Camping at Black Coral

The view from my tree perch


Looking out towards Ant Atol


The hut that I stayed in complete with large rain water barrel


The hut that Jay, Mitch and Zack stayed in


Just looking out at the open ocean


Mr. Too Cool to look at the camera


Anyone feel like snorkeling?

Wednesday:

On Wednesday morning I got up somewhat early, took a shower, ate breakfast and went down to the office to talk to Kat. I wanted to make sure that she had gotten my grades on Friday since I really didn’t want to have to do them again. We had a nice chat and then she asked me if I knew that Mr. B wanted to take the visitors (and anyone who wanted to go) to black coral. Of course I didn’t, but I was sure that they boys would want to go along. She told me that I should and talk to Mr. B about the trip and see when he was planning to leave. That sent me to the principal’s office, and there I found Mr. B who was busy in his very messy office. A few minutes later I stepped out of his office, I was on a mission to find out who would want to go to black coral. First I found Rusty and asked him, next I walked over to Gene and Peter’s apartment and talked to Gene for a few minutes, next I walked to apartment 6 and asked there, then I trotted back to my apartment and asked Marla if she would want to go, and since she had been sick, she couldn’t, so I walked back down to Mr. B’s office and on the way saw the girls from apartment 5 and asked them if they would want to go to black coral. Then I walked back to Mr. B’s office and told him that about 11 people wanted to go, and he told me that we would be leaving at 4pm and to spread the word. So I went back to all of the apartments and told everyone, then I had to go and call the pastor and ask the boys if they wanted to go. It was all a very complicated process, certainly took some time to accomplish. It was actually a rather funny experience, calling the pastor. First I talked to Danny (his son) and then to the Pastor…and when I asked if the boys were around, he perked up and was like “Oh would you like to talk to one of them?” The answer from me was yes, and the next thing I knew I was talking to Jay. It took a rather long time to explain to them where we were going, what we were going to do, how much it was going to cost, what to bring, and so on. The reason it took a long time to explain was because Jay had to stop talking to me to tell Mitch what I was saying, and then he’d ask a question and then Jay would ask me and really it was a very tiring conversation. But in the end they said that they would go.
The boys came to our apartment at around 3:30 that afternoon, for some reason they didn’t pack food, I have no idea why they didn’t pack food for a camping trip…but they didn’t. I never eat much when camping, so I had only packed granola. The boys had left some ramen, a can of tomatoes, and a loaf of bread at our apartment a few days before, so they took that. Although knowing how much guys eat in general, I knew that food wasn’t going to last them long.
Anyway we didn’t leave until close to 5:00, typical island time, and it poured down rain too…so all of us in the truck got very wet…except for the girls who were in the truck, I was riding in the back of the truck with the guys. So all of us we pretty much wet to the skin by the time we got to the pick up point. As luck would have it Mr. B wasn’t there yet, so all of us piled out of the truck and tried to dry off a little bit and explore the waters around us. It was getting dark when Mr. B motored up. We all threw our bags aboard and scrabbled on. Our next stop would be Black Coral itself.
Black Coral is my favorite island for a number of reasons. First off we get to stay in little huts, second there are lost of places to snorkel, third I get to see sharks…I know that shouldn’t be one of my reasons, but sharks are cool…and forth there are outhouses (which isn’t seen on any of the other outer islands).
Once we got our huts in order, hanging up hammocks can actually take a lot of skill and time, especially when you have to hang five hammocks in a very fascinating design…we headed on over to the big hut, where people were making supper. When I found the guys, Mr. B was offering them some cooked rice, which they accepted…and when offered I decided that some rice would be nice. Jay produced the bread and the can of tomatoes, I watched as they poured canned tomatoes on their rice and started eating, this was when I started to feel sick, since they were eating with their hands, everything was messy, and soon they started adding bread to their mixture of tomatoes and rice. By then a mental picture of what my kids look like when they eat came to mind, and I felt rather queasy. And for some reason Mitch is a rather slow eater, I don’t know how that is possible, since most guys I know, including Jay, down their food in a matter of minutes, but this was a drawn out process. Eat some tomatoes and bread, then add some rice…slowly chew as if thinking about something…repeat the process. It seemed painful to me, I eat fast in general…coming from always having back to back classes during lunch, where I have 15 minutes to stand in line, eat, run to my room and switch books and then race to class (since we are not allowed to eat in art class). So it is really hard for me to slow down and actually enjoy my food…I’m glad that the boys enjoyed their food, no matter how disgusting it was for me to watch them eat it.
As they finished eating they started discussing what to do. It was suddenly decided that we should go snorkeling at night. I was thinking WE? What We? I haven’t agreed to this crazy idea. Jay was like “Emily you want to go?” Inside I was screaming “No, I will not go, there is no way that anyone will ever get me to go into that water in the dark!” But I had to say something, so I muttered… “I don’t know, I have never gone snorkeling at night.” Jay was persistent…“If you want we will swim on either side of you, we have diving knives, we’ll protect you.” I don’t know really why this was something comforting to hear, cause when I think back on it I start laughing…the thought that they would protect me, is rather hysterical…probably because most of my guy friends at school have never said that to me… But really the thing was, that I had always wanted to go exploring/snorkeling at night, it was just that I didn’t really like dark water all that much, I know exactly what swims in it in the day light, and I had a pretty good idea what would be lurking in the shadows.
We actually didn’t see anything, except for some sea slugs and a few small little fish. The current was so strong; it kinda freaked me out a little bit. I don’t like being in water that has a tendency to grab you and chuck you out into the deep blue ocean. We put on our fins and had to walk backwards, against the current in order to get to the other side of the island, where the current wasn’t pulling quite so hard. Mitch let me hold one of the lights, which was an o.k. idea except I am not sure if he was actually ever able to see anything…I would randomly shine the light out to the side, half blind him…then move it to the other side and chase after the beam of Jay’s flashlight…soon we all decided that there was nothing to see…and headed back to the island. Once out of the water I was like “Cold, cold…cold…oh my goodness I am freezing!” I stood shivering for a bit, until Jay told me to go change…I was like “Be back in a bit.” And headed to my hut to…guys are lucky, they don’t have to wear a gazillion layers of clothing in order to go swimming…when they get out of the water, they can just walk around in their swim shorts as if nothing is wrong. Girls on the other hand have to go and change out of at least four layers of swim wear and into dry cloths…we can’t just walk around in our swim suits.