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
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