NOW Friday, August 31

This is a NOW post but it is related to Hurricane Maria.

Over the last week we dove and snorkeled two sites that we haven't visited since Maria, Rompeolas and Steps Beach in Rincon.

Rompeolas is a site in Aguadilla, It is a shallow, easy-to-get-to dive with a nice reef at the south end and really interesting rocks and cracks to the north. Maria devastated the area, destroying an oceanside bar and damaging all of the houses along the beach. The beach itself, like so many, disappeared, stripped of nearly all the sand. The damage is clear even in this photo taken three months after the storm.

Because of the shoreline damage and given that Rompeolas is less than a mile from Natural and half-a-mile from Crashboat, I was really afraid of what we'd find underwater.

We've had a lot of rain in the last week, thanks to a lingering "tropical wave" so visibility wasn't the best. Still, I was pleasantly surprised at how much of the reef survived.

There are more corals, both soft and hard, and more sponges surviving here than at Natural. I can't explain it. Just one of Mother Nature's quirks.

We also snorkeled at Steps Beach (the surfers call it Tres Palmas) in Rincon. This is kind of a bellweather area for us. One of the best remaining stands of elkhorn coral is at Steps. Once ubiquitous in the Caribbean and Central America, now up to 95% of the elkhorn coral in the world is dead. So this place is important.

As we first swam out, I was saddened by the amount of broken coral near shore. But as we swam into deeper water, the huge slabs of healthy coral colonies began to appear.

Further out the sloping reef also appeared in good shape. The hard and soft corals, anenomes, and sponges all seemed healthy and none the worse for having survived a hurricane. In some ways this isn't surprising. Rincon faces west. Steps Beach is south of the point of Rincon that juts out into the sea. (The point of Rincon is the point where the Atlantic Ocean becomes the Caribbean Sea.) The heaviest ocean forces from Maria were from the north and Steps was pretty protected from that. It is still a delicate area with endangered corals. It was good to see how well it survived.

And to make the day complete, Stephanie (our friend and the new owner of Ola Lola's) swam with a turtle for the first time.

Maria log day 50 November 11 Saturday

Saturday, November 11, day 50

Yep, we were busy! More than 130 people showed up today. Some were on the waiting list from before but a third of them were new registrations. The 80 bags of grain and the repackaged alfalfa went quickly.

Ric and Michelle - our husband and wife vet team - and Manuel, our farrier, were busy too.

Fifteen people brought 20 horses to be seen.

When we first came to the island, seeing horses in the backs of pickup trucks was pretty strange. Now it's just commonplace, a part of the culture, no big deal.

I did see something I've never seen before. One guy, after talking to Ric, rode his Paso Fino around the parking lot. This was obviously a show horse. After showing off for a few minutes, the guy rode the horse into the back of his pickup truck. No ramp - the horse jumped into the truck bed. (Damn - I missed the video of that one!) Before the afternoon was over I watched two more horses - this time without riders - jump in to pickup trucks.

When we closed up for the day, Elaine, Ric, Michelle and I went to Ocean Front for a late lunch. Ocean Front's ocean-side deck was badly damaged by the storm surge from Hurricane Irma. Maria finished it off, They made a make-shift bar and seating in half of the parking lot. The rest of the parking lot was full of heavy equipment dumping huge rocks to make a seawall.

It was great having some time to catch up with good friends. Oh - happy Veterans' Day.

Maria log day 49, November 10, Friday

Friday, November 10, day 49

Our work to help other horse owners continues. So many people need help, so many horses!

On Thursday our friend Michelle brought 40 bags of alfalfa cubes from the racetrack on the other side of the island. The first thing was to transfer them from Michelle's trailer to the Ola Lola deck.

Our other Michelle friend, Michelle from Tropical Trailrides, gave us eight 50-pound bags of alfalfa pellets.

This morning I loaded half the alfalfa in our truck to take to the Picadero. Volunteers repacked the cubes and pellets into small two-pound packages to give out.

Most of the horses here have never had anything as rich as this alfalfa. And now, post-Maria, their nutrition levels are way down. If owners were to feed large amounts of the alfalfa cubes, there is a great danger of the horses colicing, a digestive disorder which in severe cases can be fatal.

We were expecting more grain to come from the racetrack today. And it did - sort of.

Two Isabela police officers volunteered to drive to Canovanas on the other side of San Juan to pick up the grain. Because the Municipio de Isabela is a sponsor of the program, they could use the municipio's roll-off truck.

It started getting late and they weren't back yet and we started to worry. We got a message that the truck and the grain were in Isabela but they couldn't get it to us at the Picadero. On the way back from San Juan, they were involved in a minor accident. Eight bags of grain wound up on the highway. The policemen stopped in the middle of the Autopista (expressway) and recovered all but two bags of grain!

Somewhere after the accident the clutch cable on the truck broke. They drove more than halfway home in first gear. Okay, people - that's above and beyond!

One of volunteers, our good friend Ivan, and I took my truck to the police station to transfer the grain. It took us three heavily over-loaded trips to get all the grain to the Picadero. We finished unloading too late for the Friday group. But we're ready for Saturday! We expect Saturday to be busy. we have grain and we have a vet and a farrier coming to do clinics.

It's Friday so it's pizza night at Carole and Rolf's. St. Jeremy - who has done so much of all of us - is leaving tomorrow to go back to Michigan to be with his wife, daughter and new baby girl for a week. So tonight is "special" pizza night - gourmet pizza from Junior's Pizza rather than the "usual" food truck pizza.

Any excuse for a celebration! Jeremy is going to be with his family. Yay! Celebrate! Next week when Jeremy comes back - He's back! Yay! Celebrate!

Re: a question

Thank you to everyone who responded to my question about continuing to write about Hurricane Maria. The response, both in comments here and via email, is that you still want to hear about Maria.

I'm grateful for that, and grateful for the responses. The next post will be a Maria post.

A question

It's now been almost a year since Hurricane Maria. Is anybody out there still interested in the Maria stories?

Let me know - either way - either by commenting to this post or via email at prsurfphoto@yahoo.com.

I would love to write more about the Maria experience, but I feel like it's old news and nobody is interested. Thanks for your voice, for your opinion.

NOW August 11 Scuba Diving

It was like something from a si-fi disaster movie. You know, one of those where the heroes are standing, watching storm roll in, unstoppable, probably devastating.

Four of us were diving at Natural, swimming along at about 35 feet. The sun was shining, it was beautiful. Up ahead, right where we were going. the water turned dark, ominous, almost black. The sunshine we were swimming in was completely swallowed up.

We reached the edge of the darkness and looked up. The sun was totally eclipsed by a huge floating raft of sargassum.

It was a strange, slightly unnerving experience, but one of the coolest things I ever seen underwater.

After a bad two year stint for diving, bubbles are starting to look up. I've found some new people to dive with so I'm not as dependent on just a few. I'm also gaining confidence leading dives. So far everybody I've taken out has come back. We've mostly done Natural and Crashboat but we plan to expand to other sites soon.

This is one of two albums of scuba photos I posted recently on Flickr: https://flic.kr/s/aHsmkGyCkm
Have a gander at the photos. And enjoy!

NOW July 22, 2018 Back again

Fifty- two day into the hurricane season and no hurricanes yet. More than a month since my last post. Sorry about that. It's been a busy few weeks.

We spent a lot of time finishing getting Ola Lola's and the Lola House ready for the new owners.


At the same time we had to get our new house ready to move into. Nothing had been done at the new place - which we've named Castaways - since Maria and the former tenant moved back to the mainland. Trees and fences were down in the yard. The yard itself was totally overgrown. A digger (front end loader/backhoe) spent three whole days clearing the trees from the yard and the area behind the house where the horse corral will go. The house needed cleaning and painting.

 We got everything moved to Castaways a week before "the Kids" came. Lots of work, lots of time spent but we're beginning to see light that isn't the headlight of another train coming at us.

The house still needs a lot of work and we have to secure the property so we can bring the horses down. But as we say, "poca a poco" - little by little, one day, one step, one task at a time.

We took nearly two weeks off island to the mainland to visit family and friends. Elaine has been back to the mainland several times - for equine therapy certification training and family crises - but I realized I haven't been off island in nearly four years. I haven't seen family or friends in that long. I was supposed to be off island (diving in St. Croix) last September when Maria hit so that didn't work out. And I was supposed to go to the mainland in December but got sick and couldn't go.

This was a really good trip - really great connections with people. There only downside was there were so many more people we want to connect with but just couldn't. (LS - are you reading this?) Well, that and the 13 hour layover in the Orlando airport. Oh, and catching a "bug" in the airport or on the plane on the way home  But those were minor inconveniences.

"The Kids" - Stephanie and Jordan - moved into the Lola House while we were gone. The immediately started making the house and the business their own. They had their soft opening first night last night. Just drinks for now; food is coming about August 1. It looked great while we were there - old friends and strangers alike stopping to say "hi" and have a cocktail or a beer (or two).

We are so happy for them and wish them all the best!

More about the travels in a bit.

NOW Friday, June 15

 

On Thursday Elaine, Marie and I did my traditional birthday dive (even though my birthday isn't until Saturday). This was my first time in the water since I broke my wrist. And, it was the first time diving the reef at Natural since Hurricane Maria.

I've heard from other divers that Natural was pretty devastated and they weren't wrong. Even now, nine months after the hurricane, the reef looks barren to those of us who knew it before. Most - but not all - the huge barrel sponges are gone as are soft fan corals and the little lavender vase sponges. We did find a couple starting to make a comeback, though.

There are new things we don't usually see at Natural taking up residence, like these anemones.

Tiny fish, like the gobys and the little blue chromis love the anemones. We saw several of them.

It was rare to see sea urchins at Natural. The newly exposed crevices in the rocks, uncovered when the sand washed away in the hurricane, are home to gazillions of sea urchins. That's bad news for the feet but good news for the reef.

And other life is returning as well like this squirrelfish and scorpion fish.

Natural, like Crashboat, is going to be fun to dive and watch over the next few years as Mother Ocean rejuvenates the reef. Can't wait to watch!

NOW Friday, June 15

Wow - a month since my last post. Sorry about that. Here are some updates on what's happened in the last month.

The hand is doing much better. I'm actually typing (and correcting) with two hands now. There is still some swelling and tenderness but overall it is much improved.

Much of  our time in the last month was spent writing and rewriting contracts, getting our new place ready to move into and our much-loved beach house and bar ready for us to move out of and the new owners to move into.

Say what?

Meet the new owners of Ola Lola's, Stephanie LaVake and Jordan Noie - or Jordan Noie and Stephanie LaVake if you're looking at the photo below.

They are a very cool pair of foodies and drinkies from Wisconsin(!) and you're gonna love 'em! We do already.

We are moving into a new house across Isabela. Okay, it's not our beach house, it is farther from the beach. But it is coming with 22 acres of adjacent land - a home for us and for the horses. Neither the house nor the yard nor the property were cleaned up after Hurricane Maria so there is a ton of work. We've done a lot already but there is always more to do. Before we can move the horses, we have to fence the property and build a corral. It may be September before the horses get there. Plus, the house and land are less than a block away from the land where we are setting up the therapeutic riding program. It's a whole lot of win-win for people and animals.

Today is day 15 of the 2018 hurricane season. Up until June 1, we were counting the days since Hurricane Maria. Now we're counting the days of the new season without a hurricane. Sorta like the "number of days without a lost-time accident" counter is factories. So far, 15 days and counting.

More coming soon!