Sorry I haven't posted in a while. Things just aren't that exciting, I don't really want to relive every boring day doing the same thing, and I doubt anyone would really want to read it.
Quick update. I'll be going to Dubai August 12-15 to do work on some tanks there. While there I have made a reservation to go to the top of the Burj Khalifa - the world's tallest building. I am also doing an evening desert safari which should be a good cultural experience.
I then come back here for about 10 days then return to Dubai for one last round of tank maintenance, then my flight home. I have made a reservation at the Hilton on Jumeirah Beach in Dubai for my last 2 nights - figure I should get some form of vacation out of this. I found a great rate of $133 per night, including breakfast buffet!
Some observations - things maybe "lost in translation."
1. On the back of a water pump truck, "For complaining please call...." I need to remember that number and give it to my students.
2. Gas station name, FUCHS with the slogan "German technology speaks for itself."
3. My favorite company names ever, "Schwing Concrete Pumps." Awesome.
Another note, have you seen the Airbus 380?! It's a full double decker, not like those silly 747's with only a few rows up top. This things has a full on lounge, spa, maybe a bowling alley, upstairs in the plane! That's what I flew on from Dubai to Saudi. It is MASSIVE. You don't realize how big it is until you're standing underneath it on the tarmac.
OK, have to get to work. Got a bit of "good" news to take some stress off. The shop won't be able to open until late September since the retail product won't arrive until then. No deadlines for me! I just have to get as much done as I can while I'm here. That's a load off, considering I can;t do much more work until these other guys get their stuff done... How long can it possibly take to make a shelf for a fish tank stand?! Obviously several days. Damn, I could have cut a piece a plywood into a rectangle with a hand saw by now, I asked them about 4 days ago. UGH.
Ramadan Kareem! That's what everyone is saying, I assume it means something to the effect of happy Ramadan - which frankly seems like a contradiction, but whatever.
Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
No, that's not where I'm working, but it looks cool.
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
July 24, 2011
I know it's been several days since my last post but I've been so tried by the end of the day I just want to pass out. Not that I've been DOING too much, I'm just tired. I haven't been sleeping well due to either an army of mosquitos or one very hungry sucker. I wake up with bites, then I start scratching and then it itches more and I can't stop scratching and therefore can't fall back asleep.
As far as work goes, we have moved all of the MaRS tanks into the shop and they are now all plumbed together and ready to go. If only we had power. We have already used up all of the breakers in the panel that's in the shop so we have to bring in some more power! The electricians need to run cables along the ceiling and down to the tanks. We are also missing some pumps and not all of the ones we do have work. Tomorrow we are taking a long extension cord and will test the lights and pumps and see what we can fix and what will need to be replaced.
On Sunday we moved the shark tank onto the stand. That was an adventure. We had about 15 guys and still had to call in help from the random electricians and carpenters hanging around. The tank was sitting on roller carts that were shorter than the tank stand so we had to figure out how to get it up above the level of the stand. We brought in a huge pile of lumber pieces, used the pallet jacks to jack the tank up, built up the roller carts so the tank would now be higher than the stand and then rolled the tank onto the stand. If only. The first part was simple enough. Once we started pushing the tank and simultaneously pulling with this huge strap thing, the roller carts inevitably hit the stand. We had to stop, jack the tank up, move the carts back, lower the tank back onto the carts, push/pull again, stop, repeat... Once the tank was "mostly" on the stand we just had to use brute force to push the thing into place on the stand. It weighs about 3 tons. We couldn't push on the actual acrylic viewing glass, which limited where we could work from and we also had to deftly maneuver around flimsy walls and support beams in the room. I'll work on getting the pics and videos of the ordeal up here or on Facebook soon. It was, of course, the last 5cm of getting it placed evenly on the stand that posed the biggest problem, but we got it on there pretty square! Now we just have to pray that the architectural consultant gives the OK on the reinforcment of the stand that was done last minute. We might have to move the tank off again.
Saw my first Starbucks in Jeddah yesterday. Right next door to a Pizza Hut. Interestingly enough, Pizza Huts here are like Starbucks back home, they are on every corner.
We were supposed to get a shipment of 25 baby blacktip sharks today from Sri Lanka but something happened and they didn't get shipped. It had something to do with the fact that the plane was overloaded so of all the things they could unload, they unloaded the live fish. Now, as you might imagine, being shipped to another country is stressful an a shark. Hell, it's stressful on me. They get fasted for 24 hours, packed into large plastic bags with a sedative like drug in it, stuffed into styrofoam boxes then packed into crates. They are them driven 1 hour to the airport, go through all the normal customs screenings and procedures, get loaded onto the plane and then after another hour or so get OFFLOADED from the plane. The guys had to go back to the airport, pick up the crates, take them back to their facility and unload them just to have to do this all over again in a few days. Stupid. These are animals that will be here at the palace, in another large shark tank that Issham is building for the guy who owns the boat I worked on last summer and then a few will probably end up in the tank at the shop.
There are 2 British guys here today doing some work and they invited me to go out to dinner with them. That should be fun. We'll go on an adventure. I'll let you know how that all plays out.
I have some sort of electronics travel curse. Last summer it was the Kobo ereader, this summer it is my underwater camera and iPhone. The camera flooded with water after only the 4th dive so it's toast. Now my iPhone speaker doesn't work. I can hear it through the headphones but the speaker is out. I did the rice thing to see if it was moisture in the phone and the next day it worked! Then it didn't again. It's been sitting in a bowl of rice for 3 days and it's still not working. I give. It only got wet due to me being sweaty and it being in my pocket. Apple needs to be able to make sweat proof phones. That's pretty ridiculous that I'm going to have to pay to fix this damn thing because I was sweating.
OK, time to go get ready for tonight!
As far as work goes, we have moved all of the MaRS tanks into the shop and they are now all plumbed together and ready to go. If only we had power. We have already used up all of the breakers in the panel that's in the shop so we have to bring in some more power! The electricians need to run cables along the ceiling and down to the tanks. We are also missing some pumps and not all of the ones we do have work. Tomorrow we are taking a long extension cord and will test the lights and pumps and see what we can fix and what will need to be replaced.
On Sunday we moved the shark tank onto the stand. That was an adventure. We had about 15 guys and still had to call in help from the random electricians and carpenters hanging around. The tank was sitting on roller carts that were shorter than the tank stand so we had to figure out how to get it up above the level of the stand. We brought in a huge pile of lumber pieces, used the pallet jacks to jack the tank up, built up the roller carts so the tank would now be higher than the stand and then rolled the tank onto the stand. If only. The first part was simple enough. Once we started pushing the tank and simultaneously pulling with this huge strap thing, the roller carts inevitably hit the stand. We had to stop, jack the tank up, move the carts back, lower the tank back onto the carts, push/pull again, stop, repeat... Once the tank was "mostly" on the stand we just had to use brute force to push the thing into place on the stand. It weighs about 3 tons. We couldn't push on the actual acrylic viewing glass, which limited where we could work from and we also had to deftly maneuver around flimsy walls and support beams in the room. I'll work on getting the pics and videos of the ordeal up here or on Facebook soon. It was, of course, the last 5cm of getting it placed evenly on the stand that posed the biggest problem, but we got it on there pretty square! Now we just have to pray that the architectural consultant gives the OK on the reinforcment of the stand that was done last minute. We might have to move the tank off again.
Saw my first Starbucks in Jeddah yesterday. Right next door to a Pizza Hut. Interestingly enough, Pizza Huts here are like Starbucks back home, they are on every corner.
We were supposed to get a shipment of 25 baby blacktip sharks today from Sri Lanka but something happened and they didn't get shipped. It had something to do with the fact that the plane was overloaded so of all the things they could unload, they unloaded the live fish. Now, as you might imagine, being shipped to another country is stressful an a shark. Hell, it's stressful on me. They get fasted for 24 hours, packed into large plastic bags with a sedative like drug in it, stuffed into styrofoam boxes then packed into crates. They are them driven 1 hour to the airport, go through all the normal customs screenings and procedures, get loaded onto the plane and then after another hour or so get OFFLOADED from the plane. The guys had to go back to the airport, pick up the crates, take them back to their facility and unload them just to have to do this all over again in a few days. Stupid. These are animals that will be here at the palace, in another large shark tank that Issham is building for the guy who owns the boat I worked on last summer and then a few will probably end up in the tank at the shop.
There are 2 British guys here today doing some work and they invited me to go out to dinner with them. That should be fun. We'll go on an adventure. I'll let you know how that all plays out.
I have some sort of electronics travel curse. Last summer it was the Kobo ereader, this summer it is my underwater camera and iPhone. The camera flooded with water after only the 4th dive so it's toast. Now my iPhone speaker doesn't work. I can hear it through the headphones but the speaker is out. I did the rice thing to see if it was moisture in the phone and the next day it worked! Then it didn't again. It's been sitting in a bowl of rice for 3 days and it's still not working. I give. It only got wet due to me being sweaty and it being in my pocket. Apple needs to be able to make sweat proof phones. That's pretty ridiculous that I'm going to have to pay to fix this damn thing because I was sweating.
OK, time to go get ready for tonight!
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
July 20, 2011
OK so the fun started today!
We finally took a truckload of the MaRS tank units to the shop. Boy was this an adventure! First, the truck that shows up has a cover on it which isn't tall enough to allow the tanks to be loaded on. The driver puts in a few calls and gets a new, open bed truck to come out - be he's 30 minutes away. So we sit around and wait. Samir and I start trying to disassemble a broken, rusty pump from one of the systems - just for the hell of it. A few minutes later, the forklift arrives. So, we're all set, except for a truck. Finally, he gets there and we get started. Now, the listed dry weight of one of these tank systems is 490 pounds. With some wrestling (that made me cringe more than once), we got 10 of these things loaded up on the truck.
Four of us piled into Sanji's tiny car and took off for the shop with the trucks following us. I told him to go ahead and pass them because I didn't want to see them shaking around and crashing into each other and breaking in the back of that truck. Once the tanks arrived at the store we pondered our options for actually getting them off the truck, into the store, and then into place. We had to get them off the 1 meter high truck bed, up some steps, across a small unevenly paved plaza, up another step into the shop, then through the shop and between a large support beam and the shark tank over to where they will be set up. Did I mention that they are taller than the doorway into the shop? These tanks aren't attached to the racks except by the plumbing that goes into them from the back and a small lip on the front of the rack.
First things first. We backed the truck into a small passenger unloading area and jumped a curb to back it up as far as we could so that the bed actually extended over the first set of steps we had to conquer. We then used a hydraulic pallet jack to get them off the truck. We hiked it up to the same level as the truck bed and "slid" the racks onto the jack. I say "slid" because, again, it was more like wrestling them. We used some pieces of PVC pipe to kind of roll them along as much as we could. Did I mention they weigh almost 500 pounds? The guys with the pallet jack rolled them over to the front of the store while Samir and I "slid" the next rack to the edge of the truck bed. One by one, we got each rack off the truck. By the time we unloaded all 10, it was noon. Lunch time!! Prayer time!! We had no food and since it was prayer time, there were no restaurants, stores, 7-11's open to get anything. So we kept working.
To get the tanks into the shop we "slid" them to the door, tipped them almost horizontal, and hauled them in. This just about gave me a heart attack for several reasons. First, these things are NOT supposed to be horizontal! I was having visions of the tanks sliding right off the racks, shattering to millions of pieces and me getting horribly maimed. Second, I was the guy on the inside toward whom the tanks were being tipped. This means that a majority of the weight of these things was squarely on my shoulders and back as 4 guys on the back side lifted in over the threshold. Once safely inside the shop we has a great furniture mover/skateboard that we put them on and just wheeled them through the maze of the store, dodging paint buckets, electricians, some unidentifiable chemical, shelves, the shark tank, the shark tank stand and a bewildered janitor. We got 5 of the tanks in when Sanji finally decided it was a good time to go get food. Finally, a break.
Once of the boss men showed up, asked me some questions, then took me upstairs to The Steak House for lunch. I protested, I actually wanted to eat with the other guys but he insisted. This place was apparently named the "Best Restaurant in Saudi Arabia." It is a typical American steakhouse. Full salad bar, burgers, steak, chicken, fries, shakes - just no bacon! Anyway, I couldn't help myself, I've been homesick, missing good ol' American fare (usually I get chicken or beef stir fry with white rice for lunch AND dinner every day). I had the guacamole cheese burger and it was AWESOME!! I didn't even my beef stir fry and white rice for dinner because I was still so full.
By the time we finished lunch and got back down a whole army of guys had showed up and had all the tanks in the shop! Jonathan even made an appearance and sent most of the guys back to the palace or fish station while Sanji, Samir and I stayed behind to put the tanks "sort of" in place. We still have 12 to bring and the shark tank is blocking an area where some tanks will go but we wanted to get and idea of what it will look like. Sanji took an inventory of what we will need to actually plumb these things, connect them together and get them running. We will probably get the shark tank on it's stand tomorrow - couldn't do it today because they painted the stand so it was still sticky which would have made it very hard to slide the tank across it.
Saturday and Sunday the guys and I will start getting these darn tanks up and running so stuff is starting to take off. I should be kept very busy for the next few weeks which will be good.
I'm also trying to get myself kick started to begin planning for school. It seems like I am so far removed from that, it's hard to get into that gear.
Did I mention that one of the marmoset monkeys had babies?! She has 2 but apparently it is very rare that both survive. So far so good. I've tried to get pictures but they are very difficult to see. Hopefully they make it and before I leave they will be out and about.
OK, bed time, it's been a long day!
We finally took a truckload of the MaRS tank units to the shop. Boy was this an adventure! First, the truck that shows up has a cover on it which isn't tall enough to allow the tanks to be loaded on. The driver puts in a few calls and gets a new, open bed truck to come out - be he's 30 minutes away. So we sit around and wait. Samir and I start trying to disassemble a broken, rusty pump from one of the systems - just for the hell of it. A few minutes later, the forklift arrives. So, we're all set, except for a truck. Finally, he gets there and we get started. Now, the listed dry weight of one of these tank systems is 490 pounds. With some wrestling (that made me cringe more than once), we got 10 of these things loaded up on the truck.
Four of us piled into Sanji's tiny car and took off for the shop with the trucks following us. I told him to go ahead and pass them because I didn't want to see them shaking around and crashing into each other and breaking in the back of that truck. Once the tanks arrived at the store we pondered our options for actually getting them off the truck, into the store, and then into place. We had to get them off the 1 meter high truck bed, up some steps, across a small unevenly paved plaza, up another step into the shop, then through the shop and between a large support beam and the shark tank over to where they will be set up. Did I mention that they are taller than the doorway into the shop? These tanks aren't attached to the racks except by the plumbing that goes into them from the back and a small lip on the front of the rack.
First things first. We backed the truck into a small passenger unloading area and jumped a curb to back it up as far as we could so that the bed actually extended over the first set of steps we had to conquer. We then used a hydraulic pallet jack to get them off the truck. We hiked it up to the same level as the truck bed and "slid" the racks onto the jack. I say "slid" because, again, it was more like wrestling them. We used some pieces of PVC pipe to kind of roll them along as much as we could. Did I mention they weigh almost 500 pounds? The guys with the pallet jack rolled them over to the front of the store while Samir and I "slid" the next rack to the edge of the truck bed. One by one, we got each rack off the truck. By the time we unloaded all 10, it was noon. Lunch time!! Prayer time!! We had no food and since it was prayer time, there were no restaurants, stores, 7-11's open to get anything. So we kept working.
To get the tanks into the shop we "slid" them to the door, tipped them almost horizontal, and hauled them in. This just about gave me a heart attack for several reasons. First, these things are NOT supposed to be horizontal! I was having visions of the tanks sliding right off the racks, shattering to millions of pieces and me getting horribly maimed. Second, I was the guy on the inside toward whom the tanks were being tipped. This means that a majority of the weight of these things was squarely on my shoulders and back as 4 guys on the back side lifted in over the threshold. Once safely inside the shop we has a great furniture mover/skateboard that we put them on and just wheeled them through the maze of the store, dodging paint buckets, electricians, some unidentifiable chemical, shelves, the shark tank, the shark tank stand and a bewildered janitor. We got 5 of the tanks in when Sanji finally decided it was a good time to go get food. Finally, a break.
Once of the boss men showed up, asked me some questions, then took me upstairs to The Steak House for lunch. I protested, I actually wanted to eat with the other guys but he insisted. This place was apparently named the "Best Restaurant in Saudi Arabia." It is a typical American steakhouse. Full salad bar, burgers, steak, chicken, fries, shakes - just no bacon! Anyway, I couldn't help myself, I've been homesick, missing good ol' American fare (usually I get chicken or beef stir fry with white rice for lunch AND dinner every day). I had the guacamole cheese burger and it was AWESOME!! I didn't even my beef stir fry and white rice for dinner because I was still so full.
By the time we finished lunch and got back down a whole army of guys had showed up and had all the tanks in the shop! Jonathan even made an appearance and sent most of the guys back to the palace or fish station while Sanji, Samir and I stayed behind to put the tanks "sort of" in place. We still have 12 to bring and the shark tank is blocking an area where some tanks will go but we wanted to get and idea of what it will look like. Sanji took an inventory of what we will need to actually plumb these things, connect them together and get them running. We will probably get the shark tank on it's stand tomorrow - couldn't do it today because they painted the stand so it was still sticky which would have made it very hard to slide the tank across it.
Saturday and Sunday the guys and I will start getting these darn tanks up and running so stuff is starting to take off. I should be kept very busy for the next few weeks which will be good.
I'm also trying to get myself kick started to begin planning for school. It seems like I am so far removed from that, it's hard to get into that gear.
Did I mention that one of the marmoset monkeys had babies?! She has 2 but apparently it is very rare that both survive. So far so good. I've tried to get pictures but they are very difficult to see. Hopefully they make it and before I leave they will be out and about.
OK, bed time, it's been a long day!
Monday, July 18, 2011
July 18, 2011
Sorry for the lack of posts in the past few days. I have been down at our storage area cleaning the fish tank racks. It's been a very hot, sweaty, dirty few days and by the time I'm off work, I just want to shower and pass out. I have had some of the guys that work down there helping me out. I cleaned one of these tank systems on my own the other day and it took me about 4 hours to do 1 by myself. With about 6 guys, we got 16 of them cleaned in approximately 5 hours. I was down there this morning and we started putting them back together so they are ready to install once we move them to the shop which should hopefully be in the next few days.
The shark tank should be ready to put in place today or tomorrow. Once we can start moving stuff into the shop, my job can really get going.
Alright, just wanted to check in.
The shark tank should be ready to put in place today or tomorrow. Once we can start moving stuff into the shop, my job can really get going.
Alright, just wanted to check in.
Friday, July 15, 2011
July 15, 2011
So, I had to work a half day today to make up for taking yesterday off to go diving. They really only have 1 true day off each week, Thursday is a half day. So anyway, Jonathan left for Dubai on Wednesday evening and gave me a job to do today. he wanted me to get into the shark lagoon and get an accurate "fin count" of how many male and female blacktip sharks we have. Sweet!! Can't think of a better way to spend a day than to sit and let sharks swim around you!
I spent the first 20 minutes on the highest rock I could find near the edge of the lagoon trying to get a total fin count from the surface. The trick in doing this it to make sure you're not counting the same shark 5 times as they continually swim around you. Knowing how many total there are will kind of help you keep track. This was very similar to what I did with the National Marine Fisheries in Santa Cruz one summer - only we were snorkeling in the Noyo River counting salmon. But luckily I had the experience of doing this with salmon to train me how to snorkel and count different fish and keep track of them so as to not recount the same shark several times. It's like when I ask Gianna to count how many arms her stuffed octopus has and she just keeps counting around and around until she runs out of numbers that she knows.
Anyway, I finally decided that there are 9 blacktips in the exhibit and from the looks of it, most of them were female, only 1 or 2 males. I slowly slid into the lagoon with a heavy weight belt around my waist to keep me underwater without having to flail around. I found a nice nook in a little pile of rocks and had a seat. Blacktips are extremely skiddish and even when I was just standing in the lagoon, not moving, they would swim in my general direction, realize that I was there and go shooting off in the opposite direction. I don't know how they even recognize my feet as something other than a rock (unless they are scared of rocks too) but they do. The problem is that they take off so haphazardly that they can run into things (walls, other fish, actual scary rocks) and hurt themselves. They also expend a great deal of energy bolting off like that and can become very stressed out, so we have to be very slow and deliberate when entering their exhibits. So I sat and became as much of a non-scary rock as I could. After about 20 minutes of sitting patiently, they finally started swimming back in my general vicinity. I got some good pictures and video and came up with a final score of Girls 7 - Boys 2. When the big, 5 foot long eel came out of his rock and started swimming around, I decided it was time for me to get out. I don't mess with the eels, from my experience, they are NOT skiddish and will come right up to you and use their teeth.
I was hoping to get enough good pictures to compile a bit of a database to ID the individual sharks but many of the pictures were too blurry or far away to make out any distinguishing features. Many times scientists use things like scars to ID animals, but these guys don't have many of those since they don't have much of competition and I don't think they have reached breeding age, which is when most of the scars appear.
I also found another zebra shark egg case which didn't seem to have hatched yet, but I don't think there's anything inside. We took it out of the lagoon and put it in a tank in the aquarium to show Jonathan tomorrow.
Not bad for my day off!
July 14, 2011
Today I went diving!
I did a boat trip with Desert Sea Divers. We left their dock at about 8:15 AM after turning my passport over to them - which made me a bit nervous, but I had to assume they were professionals. We had 3 full boats going out to do 3 dives for a total of 8 hours on the water. I was on boat 4 with Divemaster Mark from Columbus, Ohio. While setting up my gear I got to chatting with some of the people on the boat. I have discovered the best way to meet westerners out here is to go diving. Since you cannot get a tourist visa to Saudi Arabia, these dive operations book tours and act as the Arabian sponsor to get people in on visitor visas. I didn't realize how "privileged" I am to have the ability to come here. Anyway, the girl next to me is originally from LA but she's living in Riyadh and works as an analyst at the US Embassy. She was with another guy from Utah who does finance for the Embassy. The 3 of us plus a guy from the UK become a dive team with me as the leader since I am a PADI Divemaster.
Our first dive was the Cable Wreck which was a cargo ship named Staphonos carrying a payload of steel cable and beams that hit a shallow reef out in the middle of the ocean and dumped her load everywhere - hence the name. Mark informed up that one of the other boats was tied up to a line that was attached to the bow of the wreck so we could descend down the line, swim towards the stern, then back to the bow and ascend. By the time we were geared up, our boat had turned and he said that he were probably just about right over the stern so we might as well just drop right down. Well, by the time my group was in the water, we had been carried pretty far off by the current. Then as we tried to descend, Mac (the finance guy) had to go back up. His full mustache was making it impossible for his mask to create a seal on his face so it kept flooding. He decided to head back to the boat. Now we had been just bobbing around in the water for quite some time. Did I mention we were sitting in about 6 foot swells coming from every direction as they bounced off the reefs? By now, we were probably 100 yards form the dive boat. I decided we should descend and then head in the right direction. We headed down, found another group and started following them. Soon, I saw a large dark shape in the distance, I figured it was the wreck. We swam for a while and nothing more materialized. I knew the wreck was in about 60 feet of water so I checked my dive computer and to my surprise it said I was at 96 feet! I immediately grabbed the other 2 divers and we ascended to 60 feet and continued on. Eventually, the dark shape came into focus - it was the open ocean. We had hit the edge of a drop-off and were staring into deep blue nothingness that went on forever. At that point, I decided I would surface and take a look around. Trying to communicate that to my buddies underwater was quite entertaining for them I'm sure. I ascended and sure enough, we were still quite far from the boat, but at least I had a heading. I went back down and we continued. Finally, we were tired, didn't know where were were so we all went up, located the boat and began swimming towards it. After about 15 minutes of kicking and not getting anywhere, the boat spotted us and came to pick us up. Once we were aboard, they had to keep circling around picking up other random divers that had gotten caught in the current and taken way off course. So, no, we didn't see the wreck.
We had some stray divers on our boat, and our Divemaster, Mark, ended up on another boat so we headed to a protected, shallow reef, tied the boats together, did a diver swap and then motored to the next reef, Ana's Reef. This was a nice, shallow reef in protected waters so it was super calm and relatively clear. We jumped in, Mac even got down for a bit and followed us around until he had to surface and become a snorkeller. We saw some big beautiful corals and a nice variety of fish, including a moray eel and a black and white snapper that I am still working on identifying (not sure if it is a juvenile form of something of if that's what it looks like all it's life) but they are pretty rare to see, so that was cool.
After this dive we had a nice lunch of salad and rice with chicken and veggies. We stayed anchored here for about another hour so we starting taking flying leaps off the boat and snorkeling around. At about 2:00 we left for our last dive at South Tower Reef. This was a great site, shallow and well protected with some incredible coral and fish life. We saw 2 blue spotted rays, lots of pipefish, a cute little baby Volitans lionfish and some massive nudibranchs (sea slugs).
We hit the dock at exactly 5:00 which was pretty good considering most stuff around here doesn't operate on any kind of schedule. My new friends from the Embassy even gave me a ride back to the Palace. When I got home, I rinsed my gear, stuffed my face and then passed out cold while watching Invictus on TV.
Good day!
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
July 13, 2011
I got dirty today! I woke up and went for a swim out in the marina because it seemed like a more fun way of getting some cardio then jogging on the treadmill. First thing I did today was go to the storage facility – Sun Village – to see what kind of plumbing parts we had out there. The shark tank should be in place soon and we need to have all of the pieces to get it up and running. The most important piece is a 3” bulkhead that goes in the bottom of the tank to serve as a drain to the filtration system. That is ultimately what I was looking for. EVERYTHING that was sent over from Sac in the sea freight container is covered in a 1/2” layer of dirt. So while rummaging through these boxes I got covered in the stuff – and didn’t find the bulkhead.
When I returned to the Palace, Jonathan showed me a large wooden crate, about 3’ x 3’ filled with dirt covered PVC parts. He thought that maybe the shark tank bulkhead was in there, even though some of his other workers hadn’t seen it. Well, after digging around and pulling out all of the useful stuff I found in there, I stumbled across what I was looking for. It was at the bottom of the crate in the back corner, or course. Jonathan and Sam were both quite impressed that I had found it. It really wasn’t anything spectacular, but it was dirty. Anyway, I then had to take all of the other pieces (I filled an old Fish Planet shopping cart) and wash them off.
After lunch Jonathan asked me to wash off one of the retail fish tank racks (from here on they will be called MaRS units). There are about 25 of these things that need to be cleaned up and moved to the shop. Most of them have been cleaned up but probably not as thoroughly as they need to be. Jonathan wanted me to clean one up myself so that I could instruct the other guys as to how to do it properly. The rack was also covered in a thick layer of dirt, so much of that ended up on me.
I was very excited to have a chance to actually DO something today! It was quite warm out today but there was a nice breeze. By the end of the day I was even excited that I had gotten some color on my pasty, white skin. Unfortunately, after showering, all of that color was gone – so it wasn’t the sun, it was the dirt.
Tomorrow I will be taking the day off to go diving all day! I’m going on a boat trip with Desert Sea Divers for a 3 dive trip. We will be going to something called the Cable Wreck and a couple of different reefs offshore. I guess the wreck was some sort of cargo ship carrying a load of steel cables or something so there are these huge tangles of cable near the site. It is supposed to be one of the better wreck sites in the area. I’m very excited and will take lots of pictures so stay tuned to Facebook for those.
When I returned to the Palace, Jonathan showed me a large wooden crate, about 3’ x 3’ filled with dirt covered PVC parts. He thought that maybe the shark tank bulkhead was in there, even though some of his other workers hadn’t seen it. Well, after digging around and pulling out all of the useful stuff I found in there, I stumbled across what I was looking for. It was at the bottom of the crate in the back corner, or course. Jonathan and Sam were both quite impressed that I had found it. It really wasn’t anything spectacular, but it was dirty. Anyway, I then had to take all of the other pieces (I filled an old Fish Planet shopping cart) and wash them off.
After lunch Jonathan asked me to wash off one of the retail fish tank racks (from here on they will be called MaRS units). There are about 25 of these things that need to be cleaned up and moved to the shop. Most of them have been cleaned up but probably not as thoroughly as they need to be. Jonathan wanted me to clean one up myself so that I could instruct the other guys as to how to do it properly. The rack was also covered in a thick layer of dirt, so much of that ended up on me.
I was very excited to have a chance to actually DO something today! It was quite warm out today but there was a nice breeze. By the end of the day I was even excited that I had gotten some color on my pasty, white skin. Unfortunately, after showering, all of that color was gone – so it wasn’t the sun, it was the dirt.
Tomorrow I will be taking the day off to go diving all day! I’m going on a boat trip with Desert Sea Divers for a 3 dive trip. We will be going to something called the Cable Wreck and a couple of different reefs offshore. I guess the wreck was some sort of cargo ship carrying a load of steel cables or something so there are these huge tangles of cable near the site. It is supposed to be one of the better wreck sites in the area. I’m very excited and will take lots of pictures so stay tuned to Facebook for those.
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
July 11, 2011
Yesterday was somewhat eventful. We spent the morning at the shop. The first step in the shark tank installation is complete and they were beginning the second part. The shop is on the ground floor but there is a basement parking lot under the building. A 5,000 gallon saltwater tank holds about 42,500 pounds of water - that doesn't take into account the weight of the tank, decorations, sand and sharks. So you can imagine, the owners of the building were none too thrilled about this project. In order to make this work, they drilled 5 holes in the concrete floor of the shop and dropped steel H-beams to the foundation of the basement (see pics here). Funny thing is, the beams were too long to just "drop in" so they actually had to cut them, them secure them back together with a titanium plate. The step they were beginning when we arrived was to now tie these H- beams together with steel I-beams. This will act as a frame for a steel plate which the tank with actually sit on. I will hopefully be able to get pics of each step of the process so you can see it because trying to describe it just doesn't do it justice.
Jonathan and Sam then spent about an hour figuring out how to steal some more floor space by making the check-out counter smaller and pushed further towards the wall. We are sharing a small portion of the shop with a flower shop run by one of the other guys who works here. His operation is small and consists of a small refrigerated room and a work counter (which you can see in the Facebook album Issham Aqua Shop).
I spent the afternoon pretending (and failing) to be a furniture designer/carpenter. Jonathan tasked me with creating some sketches for the stands we will have to build to support the "reef slice" tanks which will be in one of the walls in the shop (sort of along these lines, but flush with the wall, no frame, and without the living room). I'm not good at visualizing stuff, give me the parts and some tools and I can figure out how to build it, but I'm not a planner - I'm more of a do-er (and when it comes to carpentry, I'm not a GOOD do-er). So I came up with something, Jonathan made many suggestions for how it could be better and I started over. Then I decided to go get some better measurements of the tanks. When I came back up to do a new work-up, I noticed that the measurements I had for the tank were not what the measurements of the holes in the wall were. Turns out that the wrong tanks were originally used to get the measurements. In what might be a lucky turn of fate, it looks as though the 2 correct tanks might not have fit anyway - they would be too long. What we will probably do is use one of the "wrong" tanks and one of the "right" tanks. We are going to the shop today to take another look at it.
In other news, the dust that had been kicked up into the atmosphere has settled somewhat since the winds have died these last 2 days so it's almost blue skies again. I'll probably try to get in a quick snorkel today after work. I'm hoping to do a night dive this weekend with the full moon. One of my favorite dives from St Thomas was a full moon night dive where we turned off our lights and just dove using the moonlight that filtered down into the water - it was amazing!
I found a zebra shark egg case in one of the lagoons the other day. No sign of a baby zebra shark - doesn't mean it's not there, it may be hiding, but most likely it got snatched up by a larger fish or died from lack of food. They try really hard to find egg cases when they are laid but sometimes they are really well hidden. If they take them out just before hatching, the baby has a chance of surviving if they can be monitored in the indoor tanks. There have been quite a few successful shark births here in the past - it would be very cool to be around for one.
I'll post again later today if I can, fill you in on our trip to the shop and see what comes of that. Hopefully, we'll get the shark tank in place today or tomorrow.
Jonathan and Sam then spent about an hour figuring out how to steal some more floor space by making the check-out counter smaller and pushed further towards the wall. We are sharing a small portion of the shop with a flower shop run by one of the other guys who works here. His operation is small and consists of a small refrigerated room and a work counter (which you can see in the Facebook album Issham Aqua Shop).
I spent the afternoon pretending (and failing) to be a furniture designer/carpenter. Jonathan tasked me with creating some sketches for the stands we will have to build to support the "reef slice" tanks which will be in one of the walls in the shop (sort of along these lines, but flush with the wall, no frame, and without the living room). I'm not good at visualizing stuff, give me the parts and some tools and I can figure out how to build it, but I'm not a planner - I'm more of a do-er (and when it comes to carpentry, I'm not a GOOD do-er). So I came up with something, Jonathan made many suggestions for how it could be better and I started over. Then I decided to go get some better measurements of the tanks. When I came back up to do a new work-up, I noticed that the measurements I had for the tank were not what the measurements of the holes in the wall were. Turns out that the wrong tanks were originally used to get the measurements. In what might be a lucky turn of fate, it looks as though the 2 correct tanks might not have fit anyway - they would be too long. What we will probably do is use one of the "wrong" tanks and one of the "right" tanks. We are going to the shop today to take another look at it.
In other news, the dust that had been kicked up into the atmosphere has settled somewhat since the winds have died these last 2 days so it's almost blue skies again. I'll probably try to get in a quick snorkel today after work. I'm hoping to do a night dive this weekend with the full moon. One of my favorite dives from St Thomas was a full moon night dive where we turned off our lights and just dove using the moonlight that filtered down into the water - it was amazing!
I found a zebra shark egg case in one of the lagoons the other day. No sign of a baby zebra shark - doesn't mean it's not there, it may be hiding, but most likely it got snatched up by a larger fish or died from lack of food. They try really hard to find egg cases when they are laid but sometimes they are really well hidden. If they take them out just before hatching, the baby has a chance of surviving if they can be monitored in the indoor tanks. There have been quite a few successful shark births here in the past - it would be very cool to be around for one.
I'll post again later today if I can, fill you in on our trip to the shop and see what comes of that. Hopefully, we'll get the shark tank in place today or tomorrow.
Saturday, July 9, 2011
July 9, 2011
So, I'm still kinda waiting for Jonathan to get caught up enough to really start giving me jobs. So far, I've mostly been sitting at this desk pretending to do stuff. I can only make so many lists of questions and things to do when I'm not actually doing the work. Once I get going on cleaning and reassembling these tanks, I can really figure out what I need.
I DID get a chance to help out with the sharks today. The zebra sharks are in full on mating mode which means that the females are getting roughed up. Part of the mating ritual of most sharks involves the male biting the fins, tail or head of the female. Well, there are 2 female zebra sharks with some severe bite wounds on their fins (there will be pics on Facebook). We caught them up in a big net, brought them to the side of the lagoon and injected them with an antibiotic called Baytril. My involvement was just to help hold the shark's tail while the drug was administered, but I'm excited! It was good to get my hands on a shark again!
I'm going to try to go for another snorkel this evening. The wind has picked up pretty good and it's kinda choppy out there but it might die off as evening rolls around. I got up early this morning to work out and swim a few laps. It would be so easy to do that everyday when the gym and pool are steps from your door!
I DID get a chance to help out with the sharks today. The zebra sharks are in full on mating mode which means that the females are getting roughed up. Part of the mating ritual of most sharks involves the male biting the fins, tail or head of the female. Well, there are 2 female zebra sharks with some severe bite wounds on their fins (there will be pics on Facebook). We caught them up in a big net, brought them to the side of the lagoon and injected them with an antibiotic called Baytril. My involvement was just to help hold the shark's tail while the drug was administered, but I'm excited! It was good to get my hands on a shark again!
I'm going to try to go for another snorkel this evening. The wind has picked up pretty good and it's kinda choppy out there but it might die off as evening rolls around. I got up early this morning to work out and swim a few laps. It would be so easy to do that everyday when the gym and pool are steps from your door!
Friday, July 8, 2011
July 7 & 8, 2011
OK, so yesterday Jonathan gave me the grand tour of the Palace grounds and all of our animal/aquarium facilities. Our first stop was the "nursery" lagoon with some of the smaller sharks. The next lagoon had some slightly larger animals, including sharks, rays, groupers, Napolean wrasse and 4 hawksbill turtles. The final lagoon had the largest sharks and some small schools of trevally. There are nurse sharks, zebra sharks, blacktips, a grey reef shark, some lemon sharks, bowmouth guitar fish.
I asked Jonathan if, under any circumstances, there was cause to get into the lagoons to do work. He actually said that one of the things he's been wanting to do it get an accurate count of the blacktips and how many males vs. females there are. Many of the sharks in the lagoons were actually born here, which is pretty amazing. I want to just crawl in there with a mask and snorkel, wedge myself into the rocks and sit all day! The lagoons are amazing and I have decided that I want one.
There are other tanks, a mixture of freshwater and saltwater tanks. There are tanks filled with Piranhas from South America, cichlids from Africa and all manner of saltwater reef fish from the Red Sea. As a responsible aquarist, Jonathan tried to only stock tanks with local, native species since we run on an open system. Essentially, water is brought in from the ocean via these huge pipes that run about 30 meters underwater, lightly filtered, pumped into the tanks then cycled back out into the ocean. If a non-native species happened to lay eggs or breed and the larvae got through the filters and ended up in the ocean, it would be bad news!
Part of my responsibilities is to make the rounds to all of the tanks and check up on the health of the animals. There is a great crew of guys here that know all about the life support, cleaning and maintenance of the tanks, but aren't as savvy about the actual animals. Usually Jonathan does the rounds, but I'll be doing that so he can get caught up on the other projects he has going on.
After the tour, I went snorkeling around and just outside of the marina. It's pretty amazing that with the dredging, jetty building and general human disturbances that have happened here, there is so much reef growth right here INSIDE the marina. I saw so many different species of fish, it was incredible. There were rays, damsels, butterfly fish, wrasse, parrotfish, hawkfish, angels, goatfish, sweetlips, huge schools of chromis and lionfish (to name a few). There are randomly placed steps along the jettys to allow easy in and out access for divers and snorkelers. At the steps I was going to use to get out, I found a medium sized radiata lionfish and further down the wall, I found a pretty big one. I've also decided that I need a new lionfish in my tank at home.
Today Jonathan and I went for a dive. I was a bit concerned that I might have trouble clearing my ears and regulating my breathing since it has been 5 years since I last did an open water dive. I was fine! We went all the way to 63 feet and I didn't have any problems. We were in the water for 60 minutes. A few years back they sank one of the older dive boats to create an artificial reef so we went out to that. There were huge schools of small fish hanging out inside of the boat. Underneath the dive deck, near the propellers were about a dozen Volitans lionfish just hanging out. We also saw a Titan trigger which has a reputation as a badass if you get near it's eggs. There have been reports of one so ferociously attacking a diver that he lost the use of his arm! This one stayed a good distance away from us and I'm glad I know that they can be aggressive so I know to stay away from them! I'm way more afraid of that trigger than I am of a shark!
It was a great dive, I did pretty well on air usage, my ears cleared and I didn't even get a headache (which can be pretty typical for me). I can't wait to go again. Jonathan said he can talk to the guys at the dive shop that they do business with and see about getting me on their dive boat so I can see some other places and wrecks.
Some other observations:
There are cats EVERYWHERE here. They are scrawny and skinny and terrified of me, but I'm trying to get them to like me! The strange thing is that when you approach them in a car, instead of getting out of the way, they lay down. In the middle of the road. This makes me wonder how there are so many of them.
Saw some dolphins today right at the entrance to the marina, figured it must be a typical sight. Jonathan says that in all his time out here he has only seen dolphins 3 or 4 times and they are usually much further out.
Check Facebook for some new photos of the dive and around the Palace.
I asked Jonathan if, under any circumstances, there was cause to get into the lagoons to do work. He actually said that one of the things he's been wanting to do it get an accurate count of the blacktips and how many males vs. females there are. Many of the sharks in the lagoons were actually born here, which is pretty amazing. I want to just crawl in there with a mask and snorkel, wedge myself into the rocks and sit all day! The lagoons are amazing and I have decided that I want one.
There are other tanks, a mixture of freshwater and saltwater tanks. There are tanks filled with Piranhas from South America, cichlids from Africa and all manner of saltwater reef fish from the Red Sea. As a responsible aquarist, Jonathan tried to only stock tanks with local, native species since we run on an open system. Essentially, water is brought in from the ocean via these huge pipes that run about 30 meters underwater, lightly filtered, pumped into the tanks then cycled back out into the ocean. If a non-native species happened to lay eggs or breed and the larvae got through the filters and ended up in the ocean, it would be bad news!
Part of my responsibilities is to make the rounds to all of the tanks and check up on the health of the animals. There is a great crew of guys here that know all about the life support, cleaning and maintenance of the tanks, but aren't as savvy about the actual animals. Usually Jonathan does the rounds, but I'll be doing that so he can get caught up on the other projects he has going on.
After the tour, I went snorkeling around and just outside of the marina. It's pretty amazing that with the dredging, jetty building and general human disturbances that have happened here, there is so much reef growth right here INSIDE the marina. I saw so many different species of fish, it was incredible. There were rays, damsels, butterfly fish, wrasse, parrotfish, hawkfish, angels, goatfish, sweetlips, huge schools of chromis and lionfish (to name a few). There are randomly placed steps along the jettys to allow easy in and out access for divers and snorkelers. At the steps I was going to use to get out, I found a medium sized radiata lionfish and further down the wall, I found a pretty big one. I've also decided that I need a new lionfish in my tank at home.
Today Jonathan and I went for a dive. I was a bit concerned that I might have trouble clearing my ears and regulating my breathing since it has been 5 years since I last did an open water dive. I was fine! We went all the way to 63 feet and I didn't have any problems. We were in the water for 60 minutes. A few years back they sank one of the older dive boats to create an artificial reef so we went out to that. There were huge schools of small fish hanging out inside of the boat. Underneath the dive deck, near the propellers were about a dozen Volitans lionfish just hanging out. We also saw a Titan trigger which has a reputation as a badass if you get near it's eggs. There have been reports of one so ferociously attacking a diver that he lost the use of his arm! This one stayed a good distance away from us and I'm glad I know that they can be aggressive so I know to stay away from them! I'm way more afraid of that trigger than I am of a shark!
It was a great dive, I did pretty well on air usage, my ears cleared and I didn't even get a headache (which can be pretty typical for me). I can't wait to go again. Jonathan said he can talk to the guys at the dive shop that they do business with and see about getting me on their dive boat so I can see some other places and wrecks.
Some other observations:
There are cats EVERYWHERE here. They are scrawny and skinny and terrified of me, but I'm trying to get them to like me! The strange thing is that when you approach them in a car, instead of getting out of the way, they lay down. In the middle of the road. This makes me wonder how there are so many of them.
Saw some dolphins today right at the entrance to the marina, figured it must be a typical sight. Jonathan says that in all his time out here he has only seen dolphins 3 or 4 times and they are usually much further out.
Check Facebook for some new photos of the dive and around the Palace.
Thursday, July 7, 2011
Busy day
Just wanted to check in real quick. I will provide a full report tomorrow. Jonathan arrived late last night and I finally got a chance to meet with him today. Luckily we didn't really talk business. We spent about 90 minutes just catching up and such in his office, then had lunch. After lunch he gave me the grand tour of the Palace and all of the aquarium facilities. There is only one word - AMAZING! I will provide full details tomorrow. After the tour I went snorkeling around the jetty areas for about an hour and saw what seemed like 75,000 different species of fish. There is some great reef right here within and just outside the marina.
Tomorrow Jonathan and I are going diving and I can't wait! I'll give a full update tomorrow. The weekend here is Thursday afternoon - Friday.
I'm beat so I'm going to bed.
Tomorrow Jonathan and I are going diving and I can't wait! I'll give a full update tomorrow. The weekend here is Thursday afternoon - Friday.
I'm beat so I'm going to bed.
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
Finally!
I have finally arrived and settled into my new digs at the Beach Palace in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. I have internet access from the aquarist office but not from my room so I will probably be doing most of my posts later at night (or later in the morning for those of you back home). Dubai was a whirlwind of a whole lot of nothing. I was there for 4 nights and really didn't do much other than workout, sit by the pool, read, browse several different malls and sweat. Not sure what the whole hubub is about Dubai, unless you have a ton of money - then maybe it's fun. When I go to a foreign country, I want to experience their culture and see stuff I don't see in the US. I saw alot of Starbucks, McDonalds, Baja Fresh, Pizza Hut, gas guzzling SUVs, upscale malls and traffic. I might enjoy the older areas with the souks - basically Arabian artisan markets with jewelry, spices, rugs and such and I'm sure the beaches are nice but I didn't get a chance to hit those up last week. Hopefully I can venture to those spots when I return in August. Also - there was a massive dust storm from winds off the straits so it seemed perpetually foggy/smoggy which made me not really want to be outside!
The set up here in Jeddah is nice. I'm fed 3 meals a day, someone cleans my room every day and does my laundry, so I can't complain. There's a nice pool right outside my door and a pretty complete exercise facility just a few doors down. I have a fridge stocked with sodas and water and a TV with a hearty selection of channels with American programming. It was a bit odd to watch Nightline this morning and the Today Show last night!
Essentially, I've been brought over to oversee and lead the set up and opening of Jonathan's new retail store in the city of Jeddah. It's going to be very similar to the shop in Sac but much smaller. Almost all of the equipment from Sac was sent over here on a cargo ship and is in pretty good shape, considering. I'll probably also be helping with the installation of a large private aquarium in another Palace just down the road from where we are.
The aquarium facility that our office is in in amazing! There are 2 crocodiles, about a dozen marmoset monkeys, a hedgehog, some lizards and iguanas, an amazing array of fresh and saltwater fish live corals and, or course, sharks! I'm already planning to get my own tanks back up and running when I get home! There is a moray eel here that is at least 4 feet long and about as big around as a soccer ball...he's MASSIVE!
Alright, I'm tired and have alot on my plate tomorrow when Jonathan is back at work so I best be going. I'll try to post a little each night.
One last thing...it costs about $30 to fill an 18 gallon gas tank...
The set up here in Jeddah is nice. I'm fed 3 meals a day, someone cleans my room every day and does my laundry, so I can't complain. There's a nice pool right outside my door and a pretty complete exercise facility just a few doors down. I have a fridge stocked with sodas and water and a TV with a hearty selection of channels with American programming. It was a bit odd to watch Nightline this morning and the Today Show last night!
Essentially, I've been brought over to oversee and lead the set up and opening of Jonathan's new retail store in the city of Jeddah. It's going to be very similar to the shop in Sac but much smaller. Almost all of the equipment from Sac was sent over here on a cargo ship and is in pretty good shape, considering. I'll probably also be helping with the installation of a large private aquarium in another Palace just down the road from where we are.
The aquarium facility that our office is in in amazing! There are 2 crocodiles, about a dozen marmoset monkeys, a hedgehog, some lizards and iguanas, an amazing array of fresh and saltwater fish live corals and, or course, sharks! I'm already planning to get my own tanks back up and running when I get home! There is a moray eel here that is at least 4 feet long and about as big around as a soccer ball...he's MASSIVE!
Alright, I'm tired and have alot on my plate tomorrow when Jonathan is back at work so I best be going. I'll try to post a little each night.
One last thing...it costs about $30 to fill an 18 gallon gas tank...
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)