Caribbean Note IV

Hi Everybody,

Happy Halloween!

Nice to hear from many of you!  It's easy to forget about the election and the World Series and all the hubbub of life back in the states.

Ian and Danica's pictures are posted on the web now and there are great shots of each of you.
http://www.printroom.com/event.asp?evgroupid=239&domain_name=katiejervis&group_id=239

Our construction project has consumed us this past week and in spite of the frayed nerves we've gotten a bunch done.  The electrician is due to arrive any minute to run conduit and wire in the garden for lights, then the construction crew can complete the concrete work and provide a foundation to install the lamp poles we built.  (After looking everywhere and finding nothing we liked, we fabricated our own.)  The big debris pile is gone from the driveway and the stones and sand are waiting to be assembled as a pathway through the front yard from the porch to the front gate.

We're also having a big tree taken out (it's roots are cracking the walkway adjacent to the patio and on and on.)

We had visitors (meg divers) from Canada this week and finally had dinner with out Aquatic Sports buddy John who's here teaching the OSU and UofO students enrolled in the marine biology program at CIEE (the lab on the island that studies reef ecology et al.)

Hurricane Tomas is passing to the north of us and should give us some weather and three meter ocean swells, but will not effect us otherwise, except to keep the cruise ships away.  We've come to look unfavorably on their arrival and the general crush of activity while they're in port.  Now that we've found this little island paradise, we want to keep it to ourselves.

Hope all is well with you; can't wait to hear about Jesse and Sidney's trip to Paris!!

Talk to you soon,
Dad

Caribbean Note III

We're beat!!!! We've been doing yard work for the past two days and are sun burnt, ant bitten, blistered and sore. Digging a hole in this rocky earth should be avoided at all costs but after the completion of our front yard wall and garden planter box on Friday, it was our turn to install a new drip system and start filling the planter with soil. But, what I'm sure you all really want to know is how did Berit's cactus spine injury turn out? Well, it's still in her finger.

We went to see the surgeon on Monday and his advice was to do nothing and let nature take it's course. The antibiotics prevented any infection and the spine is definitely in there but over time it is softening and is in a good place (backside of the middle finger under the center knuckle) so it is more or less out of the way and doesn't hurt much anymore. I suppose Berit will have a war story to tell like a wounded soldier who after decades coughs up a bullet. She'll be at her 80th birthday party and spit out this spine like it was a chicken bone.

Speaking of parties, we were invited to a party by a bunch of American Ex-pat's who've been on the island for decades. Two of the couples own restaurants and others are in the dive industry or real estate or marine biology. We're getting to know our neighbors on Bonaire! We're in contact with a kid from the Aquatic Sports dive shop in Tigard who is down here studying marine biology on a study abroad program through Oregon State. I hear there are at least four students here from OSU.

We caught three more lionfish this past week, two at Andrea I and one on the outside of the second reef at Alice in Wonderland at 110 feet. Pretty exciting stuff! The temperature has been in the nineties which means we'd a whole lot rather be diving than digging! I still haven't had time to put the new scooter together but that will happen sooner rather than later. It will really increase our range and be a kick to play with in the water.

Caribbean Note II

It's 7:30 Sunday morning at the end of our second week and I've been up for awhile. The concrete mixer is going round and the workmen (who have been here everyday) are stacking blocks and stripping formwork from the columns on the new wall. The trucks will be here soon to dump loads of dirt, rock and white stone gravel to complete the work in the driveway area where yesterday the trucks hauled away three loads of mosquito infested swampland. There is still plenty of chaos, but the project is starting to come together. As a fabrication foreman it has been hard to watch these guys "work."

Our latest purple heart goes to Berit for yet another cactus spine injury. She was carrying a scuba tank up our garden stairway which was cluttered with cords, hoses and a wheelbarrow ramp, and "brushed" against our cactus fence and jammed a cactus spine through (I kid you not) her middle finger at the knuckle from one side to the other! You could see the spine where it entered and on the other side beneath the skin you could see it trying to poke through the skin from inside her finger!!

After a trip to the clinic, then across town to doctor #1, then to the hospital and doctor #2 (where we were given a special after hours appointment for surgery), through her evening surgery itself; after all that, the spine was still in place. The doctor cut a "window" through which mother nature would push the spine such that it could be extracted in four days time on Monday. So, we have an appointment for tomorrow morning to return for surgery #2 and get this thing out. She has been on antibiotics and is not in too much pain except when she bumps it, which seems to be quite often.

Stay tuned for next weeks note to hear how it all turns out!!

The latest Lionfish hunt (prior to Berit's injury) took place at a site called Fish Hut South, which is one of the few spots we had never dived. This turns out to be a very nice site for mass quantities of coral and after swimming out over the shallow sand flats we reached the edge where the reef drops off to the depths and right there Berit found our first Lionfish. After a valiant effort to nab it, she managed to chase it so deep into the coralhead we could no longer see it.

Soon after we found fish #2 and shortly after fish #3. Working together we managed to net and bag both of them and later drop them off at the lab for whatever the latest Dr. Mengele type of tests and dissections are being carried out these days. It looks like the LIonfish are winning the battle for the reef.

We are busy but happy with our situation here and hope the same is true with all of you!

Caribbean Note I

We’re at the end of our first week on Bonaire and, as usual, are amazed at how quickly the days pass by. Nine weeks will slip away and December will arrive in no time.

The house was in good repair but after four months was covered in red dust and the Geckos and creepy crawly critters had to be evicted. We arrived on our anniversary (seventeen years) at 5:00 AM and spent the day cleaning and putting everything in order.

October and November are the rainy months here and because the island is just a big rock the streets and countryside are pooled with water, but it’s always summertime and the ocean is warm and turquoise blue.

We’ve been pretty good at keeping our resolve to walk (3 ½ miles) along the waterfront every morning and then Berit works out while I swim laps in the neighborhood pool.

The big news on the island is that Bonaire is changing its political connection from The Netherlands Antilles (which ceased to exist last night at midnight 10-10-10) and is now a “municipality” of the Netherlands directly; still Dutch but even more so. I don’t think we’ll notice any difference.

We managed to get into the water by midweek and on our very first dive Berit found a Lionfish at the entry point, but because it was our checkout dive we didn’t bring our net or gloves or anything to catch it with. We carried on with the dive and while I was fiddling with the new configuration of my gear and electronics, Berit found a Seahorse! This was a site we had dived before (The Lake) and one of our favorites for finding these elusive creatures.

In time we finished the dive and loaded all our gear back into the truck and talked about going home to get the gloves and net, when Berit decided to try to get him in a small mask box with lid. So, she grabbed her fins and mask and jumped back in the water and after half a dozen free dives she finally got him in the box!! It was her first solo Lionfish catch and she did it without scuba or even gloves (to protect from the venomous spines) or a net!! Quite a feat!

We’ll start a new construction project on Monday. We’re building a nice wall and garden to replace the chain link fence along our front yard. In preparation we spent Saturday (in the terrible heat) digging and transplanting and pruning to save as much of our garden as we could from the workmen who will be building our wall and garden enclosure.

Rexx is happy to be back in the sun; he lies on his rug on the patio with his face toward the sunbeams with his eyes closed and seems for all the world like a young girl sunbathing on the beach. He has become reacquainted with all his lizard and iguana friends and enjoys chasing the doves that come to feast on the seed Berit puts out for them every day. Life here is good.