In The Middle of the Pacific Ocean

E and I flew to Kona with K to deposit her at a Waikoloa condo in preparation for our fishing trip to Kiritimati, an island that is part of the Republic of Kiribati and the largest atoll in the world.  It is a three hour flight, more or less south from Honolulu.  The convoluted international Date Line is crossed on the way.

The date line crossing was difficult to wrap my mind around. The time zone on Kiritimati is GMT -14 hours. Hawaii is GMT + 10 hours, so when you leave HNL and arrive at CXI, it is the same time but one day later.  The coolest thing about the date line is on the way home: you depart the future and arrive in the past, or leave today and arrive yesterday, or you departed tomorrow and arrived today.  The Fiji Air flight first class was nice, it was supposed to be a 737 MAX 8, but was an older 737 instead.  The CXI (Cassidy International Airport) terminal building is brand new.

Not a MAX 8

About to Land on Christmas Island

The Police Station was one of the nicer buildings along the highway

Details of the new terminal construction

Christmas Island is part of a third world country made up of far flung islands spread across thousands of square miles of the Pacific Ocean. They have little ability to manage waste or provide clean drinking water.  Food is mostly imported and unhealthy.  Flour, sugar and rice contribute to health problems such as diabetes.  They have health services, but little access to antibiotics and other drugs. From what I saw, there are no old men on the island and all the men smoke tobacco rolled in pandanus leaves.

The people are friendly and appreciative of the generosity of visitors and are certain to return any generosity.  We packed an extra suitcase of school supplies, some shoes, clothes, and as it turned out extra fishing gear.

I have fished for bonefish at Anaeho'omalo Bay, Big Island, HI for way more hours than I would like to admit.  I have seen  large bonefish there and caught 1/2 a dozen other species, but never hooked a bone.  At Christmas Island I hooked and landed a fish on the first "cast".  I threw my fly in the water and started stripping line to get to the ready position.  A small bone took the fly and the curse was broken.

The learning curve was steep with several conditions to overcome; seeing fish in the varying light and bottom composition, constant wind up to 20 mph, converting the guide's "20 Ft" into a distance I could estimate, getting the feel for the take and managing the line as the fish screams away at 40 mph.  Most importantly, realizing that setting the hook with 15 lb tippet is not the same as for Snook or SMB with 30 lb tippet.  I can break 15 lb tippet.  Seeing fish before the guide was confidence building until you realize that he was pointing to a different fish that was a better shot at the moment.

Fishing is really all about fashion

E was more interested in adventure than fishing.  The first day she went to the local pre-K school and helped with numbers and letters for a few hours.  She then found a bicycle to explore London, the biggest town just a couple of miles from The Villages where we stayed.  She spent the first evening working out a lesson plan for the next day and employed Colin, the only other fisherman for the week to come up with English language rhymes for the kids.  Poor Colin ("Col" a Brit who has lived in Australia for many years) had to get out of bed at 2 am and write down the rhymes that spun his mind into a sleepless state.

E was also invited to Bingo which is maybe the biggest form of entertainment on the island.  The cards are completely different from what we know and the numbers are called in the local language.  E's friend sat with her in the middle of the maneaba to help with the translation.  After bingo many locals recognized her as she explored the island sites.

E continued her island exploration with the goal of finding whatever was unique in the way of locally made goods.  She rather quickly found a woman named Tebringia (sp) at the Triple Tee (sort of a Home Depot), who made the colorful embroidered clothes that many of the island woman wear.  Needless to say we all have new shirts and our child has a couple new dresses.  Col's grandchildren will also have new shirts.

On the way to Farer Price after Triple T

E also found Denise, one of the workers at The Villages who is from Fanning Isand, a small atoll to the north.  Cruise ships used to stop there and the locals were skilled at making and selling puka shell bracelets.  The first one was torn from her ankle by the surf while looking for shells on a completely deserted beach on the ocean side.  Many locals were surprised and concerned about her solo adventures to the beach.



E did go fishing one day.  I anticipated that she would use the spinning gear I brought, but Bob the guide took charge and grabbed my spare fly gear.  It was a 9' 10Wt with a 15' tapered leader meant as an alternate for trigger fish and mistakenly rigged with a 12 wt line.  He had her casting and catching in short order.  It was her first time with a fly rod.  The guide told her to hold the rod in her teeth for the photo.  I am glad she didn't know what he meant.

One of E's Bonefish

Fishing ended early one day.  E, three woman from The Villages and I hopped into a "pickup" truck for a quest to find locally produced sea salt.  The salt is one of the three main exports, seaweed and aquarium fish are the other two.  After two failed inquires at local shops, we found the warehouse where salt from the ponds on the other side of the island is packaged for shipment to Japan.  We bought two, one Kilo bags of large crystals ($5AUS ea.) and grabbed a crystal from the plastic holding tubs that probably weighed 30 grams.  The other women grabbed crystals for themselves and nibbled them on the way home.

Cool painting that tells a lot about the process

One kilo bags

Me with a big rock of salt

On the way back we stopped at the London Kava bar.  I was hoping to get some powder, but the place wasn't open.  We were able to tour this oceanside watering hole.  My suspicions on the safety of the local brew were confirmed.  A 20 gallon plastic trash can served as the mixing bowl which looked like it has never been cleaned.  A 9 or 10 year old boy was sweeping leaves from the sand floor of the bar so I grabbed another "broom" and helped him for a few minutes.

On the last day fishing was rained out in the morning.  E, Col and I jumped in Bob the head guide's van and went to London to pickup my shirt and pay a $1 debt that E had at a shop.  Col failed in his search to procure a printer for the school, but did figure out the type of printer cartridges available, so I am sure he will bring one from Australia next fall.  We also mailed a post card to ourselves which was not as simple as one might expect.

Eating Tuna in my new shirt

During the ride Col told me the story about "Charlie" our boatman.  Typically at the last flats walk of the day Col would offer his guide the use of his fly rod to catch yellow snapper and other species for Tea (dinner).  Charlie had a rod, a 3' broken off tip from something much longer, but no hooks or line, so he couldn't fish.  I planned for E to use spinning tackle when she fished so I had a good assortment of hooks, line, jigs and sinkers.  I packed up this gear in a small cooler I used as a boat bag during the week. I left it for Col to give to Charlie the next day.  I hope Charlie has enough gear to catch fish for "Tea" until we return.

The Boat man and our guides

The last night a woman treated us to her amazing karaoke voice, singing Dolly Parton and other Real Country classics. This was followed by some traditional dancing by the staff women. My wife joined in the popular music dancing that followed. Two other men who were guests at the lodge joined in. Col and I were relieved that we were not dragged out onto the dance floor.

This experience was emotionally overwhelming at times.  From the extreme poverty to the sincere gratitude and happiness that the locals portray, to the vastness of the flats ecosystem and the wildlife within, this is a place unique to the world.  I added the Bonefish, Queen fish and Giant (12") Trevally to my fly fishing species list.

My wife really enjoyed her visit and made friends with everyone she met.  We were provided with a papaya and many coconuts when she expressed her love for island produce. We were taught how to crack a coconut without tools and how to efficiently extract the meat from the shell.  The tuna sashimi was the best we have ever had.  We "showered" with bottled and filtered water.  And somehow we managed to remain "regular". We couldn't have asked for a better time.

On the way home my layover at HNL was interrupted by pandemonium that followed "gunfire" at the bag check area.  I was first in line to board when people started screaming and running through the terminal.  People dropped their Starbucks and hid behind anything they could.  I grabbed a metal pole and was prepared to use some metal shelving as a shield.  Others ran down the jetway as gate agents tried in vain to secure the aircraft.

I spent an anxious 5 minutes or so waiting for the shooter to come to our gate.  It became clear that our demise was not imminent.  My brain was fried from my first experience being in a crowd where the reaction to an active shooter situation was real, but thankfully unwarranted. It was very sad to see how many people were in effect sitting ducks with no real ability to run, hide or fight.

We boarded the plane expecting to depart since the security breach was at a different part of the terminal. Unfortunately we were forced to evacuate.  Luckily I was served a double vodka on the rocks that I carried off the plane and into the Honolulu airport sunshine to wait for the terminal to reopen.

Waiting for HNL to reopen

It turned out that one or two laptops exploded in the bag check area.  Since people ran past the TSA checkpoint into the secured area the entire airport was evacuated and a security sweep was conducted.  About three hours later I was able to shuffle through TSA again and board for LAX, well past the time to make my connection to MSP.  I made it home about 8 hours later than planned but at a more convenient time for pickup.

E and K continued their Big Island visit for a while longer.  After taking care of the garden and a few other things around the house, the cat and I went to the Cabin in the Woods to escape the coming heat wave and do some fishing.

A visitor to The Cabin in the Woods

Stone steps to nowhere

Five, maybe six years ago Tom and I started building a set of stone stairs from the top of the dock stairs to the next level up the hill. We made a lot progress, but just didn't have the stones to complete the job. It has been under an attractive blue tarp since to protect it from the elements. In the mean time we collected a few more stones and made one more failed attempt to complete it. Well now I declare it 99% complete, it just needs some vegetation stuffed into the nooks and grannies and around the edges to dress it up and prevent wash out. For now they kind of go nowhere until more steps are added to the next level.

Well a little more work and some time for things to settle have produced the following results.

Snook shark

The last day of our Sanibel Island vacation was spent with cocktails and a line out in the trough. Bait was the heads and some attached entrails of a gulf kingfish I caught earlier in the day. A few cocktails passed and no action so I got up to check my line. I was setup with an 8/0 Gam octopus hook, about 2 feet of 26 lb. 7 strand knottable wire. As soon as I touched the rod a little line payed out. I cranked down the drag and the fish started to run. A couple of good hooks sets to be sure and the fight was on. There was enough surf to make it hard to see, I was expecting a shark but was surprised by the biggest snook I have ever hooked. It was exciting to have an audience and not screw up. I landed the 32" fish, lots of good pics and a video. Here is my favorite.

Here is a pic of a typical fly rod fish from the trip. This is one of a few pics taken by a random beach walker. On the first evening of fishing not much was happening until another random beach walker pointed out a couple of snook that were practically beaching themselves while chasing minnows about a cast and half away. Two casts and I had my first snook of 2013!

Carp Adventure 2013

First carp fishing outing of the year. Too much rain, lots of gardens to set up, and a garage sale to prep have detracted from the more important but less critical aspect of life, Fishing! I also may have missed the best part of the morel season. While fishing for carp which involves sneaking through the underbrush, I found a few shrooms, so I was torn between looking for fish and looking for mushrooms, either one is good. I only had a couple of hours before school got out so I hurried down to the MN river by car with my bike on the back and a pack full of wading gear. I rode about a mile from the parking lot to a channel between two back water lakes. Turned out the water was so low in this particular backwater channel that waders were not required. Seemed odd since the river was pretty high, flowing about 12000 cfs. The first fish I cast to came along the shore from the right and paused to feed about ten feet away. Water clarity was marginal, I expected a carp, turned out to be my first shortnose gar on a fly, a crawfish like thing. It was no match for an 8 wt. I beached it when I set the hook, but he quickly rolled back in and made a couple of good runs. The carp were cruising the channel and not obviously feeding. I cast to a few and got one to chase the fly. Time was short so I started to blind cast and hooked this 25" fish. A few cast later another fish broke me off. Lesson forgotten, check your leader after you catch a fish, or maybe it was another gar?

I finally was able to be on the river with a decent flow and clarity. Didn't see many fish, but brought a couple to hand. The cool thing about this fish is that the wood duck feathers were harvested on the same stretch of river last fall.

I was also pretty happy with this rough fish, thought he was a carp rooting around in the sandy bottom when I cast my fly, he ran well and until he started head shaking I didn't realize what he was!

Surreal Morels

Just a check to see if I can place a link to this image on another site. I use this as an avatar on a few sites. It is a picture of some morel mushrooms in a stainless steel bowl that I picked (kids used to ask if I "caught" any, they can be elusive).

Beef O Rama 2010

One of the more elaborate means of beef roast conveyance in the parade.

The Vine


Our 2nd annual visit to this unparalleled event in Minocqua was greeted with excellent weather and even a visit by Danny. Mitch cooked his first annual Pork Roast to celebrate and we all had a great time. The Vine is one of the better local establishments with a very comfortable courtyard. E, K, and I arrived early and asked for a big table outside as we were waiting for the Mitchells and Danny to arrive. We had a couple of glasses of wine by the time our fiends arrived. The hostess exclaimed, "I didn't realize you were waiting for Them" I suspected we might be refused service at that point, but of course we became instantly infamous instead. We also harvested grapes from the vine since the birds beat us to them in Faribault.

Florida

E and I took C, M, and K to Florida for a quick vacation over Halloween 2010. We stayed in Orlando and traveled to the coasts to find some beaches and to swim with the manatees at Crystal River.
Interesting creatures and a very cool place even though we were in a residential area surrounding a small pocket of National Wildlife Refuge. There was a large double spring leading from a very narrow channel that feeds the river and keeps the manatees warm and fed in the winter.
Looking at the National Wildlife Refuge (see familiar sign with the goose on it)

Looking in the opposite direction.

Procrastination

It has been a busy fall as usual, so it has been easy to procrastinate posting. Another reason is that this post has been on my mind for a while. I somehow keep losing the picture that E took and that inspired the thoughts surrounding it, and of course the subject isn't the easiest to write about.
So I named the picture "And then there was one". It is a strange feeling to grow up in a family of five and then over time have everyone except you die. Nobody ever expects things to turn out the way they did, you expect things to go on forever, just the way they are, but here I am.

I am lucky to have the rest of my family, truly blessed in fact, my children (J, C, M and K), E, and a few good friends. So we will continue and be thankful for what we have and for the those we no longer have with us.

Lux Cafe

We went to Chicago for "The Cousin's Christmas party". The Girls went to Tea at the American Girl's Store, unfortunately there were only three spots left at the tea so Ed treated me to lunch at the Lux Cafe (600 N Michigan). It was a cool place, Art Deco and good food.

Fossilized Alien Heads

I like to collect FAHs. This is a pic of one I found in the Straight River last weekend. This one is different than most, it seems this alien met a rather tragic ending based on the contorted grimace.
Some interesting FAHs originate from the Omarolluk region of eastern Hudson Bay. Apparently a large number of aliens met their end sometime before the last ice age or two. Their fossilized heads were transported and deposited by glaciers all over the upper Midwest. Here is another one that may have an origin other than Omarolluk based on the color. This is more like your stereotypical alien head, note the distinctive elongated face and eyes, lack of a mouth.
Here is a link to a summary of the origin of Omars.
http://www.erudit.org/revue/gpq/2000/v54/n3/005654ar.pdf

Tornado

The TFF experienced a small tornado the last week of July 2010. Small I guess is relative depending on whether or not you were affected. Some Island campers were badly injured and many of the campsites had to be closed.
We lost a half dozen trees and had some damage to others. Neighbor Jim didn't fair so well, about 30 trees, mostly spruce required 25+ loads with a 12 ft trailer piled as high as possible were hauled to the dump. The neighbor on the other side lost a few really nice old spruce trees. The five red pines on the south side of the cabin only had a few broken branches, any of these would have wiped out the house.
So instead of four days of fishing with my new GPS enabled bow mount trolling motor (Virtual anchor - awesome!), we had a day and a half of decent fishing and spent the rest of the time cleaning up.

Harvest Sampler

The garden is coming to an end. Some successes, some failures. Here is a pic of the better results. And a look at this years patio sculpture.

Boston

Once again I am a tag along to a big city. These trips usually involve some nice meals. The first night I passed on the "Clam Bake" for grilled swordfish. The fish was good, but why do they call a Lobster Boil a Clam Bake? WTF, I sat there with my little piece of nicely grilled fish, and everyone else is served lobster! (with some clams on the side). I learned not to make that mistake again, and ate two lobsters the next night. The third night was yet another "Clam Bake", this time on Spectacle Island, a former garbage dump in the Boston Bay turned into part of the National Park System. A 20 minute scenic booze cruise brought us to the dinner, a well run affair, completed by an intense sunset and walk on the beach.

New York

New York for another due diligence trip. While E was learning, K and I explored Central Park. It was a good walk from the Waldorf Astoria. The street life was interesting along the way. Not quite as nice as Chicago of course, but not bad for a big city.
I guess they don't have alleys in NY?

Basil

The garden installation in Faribault was a bit of a rush this spring - moving to a new home in Minnetonka, fishing season, travel, etc. In the end the implementation was short of the plan, but the results so far have been good. Here is a pic of E the herbstress holding a very fragrant bunch of basil.



And some recent pictures of the whole thing. One of my favorite things about this setup is the automatic drip watering system from DripWorks. Drip emitters for individual plants and drip lines for rows are controlled by a timer. I can be away for days and not worry. It was fairly easy to setup, reusable and dependable. I just received another system for the deck at our new home with special piping features for individual planters. I just need to find the time to set it up before our next vacation.

Dock Work

My annual dock installation routine started early this year to take advantage of the very low water conditions at the TFF. The bottom of the steps leading to the dock had no support on the non railing side and the hillside under the stairs was beginning to erode. The main improvement was to add the two large rock shown just below the steps and the rearrange the rocks on either side. I also graded the slope leading up to the steps from the lake.


The lake is typically high enough to float the dock section into place. This year there was about 10 feet of sloped shore to deal with. Notice the large greenish rock just past the dock, it was sticking up a few inches and looked to be a in the way so after an hour or so of digging the rock was extracted from the lake bed. It's a nice rock though, I'll find a use for it.


Now for the real challenge. The dock secton is 6'x16' and weighs about a ton. I had just enough pieces of chain, tow straps and a come-along to reach a huge maple about 75' up the hill. Winch, pry, lift, shove was the trick. I used the come-along to put as much tension as I dared on the system, then E and I used pry bars to lift and shove the dock toward the shore. Progress was slow but in the end the dock was in place and secure to the shore with some new chain clevises.

Spring Rubarb and Mint

We thought this was an interesting pic. I like the lines of the wood table and the recurring diamond shape of the rock and the rhubarb spec on the side of the glass. The perennial (and now invasive) mint was already plentiful on this early May evening. The glass is from the San Francisco MOMA. It has a blue semicircular indentation in the bottom that appears to be a floating orb if you look into the top of the glass and it casts a blue tint in the Reyka vodka.