 05:30. By 5:45am the sky is getting kind of bright. The further north you are the more difficult it will be to spot the planets. Sky and Telescope has a great animation that shows just how the planets are moving relative to each other right now. I highly recommend it.

Jupiter is at the lower left. Venus is at the top center and Mercury is to the lower right of Venus. Mars is to the lower left of Jupiter, but the clouds were in the way Sat. and Sun. mornings. I did spot Mars on one of my pictures from Saturday, but just barely.

8th Annual Rincon Bike Ride

This past Sunday, the day after Rincon Day, the people of Rincon held their eighth annual community bike ride. Each year they honor one of their senior citizens who is still actively riding their bike. It is a fun family event with great support from the community and quite a few Bonaire businesses.

We swarmed up and down most of the streets of Rincon.

The reason they invite me each year can be seen at the far right side of the picture below. They have prizes for the oldest rider, the youngest rider, the best decorated bike, the most unusual bike, the oldest bike etc.

Church Building progress

We are having a work day at the new IBCB church building today. I'll see if I can get some action photos. Here is how the site looked earlier this week. We had a lot or rain yesterday so it is probably muddy this morning.

Annual Kralendijk to Rincon Race

April 30 is a holiday here, known both as the Queen's Day, and for the last 22 years as Rincon Day. It is also the day of the annual running race and fun walk from the Stadium in Kralendijk to Rincon. As I recall this race predates Rincon Day, but I can't figure out how many years it has actually been held.

I always ride my bike to Rincon on the west side "tourist road" on the morning of April 30 and then cheer on the walkers and runners as I head back home on the main road. This year I shot video clips of the various runners and walkers. I may not have gotten everybody, sorry to anyone I missed.

I isn't really that great a video 'cause I was shooting into the rising sun for the most part, and it appears that the ride quality of my road bike leaves a lot to be desired compared to my mountain bike. I think I have shot smoother video off-road on the mtn. bike than I got today on the road on my road bike. The roads here have gotten pretty rough though, and I actually do ride the mtn. bike on the road quite often now to save wear and tear on the old bod.

Rolling On

Perhaps they were inspired by the recent visit of, and the painting prowess shown by, the senior class of the Perry Hall Christian School. A number of the youth from the IBC are using their Easter vacation time to paint the new church building.

I only saw guys working on the church when I visited the site, but the young ladies have swung a mean paint brush in the past, so they might yet take roller in hand this week.

Here we see they guys cleaning up after a long day of work.

Kibrahacha Trees

The heavy rain we had last week has caused some of the Kibrahacha trees to pop. I first noticed them on Monday morning.

These trees are east of Antriol and North Salina. I'm not sure what the trees north of Sabadeco, and up around Goto Lake are doing.