Random hut on Black Coral
Mitch and Jay making little pin wheels
Close up of a pin wheel being made
The island on across the channel
Thursday:
I awoke early Thursday morning. I untangled myself from my hammock and crawled out the door of our hut (there was a hammock right in front of our door). Once outside I walked across the small island and suddenly heard a boat motor…I looked out and saw all the boys with Mr. B heading out to sea. Half of me was like, I would have liked to have gone and the other half of me was like…they are probably going fishing…which is the last thing that I would seriously want to spend my morning doing. I wandered down to the other end of the island and plopped down on an odd slab of cement that sat out in the dead coral. I spent my morning walking around on the coral looking for crabs and fish, and also keeping an eye out for the tide, which was rising at an amazing speed.
Finally I wandered back to where the main hut was and bumped into Amanda who was looking for Zack, her boyfriend. I told her that I thought Zack went with the other guys on the boat. She was fuming and went off muttering how it would have been nice if he had come and told her that he was leaving. It didn’t take long for the girls and Seth (the one guy left behind) to decide to go out and snorkel. We swam around looking at fish and generally trying to enjoy ourselves, Amanda was still annoyed at Zack, and I was just annoyed for really no reason at all.
Soon I heard the boat motor, and saw the guys all in the boat, most likely brimming with stories to tell those that were left behind. Amanda climbed out of the water and stomped off, I felt rather sorry for Zack, who in a few minutes was going to get a talking to and since everyone else was getting out of the water, I followed…being careful on the coral…since I was barefoot. As soon as Jay got off the boat, he wanted to know if I would be getting back in the water, I told him that I suppose that I would…so he went off to get his fins and snorkel. And of course there were stories to be told and things to talk about. Jay and I stood on the coral and waited for Mitch. Suddenly I noticed a familiar looking shape in the water, just cruising up to the coral that we stood on. Excitedly I pointed out the black tip reef shark to Jay, at which point Jay told me that they saw a whale shark, not fair thought I, but as I have said before sharks are often cooler when watching them out of the water, it is a much different experience when swimming with them.
Once in the water we paddled out to the channel, which I had been scared to enter, cause it is so deep…I dislike deep water. But there was plenty to see…lots of pretty fish, pretty coral, a few random sharks here and there (that we kept missing). We swam around quite a lot, looking at the pretty coral and fish. The guys would dive under to get a better look and I would content myself with staying close to the surface. Jay and I went exploring across the channel to where there was more pretty coral, we didn’t stay on that side long, because the water was a little on the shallow side. As we started entering the channel again, I started to tread water, Jay wanted to know if I was alright, I told him that I was fine, just hated deep water…Once on the other side, we swam out to where Mitch was, actually we weren’t quite sure if it was him, all we could see of him was his fins…but we treaded water and talked about what we had seen so far…and I got a warning again from them not to shove my mask up on my forehead, cause that is a sign that I am in distress…after a bit Jay and I swam over the coral next to the channel, that is when I was like “Shark!” but it is awfully hard to tell someone that there is a shark right there when they are looking the other direction and are out of arms reach. So Jay missed seeing his first shark. When we reached Mitch, I asked him if he had seen the Shark, he told me that he had seen it heading our direction, but wasn’t able to get our attention…I still can’t believe that Jay didn’t see the shark…it was right there.
Mitch wanted to know what it was like on the other side of the channel, Jay and I weren’t all that helpful…we told him that it was shallow over there, but nice. He suggested that we swim over to the other island and take a look around. So we headed back out across the channel, and I was reminded again about how much I disliked deeper water. Once on the other side we glided across the coral into water that was very shallow…you would swim over coral and feel the need to suck in your stomach to keep it from touching. Finally we decided to walk the rest of the way, I took off my fins and caught my breathe, my fins are made to be worn with boots, I don’t have boots…for when I left, my sister didn’t tell me that I needed the boots…and even if I had known, I wouldn’t have known where in our house to look for them. So my feet were very torn up and were starting to ooze...and of course salt water feels wonderful on open cuts. Once on the island I flung my fins, mask, and snorkel on a log and headed down the beach. Jay and I had fun picking up hermit crabs and admiring their shells. Then we all sat on the large log and I watch the guys sharpen their aim, by throwing first rocks then their diving knives at targets. Considering their aim (no offense guys) I am glad that they aren’t suppose to throw their knives under water…it would be most disastrous.
The guys started to get hungry, I wasn’t really all that hungry, I just knew that I wasn’t going to be able to swim much longer, I told Jay that if I stayed in the water any longer, that he would see lots of sharks, cause of the cuts on my feet. Well it was decided that we should head back. This was when I envied the guys; boots must be wonderful…especially when there is coral. Carefully I started picking my way through the dead, but still painful coral. Mitch asked if I needed a hand…at first I said I was alright, because I am naturally stubborn, but too seconds later I slipped on the coral and almost got to meet it face to face. That is when I decided that maybe holding on to someone’s hand might actually be a splendid idea. When the water was a little past our knees and there was no coral around, we decided to put on our fins. I let go of Mitch’s hand and promptly fell into the water. Jay was already sitting and thrusting his feet into his fins…we started laughing and not too long after Mitch fell in…apparently he lost his balance too…
I wanted to be safely on the other side of the channel, so I started out and glided into the deeper water. As we were swimming in the middle of the channel, I noticed something rather large cruising along the bottom of the channel…I got really excited…For most of that day I had mistaken really big fish for sharks (my eyesight isn’t the greatest, I can’t exactly see things far away)…so I had to take a good look at what we were approaching…I looked over at Mitch, but I couldn’t tell if he had seen it yet…as we swam closer I was able to clearly see a black tip reef shark just cruising along. Finally Mitch got my attention and pointed at his eyes and then in the direction of the shark…I nodded and we swam a little faster after it…both of us wanted to follow it, but in the end thought better of it. We didn’t want the shark to feel threatened. When we were quite close to shore I surfaced and looked over at Mitch, pulling my mask down around my neck I exclaimed how cool it was, and asked Jay if he had seen the shark…he hadn’t even though he was swimming right next to us. Poor boy, all the sharks he saw that day were from shore.
Back on the island the boys made some Ramen and started eating, I opted for granola, and munched on it while I watched Zack and Amanda teach Mitch a game called “Ah Shucks” it didn’t take long before Jay joined them, I just decided to watch, I was tired and decided that sitting and watching would be more fun.
After a few very entertaining games of “Ah Shucks” Rusty came and told us that Mr. B was going to be back soon, and so we should pack up. With that everyone left, the girls in my hut all started taking down our hammocks and packing up our snorkel gear, we were all talking and laughing and tripping over our backpacks. About 30 minutes later we emerged and learned that Mr. B and Rusty had gone fishing again, so the girls went to find their boyfriends and I went off to find Mitch and Jay, who were somewhere on that little island. I found Mitch talking to Gene, I sat down on the coral in front of them and looked at all the interesting shapes…I picked up one piece and stood it on end, it looked like a Christmas tree. The guys decided to see who could knock the little hunk of coral over; I told them that I would personally hurt them if they hit me instead of the hunk of coral. By then Jay was there…so pieces of coral and rock whizzed past me at an alarming rate…but I guess their aim had improved…because they were knocking over the target quite a lot…After about 20 minutes I got bored and climbed up a near by tree…only to get hit with tiny pieces of coral. So the battle continued for a few minutes, Jay handed me small pieces of rocks/coral and I threw them at Mitch…who continued to throw them back at me…As time dragged on I finally climbed down the tree and went to get my camera, when I got back I climbed back up the tree and took some pictures of the island. The guys were busy with something, Jay was making a simple little pin wheel thing out of a large leaf…and not to be outdone Mitch was making one too. They told me that the kids in Kosrae taught them how to make them, a simple toy that can keep one entertained for hours.
Finally Mr. B’s boat came into site, we all left to get our gear, all of us had to pile into the small boat, it isn’t unusual to have that many people on that boat, but it does make it uncomfortable when you have all of your gear, plus 15 people. It was certainly a slow ride back to the truck. And once in the truck with all the gear piled around us…it was a very bumpy ride back to the school. As we rode along I told Jay that we should climb Sokeh’s Rock, since they were leaving on Monday we would have to do it on Friday. He said that sounded like a plan.
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