It is the end of our second week here already. With only one week to go, I'm beginning to feel the pressures of deadlines. The weather however, is starting to clear up. It had been unseasonably rainy up until now, but with sunny skies field work can continue smoothly. Of course, with sunny days comes greater heat. I think I'll be sticking to the shade and the water for now.
Last week it was constantly raining, and now these past couple of days have been super sunny! Our mood definitely changes depending on the weather, so I'm glad the sun is finally coming up. Today I went out on the water with Morgan for our thesis and our final project. The water was so clear you could see the corals and sea fans from above, especially when I paddleboard.
I can't believe we only have a week left of this trip. Time truly flies when you've got a final project to do, and you're constantly being bitten by mosquitoes. Also, this woke us up in front of our door. It took about 30 min to even get out because we were so scared. I'm pretty sure it was living inside my sneakers that I left outside.
The good part of the trip was all the sea urchins Morgan found! Since we've been out in the water almost every day, working on our thesis and final project, we get to see the coolest finds. All the paddleboarding I've been doing lately, I hope to see crazy back muscles by the time we go back to the States.
Gathered the first days worth of data for my project today. I have to agree with the others, those barracuda are not afraid to get up in your space. While collecting data at the dock, I look down and what do I see? The room 8 key that has been missing for about a week at this point. After a quick dive, the key was safely clipped to my gear, only a little rusted from its time in the ocean. All in all, it has been a productive day for me so far.
I very much DO NOT like barracudas. Their aura is to much for me to handle they are so scary and they just be lurking. I’ve had a couple run ins with them over the course of the trip but today I was doing my thesis work with my little barracuda model, and this BIG MAMA barracuda was like fighting and circling the model and I was not a fan. It like wouldn’t let me grab it and started death staring at me so I literally jumped on a paddle board because I was scared. Anyways big takeaway from this trip: I DO NOT like barracudas. They are too powerful for my feeble mind to process.
The weather has not been kind to us lately, it has been raining on and off just about every day we've been here. Regardless of weather though, we still have projects to complete. Spent some time in the water again today taking necessary pictures and scouting out good sites for my project. Lots of work still to be done!
Staying booked and busy for the next few days of the trip for sure! Between everything needed just for the classes main project and doing all 24 sites for my thesis research I’m EXHAUSTED. But hoping it’ll all be worth it in the end and that the last week will be more relaxed. I’m hoping the sun comes out the next few days though, for some reason it’s been super overcast and rainy here and getting in and out of the water has not been fun. 🥶 But I we still trek on!
