Kwajalein Island Adventures

Tuesday afternoon I went diving north of Emon Beach again, and here is a small sample of what we saw.

Raccoon Butterflyfish

Red and Black Anemonefish – I love clownfish and their anemones. We first went to the large anemone with all the clownfish I posted a photo of in my last blog post, and then later found this other anemone with a type of clownfish I hadn’t seen before.

All different sorts of coral, sea urchins, and a Moorish Idol near the center of the photo.

Humbug Dascyllus – I love these little guys. They seem to be pretty common; I see them on every dive, but still enjoy them. The fish are black and white so I thought I’d try something different and make the photo black and white.

Another octopus! Hiding, once again. That makes two octopuses in the last two dives. Look in the hole at the bottom of that large piece of coral, and you’ll see a light-colored leg trying to squish its way in.

Now you can see an eyeball or two as the octopus tries just blend in and get farther and farther into its hole. Rob tried to dangle something in front of the hole to see if it would come out and play, but it was too stubborn, even after we backed off for a little while.

I’m not sure exactly what either of these fish are, but I know the one on the right is some sort of parrotfish.

Another highlight of the dive was seeing two or three Whitetip Reef Sharks! If you’ve been following my blog, you’ll know I saw sharks “in the wild” for the first time while snorkeling last month. This dive marked the first time I’d seen sharks on a scuba dive. They were pretty shy and not very cooperative when it came to photos.

This is as the shark in the previous photo was trying to swim away from me.

Still trying to get away.

I later saw one of the sharks actually feeding on this large school of fish, called Rainbow Runners.

Shrimpgoby – not sure just what kind of shrimpgoby, but I saw at least a couple of these on this dive. This is a fascinating type of little fish that has a symbiotic relationship with a shrimp. The shrimp is nearly blind and so the fish keeps a lookout and warns of potential danger. If the danger grows too close, the shrimpgoby will very quickly dive into the shrimp’s hole and hang out in there until the danger passes. Of course this benefits the shrimpgoby as well for it then has a place to avoid danger itself. I saw the shrimp this fish was protecting, but wasn’t fast enough to get a photo of it before it went and hid.

All in all, another great dive!

Yesterday afternoon I went diving and saw my first octopus (outside of an aquarium, of course), which was quite exciting. Here are a few photos from the day.

That’s the octopus, attempting to hide in a small hole in a coral head.

Below is an anemone with a very large family of clownfish!

This is a Guineafowl Puffer, with a Bluestreak Cleaner Wrasse cleaning off its body. The pufferfish was several inches long, and that’s before inflation. My family used to raise guineas (actually my parents got about a dozen new ones a few months ago), and the common Pearl Guinea has very much the same coloration and pattern as this pufferfish, so that was kind of cool for me to see.

I’m really enjoying my time here on Kwaj.

Two weeks ago I saw several sea turtles and a large ray on a dive. Last weekend I dove my first wreck, a Japanese ship that was sunk during the first American invasion during WWII. Like my first storm chase, the first scuba dive was enough to get me hooked on diving, and each subsequent dive leaves me hungry for more.

I also went sailing for the first time last weekend. We didn’t have much wind, so even with the engine helping out, it was slow going. However, I had a lot of fun and look forward to more sailing.

We sailed up to Gugeegue, which is an island on the east reef (north of Ebeye and just south of Bigej, where I went snorkeling last month). Once there I went snorkeling around a few large coral heads and saw, much to my delight, half a dozen whitetip reef sharks!

Following are some photos from the day.

Looking up at the main sail, shortly after leaving Kwaj. I know very little about sailboats, but the folks who own the boat let us help raise the sails and drive.

That’s Bill Glynn, the boat owner, preparing to raise the jib.

Our sailboat was called the Down East Trader. The sailboat pictured here is (I think) the Panacea.

This is Gugeegue, looking northeast (Bigej is the island on the far left). And yes, while my little underwater camera isn’t the best, the water really is that turquoise!

Ailise, a new school teacher, took this photo for me. That’s Gugeegue in the background, looking southeast. Josh, the other staff meteorologist, is down there in the shadows.

We anchored just offshore and then a few of us went snorkeling and saw…

…sharks!

The sharks were around 4 feet long, and somewhat shy for the most part. A couple of them were a little more curious though, and swam rather close to me. If I’d been on scuba I could have got even closer (the water here was probably about 15 to 20 feet deep). I thought that I would be more nervous seeing sharks in the wild for the first time, even after hearing most sharks are shy and non-aggressive if you aren’t bleeding, so I was a bit surprised to find that I was actually quite excited. 🙂

Here’s a view of the main coral head we spent most of our time around. If only I had a good camera and dive lights to show the colors better in these photos. The many colorful fish I’ve seen fascinate me, and sometimes I neglect to pay much attention to the coral. This coral head really grabbed my attention though. It looked like so many flowers all blooming.

The Down East Trader, with Joy, Bill’s wife, standing up at the front. I think that’s Bill in the water on the right.

Here I’m attempting to photograph a beautiful regal angelfish. The fish wasn’t cooperating very well for one thing, though, and most of my shots are looking down from almost directly over it. Again, if I were on scuba….

A masked bannerfish.

A whitecheek surgeonfish.

A chevroned butterflyfish.

A lemonpeel angelfish (these seemed to be especially camera shy, but finally I got one).

Another one of my ever present friends, lurking about. A couple of the sharks just rested on the sea floor for a while until another shark or fish would swim past and disturb them.

I finished a month-long scuba dive class Monday, so now I am officially a certified open water diver, which is the basic certification to allow me to dive to 60 feet.

I am so excited!

I went on my first two scuba dives Sunday afternoon and my next two Monday morning, as the final part of the class. All of these dives were in the lagoon, off of Emon Beach.

We saw countless fish (I’m going to have to get a fish ID book soon) and lots of beautiful coral. One of the highlights for me was seeing a couple of clownfish in an anemone.

Our deepest dive was to 38 feet. The water was very clear, with well over 50 foot visibility. The water is also very warm, at a year-round temperature of about 82 °F.

Following are a number of photos I took on the dives.

I can’t wait to get out in the water and dive again! 🙂

This is the first photo of me underwater.

This is a moray eel, peeking out to see what’s going on. This (and some of my other photos) is a little blurry as I was moving at the time. I still have to practice more at maintaining neutral buoyancy and staying still in one spot).

Behind me is Travis, one of the new teachers. Actually the other five people in the dive class were all new teachers.

That’s Kristen behind me now.

Kristen, Pam (my dive buddy), and Travis.

An old ship anchor, now serving as a home to coral.

The lagoon floor drops off here.

Clownfish in an anemone!

The fish on the right was digging in the sand with its snout.

Travis and Kristen.

Kristen found a baby starfish near the beach following our first dive today. I was in a bit of a hurry so only took a couple shots, both of which turned out blurry. I should have switched to the macro setting.

Travis in front of a large coral head.

Our instructor, Doug, on one foot.

Doug, with a sea cucumber in his mouth as a joke.

It’s a beautiful and fascinating world down there, and my brief glimpses of it so far have just whet my appetite for more diving!

What a lovely, peaceful night.

The ocean has always brought great joy to me, and it is a large part of why I’m thankful every day that I came to Kwaj.

I am so happy here.

Yesterday, on my 4-week anniversary of arriving on Kwaj, I finally got on a boat.

I took a catamaran to nearby Ebeye and back, although I didn’t get off the boat as I had to get back for work.

The Marshallese workers on Kwaj daily go to/from their homes on Ebeye on a ferry (the ferries are free, you just swipe your badge and go through a little security checkpoint). One of the ferries broke down, though, so a pair of catamarans took up the slack yesterday. I was riding on the Private Sorenson, named for a WWII soldier who threw himself on a Japanese grenade during the Marine landing of Kwajalein Atoll (he did survive).

This is Little Bustard, the island just north of Kwaj on the eastern reef. We’re in the lagoon, looking eastward to the ocean (the greener water is the shallow water along the reef edge, separating the lagoon from the ocean).

This is Ebeye, about a 20-minute ride from Kwaj. Ebeye is only about 80 acres, but is home to well over 10,000 people. A lot of people on the boat were taking fresh water from Kwaj back to their families, as living conditions on Ebeye are pretty poor.

Approaching the pier at Ebeye. Kwaj is off in the distance, on the right side of the photo.

Ebeye near the pier.

Looking back south towards Kwaj.

Approaching Kwajalein.

Navy ship that accidentally ran into the pier a couple weeks ago.

The ship on the left is the USS Worthy. They do a lot of mission-related work, such as going out near the terminal area and scanning stuff with their radars. The boat moving towards us is one of the Ebeye ferries, and the boat docked behind the ferry is the other catamaran, Private Anderson (named for another WWII marine who was killed by a grenade at Kwajalein Atoll).

I finally checked out the tide pools at low tide today, and I was completely blown away.

The pools are even larger and deeper than I had thought, and they are PACKED with life.

Here are a few shots from my new point-and-shoot underwater camera.

Everyone’s probably getting tired of me saying “the water is SO blue”, but I’ll say it again. 🙂

I’m not sure what kind of bird this is, but I hadn’t seen one before. There were several out around the edges of the tide pools.

I went swimming in one of the smaller tide pools, and saw such amazing creatures.

The water is quite warm, too, and obviously very clear.

I can’t believe it’s taken me 4 weeks to get out there, but now I’m all the more eager to revisit the tide pools and learn how to dive. I’m loving this place more and more…

Following is a (mostly) photo guide of what I’ve found on Kwaj, including food, shops, activities, lodging, and more. It is not all-inclusive, but I tried to get the highlights. The photos are ordered more in a categorical order rather than for where they are located on the island, so hopefully I don’t confuse you too much. 🙂

Here goes…

Welcome to Kwaj! Leaving the airport (behind me), the US and RMI flags are almost the first thing you see. This photo is facing east, towards the ocean.

Just in case you happen to forget that you’re in the middle of nowhere, a mileage post next to the airport is there to remind you. The three you can’t see, the ones that are sticking out towards me, are Guam – 1374, Hong Kong – 3160, and Manila – 2775. I don’t know why they chose these cities.

Food

One of the benefits of living on an army base is getting free food. Well, I guess we’re still paying for it in some way, but let’s not split hairs.

On Kwajalein, the mess hall is officially named Café Pacific, but everyone calls it the PDR (Pacific Dining Room).

Here’s the PDR in-between meals, so no one’s around.

When you enter the PDR, you swipe your badge and then choose your food from the buffet. There’s a salad bar (best on the day or two after the plane comes in with fresh food), a fried bar (e.g., fries, sometimes hot dogs or burgers, they also can make sandwichs), and the main food bar (rice and whatever the day’s special is).

Rice is very popular here. VERY. White rice is offered at every meal, including breakfast.

You quickly find that some food options are better than others. Some days are better than others. Some days you really wish you had a full kitchen to cook a good, healthy meal. 🙂 Overall it’s not too bad, though, and saves you time, effort, and money.

Each week’s menu is printed in the Hourglass, the island’s newsletter.

Here is this week’s menu (they do offer breakfast as well, but it’s pretty much the same every day…and I typically eat breakfast at home anyway):

If you’re looking for other options, there is a food court that includes Burger King, Subway, Anthony’s Pizza (claims to be the best in the world, but I’ve heard it’s not), and Baskin Robbins.

There is a bank on the far left side of this building, and then the food court is about where that bench is located. One of the stores is on the right side of the building, and temporary housing is upstairs.

The building is northeast of the PDR. Note the water tower in this photo is the same one as in the PDR photo.

There’s also a nice little bakery, Sunrise Bakery, that makes some delicious fresh breads and pastries, so I’ve heard. They serve coffee and such as well. I haven’t got around to dropping by here yet, but I’ll have to at some point soon! This is on the back side of the PDR.

Stores

So, when you decide you don’t want to eat every meal from the PDR or food court, you can go to the grocery store – otherwise known as Surfway. (I kid you not.)

Surfway is on the left side of this photo. A little further down in the photo is the elementary school.

Surfway has a pretty good selection of food and a few household products. Fresh products (especially fruit/veggies) are best found on the day (or day after) the plane comes in.

Planes fly in and out of the airport every day, but the best plane is the army plane on Tuesday (and every other Thursday) that brings us fresh food and mail.

Speaking of fresh food…

Though I wouldn’t trust food growing on the island. While we don’t have any more radiation in the air (from nuclear testing), I heard the soil could still contain enough to contaminate plants grown on some of the islands in the RMI. It’s safe to live in the Marshall Islands now, but you may not want to risk cancer by eating locally-grown produce.

Now for the other shops.

Meet PX, a military chain store.

This is the front of the store that you saw on the far right side of the photo that had the building with the food court, above.

PX has a number of household goods, including sheets, towels, irons, some toiletry items, cosmetics, clothes, shoes, and more. There is also a scuba dive instructor who currently has his own little dive shop set up in there.

Across a street from PX, we have PXtra. (Not kidding.) PXtra has outdoor items such as tools, sporting equipment, and bikes and electronic items such as TVs, cameras, and phones. They also sell a limited number of CDs, DVDs, and Blu-rays.

Next to PXtra (left of this image…and PX is right of this image), we have the Shopette. (Another great name, eh?) The Shopette is kind of like a drug store / gas station mini mart, with snacks (and lots of alcohol), toiletries, cleaning supplies, medicines, office supplies, books, and a DVD rental. Oh, they also have some gas station food (e.g., warm rotating corn dogs).

Next to the PX are a few little shops, the first of which is Micronesian Handicrafts. They sell locally-made stuff. I haven’t been in there yet.

There’s also a thrift store called Bargain Bazaar, and I haven’t been in there either. I’m not even sure how people would get in there, behind that chain-link fence… This is down by the dock, and that’s the lagoon you see in the background, as well as another little island in the atoll.

Another “store”, if you will, down from the PX is the salon and barber shop. The post office is what you see in the background (post office boxes are the dark spots on that wall).

Activities

What do people do around here? Contrary to what you might think on an island with one square mile of land, there is a lot to keep you busy.

Many of the activities, not surprisingly, revolve around the water.

This white building is the small boat marina, down by Echo Pier (the long pier you see on a map or satellite image of Kwaj). You can rent boats and file a float plan here. (There’s also a yacht club on Kwaj.)

The building on the right side of the photo belongs to the scuba club. Divers on Kwaj are supposed to join the scuba club and then you can fill as many tanks of oxygen as you want.

Behind the palm trees, note the big white tent with some containers inside.

Barges come every other Wednesday, and there was one docked here this day unloading and loading stuff.

Here’s part of the harbor, with small boats and the barge. This is around where the nurse sharks hang out (see an earlier post from when I arrived on Kwaj).

And here’s the barge, shoving off for I’m not sure where. In case you’ve lost your bearings, this is the lagoon, and I’m looking from northeast Kwaj across towards southwest Kwaj.

You can’t quite tell from this resolution, but there’s a white cylinder on the left side of the barge that says SpaceX. SpaceX does some work out here, and has launched Falcon rockets from Omelek (island just north of Meck; see the map of Kwajalein Atoll a couple posts down).

This is part of Emon Beach, one of three little sandy beaches on the lagoon side of Kwaj. Emon Beach is one of the nicer, more popular beaches near the residential areas on northeast Kwaj (this is looking northwest now). This is the only beach that has a lifeguard at times.

There’s also a kayak rental shack at Emon Beach.

If you want to get in some water but don’t feel like swimming/snorkeling/diving/boating in the lagoon or ocean, you can swim in one of the island’s two swimming pools on the ocean side of Kwaj. There is an “adult” pool and a “family” pool, both of which are outdoors and have ocean water pumped in weekly.

If golfing is your thing, here’s a look at part of Kwaj’s 9-hole golf course. The weather radar, KPOL, is on the left side of the image and the airport runway is on the distant right side.

More of the golf course, again looking towards the weather radar and the weather station (behind the palm trees right of center).

Here’s one of several fields near the center of the island, just south of downtown. The chapel is on the far right and one of the theaters, the Rich, is just left of the chapel. Sometimes you’ll see people playing soccer out here. There are also at least a couple baseball/softball fields on the island and some tennis courts, basketball courts, and a skateboard park.

Another field, looking north. The PDR is on the left and the bulk of downtown around there.

Downstairs in this building is the 8-lane bowling alley, and upstairs is the library. I’ve gone bowling here (the place looks like it’s about to fall apart), but I haven’t been to the library yet.

This building is the CRC (Corlett Recreation Center). I’m not sure what all’s in there yet, but I’ve heard there’s racquetball, a gym, and some other stuff. This is up on the north side of the island, around the residential area.

Here’s the ARC (Adult Recreation Center), in the middle of the BQs (Bachelors Quarters). I’ve heard they have faster Internet than the dial-up at home (though still not that fast), a kitchen, I think ping pong tables, and some other things.

Here’s the island chapel, near the airport (left of the image). There are Catholic and Protestant services held here weekly. There are also Jewish, Latter-Day Saints, and Baptist services held elsewhere.

Also next to the airport is the Marshallese Cultural Center. This is only open twice a week in the afternoon, so I haven’t had the chance to check it out yet.

I’ve already mentioned the Kwajalein Public Gardens, where sometimes you’ll see butterflies flying around. There are many beautiful plants and flowers in here. This is on the north side of the south part of the island (i.e., north of the runway).

You can also check out the turtle pond, not far from the gardens and right next to the lagoon. They have some rehabilitated turtles in here. Currently there are two sea turtles and some brightly-colored fish.

Check out the sign, both in English and Marshallese. They must have had a problem with people feeding the turtles hot dogs…

One of the sea turtles.

If you want to see a movie, weekend movies are available to watch at the Richardson Theater (aka the Rich). They are typically a few months behind the states.

PG-13 (and above) movies are typically shown at the Yuk, a covered movie theater near the BQs.

There are two bars on the island. The cheaper, typically more popular one seen here is the Ocean View Club, commonly known as the Snake Pit. The Snake Pit is a short walk from the BQs and has a great view of the ocean.

The classier bar, I’ve heard, is the Vets Hall, above. It’s sometimes open just to Veterans, but at other times is open to the public. They have other activities here as well (advertising a dinner coming up soon.) It’s near the airport runway, next to the fire station, on the south part of the island. Sometimes people start their night here and then go to the Snake Pit, as the Vets Hall would be a longish walk and they don’t want to be riding their bikes while intoxicated.

To find out more about activities on the island, you can check out the community TV channel or look in the Hourglass, the island’s weekly newsletter. Also pictured here is the weekly TV/movie guide.

Health

What do you do if you get hurt while engaged in one of the many activities?

Here’s the hospital, freshly painted. It is almost across the street from the Snake Pit and across another street from Sands, the BQ I’m in (white building on the far right).

There is also a dentist on the island and an optometrist who sometimes visits the island.

This building houses physical therapy and the vet. There are a number of people on Kwaj who have cats and dogs, and they all have to be approved by the island vet.

Money

There are two banks on the island, one backed by Bank of America (the bank on the left side of the building that houses the food court and PX, see above), and the Bank of the Marshall Islands, down by the dock. Most people probably keep their money in a US bank, though. I was told recently by the Bank of America bank that I couldn’t cash a check I wrote to myself unless I had an account there. I then just used one of the ATMs.

Lodging

If you’re visiting Kwajalein, you’ll probably stay at the Kwaj Lodge. This building also handles housing/BQ assignments. The Kwaj Lodge is on Ocean Road, across the street from the airport and next to the flags you saw in the first photo in this post.

If your status is “accompanied”, i.e., if you’re married and have your spouse/family out here, you’ll get to stay in one of the houses. Most of the houses are two-story duplexes (some fourplexes). Also, many of the houses are older than the BQs, so while it’s nice they’re roomier, they may need more fixing up…. The residential area is on the north (east) side of the island.

This is Sands, the BQ I live in. There’s also Surf, Shell, Reef, Coral, Palm, and I think another one or two. Th ocean is to my back here.

Here’s what the inside looks like, as I walk in the door. The kitchenette and closets are to my right and the bathroom is that door on the right. The rooms are fully furnished, and if you don’t like what you have, you can go to the furniture warehouse and pick out something else you like better (or get on a waiting list), at no cost. Initially I had a chair instead of a full couch, but traded it in yesterday.

View of the kitchenette and walk-in closets.

Standing by the bed, looking towards the door. That’s the weather channel playing on the TV (borrowed a TV and DVD player from someone…my new TV should be arriving fairly soon).

The bathroom, standing at the door. That side mirror is the front of a nice little medicine cabinet.

Furniture warehouse.

This is self help. I’m not exactly sure what the deal is, but I think they carry fix-it-yourself things if you want to try fixing something before calling housing (e.g., if you have a light bulb that burned out, they have light bulbs).

Schools

I’m not sure just how many kids are on the island, but I’ve heard there’s a pretty good public school system here. You saw the elementary school next to Surfway in a photo above, and below is the junior/senior high school. This is in the residential area.

There is also the option of taking a few college classes, as the University of Maryland sometimes has a couple of people here teaching classes. They also offer classes online.

Transportation

The main mode of transportation on the island is the bicycle. They rust very quickly, as you can probably imagine.

Josh had an extra one that he gave me when I moved here (someone gave it to him when they moved). I’m not sure how old it is (it’s pretty rusted), but it does the job for now.

The silver and turquoise bike below is mine.

As I’ve mentioned before, there are some company vehicles on the island that we use to go to/from work. Below is the lot where the vehicles must be parked at night. The buildings around here include auto services, a paint shop, a driver license office (you’re supposed to have a Kwaj license in addition to your main license), etc. This is located just west of downtown, about a block from the dock. Most of the vehicles are Ford Rangers or minivans.

If you’re looking to get off-island, the only commercial airline that flies to/from Kwaj is Continental. If you get permission, you could also fly free on ATI, on a military transport plane (the one I flew in on from Honolulu).

The Continental office is between the Micronesian Handicrafts store and the salon (see above).

If you just want to go to another island in the atoll, you might take a ferry. This is the dock security checkpoint, where you can take a ferry to Ebeye. The Marshallese workers on Kwaj are required to go back to Ebeye each night a short time after leaving work. I’m not sure why; just seems to be another army security thing. Some people on the island are married to Marshallese people, and they do not have to leave.

While not really related to travel, you might want to know how your mail travels. Everyone on the island has an army post office box. That means whenever someone sends you mail, they only have to put enough postage on it to get it to the US army post office that deals with the region you’re living in. If someone from the US sends me a letter, they need only put a US stamp on it, and it’ll get here.

Once the mail gets to that US army post office, they sort it and transport it (free of charge to us) to the army post office in your area. Pictured above is the Kwajalein Army Post Office. It looks just like any normal US post office.

Work

Finally, I realized I haven’t posted any photos of where I work yet.

Here’s a more close-up view of KPOL, the Kwajalein dual-pol radar.

Here’s the weather station. I have a cubicle downstairs, but when I’m here I’m typically working in the forecast room, downstairs on the far side of the building (looking towards the runway).

Hope you enjoyed my photo tour; keep the questions coming! 🙂

I’ve received a lot of great questions about Kwaj lately, and I look forward to blogging about them. One question I got was what are the dark spots along the ocean shore on the satellite image of Kwaj (see yesterday’s post)?

That satellite image was taken during low tide, and those dark spots are tide pools.

When the Japanese were occupying Kwajalein, they dug holes on the ocean side of the island, I guess to make it more difficult for the approaching enemy, but also perhaps to get material to they could expand the island (Kwaj used to be smaller than it is now). When the Americans took over, they too dug holes (or rather, used explosives to create holes). The tide pools are called the “Japanese Pools” and “American Pools”, depending on which set of holes you’re talking about.

While we aren’t supposed to go swimming in the ocean (again, the ocean floor slopes very quickly here and it isn’t very safe), we can go swimming or snorkeling in the tide pools at low tide. Some of the pools are 6-8 feet deep, so they can trap a variety of marine animals when the tide goes out.

I haven’t explored the tide pools yet, but I look forward to doing that soon, and I’ll get some photos to post when I do!

Ok, time for a geography lesson.

Just where am I?

Kwajalein Island is part of Kwajalein Atoll, a group of about 100 islands on a coral reef surrounding the world’s largest lagoon.

Kwajalein Atoll is part of the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI).

Circled on the Google map below (click to zoom on any of these images), the RMI is in the west central Pacific, just north of the equator and just west of the International Date Line (Kwajalein Island is at 8.5 °N, 167.5 °E).

The marker on the map is pointing to Kwajalein Atoll.

As an aside, my time zone is the first one in the world, in a manner of speaking. We’re in the UTC+12 time zone; in other words, we’re 12 hours ahead of Greenwich Mean Time. There’s no such thing as UTC+13, so this time zone is the first to experience a new day.

For a few time zone examples, let’s say it’s 10 pm Monday on Kwajalein…that means it’s

• 3 am Monday in Seattle (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-7)
• 5 am Monday in Dallas (Central Daylight Time, UTC-5)
• 6 am Monday in New York (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-4)
• 11 am Monday in London (British Summer Time, UTC+1)
• 8 pm Monday in Sydney (Australian Eastern Standard Time, UTC+10)

Ok, now let’s zoom in to Kwajalein Atoll. As I mentioned before, this atoll is made up of about 100 islands. A few of the more talked-about islands are circled on the following Google map.

• Kwajalein (“Kwaj” for short) – where I am. Southern-most island in the atoll. US Army base supporting missile launches. About 1,000 people live here supporting the mission work. The US has this island on loan for many years to come.
• Ebeye (pronounced EE-bye) – where most of the Marshallese in the atoll live (over 12,000 on this tiny island). When the US started using the RMI for military purposes following WWII, many of the Marshallese people were relocated to Ebeye. Ebeye is about a 15-minute ferry ride from Kwaj, and the Marshallese who work on Kwaj are required to go back to Ebeye by a certain time of night.
• Roi-Namur (“Roi” for short) – another US Army base supporting the missile launches. Used to be two islands, Roi and Namur, but the islands were joined with sand/rock from the lagoon. Only about 100 people live here, but a number of people take a short flight from Kwaj to work at Roi during the day. Lots of powerful and expensive radars are set up on Roi. Lots of old WWII bunkers here too.
• Meck – another island loaned by the US government. No one really lives on Meck, but it’s primarily used for anti-ballistic missile launches (e.g., sometimes Vandenberg AFB launches a test missile towards us and Meck launches a missile to shoot it down).

Now let’s zoom in to crescent-shaped Kwajalein Island.

First notice the Google map scale. Kwaj is one of the atoll’s three largest islands, and has an area of about 1.2 square miles (about 0.5 miles wide and 2.5 miles long).

Now look at the roads. While no personal vehicles are allowed on Kwaj, there are some company-owned vehicles on the island, so we do have more roads than you might think. Most people ride bikes around here though.

Now for where I live and work. I work at the RTS (Reagan Test Site) weather station, found on the golf course on the south side of the runway. When I step outside to make a cloud observation, I first have to look around for nearby golfers. The weather station is across the road from the ocean.

As I’ve mentioned before, I live in what’s called a BQ (Bachelor’s Quarters). My room is like a dorm room or hotel room. Anyway, I’m in the Sands BQ, which is at the intersection of 6th Street and Ocean Road (I’m across the road from the ocean, but my room sadly faces the other direction).

“Downtown” Kwaj is also circled on the map. This includes the shops, post office, dining hall, restaurants, travel agency office, salon, etc. I’ll talk more about the businesses here in another post.

Finally, here’s a Google map satellite image of Kwaj. My beautiful new home!