Stormy Seas

Sunday is the only day we have off here, so I took the opportunity to go explore some parts of these 8 square miles that I live on. Me and a few friends headed up this hill to Miss May's house. It is an old abandoned house that used to be the the mayor's wife's house, but it was wrecked when Hurricane Ike came through. It was kinda sketch going up on the second story, since the floorboards were rotted, but I was rewarded with some great views. Afterwards, we jumped in the ocean and swam over to this pier that was also completely wrecked by the hurricane. We had to swim out and climb up it, since it didn't reach the shore anymore. I cut my foot on a sea urchin on the way up, but diving off was worth it.

Once I got back to the center, it started sprinkling, and within a few seconds, the few drops of rain turned into a downpour. It was wonderful, everyone was just standing out in the rain enjoying the fresh water. Today was more of the same, it was overcast, windy, and raining a bit when we took a boat ride to Middleton, an island about fifteen minutes away from the center on South Caicos. Once we got there we proceeded to start snorkeling and identifying the the algae, seagrasses, mangroves, echinoderms, gastropods, cnidarians, and fish by their scientific names. We are all preparing for a field ID test where we are going to have to know 40 organisms by their scientific names and their higher taxonomy. For example, when I see this colorful fish on the right, I don't call it a Blue-headed Wrasse, I know it as a Terminal Phase Thalasoma bifasciatum, from the family Labridae. It is challenging for sure, but the ID snorkels are so awesome.

The site we went to off Middleton was suited for the current weather actually. We were snorkeling around these huge piles of empty conch shells, all encrusted with hard calcerious Chinese noodle algae. The visibility was still great, but without the sun, the graveyard atmosphere was enhanced. They were great to explore, I never knew what juvenile fish I was going to find peaking out of the shells. There was a great variety of life in this seagrass bed and conch midden area, including juvenile angelfish and squid, but the highlight of my trip was cresting a pile of conch shells and seeing a nurse shark just chilling on the other side. It only tolerated us for a few moments before it decided to swim away. The thunderstorms here are intense, especially because our view out to sea is so open, so we can see lighting from a long way off, and when the thunder rolls in it rattles the windows. And that's just a normal thunderstorm, you better believe I'm keeping an eye on the weather being here during hurricane season.

I'm trying to limit my snorkel trips to one a day cause I am trying to get my foot to heal, but considering how much saltwater I expose it to every day that might not happen. I'll settle for avoiding infection, I generally never wear shoes here so my feet aren't the cleanest they have been.

I'll end this with one of the views from Miss May's house. The three rocks to the left are Huey, Dewy, and Louie, and then there is the Sphinx and Dove Cay.