17. January 2008 by Darin.

Well Tom Eubank and I were off for another adventure during the last week of November. This time was to a more exotic location than Tokyo. Our work would take us to the small island of Mauritias in the Indian Ocean, to the east of Africa and Madagascar. We would map a new golf course called Anahita which is at a new (under construction) Four Seasons Resort. The beautiful island nation is French and English speaking, so communication was not a problem. Other problems, however did present themselves. As can happen when traveling to more remote places and using survey equipment, we ran into a few bumps. Also, given that everything at the resort, including some areas of the golf course were under construction, this trip was definitely a test of patience and resourcefulness. In the end we were able to push through to complete the project.

Travel from Atlanta, Georgia to the island was a fairly expensive and time consuming prospect. Our most cost effective route would take us to Frankfurt, Germany for a layover before flying to Mauritias. All told, our time spent traveling was about 28 hours and when we arrived at the island paradise it was 7am! We were in line for a short nap in our rooms before heading over to the course to get started. Our accommodations were beautiful we were very happy when we arrived to check in. La Palmeira has a dining area and swimming pool that is open to the beach and a very relaxing atmosphere.

After our short respite, we were shuttled over to the golf course and resort area. As we then took a tour of the new course, the word to use for a description of most of this course is, “breathtaking”. The landscape of the island is a bit similar to Hawaii and the course reminded me of it some. There are 5 holes played directly adjacent to the ocean. These holes all have spectacular views. Unfortunately, as we toured the course, we soon realized we had our work cut out for us. They only had one golf cart and none of the utilities (sprinklers, valves, etc.) had been flagged. Now it was time to get to work.

The weather was beautiful for the entire time (highs of 82 Fahrenheit). Our satellite reception was very good and most of the course had a good view of the sky. The layout of the course is long and narrow, so we had to set 3 base points in order for our receivers to get steady communication with the base unit. We decided to carry large paper copies of the utility plans with us in order to more easily find sprinkler heads and drains, etc. on the course. Since the utilities were not marked, there was no other way to be sure to get everything. It was a bit of a slow go. Also, since we only had one cart, we were not able to use our other rover unit to its full potential. On top of the already somewhat slow progress, the battery of the one cart we had would only hold a charge for half the day, so we would have to go in and recharge mid day.

On the second day, I noticed a not so nice rumble in my stomach. Then I noticed double-me-over cramping in my stomach. Then I noticed, . . . . well, you get the picture. I thought I had eaten something that didn’t agree. The locals recommended I take some “Eno”, which are tablets that dissolve in water. So, I started taking the recommended dosages. By the third day of my affliction, the golf course Superintendent, Greg says, “you did not drink the water from the tap here did you?”

“Only at the very nice resort where we are staying, in fact I took some Eno this morning using that tap water”, I tell him.

At this point he bursts out laughing and proceeds to tell everyone and anyone who will listen to what I have done. At that instant I felt like a complete idiot! I have traveled to many places before where my system could not handle the water, what made me think this place was any different? So, I had been drinking small amounts of water from the tap every day since I had arrived and continued to get sicker. What a dummy I am! Greg had some Imodium at his house and brought me some on the last day. I did not completely get over it until I was two days back in the states. I think I built up immunity to something. Anyway, back to the work at hand.

On the third and fourth day of our work we were able to use another cart type vehicle (workman) that we borrowed from the turf company working on the course. This helped us greatly and was a must in order to complete the project. We thought things were looking up but also on the third day I realized that our handheld data collector units were not charging each night as I thought they were. As we tested this more and even tried many different adapters and attachments we realized, they just won’t charge! (After looking into it a little more upon our return we think it had to do with the unsteady power supply provided on the island, but I am still unsure. The ac/dc plugs were shutting down to protect the units from being damaged. All of our other equipment charged fine.) The unit that was not used as much from the first couple of days had enough power to finish the work on the fourth day, but the other unit ran completely out of power.

In the end we were able to complete the mapping and gather all of the necessary data. Although we had some stressful moments and it required long hours, I wouldn’t trade the experiences we had and the knowledge gained (take extra battery packs for the units, take Imodium everywhere!).

The trip home was of course many hours, but we had a long enough layover in Frankfurt that we stayed the night and went downtown to the Christmas Market. It was very fun and we had brats and beer (even though my stomach did not agree). We watched many movies on the plane. Have you seen “Hot Rod”? That is one funny movie and Tom and I laugh out so loud (with earphones on) that others were looking at us.

I always love the adventure and the work and I always love getting home to see my family. Considering we worked through Thanksgiving on this one, it was great to spend some time with them.

The drawings are complete and I will try to post a sample on the website soon.

Darin Rasberry

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5. November 2007 by Darin.

From time to time I will write about some of the places we have been for our mapping projects and share some of our experiences with you.  I love being on any golf course and all of them are beautiful, but sometimes I get the opportunity to travel to some very exotic locations.  I have spent all of my working life in the field of Land Surveying.  Many times as a Land Surveyor you are stuck working on a construction site with heavy equipment all around you kicking up clouds of dust, or you may be knee deep in a swamp hacking your way through the bushes.  At any rate, it is not always the most exciting type of work.  Working on golf courses on the other hand, is a joy and very fun for me as I have been a golf enthusiast for my whole life.

Tom Eubank and I have recently completed a mapping project near Tokyo at a course called Camp Zama Golf Club.  It is on a U.S. military base which is located just slightly southwest of the city.  It was my first trip to Japan, so I was really looking forward to the experience.  Our flight from Atlanta to Tokyo was about 14 hours.  Once we landed we had to load all of our equipment on a bus that would take us to Camp Zama.  For those who have never been to Tokyo, I would just like to tell you that you only think traffic is bad where you live.  Our bus ride was 4 hours, but we only went about 45 miles.  I noticed that there was almost no open ground at all along the way.  The area is basically 100% developed.  There are a lot of driving ranges located throughout the area and they stand out amongst the landscape, because they consist of a small area of land but put up huge poles with netting attached to keep the golf balls within the designated area.  I was very interested to observe the surroundings as we traveled through.  There are a couple other items that stick out in my mind.  One is the fact that so many people ride bicycles.  In front of office buildings are incredibly huge bike racks with hundreds upon hundreds of bicycles.  With the traffic as it is, I completely understand.  Another item of interest to me was the car parking racks at many apartment buildings.  Large metal parking racks that lift one car up over the top of another in the effort to save space.

When we finally arrived at our destination we got off the bus and began unloading our equipment.  The equipment was all there, but to my disbelief, my suitcase was missing!!  I searched high and low and scratched my head trying to figure out what happened.  We decided that the most likely explanation was that the woman and her kids that were dropped off at the stop previous to ours must have unintentionally grabbed my bag.  So we contacted the motor pool on the base told them what to watch for and sure enough the next day she had returned my bag.  I did have to go half the day with the same shorts and borrowed a shirt from Tom.  He offered me a pair of underwear, but that just seemed weird to me and I could not accept.

The climate and foliage in the area is much like that of Atlanta where we are from.  It was very hot and humid during our time (first of August).  It is also very green and a large variety of plants grow there.  The golf course was really beautiful and was in great shape.  They have a superintendant that everyone agreed had done a fantastic job there and the course is better than ever.  They have been able to invest some money in the course and have made many great improvements recently, both in the fairways, greens, etc. and in buildings and other infrastructure.

We had a great time working the course and only got rained out one day.  There are some avid golfers there and even though were on the course working at 5:00 am, we encountered golfers on the course!  The course had American players and Japanese alike.  Every single person we encountered both on and off the course were very friendly.  I really enjoyed our time with them.

We completed our work in about 4 days (plus the rain day), we were not only completing the GPS work for our mapping, but were also completing art work, notes and pictures for the 3D yardage books that are created by Tour Golf, Inc.  You can visit them at www.tourgolfinc.com.  I did a lot of work on the computer at night to make sure all of the data we had gathered was good and that we had not missed anything.  When you work this far from home you definitely can’t miss any items!  All in all, it was a great experience and a successful project.  Our trip home was uneventful and took basically the same amount of time.  After the long hours that we spent working and then the long travel time, we were happy to sleep in one day upon our return.

Darin Rasberry

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