Up, Down, and All Around 7/4/15

For far today has been busy bee up and running but not all in the perky sunny way you'd think. Sadness and anger also exist in paradise (stupid, I know).

First, big fun news first. I finally went diving!!!!! Twice!!!! Yay!!! Yeah it's expensive, but I don't think money should hold you back from experiences of a life time. Today the crew consisted of Adam (the dive master and part of the staff, not the student), Tyler, Amanda (Adam's daughter), Clement for the first half, and the captain of the TBR boat (I forget his name). Two women who are also guests here went along with Natalie, Thomas, this guy from next door, and myself. We went to two dive sites: Dickies and 30/30. The first dive site...... Wow!!! Just wow... The coral was everywhere with massive sponges that you could look into and couldn't even see the bottom. At the very first dive site we saw a super awesome trumpet fish and several schools of blue tang. It was amazing to be back diving yesterday. I would definitely agree until I see the next dive site that this one (and probably every place I dive while I am out here) will make everything look really boring and dull. Its so hard to even start talking about what I saw because I was just so overwhelmed. Natalie took some GoPro footage that I am going to post it as soon as I can. We have all realize that Dr. Gilchrist does not like observing weekends or even holidays of a country that we are not in.

In between dives we had to be up for an hour before going back down. Adam told us a bunch of crazy stories from the resort. One time this guy sliced open his hand down to the bone and they all realized he needed stitches and he couldn't go to the mainland. Adam who was a firefighter an had medical background was worried he was going to have to do something about it when a woman who was a guest at the time, came down and checked out what was up and asked if she could help. "Only if you're a trauma nurse can you help with this....." "Well I am.. And have been for 25 years" was her response. Another story adam had was about one of TBRs cooks. She was working and everything was going along fine and all of a sudden at about 3:30pm she walks out of the kitchen and says "I quit" and didn't come down from her room for 4 days. Obviously, the entire staff was freaking out, but all of a sudden they realized one of the guests was a cook of some kind. They brought him down and he said in response to their panicked looks, "Oh, I'm a commercial caterer!" Now there's a joke that every week there should be a disaster theme and see how the guests respond.

Finally it was time to go down to 30/30. Supposedly we were supposed to be on a shallower dive but it felt just about as deep as the first one. At this dive we got to see a creepy looking hogfish, a bunch of crazy looking upsidedown jellyfish, and best of all two ~13" long lionfish that Thomas luckily spotted among other things. We also got to see a weird looking nudibranch (if you don't know what these are Google them). I love the feeling of being able to float around and regulate where I am in the water column with just my breathing. I always tell people scuba diving for me is the equivalent of being an underwater  astronaut. I will definitely be trying to dive more while I am here. After we came up it was back to shore.

Upside-down jellies

What awaited us when we got back was not pretty. There seemed to be a lot of people clustered around a table and when we looked it was Jasmine the dog, who was very sick. Everyone could see she was having a lot of trouble breathing and Adam's wife, Christine, was trying to contact the mainland very I am assuming trying to figure out what to do. It was terrible to see a dog with her people who couldn't do anything else for their dog and had to helplessly watch their dog struggle for a breath and know they could could only keep her comfortable. In the mean time there were two people (they will remain anonymous) arguing over an incident having to do with swimming at night, alone, and some alleged drinks that had been drunk. The warning to not go out had been a strong warning but the word no had not ever been said. No matter the argument, every time you go out in the water you take responsibility for your actions whether they are smart or dumb. The best thing to do is take as many precautions as you can but what it boils down to is as a consenting adult make logical decision to live another day and depending on the person certain risks may be taken. And on top of that Chip was trying to get back to the mai land and his boat was 3 hours late!

Natalie, Thomas, and I only had an hours before we went back into the water to learn a new type of sampling methods where you create a grid and choose various areas within the grid and sample from them. It was great to do this exercise because my group whipped through it in record breaking time after doing the other transect exercise. Hey, practice makes perfect!!

The rest of the afternoon was spent working and showering. I finally got my species identification done and soon the smell of mango tree wood smoke was wafting everywhere and making our stomachs grumble. The sunset was perfect and the 4th of July feast was underway. The vegetarians got roasted veggies and out of this world potato salad while the meat eaters either had freshly grilled or friend chicken and grilled veggies as well. Afterward everyone partook in their various patriotic activities. Austin played the guitar for us, Dante successfully showed us the eagle rays finally, the girls made keylime shooters for all the guests and staff, stories were swapped, everyone was awake all together (for once) talking and laughing loudly, Tyler's phone got whipped into the ocean and Thomas went for a swim and became the hero, jokes were told, criticism of the music blasting from the bar was given, friendships were made stronger, and it was a really, really great night. 

Pro Zester

Shenanigans 

Dante

Cooks in the kitchen

Despite the frustration, island drama, the passing of a good dog and the sadness that resulted, I think one of the best nights I've had here and also a great 4th of July!