Monday here. Normally we (we as in the batch plants 2 guys and James and I at the lab) don't have to work unless one of the contractors orders concrete. They ordered 120 yards starting at 4 am, which left us going into work at 3am to prepare. At the lab, our part ended at a little after 8 am, which left me room to meet up with my kiteboarding friends at 9 am. I didn't make it to the Marina until around fifteen minutes after nine. The Marhallese guy, Gary, who runs the small boat marina sees me with the kite and backpack and says that I "just missed them", "they just turned around the end of the pier". Gary is around 5'6" tall and fairly thick. He has a round face and a bit of a week old beard all the time, and is always smiling. "I can call your friends on the radio and have them come back" he says. I tell him thank you, but no, I was late. We ended up talking for a bit longer and he tells me to come into his office cause he has something for me. I had given him one of my old kites a few weeks ago, and he needed me to fill out the paper work so he could take the kite thru the Harbor patrol security, and back to Ebeye on the ferry, where he lived.
There was a private boat out in the harbor a few minutes later. It looked at first like it was heading out to the lagoon, but it started turning back to the docks. They must have just taken it off the trailer and were docking it for a later trip. I went down and saw one familiar face Tom. He's a KPD (Kwajalein Policeman) married to Amy who is a nurse or maybe runs the hospital I'm not sure which. One of my kites had a small rip in it so I posted on the local facebook page for someone who might be able to repair it. Amy messaged me back and that's how I met Tom. I wasn't really sure it was him when I approached the boat that had just docked. People out here wear so much sun protection its very hard to see who they are. I asked the "captain" (guy driving the boat) if they were going up the east side of the lagoon, because I just missed my friends heading up to Ebar. Joe and Jobe made up the name Ebar, its a cross between Ebeye, the island most Marshallese live on, and the sandbar just south of it. Its not even much of a sandbar lately, the east winds are pushing it back to where it came from on the other side of the lagoon 2 miles away. The captains and boat owners name was Don. He told me they were heading up to Bigej, but not until noon or so. "Oh, ok, well no big deal, I should probably chill anyhow" I tell him as I turn and walk back up the dock. He says "I can run you up to Big Bustard if that's all you need". I resisted for a bit, not wanting to put the guy out, plus my wallet wasn't with me to pay him gas money. He kept insisting it wasn't a big deal, and I accepted telling him that I will hunt him down to give him gas money and thanking him profusely and he kept insisting that the gas money wasn't necessary. Nice guy. Chief of Police it turns out. His name was Don, and his wife Shmay (that's my phonetic spelling) were both really nice people. Strange way to meet someone, but really really nice people.
At that point it really wasn't that I needed to go kiteboarding that badly, The shock value to the friends out there at Ebar would be great. I grabbed my board, harness and waterflask and jumped on board. The whole shock value worked. They all wondered what this boat was doing heading in to Ebar so closely, then they saw a body jump off. It was quite the swim to get to them cause Don was a little afraid of the shallow water, even if it wasn't as shallow as he thought. I was just happy he took me out there. It was a little over a mile to Big Bustard from the Kwaj small boat marina, and it was completely nice he did that for me. I will chase him down and give him $25 tomorrow. Turns out I could have walked. It would have taken forever walking over the reef from Kwaj to Little Bustard to Big Bustard and then to where their boats were parked. The entertainment value of showing up that way might have been slightly better than showing up in some random boat, because I didn't get to the marina on time.
So kiteboarding ended around 1pm and by the time we got all the kites and Joe's boat all rinsed off and put away it was around 2:00pm. High tide for surfing was around 5, so I told Kristen, who loves to surf, that I would be at Met Rocket at 3:30. "Met Rocket" is a surfspot on the west end of Kwaj about a half mile south of the "Shark Pit", where most of the surfing was done up until bout 4 months ago. For some reason, Met Rocket is the new place to surf. My ultimate Frisbee game on Mondays starts at 5pm, so surfing for me had to end around 4:30. I kind of wondered how not stopping moving from 2:30am until 5pm would affect my Frisbee game. I wasn't tired, but I definitely was not energetic, and my stamina wasn't normal, and my lungs didn't seem to be working as well as they might have.
Its 9 pm now. Lights are going out soon. Unfortunately, I'll probably wake up at 3 am. Sleep is strange for me: when I need it the most that's when I wake up the earliest....
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