Extreme Tides

There was a full moon earlier this week. It was absolutely gorgeous here. But the downside of the full moon is that we had extreme tides this week. High tide was higher than usual, and low tide was very low. So our hours were crazier than normal, and unfortunately we couldn’t even make it out to the site on Thursday. Also, there was limited work to do at the site, so only a few students went out to the field each day, while the rest of the group stayed behind to work in the lab.

The moon was gorgeous. I wish I could have gotten a clearer shot of it

Tuesday I was one of the lucky 3 to go out to the field. We bracketed low tide. It was the first time I’d seen low tide out there, and it was incredible. I was just shocked to see how far out the tide went, and all the rocks and coral it exposed. When we dry screen, we usually have the screens on the beach and bring up buckets of water, but at low tide we were able to set up the screens out in the coral. We found a few starfish, sea cucumbers, and other aquatic life. It was a fun day.

A little dirty from digging

The dock at low tide

Low tide

I was also lucky enough to go out to the field again on Friday. That day we were out there at high tide, and it was usually high. It flooded our trenches a decent amount, so we couldn’t do too much excavating. But still, we worked on the profile of one of the trenches, and it was exciting. I learned a lot.

High tide!

Friday night we went to a dive shop and restaurant called Drop Off. It was right on the water and the view was gorgeous. And when it got dark, it was the first time I’d really taken the chance to notice the night sky, since most nights it’s cloudy or we aren’t out. But it was absolutely amazing. There are so many stars, and they’re so bright. So Liz and I stepped away to get a better look at the night sky, and in less than two minutes we saw a stunning shooting star. Incredible. There were lights shining into the ocean, and we watched a squid for a long time and saw a ton of fish. It made for a fun evening. Yes, things are going well!