Gettin Ready

It's a bit of a funny time of year. I feel like I am just getting ready for the Holidays. I'm just watching the time go by and getting things ready for the Holidays. While it will be absolutely great to see Mum, Bernie, Glen, Dad and Judes again. I'm not sure I should be marking time til the holidays start. I really should starty some other project that I can finnish before I go. Maybe I should renovate the last room in the House. I't would be good to come backl home from the holidays and have a proper bedroom to sleep in. Not to mention that If I get that room done I will be able to have a real bed again and not have to sleep on a Futon. It's not even a good quality Futon, but it has served me well over the last year.
OK it's sorted I will try and finish off the main bedroom and hopefully get it finished before I leave for NSW and Christmas. That is unless someone has a better solution or project for me.

Off to PNG

So it is now official. I will be off to PNG on the 18th of February. The trip is to Kimbe Bay on the 18th of Feb next year. Kimbe Bay is in the West New Brittian Province of PNG in red on the Map below.




So Unfortunately I wont be going to Crazy Highland PNG but it's still a new country and it's a new culture. Kimbe is shown in More Detail in the Photo Below.

In between the VN and the OT on the Map above is an Island called Kimbe Island (Original Huh) and that is Where the Trip is to. It will be 10 days on a livaboard Dive Boat Moored off of this little Island.
The Project is pretty cool as well. They are trying to find out how far the Larvae go and where they go to and they have found a unique way of doing this. They have found a way to "tag" the Larvae even before they are born then you can sample that same and surrounding reefs to find out how far the Larvae travelled in the water column. This trip is about taging the larvae. There will be more trips later to collect the juveniles once they have settled on a reef and figue out how far they have traveled and which breeding pair they came from.
Anyway very cool news for the moment and I will post more on this trip soon.

Orpheus Island

I have just been on Orpheus Island for the last Week working on the Coral Spawning with Andrew Baird. Collecting Larvae and corals, Diving and Taking Photo's. We managed to go out to a Mid-Shelf reef with some good vis, so I have some excellent underwater shots that I will put up on the web soon. These shots should also feature in a lot of the Centre's publications for the next year or so. Any way this is just a quick post to say that I am alive and well and I had alot of fun over the last week. Andrew Baird is a great guy and maje his trips fun. Alot of work and little sleep but still fun. So thanks Andrew and there will be Photo's up on the Web here soon.

Cheers Lewis

Sponsorship

So the Maggie Island Outrigger club is thinking of buying a new canoe. They are not the cheapest things in the world though. So today I have been to the Port of Townsville Website to find out about sponsorship to buy a canoe. Aperently they were going to buy the naming rights for one of the rowing boats a year ago for about $10000. Mirages cost about $13 000 this is a bit of a difference. There is also difference in What the Port would get out of it. The nameing rights would have allowed the port to name the boat in small black letters about 5cm big on one side of the bow of the rowing boat. Buying a Mirage on the otherhand buys a full colour spread down the side of the canoe that would have the port name and logo. The other thing is that the canoe will spend alot of it's life down on the Strand, one of the most popular places in town. thousands of people would be walking by it each day. Seeing that the Port helps local sporting clubs.
Well that sounds like a good speal to put to the port. Hope fully it will convince them to help us with a canoe. If anyone has any ideas about how to sell this a bit better then leave a comment. I'm open to all suggestions.

Cheers Lewis