Before that, though, I met a few of the local Filipino weather service guys who came out to Tent City (official name Thunder Cove) to see the 09Z launch. The non-Aretha-Franklin-backup-singer-looking guy in the photo below had never launched a weather balloon before, so he got a kick out of doing that. Their weather office, as mentioned already by Adam, is rather procedurally- and instrumentally-paltry, e.g. their surface obs station doesn't work, so they do temperature and humidity measurements with a handheld Kestrel and air pressure measurements with (get this) an antique barometer in the office (just give it a little tappy), and of course their Doppler is fully functioning but "is not broadcast, accessible, or archived." Tremendous.
Anyway, back to the bars - we first went to Jake's Place, an open-air, pavilionesque place with ample deck seating, a blindingly-illuminated lagoonfront, and even a Filipino cover band (covering Katy Perry, Miley Cyrus, Rihanna... you get the picture). It was definitely the weekend place to go for all the local contractors. Beers were only $2, and you could choose from MGD, Coors Light, San Miguel (a slightly jarring Filipino brew), Budweiser, Heineken, and of course your requisite Corona for only a dollar more.
After shouting/miming over the amps for about an hour at Jake's we decided to make our way to the Brit Club, a stone's southward-directed throw from the Marina. This place was also open-air but resembled more of an unfinished church basement than a pavilion. Plenty o' concrete. We encountered many more people of our age (five or ten years older instead of thirty) and hemisphere though, which was cool. We even met one of the Control Tower guys from whom we telephonically request air clearance before each balloon launch. We also met this dude Carlos who's working intelligence/translating here on the island - grew up in Spain, lives in Norway, has lived in South Africa, Italy, Houston, etc. and has all the languages to show for it, plus Portuguese. We now have a place to stay in Norway and another friend to join us for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil!
Today was the sunniest day yet we've experienced on the island. The pool was quite the paradise this afternoon, despite "No Flips" off the diving board. James was on day shift, but out at the site we have a reclining beach chair we found by our secret lagoon that we dragged over and utilize in between sunny daytime launches, so he wasn't suffering that much. I'm currently on the midnight shift listening to Another Saturday Night by Cat Stevens and watching the distant lightning out the portal window. I'm hoping that the rains hold off until after the 2:15am launch; otherwise I have to rub olive oil all over the inflated balloon so that it will continue to rise through the freezing layer of the troposphere without water clinging to it and freezing, thereby making the balloon heavier and causing it to sink (and then melt, rise, freeze, sink, etc.). I imagine this awkward, windy oil application being just slightly easier than a greased pig competition. But I wouldn't know.
-Gavin
 |
| Midnight view from the launch site's beach; the lights are ships stationed in the lagoon. |
No comments:
Post a Comment