Tuesday, July 27, 2010

back in the water


Tropical rainstorms kept us out of the water most of last week. The run off from the rainfall was unbelievable. St. Thomas (all the Virgin islands it seems) are very steep and rocky with little soil to absorb the rain as it falls. As a result water just cascades down the hills, in torrents flooding out every low point on the island - which means nearly every road and many towns. This also means that the septic tanks (or whatever is used to store solid waste) overflow and join the party down river. Visibly the water turns from turquoise blue to a dirty red which in and of itself is pretty gross, but when you think of the bacteria that is floating around in that red mud it is a total turn off. Two days later the water was pretty clear and the tourists were in the water swimming...but we had been told to give it at least four days. We did and really couldn't wait much longer. We were all antsy to get into the water and cool down. We hit Frenchman's cove which has some "waves", not good for surfing but fun for the kids (or me in this case) to get knocked over with.



2 comments:

  1. Cool shot. Reminds me of Bruce Brown's movie Endless Summer. Surfs Up!

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  2. It is an endless summer...We should rent it for some inspiration...

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