Ken Kurtis
Contributor
Welcome to a brave new world . . .
REEF SEEKERS IN AN AGE OF "SAFER AT HOME" - In some ways, not much changes for us since we do most of our stuff on-line anyhow. So from that standpoint, it's business as usual. That being said, we've spent a lot of time on the phone and with e-mail trying to figure out what the status will be of our people going to Indonesia on April 4, as well as our Bonaire trip in May. For Indo, with the restrictions the Indonesian government has placed as well as the State Department raising travel to Level 4, which literally means "DO NOT TRAVEL," that pretty much puts the kibosh on Indo for April. We're negotiating with Aggressor now to see what that means in terms of refunds or vouchers or what. Bonaire is right now in a holding pattern since everything might have calmed down enough by May 15 for us to go on that trip. No need to cancel at this point. We don't anticipate (and certainly hope) this doesn't affect our October trip to Murex Manado nor our Socorro trip next January. Time will tell.
IF YOU HAVE REPAIR NEEDS - We said last week repair business as usual but upon further reflection, maybe not. Robert Stark has an elderly mother who lives nearby and, not that we're accusing anyone of being Corona Connie, but we wouldn't want to transfer something from you to Robert to her. (This is what social distancing is all about.) If you have any urgent repair needs, call us first and we'll see what we can work out.
IF YOU HAVE TRAVEL PLANS AND QUESTIONS - Feel free to use us as a resource. I'm in my home most of the day anyhow, so it's not like I can't perhaps steer you in the right direction. Many tour operators are trying to run - and it's perfectly understandable as to why - but with all the travel restrictions in place, it's kind of hard to see how many of these trips can operate. Travel insurance generally will not cover cancellations for this type of thing so you'll have to be talking directly with your trip operator and see what's what. Happy to help if we can.
LOCAL BOATS - I'm not sure of the status of everyone. Much as we love the sport, diving isn't really an "essential" activity in terms of the way it's being defined either by the city, county, or state. And, even though many of you routinely dive more than six feet apart underwater, it's pretty much impossible to maintain that kind of social distancing on a dive boat with 20-30 divers. I know a couple of boats intended to run this past weekend but I also know of others who canceled per the various business orders. If you've got something scheduled, check with the charterer or boat to see if they're running.
NEED AN UNDERWATER FIX? - The Aquarium of the Pacific live cams are running each day on Explore.org from 7AM-7PM and make a great screen saver (or time-waster). There are seven cams overall and you can start in the Blue Cavern exhibit and then, through the thumbnails below the picture, go to whatever other cams you'd like to view. Click the PLAY button to start the stream: BLUE CAVERN CAMERA LIVE FEED.
CHAMBER DAY COVID-19 CHANGES - The short version is that we're asking those of you who would do the Day event to sign up instead for the Flying Dutchman, and those of you who would do the Eve event, sign up for the Table Challenge, which is a subset of the Chamber Challenge. Sign up as you normally would and indicate what virtual table you'd like to "sit" at. We'll keep track of who's where plus you'll get raffle tickets and, instead of dinner, a Chamber Eve short-sleeved shirt. Even under current conditions, we need to raise money for our Chamber, so please do what you can. Here's the link to the sign-up page: CHAMBER DAY 2020.
FAKE ANIMAL NEWS - I admit I fell for it. I really thought/hoped there were dolphins in the canals of Venice. And I was really amused by the elephants that raided a vineyard, ate the grapes, and somehow got drunk and fell over. Fake, fake, fake. There's an interesting article from National Geographic about all of this: FAKE ANIMAL NEWS.
NOT FAKE ANIMAL NEWS - We'll end with this which seems to have enough substantiation to be real. A loggerhead turtle with a damaged shell was rescued in 1997 and given to an aquarium in South Africa. After 20 years, the turtle was released back into the ocean and - to the surprise of the scientists monitoring her progress - meandered around the African coast for a while and then swam back (over a period of two years) to what they presume were her nesting rounds in . . . western Australia!!! It's a journey of about 23,000 miles and you can read more about it here: YOSHI THE TURTLE.
And that'll do it for now. Take a deep breath, wash your hands, have a great week, and let's go diving one of these days soon!!!
- Ken
REEF SEEKERS IN AN AGE OF "SAFER AT HOME" - In some ways, not much changes for us since we do most of our stuff on-line anyhow. So from that standpoint, it's business as usual. That being said, we've spent a lot of time on the phone and with e-mail trying to figure out what the status will be of our people going to Indonesia on April 4, as well as our Bonaire trip in May. For Indo, with the restrictions the Indonesian government has placed as well as the State Department raising travel to Level 4, which literally means "DO NOT TRAVEL," that pretty much puts the kibosh on Indo for April. We're negotiating with Aggressor now to see what that means in terms of refunds or vouchers or what. Bonaire is right now in a holding pattern since everything might have calmed down enough by May 15 for us to go on that trip. No need to cancel at this point. We don't anticipate (and certainly hope) this doesn't affect our October trip to Murex Manado nor our Socorro trip next January. Time will tell.
IF YOU HAVE REPAIR NEEDS - We said last week repair business as usual but upon further reflection, maybe not. Robert Stark has an elderly mother who lives nearby and, not that we're accusing anyone of being Corona Connie, but we wouldn't want to transfer something from you to Robert to her. (This is what social distancing is all about.) If you have any urgent repair needs, call us first and we'll see what we can work out.
IF YOU HAVE TRAVEL PLANS AND QUESTIONS - Feel free to use us as a resource. I'm in my home most of the day anyhow, so it's not like I can't perhaps steer you in the right direction. Many tour operators are trying to run - and it's perfectly understandable as to why - but with all the travel restrictions in place, it's kind of hard to see how many of these trips can operate. Travel insurance generally will not cover cancellations for this type of thing so you'll have to be talking directly with your trip operator and see what's what. Happy to help if we can.
LOCAL BOATS - I'm not sure of the status of everyone. Much as we love the sport, diving isn't really an "essential" activity in terms of the way it's being defined either by the city, county, or state. And, even though many of you routinely dive more than six feet apart underwater, it's pretty much impossible to maintain that kind of social distancing on a dive boat with 20-30 divers. I know a couple of boats intended to run this past weekend but I also know of others who canceled per the various business orders. If you've got something scheduled, check with the charterer or boat to see if they're running.
NEED AN UNDERWATER FIX? - The Aquarium of the Pacific live cams are running each day on Explore.org from 7AM-7PM and make a great screen saver (or time-waster). There are seven cams overall and you can start in the Blue Cavern exhibit and then, through the thumbnails below the picture, go to whatever other cams you'd like to view. Click the PLAY button to start the stream: BLUE CAVERN CAMERA LIVE FEED.
CHAMBER DAY COVID-19 CHANGES - The short version is that we're asking those of you who would do the Day event to sign up instead for the Flying Dutchman, and those of you who would do the Eve event, sign up for the Table Challenge, which is a subset of the Chamber Challenge. Sign up as you normally would and indicate what virtual table you'd like to "sit" at. We'll keep track of who's where plus you'll get raffle tickets and, instead of dinner, a Chamber Eve short-sleeved shirt. Even under current conditions, we need to raise money for our Chamber, so please do what you can. Here's the link to the sign-up page: CHAMBER DAY 2020.
FAKE ANIMAL NEWS - I admit I fell for it. I really thought/hoped there were dolphins in the canals of Venice. And I was really amused by the elephants that raided a vineyard, ate the grapes, and somehow got drunk and fell over. Fake, fake, fake. There's an interesting article from National Geographic about all of this: FAKE ANIMAL NEWS.
NOT FAKE ANIMAL NEWS - We'll end with this which seems to have enough substantiation to be real. A loggerhead turtle with a damaged shell was rescued in 1997 and given to an aquarium in South Africa. After 20 years, the turtle was released back into the ocean and - to the surprise of the scientists monitoring her progress - meandered around the African coast for a while and then swam back (over a period of two years) to what they presume were her nesting rounds in . . . western Australia!!! It's a journey of about 23,000 miles and you can read more about it here: YOSHI THE TURTLE.
And that'll do it for now. Take a deep breath, wash your hands, have a great week, and let's go diving one of these days soon!!!
- Ken
