Il y a des croissant à Grand Turk ...

I have to admit that yesterday evening, when I came back from the Reef Check dives in Salt Cay, I was quite tired. And on top of that, I had to spend like one hour and a half detangling my hair full of knots with the little bit of leave-in conditioner I had left...
Because of that, when I finished the hair painful process, Cee's was about to close so no chances of buying bread to have with my feta cheese, potato, spinach and black olives salad.

But it was a blessing in disguise because I went to the new bakery to buy bread (they work until 8 pm...) and besides buying bread I found out that they make croissant and they are really goooooood. I bought a package of 10 croissant at usd 5. Of course, I ate 5 croissants in like 15 minutes...so now I better stay away from the bakery in the following days.
Of course I felt the moral obligation of letting you know, my dear friends, that there is hope: croissants can be bought on the island and we do not have to sell our gold to get them ... See you tomorrow...

Reef Check in Salt Cay

After the first test dive on Monday and three successful survey dives in GDT sites yesterday (Mama Nature a.k.a Middle Reef, Chief Minister and Wind Mills), today we went to Salt Cay.

This time with Blue Waters Divers boat in the hands of Daniel, we arrived in Salt Cay in 33 minutes and after loading the tanks on the boat we went to the first site: Three Pillars.
After the surface interval (very well used to have some snacks and water/juice and rest) we started with the second site survey that was located very close to the first one: Shark site, wishing that the name was only an anecdote and not a descriptive note...

We did this second one in about 45 minutes. It shows that we (us, the rookies...) are getting better at this or at least we are getting faster ...
We used the opportunity to stop and take a look at the recently sunk airplane (just sunk this morning...) that will become a new dive site and the boat sunk around one month ago.

Back to the shore to leave the empty tanks around 2.30 pm in a few minutes we were ready to go back to Grand Turk and this time the ride was about 24 minutes. I guess it was a record for Daniel.

It was a very nice day and we took pictures of the Salt Cay Reef Check team. Here 2 pics. One taken by the team leader Marlon and the other taken by me.
Fernando is in the picture but he was doing the Reef Check in Grand Turk the first day. Today he went to Salt Cay to help in the "airplane sinking" stuff.
Tomorrow we will do the last dive in Salt Cay and the final assessment to close the activities. Jody (the Environmental Officer) told us that, ideally this survey should be done 4 times a year, but they usually do it twice
since there are not enough resources. Let's hope this year we can do it more than twice...
See you tomorrow...

Counting fish and other things...

Today the Department of Environment and Coastal Resources started the Reef Check programme.
Like 5 seconds after Audrey from Blue Waters told me about it and asked me if I interested in participating, I said yes! and this morning at 8.30 we started with the brief and training at the National Museum followed by our first dive.
We met again at Grand Turk Diving and after organizing the teams, we left to the dive site in 2 boats. We went to Black Smiths Rock and it was more a practice to see how well (or not...) we (the volunteers who were doing this for the first time and the experienced ones...) could do.
After the dive we had a short meeting to talk about the mistakes we made, the possible alternatives to avoid them in the next dive, and to compare results such as number of groupers, % of damaged coral, etc. Also to ask questions.
It was really interesting and I am excited about continuing tomorrow. The plan is to work on about 4 sites in Grand Turk and 3 in Salt Cay in the rest of the week.

It is so good to do something like this while diving. I felt something similar when last year I participated in the "coral move" diving sessions to help building the artificial bio reef. After this kind of activities, the dives change because you start observing the marine life from a different perspective, paying attention to different things, details that were unnoticed before... For example, i
t's impressive the number of gorgonians you can find in a rectangle of 5 meters by 5 meters (sometimes more than 100...) or sometimes you find 8 flamingo tongues in a rectangle and none in the other one...
Well, more info will come in the following days... I have to take a nap now. It's a bit rainy now, so a perfect time for that :)

Diving ... Getting better every day... and every night

With the proximity of summer, days are getting hotter, mosquitoes wilder, rain more frequent and ... diving better and better :)
The waters are warmer every day, the viz close to perfect and I am sooooo ready to leave my 2mm wet suit and start wearing my skin!
We are all so into diving that also unusual things are happening (besides the manta rays that, of course, I never see...): one day last week, we were ALL at Tunnels at the same time: Grand Turk Diving, Blue Waters and Oasis. I spent the whole dive counting divers just in case because we crossed with Oasis' people a couple of times.
Also simultaneous night dives. Besides the amazing night dive that I had last Tuesday with my friend Jo-Ann and Smitty, there was another Thursday (I missed that one). The same night BWD, GTD and Oasis went for night dives but in different sites. I am not sure but I think they were Middle Reef, Mc Donalds and Library.
So you guys, the ones who are not on the island, come down here and join us that the weather is perfect and the diving, the best...

The price of living in Paradise (well part of the price...)

Reading the comments about a previous entry of my blog, I realized that sometimes we are kind of used the high prices on the island... And I just remembered my last time at the supermarket (s) and the bakery a couple of days ago: 6 oranges, 6 carrots, 3 potatoes, 1 bag with spinach, 4 heads of broccoli, 1 spray to kill cockroaches, 1 can of sliced vegetables, brown sugar, 1 bread, 1 muffin, oats Quaker (the smallest box)= 47 dollars.
I wonder why people do not grow vegetables here. I never asked but I guess it would be very good to start finding out... With these prices, I think it is totally worth it to give it a try... At least it would be good to try with things like tomatoes (impossible to buy since there are either sooooo expensive or sooooooo impossible to eat) or oregano, basil, etc.
I have to go now. I am using Internet at Salt Raker's and everybody is starting to order dinner.. Better go to feed the pets, take a shower and change to be ready for Friday's night with Mitch's band music and talk with friends :)

Rain and cappuccino in Grand Turk

Sorry I was not able to post this yesterday but I had to spend some time looking for Spot (one of Donna's beautiful cats) who decided not to show up at sunset, so I had to go later to feed her and that took my internet time, but "kids come first" :)
Anyway, I was really happy yesterday about all that rain that let the cisterns full of water.
Also it was different to enjoy the morning dives, feeling how the lightnings illuminated the underwater scene but did not distract us from our main goal: be totally present while diving.
On the boat, waiting for Tim who had gone underwater again to look for the weights that one of the divers had dropped, the situation was quite different. It is not very nice to listen to the thunders and see the lightnings in the middle of the sea, no matter how close the coast is... Underwater I feel really safe, on the boat .. not so much... Better be diving.
Once Tim and the weights were back on the boat, we went back to shore for the surface interval, that I used to have a hot cappuccino (USD 4) at Joan's Place (by the way, and related to my previous post, this place has not only a sign in front of the café but also on Pond Street!).
See you later...

To sign or not to sign...

It always cheers me up when I find a new sign on the island (for a store, for example) since, as we all know, it is not usual and it makes more difficult to give directions...
I found the new bakery about 2 months ago, following a friend's directions and, in the last 50 yards, asking around. As the bakery looked like any of the other houses around, I just followed the smell of the muffins and that was enough to find it... But a few days ago, they put a sign on the front :) so now, directions are: Take Pond Street (South-North) upto the Court House, turn to the right and on the left side you will see the store with green walls and the sign that follows...


By the way, the bread pudding is really good at usd 2.50 and it is a big one. They do not have it every day but just ask the nice lady than is there most of the time, when they will have it. I asked today and tomorrow after 1 pm they will have some. The flan is good too. Not so good the muffins though. A little dry and I haven't tried the bread so far.

Have a nice evening and see you tomorrow. I have to go now because I am going to my night dive.