The Browns' Mantra: Cloudiness Continues, with Some Rain

We have finally collected some rain water in the tanks, some last night, some this morning. It has rained hard but briefly a couple times, even during water aerobics class. Since we were already salt water wet, we didn't mind fresh water also.

Peter swimming around the boat after water aerobics this morning

Rain and waves

Luckily, we took advantage of the least cloudy day in a long time on Sunday, April 16, to snorkel along the rocky wall between the south end of Monument Beach and Honeymoon Beach. The clarity was good and the marine life was abundant. We were dazzled by an array of textures, colors and shapes. The fish were not large; shorelines tend to be nurseries. We saw one adudlt queen angelfish; juvenile gray angelfish, their jet black bodies boldly and vertically striped with sunshine yellow; spotfin butterflyfish with oval white bodies, yellow fins, a black dot on the rear dorsal fin and black streak from the front of the dorsal fin to the front of the gills, straight through the eyes; blue tang, the disc-shaped adults solid blue with a distinctive whit or yellow spine at the base of the tail and the smaller juveniles the color of a Meyer's lemon; doctorfish and ocean surgeonfish, similar to and in the same family (Acanthuridae) as the blue tang; bar jacks, easily identified by the bold bright blue and black stripe that runs along the dorsal fin and crosses to the ventral side of the fish's lower tail fin; a permit, identified by is silvery tone and the angle of the caudal part of the body mirroring the angle of the forked, dark tail; dusky damselfish, the adults with rounded dorsal and anal fins not extending past the base of the base of the tail and the juveniles bluish silver-gray in color with a splash of flame orange on the dorsal side and two dark spots ringed in pale blue, one on the dorsal fin and one on the base of the tail; juvenile cocoa damselfish, lemon yellow ventrally and bluish purple ventrally and a dark spot on the base of the tail; juvenile sergeant majors with their five vertical black body bars and yellow ventral side; juvenile stoplight parrotfish, the brownish-red ventral side speckled with white dots, the belly in lighter shades and the tail displayed a white bar; and bluehead wrasse, which, obviously, have a royal blue head, two dark bars behind the head separated by a white bar and a slim body. There were plenty of blennies, but I could not distinguish among the dozens of species. It was the first time this year I have seen the juvenile dusky damselfish; there were hundreds. I was also delighted to see two slow-swimming sharpnose puffers, two to four inches long, with blunt mouths on their narrow heads, thick, odd-shaped bodies, dull yellow tailfins and neon light blue spots on the body. Really amusing was one dusky damselfish that seemed fascinated by a one and half inch thread hanging from my right glove. It hovered near my face and hands for quite some time, apparently not threatened by my size or shape.

Of course, the fish are not the only attractions in the shallow marine environment of the Bahamas. The corals are plentiful and display brilliant colors. I can usually distinguish among hydrocorals (also known as fire coral of the painful burning sensation swimmers get from the venom if they touch them), octocorals and hexacorals within the phylum cnidaria; however, I am not skilled at distinguishing beyond this taxonomical level to family, order, genus or species. Among the hydrocorals, I can discern the differences in among branching, blade, box and rose lace corals, but each of them have many color and shape variations. The class anthozoa includes gorgonians, telestaceans and soft corals, all in the subclass octocorals, so named because the polyps have eight tentacles (not really visible to the naked eye). Among the species of octocorals, I observed on Sunday were encrusting gorgonians, pourous and bent sea rods, sea plumes, and sea fans (common and Venus). Another subclass of Anthozoa is Hexacorallia, with polyps in multiples of six. The most abundant of this subclass are the stony corals in the order Scleractinia. The wall I small along on Sunday had a multitude of colors and configurations of finger coral, brain coral, rose coral, thin leaf lettuce coral, orange cup coral, dwart cup coral and hidden cup coral. Although I try, I do not think I will ever by able to identify coral as well as I can fish.

Not quite as challenging to recognize are algae, which intermingle with the coral and also thrive along sandy bottoms. There are green, brown and red algae, but green algae is the most commonly observed. On most days snorkeling in the water, I see turtle grass, sargassum seaweed (brown), leafy rolled-blade algae (green, as are all the rest in this list), white scroll algae, flat-top bristle brush, bristle ball brush, and cactus tree algae.

But that's not all! There are sponges; sea anemones; tube-dwelling anemones; fan worms; calcareous tube worms; mollusks; echinoderms such as sea stars, sea urchins, heart urchins, sand dollars and sea cucumbers and more! So much to visually enjoy and learn about! Here is a list of the most exciting finds among these reef creatures on Sunday: giant anemones, amber pehnshells, thorny sea star (deep red in color), cushion sea stars, rock-boring urchins (both the black and the red color variations), variegated urchins (white), feather dusters (magnificent, variegates and many varieties of social), yellow fan worms, Christmas tree worms and sea frost worms. And that just includes the types that caught my eye among the kaleidoscope of color.

Clearly, the marine life is the most fascinating thing for me in the Bahamas. But there are other things happening. On Sunday, the mail boats/ferries began to transport in the racing boats for the Family Island Regatta, which begins today with opening activities, with races and competititions starting tomorrow. It is a major national event in the Bahamas, highlighting the traditional sailing boats of the out islands and also featuring food booths and live music every night into the wee hours. (The website says the after party starts at 1 a.m.)

Long boats with long booms on board a ferry

One good thing about the cloudiness is that there are usually spectacular sunsets, still celebrated with conch horn blowing every night.

Sunset on a cloudy day

Peter blowing his conch horn

Yesterday (April 17), I spent hours reserving a place at the beach in July for the Rodgers family beach vacation and making airline and car reservations for this summer. Peter is flying to London from Washington on May 26, arriving in England in time to celebrate Matthew's birthday on May 30 and attend his oldest nephew/godson's birthday on June 3. He will remain in England through mid-July. I will fly from Washington to Sacramento and then fly from the west coast to London on June 26. A Brown family reunion is being organized by Peter's brother Rob for July 1. Matthew, Peter and I will fly back to the east coast on July 14 and then arrive at Ocean City, Maryland, on July 22. There are some family members I have not seen since 2019, so I am looking forward to this annual Rodgers family gathering.

In the afternoon, Peter and I took a walk on Stocking Island. Heading north on Monument Beach, we crossed over the small, vegetated, rocky rise separating the northern section from the southern section. There is a small patch of red mangroves there, their roots reaching out and down into shallow, clear water. Among the prop routes, there were hundreds of fish (unidentified), swimming in schools and one medium size silver and yellow fish (couldn't identify him either!). Sometimes I just take joy in watching the fish and don't worry about who they are.

Fish among the mangroves

Peter on the dock

Freya water-bathing

The small dock just north of the mangroves was at sea level with the high tide, tiny waves rolling across the decking. Freya and Matilda were enjoying jumping off the far end, and then Freya reposed along the walkway, water-bathing instead of sun-bathing.

We walked on as far as we could. Slightly inland is a large rectangular structure, freshly painted and maybe new. Neither the crew from S/V Positive Waves nor we could figure out what its purpose is. There is a large sculpture near the entrance, somewhat resembling a sundial in an abstract way, a mural on one of the walls and long connected benches around a palm.

Sculpture on beach

Buidling of unknown use

A bright, multi-color building near the beach with the remains of a substantial dock in front caught our attention. The back of the building had obviously been torn off by wind and deposited in the vegetation farther inland. Was it a home, a restaurant, a hotel? Probably somebody knows.

In addition to the usual mangroves, casuarinas, sea grape and palms, we saw beach naupaka (Scaevola sericea) as little more than seedling and also as tall bushes. One of the small ones had an attractive white flower. Also, we were enchanted by a melodious song from high in the casuarinas, and Peter tracked it down and identified it. The bird was a Bahama mockingbird. It would sing for a while and then take a short, looping flight and re-perch. It was fascinating to watch and hear. Peter was far ahead of me on the beach when I finally stopped admiring it.