Beachy Keen - Day 10

First off HAPPY BIRTHDAY EMMA!! But sadly, today was our last full day on the island. With that being said, it may have been one of the most memorable for all of us. We started off our day with eating breakfast a little bit earlier than usual, insanely amazing omelets, sausages, and orange juice, and excitement to go on our last trip. We thought we had to get up and go to another cliff to jump into, but we were wrong. Tyler, Jack, and Collin tricked us and we actually wound up at one of the most beautiful beaches any of us had ever seen: Lighthouse Point. We did not even know we were going to lighthouse point until we were at the literal lighthouse after a 45 minute hike through what seemed like the Sahara Desert. But it was all worth it. The sand was PINK (due to the parrotfish poop), we saw several reefs filled with exotic fish, including baby sergeant majors and rainbow parrotfish, and the infamous abandoned and broken down lighthouse. The most interesting part about this trip is that we were able to see this area and experience all that it has to offer before it is taken over by Disney for their cruise ships. A part of its charm is that there is so little human interference, but within the next year this is all going to change and the reefs will be drastically different.

However, even though it was sad for us to see such a beautiful place in some of its last days, we still lived it up. A lot of us played football with a coconut Spencer knocked off of a palm tree, some of us tanned, we all snorkeled, and we all had fun in the sun and ocean.

Like all good things, this had to come to an end and we started our long 45 minute hike back to the vans where some of us got severe sunburns and dehydration, but like before, it was all worth it for this amazing experience that we will cherish forever. We then made it back to the vans after what seemed like forever, and started our expedition to High Rock for our final jump. It is a ritual that everyone who steps foot on The Island School’s campus has to jump off of High Rock’s high cliff, and that is exactly what we did. All of us plunged into its crystal clear waters and made our final mark on this beautiful campus. Anticlimactically, we then headed back to our dorms for a DEEEEEEEP clean. After an hour of cleaning, packing, and sweeping, we are happy to inform you that we are still going to be bringing approximately 10 pounds of sand in our luggage. Tyler rewarded our impeccable cleaning jobs with a surprise trip to watch the sunset on a beach nearby.

We headed back to campus for the Last Supper, provided by the amazingly good Island School kitchen staff and we had ROCKSTAR tacos, tortilla chips, and lemonade. We had our final dish crew, and final gathering at the octagon. Tyler, Collin, and Jack surprised Emma and Tyler with a birthday cake before we started our evening activities. Ironically, we ended our last day sharing our best first experiences. We all went around and said a high tide (favorite moment), low tide (challenging moment), and a seashell (things we want to take back to Cleveland with us). We are all super excited to come home and see all of you, but we are also extremely sad to leave our own little paradise here in Eleuthera. 

Bon Voyage and we’ll see you tomorrow,

Becca and Nick

Want a Pizza My Mind? - Day 09

Guess what we saw today….a shark!!! (But we’ll save that for later)

This morning we had the option of yoga in the boathouse, another RunSwim^TM, or sleeping in. All of the boys opted for the latter, probably because they were afraid of being shown up by Grace and Emma who beasted the RunSwim^TM course yet again.

Remember that shark we mentioned? We’re getting close to that.

Morning yoga was a blast. Breakfast was soup-osed to be soup-er good, and it was. It was soup. We finished our chores before either climbing into a van or a boat. We’ll leave it up to you to figure out which one took the road and which one met us at the marina.

This is where we start talking about the shark.

At the marina we used a fish head to attract nurse sharks to the area where fishermen clean their catch. We were guided by our fearless leader Brendan who was researching whether nurse sharks in the Pacific and the Atlantic were the same species. Our job was to attract sharks to the boat and we were, for the most part, unsuccessful. We did have one circling the fish head but it had already been tagged previously so it was basically useless. It was great to see that it was still doing swimmingly after being caught and released a few days before, and we got some really sick pictures, so that probably makes up for the whole “we totally did not accomplish what we were supposed to” aspect of it. We also got to see lots of our Spirit Animals in the marina and it was really cool to see them in their natural habitat. There was a lot of pride that came from being able to identify the fish we were seeing there. Sometimes it’s not just about what you achieve but about the memories you make and experiences you have along the way!! Maybe that’s just us fishing for validation. Oh whale.

I (Abby) took the boat back. It was really cool to see rain on the horizon right before it absolutely drenched us. I (Becky) was glad that I took the van back. It was really funny to see all the people on the boat get rained on, right before all of us got drenched anyways on our walk back to the dorm.

Possibly even more exciting than seeing a shark was lunch. It was not a shark; it was freshly baked bread topped with crushed tomatoes, melted mozzarella, garlic, and thinly sliced meats (except for the vegetarian option). Have you ever heard of pizza? We’d almost forgotten about it. It had been in the back of our minds for days, resurfacing in our deepest dreams and making us salivate when we thought we’d caught a whiff of it but known in our hearts that we hadn’t. Today was the day. It wasn’t a cruel trick of our imagination, but the genuine article. The infamous Island School Pizza Day. It was almost comical to see how quickly the line formed for seconds, but we couldn’t be critical when we too felt the need for frenzy that came from this delicacy. Once we had all eventually had our fill (which took a while, especially for Spencer) we made our way to the library to put the finishing touches – the garnishes, if you will – on our presentations.

After two hours of final preparations, we made our way to the Octagon to tell our Island School teachers exactly what they told us, but in our own words. All the groups demonstrated a firm grasp on their topics from sea turtle decline, to coral bleaching, to marine garbage, to invasive species, to really specific cruise line regulations enforced in the 1980s (I’m looking at you Gabe). We may have been a little nervous about them at first but it was clear that everyone knew their stuff. We were very grateful to receive feedback from our lovely Island School mentors, and are now very excited to spread our knowledge when we give these presentations back at school.

Our dinner was followed by a documentary about endangered species and what people can do to save them. Tyler made us brownies (full of love) and warned us that it might get a little depressing. Her preface was very warranted as I (Becky) almost cried multiple times. I (Abby) have seriously considered eating less beef tacos in the future because it’s better for the environment. I (Becky, a pescatarian) wholeheartedly support this decision.

Here is where we go off on a quick tangent about how important it is to take care of this beautiful world that we live in. Everybody thinks that somebody else is going to do the saving, but guess what? If everybody is thinking it then nobody is doing it. Every little teeny tiny baby step can make a difference so DO YOUR PART. Better to light one candle than curse the darkness. Cool. Thanks. Anyways.

We will be heading out early tomorrow for a southern island road trip adventure. Seeing as tomorrow is our last scheduled day in the Bahamas, we have a very small window to (allegedly) steal our passports and (allegedly) turn them into fish food.

Good night <3,

Abby and Becky

Here are the Deets! - Day 08

We never thought we’d ever be waking up on the beach, but today we did. Even though we were allowed to sleep in until 9, many of us were up at 6:30 taking in the view. After spraying ourselves with pounds of deet filled bug spray, we spent the morning talking with our toes in the water watching the sunrise.

After a delicious breakfast of cereal and soy milk, the group split up to either body surf or build an enormous sandcastle. While body surfing we got pummeled by waves but it was worth it for the waves we caught.

The sandcastle, more like sand fortress, we built isn’t going down any time soon. With everyone contributing something, the castle mirrored the size of all of our tents combined. It was intents! Haha. We garnished our palace with coconuts and seaweed and watched as the waves grew closer, but no wave could take down our kingdom.

We waved goodbye to our empire and the beautiful pink sand beach as we packed up our tents and hammocks. Fun fact the reason the beach was pink is due to parrotfish poop! Yum. We already miss the feeling of the tempurpedic sand underneath our feet.

Dragging our gear into the vans, we piled in for a long ride back to the Island School. We blared music and sang our hearts out to throwback music. We stopped for lunch at Governor’s Harbor, a beautiful beachfront town midway back. We could get used to eating all of our meals on a beach. It’s much better than eating in the snow! Side note – we need cassava chips in Cleveland.

Once back at the Island School, we unpacked and finally got semi-clean. We spent our free time before dinner walking on the beach and talking in our dorms. Some of us decided to head over to the rock gym (a gym but all of your weights are rocks and there is no gym) to keep in shape while in paradise. 

After a great dinner of pork chops and quinoa, we listened to a presentation about lionfish. We learned about how this invasive species has effected local and global economies and has started to kill off coral reefs. A single female lionfish can lay 30,000,000 eggs in their lifetime and reproduces every 4 days. They’re freaky.

Okay – we’re off to watch a meteor shower, what are you doing!? With a late bedtime of 10:15 hopefully we’ll catch some shooting stars tonight.

Sea ya soon!

Ally and Hannah

Our Down Island Trip! - Day 07

Hello everyone! I know you didn’t hear from us yesterday, but that was because we took a camping trip down north to the other side of Eleuthera. We left early Wednesday morning and returned to campus later today safe and sound. On our way down to the camping site, we did a variety of different activities! Everything from jumping from 20 feet into water to making stir fry on the beach.

Our first stop on our day trip down the island was Preacher’s Cave. Upon first arrival, we climbed around to explore the ins and outs of the cave. After our adventure, we came out of the cave to have breakfast on the beach (it can’t get better than that).

After finishing our breakfast, we all got back on the bus and headed to our next destination – Sapphire Hole. This was sooo cool! Many students took a leap of faith (and tried to fly) off a 20-foot ledge into a gorgeous hole filled with crystal clear water. In this water we searched around and discovered some small red shrimp along the edges (they were very cute!). Some crazy adventure seekers even went for multiple jumps into the hole.

Our next stop was the famous Glass Window, where the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean are both visible from opposite sides of a bridge. We looked out and saw the harsh, dark blue waves of the Atlantic and the slow flowing, light blue waters of the Caribbean. It was one of the most incredible sights to see. We even swam in the Caribbean and spotted an eagle ray, mustard hill coral, and sea-urchins!

For lunch we visited the Queen’s Pool. We watched the harsh waves of the Atlantic crash unto the rocks to create mini pools of water in the crevices, while we munched on our delicious sandwiches and apples. Some excited students even took a quick dip in the pools! 

After lunch, we headed to the Hatchet Bay Caves. These caves were once burial grounds and also used by pirates to hide treasure. We ventured two levels down into the cave. We then looked around in the caves at the markings on the walls and noticed a date as late 1802(it was carbon-dated so it’s legit)! After walking around, we each found a stable place to sit and all turned off our flashlights to experience complete darkness. It was insane! Our brains could not tell if our eyes were opened our closed, nor if our hands were in front of our faces. We also listened to the sound of water dropping from the top of the cave and the presence of bats near us. It was a calming and peaceful moment for everyone. 

Next, we visited the cutest shop called Island Made Gift Store in Gregory Town. Students looked around and shopped for gifts (parents stay tuned).

Finally, we set off to our camping site, which was on a magnificent pink sand beach that we had all to ourselves! Upon arrival we set up our tents on the beach to prepare for a night we will never forget. Then, some students even went in the ocean to body surf the gnarly waves (surfs up!), while other students helped prepare dinner. We then all came together for dinner around a camp fire. We prepared a delicious stir fry of rice and vegetables on our fire. After dinner, we roasted marshmallows with sticks we had collected. We then all sat and starred at the stars together. Many people were lucky enough to see numerous amounts of shooting stars (fingers crossed the wishes come true). We then all retired to our tents to fall asleep listening to the sound of the ocean to rest from our day of many adventures.  

That's a wrap,

Kati and Grace

Diving Down - Day 06

Today after the discover scuba introduction, we had a great breakfast. As shown above, we ate hard boiled eggs (we both ate 4!), a bowl of oatmeal, and a couple slices of oranges. Without the delicious meals at CEI, we wouldn’t be able to do all the rigorous and fun activities here in Eleuthera!

Shortly after breakfast, the dish crew came out and helped with the dishes! Although only 4 people are required to help out each day, the crew usually consists of 8-10 regulars who just want to come out and help out (also because the music is lit). Perhaps doing the dishes isn’t that bad.

While we weren’t in the first group to go scuba diving, we went later this day right before lunch. Although we only saw a ton of big jellyfish while down there with murky waters, it was definitely a great opportunity to learn about scuba diving and experience this. This was the first time ever scuba diving for most of the students. Not for David though J. On the other side, me (George) was scared out of my wits, but at the same time, breathing underwater like Darth Vader is probably going to be my more memorable aspects of this trip.

After scuba diving and an amazing lunch, we went to learn about our different projects that seek to examine different problems that affect the Bahamas. My (David’s) project focuses on the invasive lionfish. I met a scientist who happened to be on campus with a robot that catches lionfish. Me, along with a group of friends went over to where he was staying to talk about his interesting device. With them being a nonprofit charity, they hope to control populations of lionfish, a serious invasive threat to the marine ecosystem, by projecting lower prices to the fishing industry. On Friday, we will share our final projects with the CEI community, whom we have learned from, through a PowerPoint format.

Because we are going camping tomorrow, we practiced making tents. Although we don’t have an actual picture of us constructing the tent, this is basically how our tents ended up looking.

After making tents, we finally taste the amazingness of processed snacks, which we bought from the local convenience store (0.5 miles away). While some people biked there, most of us rode the bus. What may be only a few dollars in the US was a hefty sum in the Bahamas. On the left, the Coke was $2 and on the right, the bag of Cheetos was $6.14. Nonetheless, my stomach was satisfied.

During exploratory time from 4:30-6, we played a couple games of volleyball with the Gulliver kids from Miami, who arrived a few days ago. Meeting and learning about new people was a very exciting thing to do while having fun!

 After a delicious dinner, we went back to the octagon to chill, finish our snacks (beware rodents and bugs), call the fam, and do our evening reflections. As we come close to coming home, which we miss dearly, we also make sure we reflect on our experience here in the Bahamas! Our evening reflections, late night talks, and staring dreamily into the clear, starlit night sky satisfy this goal. 

Also! Since we are going camping there will NOT be a blog tomorrow night! And since we won't be here we have a special video to help pass the time (see below)

Excited for Beach Camping,
David and George

Turtley Awesome - Day 05

According to Mr. Cawley, no marine science class has ever had two sleep-in days in their time at the Island School, yet there we were, more rested than ever. After waking up at 7:30, we were greeted by no morning exercise, and we instead went straight to the flagpole (without a flag, thanks to Emma and Gabe). After singing the national anthem to a pole in the sky, we proceeded to chores and breakfast, as is usual. As always, breakfast was delicious and hearty, with English muffins, poached, eggs, and ham. The oranges and grapefruits were as delicious as ever, so far superior to those found non-native to Cleveland.

Right, so after breakfast we cleaned up our dorms, but seriously, to quote someone from Star Wars (I think), “I hate sand. It’s rough, scratchy, and gets everywhere.” That’s not the quote but you get my point. There was no hope of getting all off the floor. After our chores, we went to the boathouse, and had our first pushups of the trip, because we didn't all make it to the boathouse by 915am. Not gonna lie, I liked finally getting to do some pushups though (to clarify, this is Evan writing, NOT EMMA).

We then spent the next eternity unraveling a 30 mile long net that we would later use to trap turtles for research purposes only (hopefully, the TFBI (turtle federal bureau of investigation) won’t come track us down). We had to make sure that there weren’t any holes that the turtles could escape through. Then, in another eternity, we rolled it back up like a giant scroll/ the Torah and headed to the vans. An hour long ride full of good music (and some that Spencer picked out) later, we arrived at a mangrove creek to go TURTLING!!!!!!

You would think that there are not gonna be jellyfish in a creek. False. Pretty much every step unearthed stinging monsters that really only hurt for about 2 minutes. That said, it was still pretty painful carrying said 30 mile long net 200 (600) meters into the creek system. The ten of us manning the net spread it across the mouth of the creek to trap some turtles while the other mob started splashing down towards us with the fury of 20 sunburned students (or the force of a great typhoon, whichever sounds more intimidating.) Suddenly, there was a flash in the net and TURTLESSSS!!

After gathering all seven (7) turtles into a closed net, a few of the more experienced turtle catchers began form tackling the turtles as they swam by. Once we had all of them, we headed (through even more jellyfish/ literal devils) to a small inlet where we (named) measured, weighed, photographed, and tagged each turtle to add to their database. The coolest part of this whole thing is that the research we did today actually contributing to the world-wide/Bahamas-wide database of Green Sea Turtle population and habits. We also got to hold some pretty dope turtles.

Even if you think that’s cool, we were actually helping the researchers at CEI to roll out a new method of turtle identification that doesn’t involve giving them “ear piercings,” a facial and flipper recognition database that could be added to even by a snorkeler passing by a turtle in his/her adventures. So, it really felt like we were doing something super important. After a much-needed lunch of sandwiches, fruit, and cassava chips that completely smacked, we trudged back through the warzone of Cassiopeia Jellyfish venom to the safety of our armored vans.

The music on the way back was 4000000x better because Colin (our lovely instructor) was in charge of the throwback tunes. An hour of carpool karaoke later, we immediately hopped in the showers to try to get rid of the residual stings. For exploration time, we were all pretty tired of feeling like prunes, so we opted to go for a bike ride instead. The bike ride, compared to the ride in the van, felt like it took .01 milliseconds.

We reached civilization (aka the only convenience store on Eleuthra) and immediately devoured some not sustainably sourced and processed SUGAR! After getting that yummy sweetness, we continued biking around the marina and watching the sunset, that is, until I felt a large bump and almost fell of my bike (which really should’ve been retired a couple years ago). The chain had completely fallen off, and it took Mr. C, the expert cyclist, almost ten minutes to get it back on.

All the while, the rest of us belted out some classic Island-y tunes. We headed back to the dorms to get ready for dinner, at which we enjoyed a tasty meal of corn soup and bread (no soup for you though). After dancing to some legendary tunes during dish crew, we headed to the Octagon for a lesson on our carbon footprints. Be ready for your kids to return home taking Navy Showers and turning off all the lights, even when you’re still in the room.

Now, we anticipate that this will be annoying, but you all will have a lot of time to appreciate how much you’re helping the environment while sitting in the dark.

Exaggeratedly yours,

Emma and Evan (The better of the two) (ignore him, he doesn’t know what he’s talking about) (False.) (My parents say I’m special) (Well the world’s a difficult place, so you might want to find yours) (Whatever, I’m still cooler because I held the FIRST TURTLE) (You got me there☺)

The Dance of Life - Day 04

With a 6:15 alarm, we awoke excited and curious for the legendary Island School “Run-Swim” morning routine. We were not disappointed. Legendary Island School founder, Chris Maxey, is a 65 year old maniac – but in a good way – who met us at the flagpole for our daily Bahamian National Anthem. After our hearty singing, we embarked on a legendary journey through the land, water, and treacherous shoals. The legendary run-swim contained of exactly what you would NEVER expect: running and swimming. We don’t get why it’s called that, but we did it anyways. It started with a jump into the water, then a brisk, legendary run, and continuous patterns of running, getting into the water, getting out, and repeating. In between the running and swimming, there were numerous exercises, but our favorite was the legendary Dance of Life. You had to be there, but let’s just say I was an egg, I was cracking, I tried to fly, I fell, but don’t worry, I’m ok.

After that legendary experience, we headed back to our dorms to do some chores and get ready for breakfast. The majority were sweeping the floor, but Nick also swept his foot (as seen below).

Breakfast was only cereal today, since it was Sunday, but it was legendary, nevertheless. After breakfast, we headed to the Octagon to learn about sustainable aquaculture. Aquaculture is the raising of fish that is not commercial, recreational, and sustenance (catching to feed family). We learned some very cool facts, like how about 171 million tons of fish were caught in 2016. Unfortunately, though, it was too windy out to go snorkeling by the aquaculture cage, so, instead, we went to the shipwreck, once again, by our legendary dorms. At the shipwreck, since we had instruction, we could pick up Starfish and Sea Urchins safely. The tide was a bit higher this time, so we were able to swim above the wreck.

After coming in from the strong ocean currents and hanging around the dorm for a bit, we headed to the dining hall where we were surprised to find the legendary “Sunday Leftover Lunch”. Don’t worry, there was plenty of good food leftover. The best were the pulled pork and mac and cheese. The baked ziti and French toast weren’t bad either.

After lunch we had some extra free time, while we waited for the tide to get low enough to go to the legendary “sand” bar. One group decided to play baseball – with a volleyball and their arms in the ocean. Others took the nap route.

Eventually we headed to the boathouse and got on the two legendary boats – Mac Daddy and Red Rising. After a shorter boat ride, we arrived at the “sand” bar and jumped right in. As we got in the water, we realized that we really hadn’t jumped that far. Since the tides were still fairly low, we were able to stand, though many began to snorkel, which was a legendary time. The experience of snorkeling in extremely low waters was very cool as you can almost glide along the bottom while still swimming perfectly fine. The first thing a couple people noticed was a stingray right around the boat, which stuck around long enough for people to see the cool barbs and swimming style of jetting around flawlessly. With Tyler, we then swam up to the ankle deep waters, where we sat down in a circle and were told to pick up some of the “sand” around us. PRANKED. It isn’t sand, as we were told, the little spherical beads were actually called ooids. It was a type of biogenous sediment formed by fish poop that connected with tons of different ions like Calcium. We discovered that the ooids were well known exfoiliants, and we proceeded to rub them all over our bodies. (See Spencer). 

After that, we just walked around the sand bar and discovered the abundance of conch shells, sand dollars, and sea biscuits. There was also a monument in the middle of the sand bar (below).

When we got back to the boathouse, we had more exploration time before dinner. It wasn’t a very long time, so most of us just rinsed off and got ready for dinner.

After the legendary meal of roast beef and rice, we headed back to the Octagon for a debriefing on turtles. We learned about the different patterns of turtles’ shells and faces, the major threats to their life cycles, and what we will be doing during tomorrow’s turtle research.

What a legendary day,

Gabe and Christian