Sharklab photos lately

Tired to gills from recent day-long downpours and matching gruelling days, here's a selection of uncaterogorized photos from the last half week. 

 The only catch from a half day of fishing around Bimini

 The Galant Lady off the west coast of North Bimini

 Friends of the lab, he jumped over the nurse shark and stingray wrangling boat in our channel

 Yup, I live here

A game of spoons gone delightfully awry on the dock

Tiger Monday

Hosting a film crew means a break from the day-to-day, participating in whatever activities they dream up and staying out of Doc's way.  The highlight from the most recent crew was catching five! tiger sharks on two vertical long lines set in the Gulf Stream off the west coast of Bimini.  All five individuals were between 3.2 and 3.45 meters long. 

 Underwater filmers getting sorted

 Working up one of five tigers

 hmmm, tiger

 Tiger alongside the boat

 Shark dive

 Shark dive again

 Itsa bull

Day off lunch look out

Back Bimini side

I live in a house that uses conch shells as door stops; a self-sufficient and conservation-minded house where our living quarters resemble a generous boat; a house whose back beach, a quick 50 meter stroll from the oft cluttered washing line adjacent to the house, serves as a liquor cabinet, ghost crab catching grounds and a launching pad to several shark-filled pens; a house with a dock where cleaning my teeth in the morning it's not unusual for a turtle to pop up for air. 

After a two year hiatus, I have returned to volunteer at the Bimini Biological Field Station aka Sharklab on Bimini, Bahamas. 

Even with the first half week filled with classes ranging from knot tying to marine radio to boat driving to shark handeling, we managed a half day snorkeling at the Sapona and a shark dive and feed off Triangle Rocks.  More than a dozen reef and black nose sharks popped over for an easy snack as fellow volunteers squeeled with delight through their snorkels. 

 North Bimini

 Morning prize for jetlag

Ahh, Bimini sunrise

Incoming Hope

"HOPE IS COMING!" screeched a tiny Thai woman.  More than 50 volunteers, day visitors and staff legged it to the safety of an elevated platform despite the optimistic bellow.  Hope, a cheeky teenage male rescued shortly after birth, is an elephant.  

One of the 36 elephants currently at the Elephant Nature Park rescued by patchyderm superhero Sangduen (Lek) Chailert, Hope has never been tortured, abused or forced to work in the logging or tourist industries.  

Other rescuees aren't so fortunate.  As 2700 kilo females plod past on dislocated hips, broken ankles and abscessed feet, it's truly heart breaking to visualize the events that led to their conditions.  "Broken" in a "crush," pummeled by sharp hooks, nails and slingshotted stones so they'd submit to human direction and later injected with methamphetamines so they'd work longer the Park is a rare sanctuary for retired and rescued elephants. 

A vacation volunteer program has participants helping for a minimum of one week either at the Park or in a remote location in SE Asia.  While our labour was not as valuable as the funds and time we gave, the real value for the Park is the onward education and enthusiasm for elephant conservation the volunteers come away with. 

 Mae Perm and Jokia

River bath time

Ele suncreme

Hope was trained to do this through positive reinforecemet 

Vet student G cleaning wounds 

The B Team with our Volunteer Coordinators.  The one with his arm around me threw four of us into the mudpit.

Post bathing

Feeding time

On board

Spewingly delivered to Ko Tao on a bucking catamaran, I started my rescue diver course that same day.  A tough three days mastering in water and boat rescues, managing whatever emergencies Lance and Paul dreamed up, babysitting them underwater as they dekitted, turned their masks upside down, over inflated their BCDs, swam with their fins on their hands and climbed on each other while turning off tanks. 

Thoroughtly exhausted but keen to resume fun diving again, I landed in Khao Lak and boarded a three-day liveaboard the following evening headed for the Surins and famed Richelieu Rock.  A chockers dive deck, an IDC course running concurrently and staff who out of the water were more interested in themselves and flirting with each other than their paying customers made for an average boat experience.  My dive buddy - singular - the other customers and the stunning diving made up for the lackluster staff.

Along with two jaw-dropping tanks on Richelieu, night diving in biolumiscent plankton were highlights.  Putting my torch against my wetsuit after ensuring I wouldn't crash into corals, urchins, divers, I flailed about underwater like a panicked diver as the sea sparkled and cometed around me.

A rest, ketchup day in Khao Lak with some beach buds before a downpour escorted us the 30 minute walk home.  Onto Phuket tomorrow to catch a plane to Chiang Mai. 

A wee reward for a 7 am boat 

Throwing assist

 Rescue breathing on Lance

Carrying Paul up the ladder - and it's a tall boat

 Ko Tao from the sea

 En route to a dive site in the Surins

 I'm on a boat!

 Gemma and I during a surface interval

 Setting sun in the Surins

 Gemma, Roger and I back on solid ground

Dear Burma, gimme back my mates

I should have thought through my decision to sit in the front row of an Indonesian fire show a little further.  While I wan't on the receiving end of an on-fire/smoldering coconut husk, my neighbours weren't so lucky.  No obvious injurues or hospital visits required, just a stunned lass. 

Known for its theatre/music performances, I finally attended one on my last night in Ubud, Indonesia after my cocktail swilling flashpacker friends had moved on before I too was Thailand and real friends bound. 

Their pear-shaped visa run put a wee kink in my excited plans to see familiar Canadian faces.  After I hadn't heard from my friends 18 hours after they were due to return from Burma, I resigned that they must be in a bin.  In Burma. 

Rather, they'd moved on to Ko Phi Phi with nary a phone call or email until they were settled on that debacherous island.  I met Linda, a witty, chatty and interesting Brit.  After a quick meal, we stumbled into a jazz music festival for the King's Birthday.  Grabbing take-away noodles, our weight in rum we moseyed back over for a listen.  Both of us may have had boats to catch in the morning, but that didn't stop the rum flowing or the free Changs pouring in from the locals. 

Heavy headed I landed on Phi Phi, met my mates and proceded to do it all over again.  I once again had a boat to catch in the morning.  A dive boat. 

The seas were relentlessly rolly and big which did suprisingly little to quell my seasickness/raging hangover.   The King Cruiser was spectacular, the other two dives were average with the topside scenery taking all the points. 

Processing rice in Bali's abundant terraces

 Crazy big Balinese meal post-cycling/down hill cruising

 Gunung Kawi outside Ubud

 Generally sage advice

This performer alledgedly went into a trance and walked over/kicked around those coconut husks

 Nemo and his mates

 Cuddlefish

 Spanish dancer

 Shit viz, but that hooded figure is me in 27 degree water.  Brr.   

 From viewpoint on Ko Phi Phi

 Around Phi Phi

 View from my window post boys

I have no idea