UNIT SITREP 201930Z MAR 09 First Official Action IRT Operation Homeport Change Puna

As this weblog was begun with the intention to be the log that chronicles our progress in eventual move to the Big Island for our retirement, I am posting today to announce the first of our series of milestones toward that end.

Yesterday I bought a ticket for a round trip flight to Hilo in mid-April, where I will be looking at acreage in the Puna District on which to build our retirement home when we finish up our business here on the Mainland. I expect to be there about 5 days, during which time I hope to find that one of the places on my list will prove a suitable piece of land for our hale likaia.

Mahalo nui to my friend and Shipmates Lee and Patty for their gracious invitation to allow me to impose on their Hale 'Ohana during my visit. I am also looking forward to face-to-face talk story with several of my BI makamaka whom I have met through PunaOnline, Damon Tucker's Weblog and Devany Vickery Davidson's My Hawaiian Home.

More to follow along this subject line after completion of my trip. Aloha nui.

UNIT SITREP 111400Z MAR 09

Still alive and kicking here, claiming victory over recent engagement with locally circulating flu bug. Work schedule exceedingly aggressive here lately, impeding my attention to posting. Pushing through this crunch and will be back soon.

Meantime, 6 mooring lines doubled up, tending fair. Quarterdeck, Cold Iron and Sounding Security Watches set with all but Duty Sections in a liberty status. All conditions normal; the Captain is ashore.

Aloha

Binnacle List

Have been Tango Uniform for the better part of the last week with a respiratory crud. Recovering, but still feeling punk. Will get back to full operational status soon. Meantime, any takers on the significance to this post of the image shown here?

Back soon...Aloha nui.

Haole Honu Luau

I caught a TV news spot last night announcing a local event to benefit our Sea Turtles who frequent South Florida coastal waters; several species return to our local beaches to nest. The nesting season for some of these species is closing on us, and the Loggerhead Marinelife Center, whose purpose is to support conservation and rehabilitation of the Loggerhead and other Sea Turtles down the road a ways in Juno Beach, has announced the Loggerhead Luau event to be held on Saturday February 28, proceeds to benefit the Center.

The town of Juno Beach (among others) undertakes an annual practice of turning off lights along the nesting beaches and encouraging residents to minimize outdoor lighting to help prevent the turtles' becoming confused during their terrestrial navigation to and from their nesting sites, as they instinctively follow the brightest light back to the ocean.

Sadly, some imported cultures here consider sea turtle eggs a delicacy and people ignorant of or uncaring about laws protecting these creatures are sometimes caught looting the sea turtle nests for their eggs. The education of the public here is a significant effort to reduce the artificial lighting problem for the turtles and prevent the needless turtle egg poaching. Beaches are surveyed during nesting seasons to locate and mark the nests to prevent their being disturbed.

I hope these keiki haole honu can grow up to return for a future Luau in their honor one day. Their odds of survival are astronomical, with seagulls, dogs, marine predators and worse of all, poachers.