LOST SOLES FOUND

This sole (peacock flounder) was not lost.   

Last Saturday the crews of EXIT STRATEGY, LET IT BE, and MASELLE joined a group of volunteers on the island of Bonaire to clean up a portion of the seabed and reef.  The event was organized by DIVE FRIENDS BONAIRE in coordination with PROJECT AWARE (a worldwide organization dedicated to keeping oceans pure).  The Bari Reef dive site was targeted for this effort because Bonaire’s Annual Regatta was held off a nearby beach during the previous week and the accompanying festivities usually produce much trash.

Gabrielle, Thomas , & Dan sign in.

During an initial safety briefing, we were instructed to collect as much debris as possible WITHOUT disturbing the reef.  So, for instance, if we found fishing line or net entangled IN the reef, we were to free it for disposal by cutting it loose.  If an item already had coral growing ON it, we were to leave it alone since it had already become part of the living reef.  After the briefing, each team grabbed a mesh bag, free tanks of air or nitrox, and suited up to enter the water.  

Thomas (top) & Gabrielle (bottom) loosen PVC trash while Dan (right) holds bag.

Initially,  I snorkeled at the surface to follow Dan’s diving team (Gabrielle & Thomas) and helped them retrieve a three meter piece of PVC found just before the drop off.  Then when they moved into the deep, I lost sight of them. So I continued gathering trash on my own by swimming a tight zigzag grid perpendicular to the shore for nearly an hour.  No other snorkelers appeared to be on duty.  I enjoyed the solitude and allowed myself to be distracted by the beauty of the reef and the array of marine species that crossed my path. 

"Hamburger" coral formation

One of many personal distractions

              
Dan and our friends from MASELLE and LET IT BE were watching the staff sort the trash when I finally exited the water.  They said that they had recovered many beer bottles, plastic cups and utensils, and aluminum cans.  I unloaded my bag to reveal quite an assortment of SOLES, as well as some odd pieces of rubber and plastic, and a few bottles. 

My treasure trove of lost soles

             

In appreciation for the volunteers, DIVE FRIENDS BONAIRE hosted a potluck dinner that evening which was graciously sponsored by a number of local grocers, dive shops, and restaurants.  We feasted on grilled chicken, sausages, ribs, veggie burgers, and hamburgers. Everyone brought a side dish to share, making the buffet quite varied and FULL!  We ate to our hearts content, met more people from far away places, and I won a dive t-shirt in the raffle.

(L to R) Gabrielle & Thomas of MASELLE, Sylvain & Suzanne of LET IT BE,
Rose & Dan of EXIT STRATEGY

Over one hundred volunteers participated in the day’s activities. The bin of refuse we collectively removed from the sea during this quarterly clean up was sorted and will be documented online.  For full details, please visit www.divefriendsbonaire.com.

Sparks DO fly during SEX…

 

Google Image

… at least during foreplay for some species according to WIKIPEDIA.org in its explanation of the naturally occurring OSTRACOD PHENOMENOM. 

Ostracods are a class of the Crustacea (class Ostracoda), sometimes known as seed shrimp. Some 70,000 species have been identified, grouped into several orders. They are small crustaceans, typically around 1 mm (0.039 in) in size.  Some ostracods have a light organ in which they produce luminescent chemicals. Most use the light as predation defense, while some use the light for mating (only in the Caribbean). These ostracods are called "blue sand" or "blue tears" and glow blue in the dark at night. Their bioluminescent properties made them valuable to the Japanese during World War II, when the Japanese army collected large amounts from the ocean to use as a convenient light for reading maps and other papers at night. The light from these ostracods, called umihotaru in Japanese, was sufficient to read by but not bright enough to give away troops' position to enemies.

This season while baching it in Bonaire, Diver Dan was fortunate to meet a lovely Swiss couple who cruise on their sailing yacht MASELLE and are extremely experienced divers. Thomas recently completed his 200th dive while his wife Gabrielle has done nearly 400.  Over the past few months they have often invited Dan to be a third “buddy” so he could enjoy the sport safely. 

Thomas & Gabrielle of sv MASELLE

A few days ago, Thomas and Gabrielle organized a night dive and snorkel trip for seven of us to experience the OSTRACOD PHENOMENON.  This is NOT the same as what you may find in bioluminescent bays around the Caribbean.  The mating ritual of the Ostracods  ONLY occurs two to five days after a full moon at forty-five minutes after sunset and usually lasts about twenty minutes.  Ostracods only breed around soft corals that are located near a sandy bottom off a shore that has minimal residential or city lights to interfere. 





It was determined that Bonaire’s dive site Petrie’s Pillar (a curious story is behind the name of this site) was a likely spot for us to observe this unique phenomena. So just before sunset, we all motored the distance to Petrie’s Pillar and fellow cruisers Peter and Katrine of sv FLORENTINE, a German flagged vessel, allowed us to use their boat as a base from which to dive.

Katrine & Peter of sv FLORENTINE

The sun set at 6:14 pm and shorty afterward Gabrielle, Thomas, and Dan suited up in their dive gear and entered the water toting waterproof flash lights.  About twenty minutes later, the rest of us including Peter and Katrine’s son Jacob jumped in to snorkel and wait for the show.  It was dark, of course, but we could see the three divers every so often even though they had not illuminated their torches yet.  We also could see a few huge tarpons milling around the divers.  (Although tarpon are harmless, I certainly wouldn’t want to bump into one in the eerie darkness.)





The divers light their torches below.

Then the divers at the bottom began to take turns passing their flashlights over the soft corals near them and the show began!  Thomas surfaced to tell us what we already knew since we were in the water watching with great anticipation.  From a snorkelers point of view, we saw a twinkling of tiny lights among the corals.  It was amazing to watch as our divers continued to flash their torches every so often to further activate the ostracods.  The sexy light show lasted well beyond the usual twenty minutes and we enjoyed every moment!


Google Image

From a diver’s point of view, the ostracods light up as depicted in this Google Image as they swim upward.  We attempted to take photos of the event, but every one came out black. (AMATURES!)

A SPECIAL NOTE OF GRATITUDE goes out to Thomas and Gabrielle for organizing this adventure and for including Dan in many of your dives over the past few months.  And many THANKS to Katrine and Peter for hosting us  that evening in your home, FLORENTINE.

Where’d all THIS come from?

Note the varied angles of masts resulting from the swell. 

      
        Surely everyone is aware of Hurricane Matthew that recently passed over the Southern Caribbean, curved northward through parts of Jamaica and Haiti, and then ultimately slammed the eastern coast of Florida.  Meteorologists followed its expected path and progress hourly with intensity.  As prudent sailors, so did we.  Being OUTSIDE of the “Hurricane Belt”, as widely regulated by insurance companies, does NOT guarantee that a hurricane or extremely nasty tropical storm won’t blow through the area.  Although the eye of Matthew was predicted to pass well north of us, winds in our area were to be an estimated 45mph and the seas between 9-10 feet.  Considering that, it took no time at all for the crew of Exit Strategy to prepare to “GET OUT OF DODGE!” 
        We left the wide open anchorage along Kralendijk, Bonaire and sailed about 30nm to the more protected bay of Spanish Waters, Curacao.  For MY comfort and peace of mind once there, we took a slip at Seru Boca Marina that is tucked way into a corner. I thank God that Matthew came and went with nary a ripple and only intermittent light showers in that location.
       But this narrative is NOT about Matthew.  This story is about a storm that we experienced two days ago right here back in the anchorage in Bonaire.  We knew of severe weather that was about 200 miles away over the Venezuelan mainland, however, there was no indication that it would effect us.

2 AM:  We were stirred awake when It began raining. We closed the hatch and returned to our slumber.

3 AM: Intermittent rain continued and the vessel began to sway.

4 AM: The gentle swaying escalated to rocking and rolling.  Small unsecured items began to rattle around and disturbed MY sleep. 

This is out of focus because of the constant motion of our boat.

4:30 AM:  I left the bunk since I couldn’t really relax and commenced working to muffle some of the interior noises.  I quickly realized that the boat was rocking too severely to dare open any lockers in order to shove in towels to stifle the rattling.  The wind was out of the west and a strong swell was crashing into the seawall which was now about 60 feet closer to Exit Strategy due to the wind shift. I carefully walked around the deck to the bow to examine the mooring lines.  (Two days before, one had worn through and we temporarily repaired it with a knot and were patiently waiting for the National Park Service to provide a new line.) 

5 AM:  From the cockpit,  I watched a parade of green and white navigation lights on small fishing vessels and a few sailboats motor northward away from the anchorage.  It occurred to me that we might need to join the band of deserters, so I dutifully cleared snorkel gear and such from around the helm. Then I sat in the cockpit with my foot braced against the table to prevent me from getting knocked around and PRAYED.

6 AM: The intermittent showers stopped and Dan crawled out of bed at his usual time.

“Where’d all THIS come from?” He yelled. A moment later, he surveyed the situation and saw that the boat was OK for the time being. 
“Do you think we could make a pot of coffee?”  I asked desperately.
“Not in this swell,” he replied.  So I had to make do with quietly nibbling on a chocolate granola bar to ease my need for caffeine.

The dinghy after rescuing the gas can.

7 AM: The swell increased and now the dinghy (that is raised out of the water nightly for security purposes) was bouncing forward, backward, and sideways against the hull. The seat popped out and was fortunately on the dinghy’s sole. We had removed the plug to let the rain drain and now we needed to put it back in before lowering the dinghy.  I did so by laying on my belly on the deck and timing the insertion and locking of the plug in between slams. Next I grabbed the seat and stowed it in the cockpit.  We lowered the craft and a few seconds later it was cresting the incoming waves with even more erratic behavior!  Suddenly, one swell flipped it on its side against the hull and the gas can fell out.  Dan used the boat hook to quickly retrieve it and moved the dinghy further aft where it behaved better.

I wonder what the tourists thought of all the boat action in the bay. (Yes, this is out of focus, too.)

8:30 AM: By this time, we expected things to settle down, but they didn’t. So we continued to brace ourselves in the cockpit and read or surfed the net.  There were tourists walking along the seawall, but no cruisers or fishermen were out and about.  We knew that if we had tried to go somewhere in the dinghy, we wouldn’t have been able to land it dockside and get out easily with the constant surge.

12 Noon: The sun came out- which was nice- but the rocking and rolling persisted.

2:30 PM: The swell finally calmed down. (BUT IT WAS WAY TOO LATE FOR COFFEE!)

3 PM: We happily got in the dinghy and zipped over to talk with three other boats about plans that we had for THAT EVENING for a night dive.  The water in the anchorage had cleared unbelievably fast, so we decided to keep our date with the OSTROCOD. (The topic of our next blog.)


Ah-h-h.  All things come to those who wait.

Throwing Caution (& Other Stuff) to the Wind

DIVER DAN
Photo by Gabrielle Heggli of sv MASELLE

        If you’re an avid follower, you know that during hurricane season our vessel’s insurance requires us to be south of Latitude 14°10.  This year, we sailed Exit Strategy back to Kralendijk, Bonaire which is at Latitude 12°09.  Captain Dan, as usual, stayed on the boat for the most part and enjoyed diving and carousing with some old and new cruiser friends here.  Mean while, back on the farm in Southwestern Michigan, I was up to my elbows in family gatherings and good old gardening.
        When Dan leaves the boat for his short visit up to the Midwest, he cleans out the refrigerator-freezer, does any necessary laundry, pickles the watermaker, and employs standard mold/mildew preventing products around the interior. Upon his return, he shops to restore the basic food stuffs, but tends to do minimal cooking.  He’s actually a great, creative cook, but you know how it is to prepare something for just yourself and he’s not real fond of leftovers.

Granddaughters Genna & Maya with me at Van Auken Lake

        Two plus months later when I fly back to Exit Strategy, I find the boat beautifully clean inside and out.  It’s such a wonderful homecoming-  until I begin to organize something for us to eat on the first day.  At breakfast time, I locate the last of the pancake mix stowed in the recesses of the locker under the seat in the salon and examine it closely.  I don’t see any bugs, but it just doesn’t look good, so I toss it into the trash. “Pancake mix” becomes the first entry on my shopping list.
        At lunch time, I pull out a few forgotten chunks of cheese from the bottom of the refrigerator.  They have bits of green and white growning on them. Now-truth be told-  I’m not above cutting off the moldy surface and eating the inside part- although I’ve heard that that is not recommended.  (And I’m still alive to write about it after multiple occasions!)  BUT this time, I have no way of knowing just how long that cheese has been in the fridge.  I throw it out the galley porthole into the bay and make myself a PB&J to eat instead.  “Chunk & sliced cheese” is added to the list.
        Dinner prep reveals that the tiny paprika particles have grown legs, the granular beef boullion, the jerk spice, and the garlic powder have each melted into thick paste in their individual jars. The shopping list grows. 
        Luckily, twice a week there is a free shopping bus that takes cruisers to a large supermarket on the outskirts of Kralendijk.  So, with shopping list and many reusable bags in hand,  I wander around the store and stock up big time.  However, most of the labels are written in Dutch or Papiamento (Bonaire’s official language), so I do the best I can to identify items whose packaging don’t have pictures.  My cart is overflowing when I get to the checkout counter.

        The next day I planned to make chili mac and pulled out package of ground beef I had purchased at the supermarket.  I sauteed the onions and garlic until golden and then added the meat to brown.  After a few minutes, I noticed that it wasn’t browning like beef.  Then that luscious aroma of onion and garlic began to smell a bit off.  I retrieved the discarded meat wrapper to reread the label.  It read “CARNE (I know that means MEAT) MULA”.  When shopping, I assumed that “MULA” meant “minced”, as ground meat is often referred to down island.  It just didn’t smell right or look right.  I asked Dan to fire up his Translator App and guess what?

“CARNE MULA”  is MULE MEAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

        So what do you think we did?

Trunk Fish and French Grunt (Not supper)

        At dusk, I used the mule meat to chum the waters and caught some nice snapper for supper!