sillhoutte, takamaka, and dive 100

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Hey everybody,

just rolled into victoria for the last time in a while. i am leaving this saturday to spend a week on sillhoutte island doing turtle hatchling surveys and hangin out with the native giant tortoises hector, carl, and the rest. the previous groups have seen lots of nesting turtles so it is likely that we will see plenty of hatchlings. yesterday marked the end of the first five weeks and we had our five week bbq. Plenty of fried yard bird and hot dogs (the first meat we've had on base) rum punch, complete with pineapple that i gathered from the hills, and Seybrew. The end of the first five weeks also means that four members of our group havce left us and 12 more arrive tommorow so things are about to get crazy.




Becuase of the high price of beer (15 rupees or about 3 dollars) I have resorted to carrying peoples spare tanks on double tank dives for free beer. Because there is no dock at base we have to walk anywhere from 100 feet to 500 feet with our dive kit and spare tanks. I charge a beer each way and on a good day i can drink for free.




Last friday i was sent down to Port launay to do community work teaching the local kids, which is fine because sometimes they share their snacks. So far we have taught them about ecosystems ( coral reef, seagrass, and mangroves) and food webs (producers, carnivores, and herbivores). the kids are very smart and impossible to control once theyve ingested their sugary snacks. Last week we played some games, one of which is called high tide, where the kids run towards you and have do dive through your legs while being chased by the "sharks". anyway it was incredibly frightening having 20+ kids charging towards you only to duck through your legs at the last second. fortunately no staff members were injured.







BONUS Material:

Paul's 100th dive spectacularrr

Dive number 100 occured on monday the 12th 2007 and it goes like this;

i entered into the water just of the NE coast of Baie ternay and descended
to 20 meters where i was greeted by 9 eagle rays of increasing size. Then a
group of 4 whale sharks swam by clapping in congratulations for my 100th dive.
i swam on until i was circled by huge bumphead parrotfish who spiraled around
me and sang happy birthday. when their song had ended 2 of the most beautiful mermaids
came by and presented me with my dive mask (which was lost the previous week)
and then i was carried back to the boat by 3 leatherback turtles where we all had
cake and ice cream.




Well thats all for a while i'm off to Sillhoutte to sit on a deserted beach for a week
with a bottle of rum and a good book or two.


Cheers,



~Paul


P.S. Congratulations to Clay and Alisha and the birth of their son Topaz. I can't wait to meet the little guy!

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Comments

[creeg]

Ocean Man
Hey sorry i havent gotten in touch with you yet... it sounds like you're haven yourself a good time from what mom and dad have said. congrats on your 100th dive, im jealous, it sounded like it was a glorious benchmark among dives. All your photes have been awesome, i especially liked the close-up of Hector, drooling with a mouth-full of cabbage. I've missed snowboarding with you, but fortunately for you, you arent missin out on too good of conditions. I get my cast off in a few days and am excited to go rock climbing and flyfishin with you when you get back. Anyways i hope you are doing well and making friends with the lil turt hatchlings. Well i gotta get back to studying, i have a calculon 3 exam tommorrow unfortunately. Take care paul, you are missed. - Craig

[Janice Zainfeld]

Hey Paul!
Sounds like you are having an awesome time! Can't wait to see all your pictures and hear even more details when you return. Be careful (I sound like your mother!) and keep the blogs coming! BTW, Richard is so jealous when he sees these pictures and reads of your adventures he can hardly stand it! And on the home front, Laura is now expecting her second baby - hard to believe! Your mom was playing with Kate (our first grandbaby) and I think David is right. Watch out!

[lancaster]

mermaids?
so the mermaids were pretty hot right? gotta find me one of those to marry soon.