[EIDXA] Fwd: Dispatch #4 from XMAS

[Tom]

Dispatch #4 – Kiritimati Island, Eastern Kiribati, 5:00PM Sat. Oct. 25,
 2008

There was no dispatch yesterday as we were occupied with the radio
 contest.  We are now about half-way through this 48-hour radio contest
 marathon and running on very little sleep.  The radios, antennas, etc.
 are all working well and lots of hams all over the world are calling
 us.

Late in the afternoon, in the “heat of the radio contest” and the heat
 of the day, things got a lot hotter a few miles away when the ground
 fire erupted again.  I happened to look out and see the smoke rising
 in the distance.  I took a few pictures and kept an eye on it while
 Tom continued with the radio.  It seems there were smoldering palm
 tree roots from Thursday’s fire that the wind fanned into flames
 again.

This morning, owner-Jim related how he and another neighbor fought the
 fire by going to the nearby school and getting two bus loads of
 students.  He lined the students along the fire side of the road and
 they proceeded to light a back-fire in hopes of preventing the big
 fire from crossing the road and threatening the village and his Shark
 Lodge (including our cabin).

He said everything was going per plan until the wind gusted and blew a
 section of the fire line over the road.  The fire truck came by and
 started spraying water on this fire as well as their whole back-fire
 line.  Jim chased them off – sending them off to fight the real fire. 
 They soon had it out and we all enjoyed a beautiful sunset – thanks to
 all the smoke in the atmosphere.

Things are quite dry here, as the island, though quite large, is very
 flat and low-lying. The equatorial trade winds blow right across
 carrying the clouds along without dumping much rain.  Water comes from
 some nearby wind-mills and cisterns that catch rain water off the
 building roofs.  It is almost “sea showers” all over again – but with
 no air conditioning anywhere, we do drink a lot of the water here.

Another news bit.  A French patrol ship came in and yesterday morning
 at 9:30 am there was a friendly soccer match between some of the crew
 and some of the locals.  The French won 2 to 1.  Jim said it was
 because the locals were guys working in the office against a bunch of
 20-year old French seamen.

At supper, about 20 of them showed up to have a beer (or two) at the
 Shark Lodge outdoor bar.  Tom had to raze them a bit about the soccer
 game but there were only a few that understood English - thus we
 avoided starting an international incident.  About half of them were
 Tahitians but all in the French Navy stationed in Papaeete.  I suppose
 it’s duty like this that keeps the French Navy supplied with
 volunteers.

Rod & Tom

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