Dec 9 — Not a lot happened today. There was some relaxing, some slinging, and a lot of reading.
Late in the afternoon Pat did some calisthenics, Markus went for a run, and I decided just before sundown to go for a swim around the sea-facing side of the island.
I entered the water on the back side through a school of silver fish and rounded the rocks to get past the breakers. Not going to lie, I lost a little nerve when I saw rocks below the surface carpeted with urchins.
Still not entirely familiar with the currents, and not wanting to take a ride on some random current away from shore, I balanced swimming as close to the island as I could without getting dashed against the rocks and into the multitudes of spiky sea beasts. It made for a very slow and shallow breast stroke that inexorably got me around the small island a few minutes after the last surfer of the day was leaving the water. Not having been this far out without a surfboard, I could not quite tell how much further I should go out past the surf before I swam in. I guessed wrong and got a few urchins in the thumb. Minor wounds compared with some at the surf campers, but enough for me to channel “water bug” to the stairs. I looked out at the calm landward side of the island and the pirogues criss-crossing the shallow bay in the early twilight and decided this workout has been exciting enough without dodging boats in a dark wet suit and made my way back across the island’s thankfully less eventful pathways.