Mo'orea: Day 13

This morning it dawned (no pun intended) on me that more than a third of this trip has gone by.  Each day has been so busy that I barely even realized how much time had passed.  This morning began with breakfast at 6:30, consisting of the usual baguette with an assortment of tropical jams, peanut butter and Nesse (Nutella) as well as Q-Rox (Cocoa Puffs), K-Rox (Kix), and Frosted Flakes.  The milk here is sold non-refrigerated so our milk is often warm at breakfast, in which case I do not have cereal on those days. Luckily, it was cold today so I opted for the Q-Rox.  Most of my classmates find it odd that I include the food I eat in my journal, but frankly, I find it quite interesting.  Although our diet here is not entirely different from what I am used to, I find the differences fascinating.  There is definitely much less meat and hardly any eggs with our meals.

Anyways, on with the rest of my day.  At 7:30, we loaded up a motor boat with our dive gear, a small flotation boat and survey equipment and headed for the reef crest.  We were then dropped off, leaving us only with the inflatable boat (not meant as a life preserver) in wind driven waves.  Our task was to survey Porites Lobata (a species of coral) for the presence of Lithophaga drill holes. Lithophaga is also known as the date mussel and bores into coral heads.  Unfortunately, the strong current and lack of Lithophaga made this morning's adventure a bit unsuccessful.  Every time we were surveying a coral head, the current would knock us into another coral head.  Luckily, our professor came back for us not long after we had completed our surveying.

Just as we docked back at Gump Station, we decided to join another group heading to Maharepa on the other side of the bay.  The reef there was filled with Porites Rus (another species of coral) and a fair number of fish.  Other people have seen sea turtles and sharks, but sadly, I did not see any today.

After lunch, we continued our never ending task of sorting sediment.  For hours every other afternoon, we have to sort through bags of sediment taken from the reef crest.  By now, it wreaks of decaying organisms and sea water, making this task even more unpleasant.  Using forceps, we must sort the sediment into different piles: shells, coral rubble, algae flakes, urchin spines, etc.  It's like if there were 10 different types of rice all mixed together and you had to separate each type.  Luckily, we only have one more day left of sorting.

Finally, after dinner we have to write our proposals for one of our group projects (which I will do right after I finish this post).  As you can tell, each day is packed.  I never spend more than five waking minutes in my room, which I don't mind since our rooms are somewhat rudimentary.  I will have to include a photo when I return.

Tomorrow should be another busy day, as we begin our second day of our other group projects (each person has two group projects: one for each professor).  Our site for this project is the beautiful sailing school.  It looks like something you would see on a postcard and the life below water is just as wonderful.

Time to write my proposal!

sailing school