Hi all,

Linda just called me from Bonaire (I'm on business in NYC right now) and indicated that the power has been out at our house on Bonaire since 9:30am this morning, and the two backup UPS batteries we have the WebCam server on just ran out of power at about 2:48pm. So, no WebCams until the power comes back. Sorry.

Jake

Thanks Jake...but sorry for Linda and the kids! Let's hope that the power comes back on before nightfall

We might be right behind them with the lack of power, Jake...up here in the NYC area, I mean. You came all the way up here for a hurricane to threaten you?? Kind of ironic, isn't it! When will you be leaving our area?? Carole

Hi, Jake and Linda...you are back up and running as I just checked the webcams and they appear to be "on" but one hour behind EST? Carole

Darn...I meant one hour behind EDT! Duh. cb

Carole. What are you seeing gal. I see the cams are stuck on 16.58 and are not refreshing. Annie B.

It appears that the cams are back up and running...I just checked and had a 18:38 time stamp... UB

The power is back at our house/office on Bonaire, but apparently the power outage (or the repair thereof) has caused some problems with the Internet connection at our house - we're seeing 20-50% packet loss - enough that Linda cannot even access the Internet (and therefore neither can our WebCam server). She'll check with the phone company in the morning to see if they can clear up the problem. So, until then, WebCam images will get through sporadically (if at all), but at least now they are being captured (which wasn't happening when there was no power).

Jake

PS I leave early Wednesday morning, Carole, for even worse climes - Washington DC for two days of business meetings there - right into the mouth of H. Isabel. Not sure what will happen on Thursday there...

Jake. Thanks for keeping us informed. Annie B.

Jake, good luck with you travels

Good grief, Jake - perhaps you should arrange for a teleconference!

Hi gang,
I'm back and the webcams too. Sometime around 12:30 our line finally cleared up enough for me to get back on the internet. The computer will be busy uploading the backlog of images to the archives. The only time frame that was lost was approx. between 3:00 and 5:00 pm on Monday when I had to take down the computers before they ran out of power and crashed.

Thanks for hanging in there, Linda. We really do appreciate your hard work and dedication. Hope everything else at home is fine, too. Somehow "things" always happen when the "other half" is away from the post....at least at our place, it does! LOL. Hope Jake won't get too wet in DC, either, with Isabel moving up the line here on the EAst Coast. Thanks again, Linda. CArole

I'm actually at JFK airport outside NYC right now, decided to head to DC a bit earlier than originally scheduled... Let's see how I fare down there.

Linda - if you're reading this, consider doing a quick cleaning dive (you'll need to take the filter off though - there's sediment trapped between it and the lens :-) ).

Otherwise, I'll do it when I finally get back home to Bonaire (hopefully Friday night).

Jake

I'm not sure about a dive. Along with the blackouts, we've been having wind reversals coming from the southwest instead of east. The water has had whitecaps into the shallow blue water.

East side weather!!!

Linda, if you just went to the list of folks on the island now and asked somebody to come clean the lens I bet they'd be over pretty quickly. It's all in the testosterone.
Smart move on Jake's part to get out early.

http://www.oldbonairetalk.com/newsgroup/messages/27/September_BTalkers-113455.html

I count three couples there now at Cap'n Don's, including Freddie who I'm sure would be delighted to drop over and clean it up, or James and Margarite Hix at Buddy's.

Think of them as an untapped natural resource.

Freddie was here early this morning dropping off some Chai tea but I didn't get a chance to talk to her. The chai was hanging off the gate handle when I took the kids to school.

So Seb, should I advertise "dive through today if you scrub the ReefCam lens"?

Calm in front now!!! ??? :–)

Linda, I bet if you called Freddie and George, they would hi tail it over in a heartbeat:-)

Advertise Linda? Heck you could auction off a chance to clean the webcam. I'm sure any of the BTers would be happy to, and some even able to! Leave a message at Don's for them.

Diving through the day would be nice, it always seemed to me as soon as you gave the lens a good cleaning it attracted more stuff.

Maybe Jake should teach Webcam Maintenance as a PADI Specialty course.

Hey, I did finally clean it yesterday. Certainly needed it!

Jake

PS I have thought about doing a PADI Specialty for Underwater WebCams before - but that would be giving away trade secrets

Think of it as training approved field reps Jake.

Jake, me thinks the cams are down again...power outage??? Linda, you OK???

I'm temporarily back in DC to take care of some matters (just got here a few minutes ago). I just called Linda and she says it's been raining there all day. For some reason that's affecting our lease line access, which means that the Internet connection from the WebCam capture server to the rest of the world is non-functional. Hopefully it will clear up when it stops raining...

However there is power, so once the connection is stable again, Linda can force an upload of all images captured but not sent up to the server...

Jake

Hi Jake, knew you were on your way (and in DC)...thoughts are with you and your friends...thanks for the update, however, with the cams down I am actually getting housework done! LOL!

Me, too, Cynde! BiCoastal energies are kickin' in big time today! LOL. Of course some strong Kona coffee helped a "little bit", too! Carole