Moyer Family Visit

We haven't blogged in a little while because we've been spending time with the Moyer family (my parents and sister) this past week. They arrived last Saturday, and we decided to break them into the regular waterfront routine here right from the beginning. We tested out our masks in the pool and then went for a snorkel off the dock on their very first day here at the center. (They spent Saturday night in Provo.)

Mom and Dad suiting up for the first open water snorkel

Amanda's Boston tan

The next day we walked out to East Bay to check out one of the developments underway, and to snorkel from the beach.

Preparing for the snorkel at East Bay

Amanda hadn't had enough yet, so we took her to Shark Alley too, a favorite snorkel site just in front of the center, and introduced her to some of South Caicos' finest mega fauna. She even saw a huge reef shark (in addition to the one pictured below) that Brett and I missed because we were busy following a porcupine fish beneath us.

Reef Shark

Eagle Rays

Amandius moyeranthan

We got in a lot of good birding during the week too, particularly on the day we took a town tour and then walked out to the boiling hole in the middle of the salinas (from which, we discovered, there's a nice view of our mural at the primary school). We spotted flamingos, kildeer, plovers, terns, cattle egrets, a reddish egret, brown pelicans, american kestrels, and several different types of herons including a night heron and an intermediate phase (mottled) little blue heron.

Walk through the salinas

Stopping to pose for the cameraman

The mural from a distance

We did actually walk to the primary school on a different day so that I could show my family the recently finished masterpiece, and then we got in a few rounds of tennis on the school's court while we were there. Brett, Amanda, and I also went on a jog every day this week except one, which was always followed by a cooldown session in either the ocean or the pool.

Recently developed cheek-cooling technique

On Wednesday we took a trip out to Coastguard to snorkel around (in really wavy water) and walk out onto the cliff where Brett likes to inch his way towards the edge until I squeal and cringe to his satisfaction. This time, everybody else decided to join him at the point and I got queasy, even though I was several feet inland.

Thursday was stormy here, which is pretty unusual. It was even thundering most of the day. We played multiple ping pong tournaments in the morning, followed by some Hoopla, and then went out to lunch at Darryl's to get a taste of island cuisine (conch & fish). Then we watched our second movie of the week, The Time Traveler's Wife. (The first was Avatar, which sparked some interesting discussion on virtual realities, the "noble savage", 3D graphics, and more.)

We spent most of the day Friday in the water. First we snorkeled at Admiral's Aquarium.

Dad getting his feet wet

Off to the Aquarium

Snorkel buddies

Mom and Amanda with a school of French Grunts

The boat crew

We came back to the center to cook lunch (pasta primavera!) and then went out in the water again in the afternoon. This time, to Shark Alley. Mom, Brett, and Amanda tried out the Manta Tow, the technique we use to look for turtles where you hold on to a board that gets pulled behind the boat. This way they didn't have to fight the current, which happened to be at max flow. Then, Brett and Amanda both tried out the kneeboard and water skis.

Manta Towing at Shark Alley

Amanda preparing for liftoff

All in all, I'd say we've had a pretty active and jam packed week, but we also managed to squeeze in time for some reading, lounging, board games and even a few naps.

Scrabble

Me trying out the sign language Amanda just taught me, while she interprets

We ended our visit together with a boat ride back to the dock at sunset. (Brett's not in many of the above photos because he's often on the opposite side of the camera, so I've added him into the shot below.)

Last evening together

Now I finally feel like I've had the break I've needed since our Spring semester here ended. Hopefully we didn't tire out our guests too much and they feel like they've had a restful and relaxing vacation too!

Survivor

On our trip to Coast Guard with our Parisian guests, I resumed work on my raft. Weeks back, when the students were still here, I started collecting discarded objects on the beach necessary for its construction. You can find quite a lot of stuff washed up in remote places. On this trip, I had more time to assemble it and take it for a test run.

Construction

Finishing Touches

Proud of my creation.

I found that the bamboo I used, however, took on water rather quickly and so it rode low in the water. Next time I'll look for buoys and empty jugs to attach for extra flotation. I'll also need a sail.

At Sea

A successful maiden voyage.

Visiteurs

We've just said "au revoir" to our guests from Paris. It was a fun and busy visit. I wondered at times if we were trying to do too much with them, and whether or not they'd prefer just relax and do nothing. We're pretty sure they enjoyed their time here though.

Here's a recap of some the things we did in photos:

Admirals Aquarium

Beach at East Bay

François & JC Making Crêpes

Doubling the Batch

We also made Jessee's famous Carrot Cake (I get two birthdays this year) and Cinnamon Rolls (JC's favorite). All this special food made the rest of the SFS staff big fans of our guests, especially on the night we served the crêpes.

JC is a really good tennis player.

A trip to Coast Guard

Volleyball at High Point

Volleyball

Deep Water

More Deep Water

Jessee "Duck Diving"
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cThg4ZTnDSw)

Barbecue at East Bay

Sunset

This is the second time they've visited us now (including once before in Bellingham), so now it's our turn to go to Paris to see them. We're not sure when that will happen, but we hope we'll be able to go soon.

It's November

But you wouldn't guess it from this picture. I took it yesterday up at Coast Guard. It is noticeably cooler, but rarely below 80°F. It's hard for me to believe today is opening day of ski season at Mount Baker back in Washington.

Iguana Rescue Team

It's hard to believe, but we've now come to the end of our first week with the Fall semester students. They seem like a great group, and have been really enthusiastic about the program, the classes, the community, and the activities so far. After our site cleanup on Saturday, we introduced the students to some of the potential community engagement (formerly known as community outreach) projects for the quarter. Many of them are the same as they were over the summer sessions, but we're also adding in opportunities to get involved with the schools and with various other community groups, as these SFS students will be here for three months and have time to make more established connections with locals. Then, the students headed out for a snorkeling ID session, where they got to practice identifying various species of algae, sea grass, and mangroves before their first Ecology exam this coming week. For dinner last night we had a cookout on the beach by East Bay, and then talked around the campfire about everyone's first impressions of the island. (The students were prepared with lots of thoughtful comments to contribute, as they had just handed in their first "cultural reflection" papers.)

On Sunday, our day off, Brett and I went for a dive in the morning and then drove out to Coast Guard after brunch for a snorkeling trip with three of the other staff members. We parked the van at the tip of the South Caicos handle (known as "Coast Guard," after the abandoned USCG station there) and then swam to Plandon Cay just north of us. When we arrived there we decided to swap out our fins for our walking shoes, and explore the little island a bit. We didn't get very far, however, before stumbling upon a lobster trap that had washed up on shore. That part is fairly unremarkable, as lobster traps are very common near us, but the surprise was that there were six iguanas trapped inside! We spotted them from a distance, but it wasn't until we got up close that we noticed the remains of several more iguana carcasses inside the cage as well. They must have been trapped in there for a long time. In fact, it appeared that the iguanas who didn't make it had been eaten by the ones who did, made evident by the fact that all that remained of the dead were their heads and traces of their bones, skin, and scales.

Iguanas are native to many of the islands in this area, but since the introduction of cats and dogs they've been mostly wiped out. They only remain on some of the smaller cays, so the loss of the ones who died in the lobster cage was heartbreaking. We were determined to free the ones that were still alive! We had basically nothing with us and certainly no tools, so we tried bending the wire with our hands, prying the bars with rocks and conch shells, and coaxing them out with sticks. None of it worked. We were reluctant to put our hands in there because iguana bites are said to be pretty nasty, and often get infected. When we initially approached the cage, the iguanas were frantically jumping around and slamming into the sides, as you might expect a panicked animal to do, but once we went to work trying to get them out they calmed down. It makes for a better story that they could sense us trying to help and were therefore calmed by our presence, but it's more likely that they were just worn out and nearly starved. Either way, their quieted demeanor gave us the opportunity to try another tactic. Marta, an experienced shark researcher, found a piece of rope that had washed up on the beach and tied it into a type of lasso that she has used on many occasions to restrain sharks. We put the lasso through the entrance of the trap, slung it around the neck of the nearest iguana, and used it to pull him, or her, to safety. (They could have physically crawled out on their own, but lacked the problem-solving capacity to find the correct route.) It worked! Now we had the iguana outside the cage, panicking again, but this time on a leash. It was a pretty funny scene to be walking a wild iguana down the beach. It then took three of us to get the lasso off: two to restrain it and one to remove the rope. One of the iguanas began running in circles before we could hold it down, and then struggled so badly it nearly bit a couple of us and almost got stepped on as our feet got tangled in the rope. In the end, they were all freed and we escaped without a single bite and with only a couple minor scratches.

It felt really good to save those 6 iguanas, but it's really sad to think how often this must happen. These traps get lost all the time. It might not be that common that they wash all the way up on shore and trap iguanas, but countless fish and crustaceans must die in the ones lost at sea (recall our last rescue episode where we freed a young Nurse Shark from a lost trap at Dove Cay). In the end, Brett made sure that no more would die in this one by crushing it completely flat and closing off the entrance.

Later on we returned to the center with our heroic tales of iguana rescue. About the whole endeavor, Will commented dryly, "they're not too bright, are they? If I saw a trap full of dead humans, I'm not sure I'd go in." Which was made all the more humorous by impressions of finding and entering an imaginary cage full of human remains: "Hmm, what's this? Oh, it appears somebody's died in there. Well, I'll just climb inside and see if it might make a good snack..."*

*Thanks to Brett for co-writing this entry with me, as I got distracted by work duties halfway through and might not have gotten around to publishing it for several more days without his help. Also, sorry we don't have photos! We made a last minute decision to leave the camera at home because we'd be swimming against a very strong current for part of the time, and then seriously regretted it! (Although, we may not have made it through the current if we'd been carrying more stuff on our backs. It was quite a workout!)