Sat, 6 Feb

Sat, 6 Feb i woke up about 1:30am, had to pee, and couldn't go back to sleep. so, i got up and took my laptop to the library and started to upload photos. it was awesome, lightening fast. i finished just at 6am ... over 4 hours! so, i apologize for bombarding you all with over a week's worth of blogging; but i had to get caught up. i wanted to be able to start telling my Glovers 'story'. today is another different weather day. it's windy again, but from yet another direction. and .... considerably cooler, i.e., get out the sweat pants and sweat shirt again :( the waves are choppy out front, but calmer on the other side of the reef. not a day you'd want to work in the water! but, now it was time for breakfast. scrambled eggs, thick canadian-style bacon, pancakes, and hot oatmeal. you can also make yourself cold cereal, etc. we couldn't find Alex, so we didn't know what we should do. i went back and laid down and slept until about 10am, when Marie said we were doing another phase of the Sea Grass study .... in the water :( i planned on something like this, so before i left, i searched for a pair of neoprene knee length shorts, and a neoprene zippered jacket ... exactly for this type of situation. so i put it on ... i was the only one that wasn't really miserable :) as we were getting started, Alex called to us to come look at what he found. a rather rare citing ... a Sea Hare. it's actually a sea slug, but it's so cute. it has big kind-of 'ears', so they say it looks like a rabbit, hence the name. i think it looks like a little deer with horns. i offered to run and get my camera and attempt to take photos through the water. so he waves make it look abstract; they aren't Natl Geographic quality, but you get an idea of what it looked like. he was so accommodating --- he lined himself up with our tape so you can see his size today we were going back to the same measuring tape layout grid that we set up yesterday. we were doing 'core sampling'. you take a 4" PVC tube and position it over a plant and then push it down about 6" in the sand, and pull up the tube with the plant, roots, and sand in it. then put it in a mesh bag, shake out most of the sand, and then they analayze the sample. Ray and i worked together. he had the worst job of going under water and drilling the plug ... i was just assisting. i'm sure i'll get my turn later. we collected 6 samples in about 1.5 hrs. it was not really a fun time to be in the water. time for lunch and to warm up. lunch was fried chicken, red beans, rice, tomatos and cucumbers in oil and basalmic vinegar. Everyone decided that the weather was just too miserable and cold to continue the Sea Grass project. we had the rest of the day off, at least i did, i'm not sure if anyone else worked, but no one asked me to help. so i downloaded the photos of the Sea Hare and worked on other photos in my library. about 3pm, the sun peeked throught he clouds briefly. i needed a break. grabbed my camera to take a slow walk about the caye. i was hoping to get some photos of a lot of hermit crabs together like i saw the first day on my walk with Marie. i got kind of side tracked around the water, and then on the trail. i saw these oval balls, i think they are old old coconuts. but, ... i took a look at them, and .... i saw a little face ... 2 eyes and an open mouth. so i took a pic ... found another, he has a friend ... 3 friends, 4,5,6,7,8 ... a whole family. it doesn't take much to entertain me on a nature walk :) Janny, this made me think of you ! love you honey! aren't they cute ????????????? i also saw this huge termite mound in a tree so, my goal was to find a lot of hermit crabs. i found a few here and there, some pretty big ones as i was heading back, i saw another trail and followed it. i mentioned that after meals, we put all our food scraps in a bucket. well, i found where they dump that bucket ... OMG!!!!!!!!! hundreds, literally, of hermit crabs, and also some HUGE blue crabs, which are land crabs, with one claw larger than the other. the blue crabs are about 15" across ! ok, i've finally managed to put a video on You Tube !!!!!!!!!! so, you can go to: www.youtube.com type in the search box: "Glovers-Land Crabs" and you should be able to watch a 3+min video of the hermit and land crabs. in the meantime, check out these photos !!!!!!!!!!!!! i spent a lot of time there in amazment, and managed to get eaten by mosquitos and sand flies, aka, no-see-ums. dinner was baked potatos,,,, baked beef in dark gravy, and eggplant with cheese on top. it's Sat night, so we went to Alex's place for a nightcap then to bed.