Seychelles When The Wind Is Blowing...

I know I've been writing lots about how hard we are working here and all the good data we are collecting. Plus the nestings, and the taggings, and the snorkeling with whale sharks, yada yada, etc., etc., etc...

Well, I may have to correct that impression a bit.

Last Friday the day started off with a fun dive, and then we had the afternoon off. This happened because we are all doing such a good job that we were way ahead of our research schedule and had gotten lots of the research sites completely finished. So we threw an 80's party (I was sporting the preppy look - an Izod with the collar up, sweater over the shoulders, and jeans.) Then we had the weekend off for all the usual shennagins.

Monday was kind of windy but we followed the usual routine, and I did two dives in the afternoon as the weather worsened.
The first was an the 10 meter LIT Transect where I have to write down in a code what is under a tape meter every centimeter of the way. On a good day at a simple site, I can do three in about 45 minutes. This day I struggled to finish two as the surge sucked us back and forth over the reef.
My task for the second dive was to lay a 50 meter tape and track every species of hard coral, sea cucumber, octopus and lobster within 5 meters of it. As I hovered above the rocks and reef, struggling with a balky measuring reel, surging with the waves, I felt my leg crunch into something and looked down to discover a shin sprouting urchin spines like a black porcupine! Thankfully, it was a black spiny sea urchin and not the deadly (yes, deadly,) poisonous flower urchin, but still I looked like a pincushion and blood began so seep out the base of the 25 or so sticking out of me. It didn't hurt nearly as much as other divers have claimed and I calmly started to pluck the skinny black spears back out being very careful to lift them straight out and not shatter them underneath my skin. My buddy Dan finned over with a concerned look behind his mask and I gave him an "OK" sign followed by a loud grunt to show my frustration. He was nice enough to take the reel, so I had a hand to hold my leg still while I plucked and hovered and tried to avoid further surge damage. Finally got myself sorted out and finished the "tape," and we even spotted a turtle as we headed back to the boat. I used a leatherman tool set of pliers to get the last of the spines and liberally coated everything with Neosporin!

By Tuesday morning the seasonal NW Monsoon winds had been blowing constantly for a couple of days, but we went out on the first dive, as scheduled. As a nice present, the wind had swept a big school of stinging jellyfish into our bay so the two trips to haul all the gear, tanks, measuring and safety equipment the 150 meters out to the boat were really exciting! The Indian Ocean was even rougher as we sailed to the dive site, whipped by spray and drenched by the waves coming over the bow. Vis at the site looked terrible, and by this time the waves were running three to five meters high so when Luke the boat captain cancelled the dives, we all breathed a secret sigh of relief. So we bounced back to our bay and made two more trips to haul in all the gear through the jellyfish filled bay again. With the day's work cancelled, we had the day free and everyone took off to town to enjoy ourselves.

Wednesday, the winds were worse and we had some slashing rains off and on. With the dives cancelled we were all free to run into town again.

Thursday, same wind and same rain. With the dives cancelled we were all free to run into town. Again.

So now it's Friday, it's windy and rainy, and all our work is cancelled until Sunday and we are all in town on free time. AGAIN! I think we are all getting a little bored, but I'm looking forward to going to the movies tonight. "I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry" is playing at the local uniplex, and I haven't been to a real theater since July. So I get to see a flick - in a theatre!!!

Saturday wound up being another day off, can't remember what we did, maybe went to hang out on a beach or something. The wind died a little and the sun was out, so that must be it. SInce I had the time, I made Jambalaya and it was a huge hit - everyone loved it and there were several requests for the recipe. I had to use local peri-peri hot sauce instead of my usual Texas Pete, but I was really happy withthe results, too. Thanks from all the volunteers for sending the recipe! Laissez les bon temps roulez!

(I'm finishing this a week later - the weather finally improved and we got in the water again on Sunday.)

That's all for now, I had an amazing dive this morning which I will try to write about this weekend...

Love to all,
C