Ted
While Ric is orchestrating things on a grand scale - the rest of us worker bees are trying to prepare not only our own gear, but also parts of the expedition we've been assigned on behalf of the whole team.
Each of us has a recommended list of gear to put together that includes everything from 4 inch Marshalltown masonry trowel for digging at the 7 site, to batteries, GPS, camera, machete, file, hats, tape measure, reef shoes, hiking boots, shirts, pants, shorts, swim suits, meds, Satellite phone, etc etc. Things like the manual to my camera or GPS are important to remember since I won't be able to google it from Niku.
On behalf of the team, I've been tasked with sourcing hand held marine band radios, radio base station, antennae & wire, lopper parts, dive regulators for the loppers, hose, fittings, camp table, and swim ring floaties we use in the lagoon as markers. I've been able to get Cobra to donate some of the radios, EDAK to donate some aluminum crates for our gear, and Digital Globe to donate the 2009 satellite image of Niku, so there is some missionary work going on as well.
Other folks are sourcing the chain saws, hand saws,pruning tools (all 3 donated by Fiskars), loppers, poles, screens for sorting the stuff we dig up, the kite gear, shade canopies, metal detectors, shovels, buckets, gloves, knee pads, rakes, flags, plastic bags, tarps, parachord, etc etc. The list goes on and on.
There are a lot of little things to think about so that we don't get caught short out there. The Home Depot is a long way from Niku.
Thankfully, the Naia is provisioning the ship and providing the meals so we don't have to try to organize that. And the Naia brings the Fiji Bitters that makes a sweaty day of hard work end with a smile.
Andrew