Monday, May 4, 2009

#3: Bring on the Fish

We left port around 9am this morning and cruised down the Miami river, taking in the views and passing under AT LEAST 8 drawbridges.



Six hours later, after some Dramamine induced napping, we arrived in Alice Town on Bimini. Notice the difference in water color from the Miami river?





Along the way I was awake just long enough to see some flying fish. Those things are amazing! The fish was out of the water long enough for me to say "Whoa, there's a flying fish! Wait no, it must be a bird. Chris, is that a fish? Whoa, really? They can glide that far?" Yup, they can. It was awesome. And then the Dramamine hit me and I passed out.

After clearing customs in Alice Town we took off to Rainbow Reef for the checkout dive, so everyone could test out their equipment. And then ... Our first collecting dive! It was pretty successful and we now have a trumpet fish, banded and foureye butterfly fish, harlequin bass, orange spotted file fish and some sharp nose puffers. Not bad!



The fish you see in the buckets went right into the large holding tanks. But now I have to get up at 6:30 to begin caring for our new charges, so I'm gonna call it a night and go dream of flying fish. Oh, one last thing worth mentioning ... dinner was amazing. Tuna steaks ... on the grill. If that strikes you as odd, check out the aquarium sustainable seafood to learn more about how we support making wise seafood choices.

Many people in the world rely on fish as their primary source of protein, so we just need to be smart about what kind of fish we eat and how it's harvested. The part about dinner that struck me as odd was the grill. Really? A grill on a boat? Yup, and it was great.



-Bronwyn

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Sunday, May 3, 2009

#2: Hello and Goodbye

We said hello to our dive participants today. Our team of four has now grown to a team of 12, and when our captains and chef arrive tomorrow we'll be complete.

We wanted everyone to feel welcome and cared for, so we cleaned the common areas, made their beds, and Deb cooked a delicious meal (with her husband Scott as sous chef). I can't help it...I'm very proud of my bed making skills and am including a picture.

Doesn't it look like a wave?

I took this picture on our walk to the grocery store for the view of the trip issued t-shirts (can you tell what fish it is?) and realized that we would be saying goodbye to walking long distances. For the next ten days we will not be able to walk more than 80 ft without walking off the boat (unless of course we want to walk in circles). But don't worry, with all the diving and chasing fish, we'll be getting plenty of exercise so it's well worth the trade off.

We're also saying goodbye to Miami, not that I really spent much time getting to know it, but it has been fun to watch all kinds of things moving up and down the river.

Goodnight now...tomorrow I'll be writing from the Bahamas. Remember...Live Blue...buy a smaller boat.

-Bronwyn


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