Serendipidity

Serendipity is the effect by which one accidentally discovers something fortunate, especially while looking for something entirely unrelated.

"The word derives from Swarnadip, the Sanskrit language name for Sri Lanka,"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serendipity

And here I am, yet another chapter in the Doc Report begins. Follow me if you will from Sarajevo, Baghdad, Jeddah, Montevideo and now the tropical island of Sri Lanka.

I arrived this morning around 0230 local time via Sri Lankan Air. And lest I forget a friendly Ayubowan to all!
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ayubowan

My journey started on from good ol' Norfolk, VA (ORF) to the ever so popular New Yorks JFK and onward to London, Heathrow via Delta Airlines. Had a bit of a problem in Norfolk as the ticket agent was convinced I had a 3 month visa for Sri Lanka, I told her it wasn't a problem but she had to check with her supervisor. I managed to stay awake and fairly comfortable the flight "over the pond" watched two movies. The last leg to Colombo was a solid 10 hours and 45 minutes. Thankfully I had a window row to myself so I could stretch a little. The flight attendants were super friendly and wore really neat traditional style clothing as uniforms.

Someone from the work was there to greet me and being so late at night there was no traffic and didn't see the city.

First impressions of my new apartment? Let me put it this way, WOW!.
At least 1 1/2 times the size of my apartment in Montevideo. Any of the guest bedrooms here is the size of my master bedroom in Montevideo and each guest bedroom has a full bath, which are larger than the master bath I had in Montevideo.
My master bathroom is huge as is my living room. The best was waiting for me as I opened my patio door, do you hear it?
The Indian Ocean, probably 100 yards away. Okay I can't swim there but the waves crashing do provide a wonderful backdrop.

There are a few quirks as can be expected, oh maybe like railroad tracks also in front of the apartment and before the beach. As I tried to sleep last night I heard "HONNNNNK HONNNNNNK!!!", my brain asked, "Was that a train?", yes all hours of the night and day, speaking of one....

I woke up this morning and ventured out into my new world. Uhm, I'm not in Montevideo anymore! All I have to do is go to the sidewalk, turn right and walk about 5 minutes, there I am at work!

It's hot and humid, no make that, it's VERY hot and humid! I am sitting at my porch right now, the sun is down and it's 82F.

As soon as I get some batteries for my camera I'll take a few pictures of my new surroundings.

Until then.

Rainy Day At The Beach

Went to the North End of Virginia Beach today. Good day for me as it was cloudy and I'm stull slightly sunburned. No waves so not much fun with the boogie board. It started to rain and everyone picked up and ran off the beach, we sat it out though. It made us mad though that there was so much trash left on the beach afterwards, beer cans, water bottles, broken beach chairs etc. We picked up a few spots but couldn't clean up the whole beach.

I say a rainy day at the beach is better than a good day at work!

Upside down marlin flag

Here is a photo of the upside down marlin flag flying from the outriggers.
Blue flag with a white marlin, thus, white marlin.

It was pretty neat to back up into the slip and everyone on the docks pointed at the flag.

Someone explains it here
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080624014238AA21TYp

I Catch and Release a White Marlin

Just returned from a charter fishing boat trip with my father and brother in law on the Git-R-Done, which happens to be the biggest and fastest charter fishing boat out of Rudee Inlet. She proved that when we left the inlet and the skipper opened up the twin 800 horsepower Cat's, those engines were singing and we were flying at a good 35+mph.

We left very early, 4:30am to beat the other boats and headed for the gulf stream.

The sunrise was beautiful and we even saw a whale and some flying fish.

We first stopped at a light buoy out in the middle of nowhere way over the horizon. The deck hand baited up a pole, dropped the line and WHAM he said "Someone get in the chair!", we all took turns landing 25 to 30 lb Amberjacks, talk about fun! These guys really put up a fight! This was the warm up to the real thing.

We left that spot and the outriggers went out and trolling lures and baits went on. I was enjoying the comfy leather couch in the cabin when I heard the skipper yell "WHITE MARLIN!", well it was my turn in the chair and I jumped in and the deck hand told me to start reeling in fast, the skipper was yelling "FASTER DUDE! FASTER DUDE!" my arms were killing me, I was reeling in as fast as I could. Then she broke water and you can see her dance on the water, time stopped.
Beautiful, just beautiful. The deck hand touched the leader and said that it was now a confirmed catch, well the marlin must have heard that because she took of probably 100 yards out again! My arms got renewed strength and I reeled in till she got within gaffing distance and the deck hand landed her. The skipper came down and everyone wanted pictures. The skipper said that they are very rare and one would probably never see one fishing as long as they lived!

After all of the excitement I dropped her overboard.

We fished some more but never did catch any tuna.

I fell asleep in the cabin when I heard the engines slow down, I could see Virginia Beach and I knew we were pulling in. I came out on deck and everyone pointed out the flag on the outriggers. An upside down marlin flag, which signifies that we had caught and released a marlin. As we pulled in and the boat backed up you could see the fingers pointing at the flag, the only marlin flag that day in the inlet and certainly the only catch and release.

My brother in law took a video of me catching the fish and I hope to have it on YouTube this week.

Oh yeah, this was my birthday present and the best one I have ever had!