SwimRace: Kendra's Story

Here is my long awaited recap of our trip to St. Croix last weekend. In preparation for the swim, we loaded up on carbs the week before the race, and I went home early (6pm) Thursday and Friday so I could get plenty of sleep. It rained a bit Friday night and we were a little worried about weather keeping us from the Seaplane, since they only fly when the harbor is calm. Luckily, the weather was good enough, and we finally got to take the Seaplane.



As you probably know, I’m claustrophobic, so I was a little concerned about the Seaplane, but it was so much bigger on the inside than the other planes I’ve been on while island hopping here. The seats only came up to mid-back, and there was lots of overhead space. I think there were 15 seats but apparently they frequently keep 4 empty seats, probably for weight purposes. I was really excited as the propellers started. As we started moving along the harbor, it felt like we were in a really fast speed boat and then we took off. It was a clear day and we were bummed we’d left the camera in the checked luggage. (You’re only allowed to carry-on a wallet and a camera without its case.) We could see my office along the harbor and as we got higher we could see Morningstar beach where we trained and then we could see the mangroves where Dave works. The rest of the flight was uneventful - Dave pointed out some of the cays that he’d read about in his book.

As we neared St Croix, I realized that landing in a Seaplane was going to be a little disconcerting. You don’t know where the pilots are planning to land, since they can really land anywhere. On this plane, as with all the other small ones I’ve been on here, the passengers can see out the front window. That meant that on our descent, I could see the water we were heading straight towards at quite a fast speed. It was like what you might see in a movie before the plane crashes into the ocean. But we landed safely and that was that.

We picked up our rental car (Avis is the only one to choose from at the Seaport) and I pointed out a few of the places I’d learned about the week before when I was on St Croix for work. I also noticed we had the exact same car as my trip the week before. We went by the hotel to make sure I knew where it was and then we headed east to look for food and nice scenery. We ended up at Point Udall - known as the easternmost point of the United States (though we think Wake Island actually gets that title). It was definitely windy, and the water out there was choppy. It reminded me of Cape Spear, the easternmost point of North America, where I went about 10 years ago.



Near Point Udall, we also saw a big satellite dish/radio antenna. Dave mentioned that there is a whole string of them along our island chain. I’m hoping he’ll discuss it, because I really don’t know much about it at all.

On the way back from Point Udall, we stopped at Smokey’s - the gas station that has the best roti on the island. Roti is a local item - basically any meat, potatoes and some veggies, with lots of curry, wrapped in a flour tortilla. Unfortunately, they weren’t serving food yet because they’d gotten their days mixed up and thought it was Sunday - when they don’t serve food apparently.

We made our way back to the Buccanneer, our hotel. We could see people swimming out by the last turn buoy of the race. We assumed they were practicing for tomorrow and we felt like we should too, but somehow ran out of time before it started raining again. We went to town while our room was getting ready and ate there. By the time we got back, we could check-in to both our room and the race.

At the race check-in, Misty Hyman was greeting people at the door. She’s an Olympic swimmer from Phoenix who is the same age as me. We actually swam against each other as kids in the recreational swimming league. (I’m guessing those are the meets where I earned lots of my red second-place ribbons.) I introduced myself to her and told her about meeting one of her friends the day before on St Thomas. A St Croix superior court law clerk happened to stop by our office and when the swim race came up she said her friend Misty was competing. Small world. Apparently Misty came down for the race last year and liked St Croix so much she asked for a job at the hotel. She told me she retired from swimming and would just be doing a relay this year. Turns out she did a relay with two eleven year olds - they got fourth place among the relays. When we checked-in, the race volunteers seemed excited to see people from St Thomas. We later found out there were only 3 of us.

After seeing all the super buff, in-shape people with bad sunburns, indicating they’d at least been practicing that week, I got a little nervous. I was wondering what exactly we were thinking a month earlier when we found out about the race and thought we could do it. I was concerned with whether or not I could finish in the four hours, and I was worried about the tough channel crossing too. Also, I kept thinking about my conversation with one of the US Marshals the week before on St Croix who goes scuba diving every weekend and frequently sees sharks at 80 feet. Hammerhead sharks.

A little awhile later there was a pre-race meeting. The race organizers showed us a powerpoint slideshow that guided us through the race course. We had to be at the hotel lobby at 5:50am to catch a taxi to the dock where people would write our race numbers on our upper arms in permanent black marker. Then we’d catch a boat out to Buck Island where the race would start around 7:30am. We were shown photos of what everything would look like during the race. At the beginning of the race, crossing the channel, we were to look for a V in the hills and head for the V where a yellow buoy would be. Keeping the buoy to our right, we’d turn right and then finally we’d be with the current. At that first buoy, the first two miles would be done and a boat would be there with water, as well as the second leg of the relay swimmers. Then, while swimming along shore, we had to look for a house with a bright green roof. The next marker was “the pointy houses”, and then finally another buoy where we’d turn left and swim in to shore looking for the sugar mill ruins and the palm tree finish. During the slideshow, I realized I should definitely wear my contacts during the race. First, so I could make sure I could see the markers, but second, so I could see any weird sea creatures that might freak me out if I couldn’t identify them.

The race coordinators told us it would probably rain during the race, and if they saw lightning, they’d end the race early. They told us there were 120 swimmers expected, and there would be a water boat every mile, as well as about 50 kayakers for support along the way. Then they said that the water depth for the channel crossing was 70-75 feet deep. “Phew”, I thought, “no sharks!” They also said we should be able to see the bottom the entire length of the course. While I doubted that, I felt a bit relieved that I wouldn’t have to worry about Jaws appearing from the mysterious dark blue depths as I swam the first two miles.

We had more carbs for dinner and went to bed early, but I had a hard time sleeping. I was a bit nervous and excited, so mostly I just rested until 5:15am when it was time to get up. We ate our bananas, balance bars, and leftover pancakes from the previous morning. Then we were out the door.

At the docks, I met a swimmer from St Croix named E.T. who swims with the local group called Fin Folk. It’s always nice to meet other Virgin Islanders and she was pretty nice. Once we were marked, we got on a boat and started applying sunscreen and drinking as much water/Gatorade as possible to stay hydrated throughout the race. The boat ride took about 20 minutes and it was a little daunting to see exactly how far it was. But it was also reassuring to see the green roof house, and the V in the hills in person. The skies were clear and the sun was clearly going to shine.

Once we made it to Buck Island, we had to jump in the water and swim the last 20 feet to shore. It was refreshing but not too cold. We stretched our arms and legs and waited while other swimmers arrived on boats. The beach was very pretty and the water was a light, clear green.
We were told that one of the buoys had broken loose with the strong current and that we shouldn’t pay attention to it along the way.


I said bye to Dave as I knew he was going to run out and start swimming right away when the race started. I planned to hang back a little to avoid the rush, and hopefully avoid getting kicked in the face by another swimmer, as I know can happen in crowded open water races. It was very exciting waiting the last few minutes before the race. The race began with the blowing of a conch shell. I meandered into the water, got my goggles on and realized that I’d gotten a little too hydrated. I fixed that problem (and had to do so a few more times during the race too). Then I let out a “Woo Hoo!” and started swimming. [picture is from previous year]

THE FIRST MILE

As I swam towards the V in the hills, I realized I would not have much time for deep thinking, or quoting of movies or songs like I often do when I swim for awhile. Instead, some serious concentration on the swimming was going to be required. The current was very strong, pushing on my left side. I was determined not to let it push me too hard as I didn’t want to have to swim backwards to get around the buoy at the 2 mile mark.

Usually I breathe every third breath. When we practiced at Morningstar, if the waves were big, I’d avoid breathing to the side where the waves came from. Just like those practices, I modified my stroke a bit. Every breath on my right side was done just as usual. But instead of breathing on my left side, I’d lift my head up and look straight ahead so I could make sure I was still on track. Lifting your head to breathe is a lot more work that breathing on the side. But I knew if I breathed every fourth stroke while fighting that current, it’d be a much harder workout for me overall. I kept this breathing pattern up the entire first two miles. I swam very steadily. I was not swimming to swim fast, I was swimming to swim five miles. Basically, I swam at a pace that I felt I could keep up forever.

Probably about half a mile into the race, there was a boat. I assume it was to pick up anyone who suddenly realized what a tough channel crossing it was going to be and who didn’t feel comfortable doing it anymore. I was a little disappointed there was no other boat during the channel, as I had planned to drink water every mile since swimming in salt water makes me very thirsty. I was definitely near the end of the pack, which I knew would happen since I’m not fast and I started late. But I couldn’t see any other yellow capped swimmers. I saw a couple of kayakers who seemed to be keeping pace with me, and I asked them if I was last and they said no. I wondered if they were just trying to be supportive, or if I really wasn’t last. I really didn’t want to be last. My two main goals were to finish and not be last. A secondary goal was to finish in 3.5 hours.

Surprisingly, the water was clear enough to see the bottom of the sea floor, just like we’d been told. I could see starfish, but I didn’t recognize much else. I got my first mouthful of seawater in the first mile, and I figured I could expect one per mile. The current was strong, but I felt prepared for it based on our swims at Morningstar. I told myself that I just needed to get through these first two miles and then the rest of the race would be easy since the current would be helping me.

MILE TWO

The channel stretch was pretty much what I expected, although the waves were a little bit higher in some places. I freaked out a little bit when I got another mouthful of water and had to stop to cough it out. The kayakers made me feel more calm since they would cheer me on whenever they saw me looking around. I think I stopped just to take in the scenery around the middle of the channel.

I started really enjoying watching all the starfish. I felt like they were there cheering me on too, since they seem like happy creatures. I wasn’t nervous about sharks at all. At some point in the second mile, I had a few problems arise.


First, I started being able to really feel my shoulder strap rubbing on my right shoulder. Plenty of swimmers put on Vaseline to prevent chafing during swims, but since I’d never had a problem at all, I didn’t really want to try something new for a long race. Once I felt the rubbing, I was afraid it might really hurt by the fifth mile.

Second, I started getting toe and foot cramps. When I tried swimming with fins a few weeks before, I got a foot cramp, which was partly why I didn’t opt for the fins division (also I felt like it was cheating). The only way I could get rid of the cramp that day was to get out of the water and put my food in hot sand to relax the muscle. Of course, I was a mile from shore during the race and couldn’t exactly get out and find something warm to put on my feet. Although somewhat distressed by this, I realized I would just have to keep swimming and hope it went away. The cramps did go away after awhile, but they returned frequently throughout the rest of the race.

Third, I came across a fairly shallow area somehow. It wasn’t shallow enough that I could touch the bottom, but the kayakers seemed a little concerned that I might somehow end up in a more shallow area and get stuck along the coral. They said “just get through this shallow part.” This was the most discouraging part of the swim. The current was so strong that it felt like I wasn’t going anywhere, and since the bottom was so close and clear, I could see that I wasn’t going anywhere. I felt like I’d been trying to swim past the same starfish for 5 minutes to no avail. Eventually I got past this part.

The hills on St Croix finally started seeming closer and I could see the red buoy and the 2 mile boat quite clear. It’s amazing how clear and large a buoy can seem before you finally reach it! It took me about 1.5 hours to get to this boat. I stopped here for a brief rest while I tried to rub out my foot cramp which had started crawling up my left lower leg. I drank two bottles of water here too. I saw another swimmer for the first time in a long time. He was an older guy with fins, a mask and a snorkel. He looked like he was out for a leisurely swim.


MILE THREE

I left the boat and headed off towards the green roofed house. Swimming suddenly seemed so much easier, especially now that I could breathe regularly and only needed to lift my head occasionally to see that I was still on track. Looking back towards Buck Island and realizing I’d just swam the whole way from there made me feel pretty proud of myself as well as amazed.

At the beginning of mile two, I seemed to lose my two kayakers and gained a new one. This time it was a balding guy. Every time I’d take a breath on my right side, I could see him looking at me or looking out at the water. I noticed he almost never paddled, since the current was strong enough he could pretty much coast and keep up with me. I wanted to tell him to put a hat on so his head wouldn’t get sunburned.

This was the first time I’d swam with a watch, and I was glad I had it. It helped me figure out about how fast I was going. Just based on the landmarks alone, I think I finished mile three in 30 minutes. I managed to swim right past the boat without realizing it. Shortly after that I realized I should try to get some water. I asked the kayaker if he had any, and then the boat came over and dropped some off with the kayaker who paddled over my way and delivered the water. When I’d had enough, he took the bottle back and told me whenever I needed some, he’d bring it to me. A perk of being at the end of the swimmers is getting your personal kayak support team!

MILE FOUR

During mile four, I was still feeling pretty good as I headed for the houses with pointy roofs. It was exciting to be this far along. I started thinking about lunch. My stroke was still pretty steady and I wasn’t feeling worn out yet. A few times I’d see the kayaker looking at me, and it made me wonder if he was just waiting for me to drown. When I asked him, he told me he thought I was last. No BS with him! I didn’t find out his name, but he stayed with me for the rest of the race. He got more water for me from the next boat and I found it handy to have water whenever I needed it.

By this time, my feet cramps were pretty bad and my left leg had been cramping too for awhile. During the whole race, I probably stopped about 6 or 7 times for a few minutes just to try to rub them out. Each time I realized it was hopeless and just kept on swimming. I had basically stopped using my legs at all after mile two since kicking just made the cramps worse. Not kicking made me feel like a real long distance swimmer.


MILE FIVE

During the last mile I was both really excited but also starting to get worn out. I was afraid to do even an occasional breaststroke or stop for even a moment because I wasn’t sure I could get my arms back in their windmill positions to keep swimming. I felt like I had to just keep on going without stopping now.

When I could see the last buoy, I felt relieved that I was almost done. It had been about 3 hours, and I felt like I was on target to finish in 3.5. I figured Dave had probably just finished. It wasn’t until I actually reached the last buoy that I saw the first swimmer I’d seen since the end of mile 2. I was excited to see someone else because it meant I had a chance to not be dead last. At the pre-race meeting, we’d been told the last buoy was about 500 meters from shore. Even though it was a third of a mile, it seemed so short compared to the rest of it. I decided to go all out and swim as fast as possible so that I could beat the other swimmer.

A sprint at the end of a 5 mile race can’t be much of a sprint. At times I felt like I was barely moving, but as I came closer to the palm tree finish, I got more and more excited. My kayaker was nearby and I felt like he was cheering me on to beat this other swimmer. I swam and swam and swam and finally the bottom was so clear. I tried to stand up, but oops, still too deep. Then I swam until my fingers brushed the sand and miraculously managed to pull myself up into a standing position and stumble across the sand to the finish line before the other swimmer as I caught a glimpse of Dave looking excited to see me.

A woman was waiting on the other side of the finish line with some Powerade and fresh fruit. Dave took them for me, clearly realizing that there was no way I could carry them myself. He led me over to a reclined beach chair and sat me down looking as excited for me and as proud of me as I was for myself. It was nice to finally be done. I checked my watch and it said 3:35. Dave had no idea what his time was but he said he’d been there long enough to worry about me.

A steel pan band was playing, and lots of the swimmers were drinking beers and resting in the shade of the palm trees. The finish of palm trees was very impressive and I wish we’d gone back to the hotel room to get our camera and taken a picture of it. Maybe next year one of you blog readers will come and take pictures for us!

We climbed the big hill back to our room to take showers and check out of the room before the BBQ lunch started. Once back in the room I discovered all of my injuries. My eyes were both swollen, the left one more than the right. Presumably it was just from having goggles on for so long. I hadn’t spent any time swimming on my back so they’d been on the entire time. The rubbing on my shoulder had created a large red chafed spot. I also got chafed along the back of my head where the swim cap had apparently been rubbing. Even with all of the super sport waterproof sun block, I also got burned. I acquired a curved sunburn on my forehead because of the swim cap. And since I had been swimming in a different bathing suit for the last month or two, I developed my new tan line quickly with some reddish highlights on my back too.





The lunch was great. We sat with E.T. and her friend Sue, who apparently is among the fasted cyclists on St Croix. Sue didn’t swim the race this year because she was at the Caribbean Cycling Championships the week before. It was nice to meet them both. It seems like all the St Croix swimmers know each other. They encouraged us to start a swim club here on St Thomas. Maybe we will! [Here I am after the race, waiting for the seaplane.]


We found out our official times and places before the awards ceremony. I finished in 3:36:44 in 76th place among the solo swimmers (no fins, no relay). Out of how many, you ask? Well, according to the list at the lunch, there were 82 swimmers. But online, it shows just 78. So my guess is numbers 79-82 didn’t finish and had times of 99:99:99. I beat a 49 year old female and a 15 year old male. The older guy with snorkel mask and fins showed up after I finished too, along with one other male fin swimmer. The woman I’d raced against at the end was a fin swimmer too. Dave came in strong in a super fast time of 2:25:50. I think we’ll both sign up for next year.


We drove around a bit on St Croix again before we headed back to the Seaplane. The flight was fine, though the windows weren’t quite as big as on the other seaplane. We took some pictures of where we’d swam earlier that day. [the yellow line traces the majority of the route] By the time we got home, we were hungry again and pretty tired. I think it took a day before I didn’t feel like I was still in the water being pushed around.

So there you have it! And race results just came out online today, so you can browse them yourself.. Oh, I’d almost forgotten. On Wednesday, the librarian at work told me she saw my name in the paper. Click on the picture to get a better sized picture. Be sure to read the fourth column....

Anyone want to join us next year?

SwimRace; Dave's Story

Ah, the Swim Race… [sorry, long post, not much humor -> a bit like the actually race!]

Saturday morning Kendra and I got up, ate breakfast, packed, and drove to the courthouse parking lot (we decided to park there b/c the lot is fenced and guarded 24/7, plus it’s free). We then walked ~1 mile to the sea plane, only to find out that our plane was at 10, rather than 10:45. Since we got there around 10:05, we missed our plane, but we were able to get on the next flight without paying penalties, and without too much delay.

The actual sea plane ride was a bit interesting. Everything is weighed (from big bags down to purses, people are asked their weight as well), then you proceed to a floating dock where the plane is parked. At the plane you hand over any bags that weren’t “checked”, including purses. I suppose this is so that they can balance the plane, and so that they can pretend to have some sort of security (as if it wouldn’t be hard to smuggle a gun under clothes… but whatever).

As this beautiful sketch shows, the sea plane has cargo (“C”) holds in the nose and tail, a pilot and co-pilot, and 3 columns of passenger seats. There are 6 rows of seats total, 5 with 3 across and 1 with 2 seats; for a total max capacity of 17, but it seems that they usually have a few empty seats. The primary door is at the tail, and there are a few extra emergency exit doors plus the pilot’s door throughout the plane. Kendra and I sat in the last 3-seat row both times. The 2 seat row behind was empty on the way over, and had a big box seat belted in on the way back. The plane has windows that are much larger than standard airline windows, and they are inline with the seats, so everyone has a pretty good view. Taking off it felt like we were on a speed boat, except then the speed boat left the water. The flight over was pretty non-extraordinary, except for the fact that the plane is not pressurized, so there was plenty of ear popping despite our low altitude.

Once on St. Croix, we got our rental car, drove to the hotel, found out the room wasn’t ready (it was still pretty early ~11am), and drove out to the east end of St. Croix, called Point Udall. Pt Udall used to be considered the eastern most part of the US until somebody realized that Wake Island is technically more east.
I suppose you could claim that Pt Udall is the easternmost point of the US in the western hemisphere. Anyway, after looking at the views, enjoying the fresh air and wind (I was sneezy all of Saturday, and the fresh air was nice), we started back to the hotel. We stopped at Smokey’s gas station in hopes of getting some “famous” pate that Smokey’s wife makes, but apparently she takes most of Saturday off.
On the way to and from Pt Udall the road goes past a radio telescope that is part of an array that stretches from St. Croix to Hawaii. Reminds me of scenes from "Contact".


After returning to the hotel, we checked in to both the race and the hotel. Our room was right at the front, with a nice (warning: sarcasm) view of the hotel lobby traffic circle, which was all torn up and under construction. At the race check-in, we saw (former) Olympic swimmer Misty Hyman, who did the race solo last year, and now works at the hotel. We got our goodie bags (which include the usual stuff… sunscreen, energy goo, PowerAde and advertisements, but also a small (1.5 oz) bottle of Cruzan rum), our lunch and taxi tickets, and our t-shirts.

We had a few hours to kill before the race, so we went back to the hotel room. Kendra read her book and I took a nap (my allergies were making me pretty tired). A few hours later, we went to one of the hotel meeting rooms for the pre-race meeting. The race organizers went through a PowerPoint presentation of the important race info, including the primary “land”-marks for the race including:
1st, the V-shaped valley for navigating the start of the channel crossing
2nd, the yellow buoy/transition boat (for relay swimmers) that marks the end of the channel crossing
3rd, Green roof house on a point
4th, Green Cay, which we swim on the St Croix side of
5th, Pointy roof house
Last, Final turn buoy

The race is also roughly divided into three parts (the 3 relay legs). At the end of each relay leg, there is a boat that has water. The first leg (channel crossing) is the hardest, as it is the longest (2 miles) and it has swells coming from the side. The next two legs around each roughly 1.5 miles, and have a current coming from the rear.

After the meeting, Kendra and I went to dinner at a good (but somewhat smoky) restaurant, then we went to the primary shopping center so I could get some allergy medicine. We went to bed early, and we had to get up early.

5:20am, Race morning
Woke up, ate breakfast (balance bar, PowerAde, homemade cookie/biscuit). Double, triple and quadruple checked that my backpack had sunscreen, water, goggles, and swim caps. I dropped off a room key and driver’s license at front desk for after the race and then we boarded taxis to go to Green Cay marina.

~6:10am, Green Cay Marina
We stood in line with the other race people, waiting to get marked with our numbers and to board boats for transit to Buck Island. Kendra and I got on the first boat going out to Buck. On the way out, we put on sunscreen and drank more water/Gatorade. The ride was a little bumpy, but not too bad… although as we approached Buck Island the 2 mile channel crossing started to look pretty long. At Buck Island, the boat came in close the island, and then the swimmers jumped off the back and swam to the shore. We left our bag for transport back to the finish line at the hotel.

Buck Island was very pretty in the morning light. The island is not developed, so all you see is the beautiful water, the white sand beach, and the green craggy hill that rises in the center of the island (and lots of swimmers and kayakers).

After a bit, the other boats showed up and we were given a 5 minute warning. About 5 minutes later (surprise surprise) the race was started with the sounding of a conch shell (and I thought they only did that in movies). Kendra and I hung back a little from the first rush, and then we started swimming.

It was only crowded swimming for about 10 minutes, and then the pack spread out quite a bit. There were ~3ft swells coming from the left, but they were gentle enough that I didn’t have to worry about eating too much water when I breathed left. After another 10 minutes or so I found my swim pace (not slow, but not fast), and started to pace with a 2 other swimmers. This is the part of the race that I remember the best, as I wasn’t tired yet, and the swells kept pushing me around, forcing me to be very aware of my heading (the V-valley on St. Croix being what I was aiming for). Time seemed to stretch out a bit, as St Croix didn’t seem to be getting closer, and I was still too far to see the transition buoy/boat that marked the first turn. The only discernable changes that happened while I was swimming were the positioning of the other two swimmers that were pacing with me, and the color of the bottom. (I could see the bottom during the entire crossing; at times it was white sand, sometimes darker coral, and sometimes even darker sea grass. In the lighter areas I could see many sea-stars on the bottom). Aside from the tossing about caused by the swells, this would have been a peaceful part of the race.

Eventually I could tell that I was approaching the turn buoy/boat, because I was able to better discern the details of the buoy and boat. Somewhere along the way one of the swimmers either went forward or dropped back, because by the time I [finally] turned the buoy, there was only one guy with me. We both swam near the boat. A guy on the boat threw each of us a water bottle (with water in it). I drank about 6oz of water, tossed the bottle back, and kept going. At this point I wasn’t hurting at all, just feeling a bit weird from swimming so long and being tossed around.

The next major landmark, the “green roof house on the point” (aka Pull Point), was visible from a long way off, so it seemed to take forever to get to. During this section, I started to get a bit tired. During the channel crossing I needed to worry about navigation/being tossed around, now I had to concentrate on keeping my stroke correct and my pace good. At this point I started to count strokes. I was breathing every three strokes, so I would count my breaths by counting:
1 [stroke], 2 [strokes], 1 [breath],
1 [stroke], 2 [strokes], 2 [breaths],
1 [stroke], 2 [strokes], 3 [breaths],
1 [stroke], 2 [strokes], 4 [breaths],
1 [stroke], 2 [strokes], 5 [breaths], ect…
After 5, 10 or 20 breaths, I would do 2 or 3 breastrokes to rest, stretch and get my bearings.

[Finally] I passed the green roof house point, and started to make my way between Green Cay and St. Croix. The water here became very shallow (~3ft), with coral on the bottom, so I didn’t swim too close to Green Cay for fear of scrapping on coral. Near green Cay I saw the only interesting sea-life of my swim, an eagle ray and a midsized (~2.5-3ft) barracuda. The race was starting to feel very long at this point.

When I reached the last transition boat, I stopped and drank some water. I was stationary (kinda… the current was pushing me (in the right direction at least)), at the boat for about a minute, then I started off again. There were a couple of more points to swim around, then a final buoy. This leg sucked. I was a bit tired, but worse, my underarms were chafing which made it painful to do a full extension on my stroke, which made my stroke less efficient and also made it so I didn’t have the glide (i.e., resting portion) of my stroke. I defiantly learned my lesson… next time I will use Vaseline to reduce chafing. Also, during this leg it became difficult to maintain pace due to being tired and the chafing. I could keep swimming without trouble; it was swimming with any sort of speed that was the issue. My stroke/breath counting became a bit arduous here too. I would plan to swim freestyle for 10 breaths, but then around 5 or 6 I would stop and do breastroke for 2-6 strokes. Switching early was due to a few things… 1) being a wuss, 2) being tired, 3) not thinking entirely too straight (I lost count on 2 or 3 breaths a few times).

One thing that confused me at this point was that during the race meeting, it was said that you will think you are at the last buoy, but it is actually the 2nd to last buoy. Well, I thought the last buoy was the 2nd to last buoy, until I asked a kayaker if it was the last, and he said “yes”, which was a nice surprise, but I would have like to have known it was the last buoy before I started to go around it. Just prior to this, a swimmer had passed me. I decided that if I had enough energy to shout questions at a kayaker, I must have enough energy to sprint in the 1/3 mile or so to the beach, plus, I was almost done, and that was exciting (I had been fantasizing about eating a balance bar that was in my backpack for about 2/3 of the race… I could just about taste it now). So anyway, I sprinted (or did what passed for a sprint at that point), passed the dude (beat him by 6 seconds, yippee), stagger/ran up to the finish line, and that was that. 2:25:50 seconds after starting, I was done. I am happy with my time… I had hoped to swim 1 mile every 30 minutes (a scorching 2mph), so I’m glad I met that goal.

Oh, and I did eat that balance bar (2 actually), and boy did it taste good.

There were plenty of chairs around on the finish beach, so I found our backpack, and lounged about while Kendra was finishing. (My tongue felt very weird for about a day after the race… it was quite strange).

Once Kendra finished, (and rested a bit), we walked up the hill to our hotel room, took showers, packed up, checked out, and then went to the race lunch (also at the hotel). The lunch was a buffet/all you can eat (perfect for a bunch of starving swimmers), that was fairly good food (hamburgers, lettuce salad, pasta salad, potato salad, chicken fingers, that sort of stuff). Kendra and I stayed for the awards ceremony, and then we drove around St. Croix a bit before returning to St. Thomas on the seaplane.

[St Thomas on the seaplane approach]

I am looking forward to, and slightly dreading, next year’s swimrace. Apparently, this years race was fast (due to favorable currents) which is sad because it makes it less likely that I will beat my 2:25:50 time next year. Oh well.

Not Yet... and Thanksgiving

I think Dave spoke too soon, at least for me. I probably won't have time to write my blog post about the race until this weekend. I'm posting this at the end of a 12 hour work day waiting for Dave to pick me up. But maybe on Saturday I'll write my report on the race...

In other news, we've made our Thanksgiving plans! We're going to St. Martin/St. Maarten. Same island - but one half is French and the other half is Dutch. We'll be there for just a couple of days, but it should be fun! Maybe for Christmas we'll go to St. Kitts!

The Answers... and the Suspense!

Jen asked a few questions about the photo end of Ecotours, so I thought I would answer them in a new post, while throwing this teaser out there:

Kendra and I (obviously) survived the 5-mile swim race yesterday, and we are going to post separate blogs about our experiences, so you can get it from both view points. Those posts should be up today or tomorrow, so keep your eyes peeled!

Now for Jen's questions:
--Do you use your own camera or a company camera?
Ecotours recently purchased two digital cameras and three casings, which is what we use for the photography. Though these cameras have less resolution than Kendra and my camera (3.2 megapixels vs. 4 megapixels), the Ecotours cameras have better optics. The cameras have a good zoom, do a good job of minimizing shadow (which is nice for people's faces in the sun), and have a good lens/focus system which produces very clear images.

--Are the photos that you displayed in this post from your cam or the work one?
They are the work camera in that post, but since we use a thumbnail program to reduce picture size, they are not a good indicator of the true image quality.

--What brand of camera are you using?
It is a Cannon, although I am not sure of the actual camera designation beyond the fact that it is a 3.2 megapixel.

A Race Day Storm Brewing?

The Latest Tropical Weather Outlook: (found here after all of the Wilma information)

Current Atlantic Basin Information:

SHOWER ACTIVITY ASSOCIATED WITH THE TROPICAL WAVE IN THE EASTERN CARIBBEAN SEA HAS BECOME MORE CONCENTRATED ABOUT 200 MILES SOUTH OF PUERTO RICO. THIS SYSTEM IS PRODUCING A LARGE AREA OF SQUALLS EXTENDING TO PORTIONS OF THE VIRGIN ISLANDS...AND PUERTO RICO. THERE ARE NO SIGNS OF A CIRCULATION AT THIS TIME BUT CONDITIONS APPEAR TO BE FAVORABLE FOR A TROPICAL DEPRESSION TO FORM DURING THE NEXT DAY OR SO AS IT MOVES WEST-NORTHWESTWARD ABOUT 15 MPH. INTERESTS IN PUERTO RICO AND HISPANIOLA SHOULD MONITOR THE PROGRESS OF THIS SYSTEM.

If it really moves West-Northwest and doesn't get big we should be okay.... Hopefully the weather will clear up ASAP!

We're scheduled to be on the Seaplane this morning in a couple hours and then we should have some time to explore St Croix before race check-in and information sessions start.

EcoTours Photography

The weather this past week has been pretty good, which means that Ecotours is actually sending out tours, which makes me happy. I did two tours on Wednesday, both of them training for photography, then yesterday I went out on a tour as the only photographer. It was interesting, considering that photographers take their own boat, and I had never driven one, but aside from some issues parking the boat back at dock (I eventually decided it was easiest to just hop out of the boat wherever on the dock, and then drag it to its mooring spot), it wasn’t too traumatic.

As a photographer, I get paid based on the number of CDs that I sell, which is good and bad. Good, because I only have to sell 5 CDs to make what a guide makes on a good tour, bad, because if nobody buys a CD I am out of luck (ie, it is a no salary, no tip position). Guests get the lowdown on the pictures at the beginning of the tour (I tell them that if they let me take all the pictures for them, they can concentrate on enjoying the “very interesting flora, fauna and geological features, as well as listening to all the wonderful information the guides have to offer”.) Anyway, we saw some interesting stuff on the tour. Yesterday was a boat/hike/snorkel tour; out to an island know as Cas Cay.

This Sunday is the big 5 mile swim race. Kendra says that a bunch of people at her work are “praying for us”. I hope we don’t need it!

I'll leave you with some pictures from my work:


These are the boats that we take out.


This squirrel fish is flashing its yellow dorsal fin to scare off other fish from his hideout.


This is a bunch of fish by an old chunk of boat wreckage.


These are mangrove jellyfish, which live symbiotically with algae (a bit like lichens which have fungi and algae) on the bottom of the lagoon. They spend their time upsidedown, pulsating about once a second to stay on the bottom. They have a mild sting when stirred up.


This is a shot of the kayak dock/rack. We stabilize the kayaks with our feet/hands, and the guests plop into them right at the dock. Getting out is a little more diffcult, especially with very large guests, or kids who like to get in and out while being "helpful".


This is a partially hidden eagle ray.

Short Trips, Swim Race Prep, and Work

Over the last week, I flew to St Croix and back on planes that seat fewer than 8 people, and I flew to JFK and back on planes that seat over 300. The trial in St Croix last Tuesday got cancelled right after we landed, but weather prevented us from getting on the Seaplane in either direction and it also forced us to stay there over night even sans trial. So I still haven't gotten to try the seaplane out yet.

But I did get to take some pictures of St Croix from the air. I also was able to see firsthand just how far Buck Island is from the shore - where we'll be swimming on Sunday. Buck Island is in the middle of this picture on the horizon. It's just a small dot....


Then on Friday we flew into JFK for my cousin's wedding in CT. Wow, NYC is so huge. So many buildings and people and places to shop compared to St Thomas! I had hoped to find a few more work shirts while we were there, but looking for short sleeve shirts in October in New England was pretty hopeless. It was great to hang out with the family again though. People are going to have to start visiting us now though!

I escaped work for a little over an hour on Monday to go swimming for some more training. Just a few more days until the big 5 mile swim. This week we're loading up on carbs. We fly on the Seaplane on Saturday to St Croix, and Sunday morning is the race. I'll be super happy with finishing in three and a half hours, but just finishing would be great!

We've both been busy at work. Now that more cruises are coming to St Thomas and the sun is shining once again, Dave's got a few more tours. He had one Monday morning and then one yesterday, and today is a double hitter. He's out with the people from the Disney cruise this morning, and I'm not sure he'll be with in the afternoon. Dave's sandal tan is getting mighty impressive. We'll have to post a picture soon.

In the meantime... here are some pictures of us on our way to work from last week. Me in my light-weight cotton button up (but I've since taken my braids out) and Dave in his Eco-Tours shirt and swim trunks! He'll be getting a hat soon too.

So I swam into a jellyfish....

After we both worked for awhile this morning, we came back home and had lunch - leftover steak sandwiches, yum. Then we went to Morningstar, where, you got it, I swam into a jellyfish. We had decided to swim 8 lengths of the beach (the hotel says it's between 1/4 and 1/2 of a mile, not super helpful in calculating our mileage, but before I asked them I'd guessed 1/3 mile, so I'm sticking with that.) On my 6th length, I was swimming freestyle and almost swam directly into a jellyfish. My fingertips poked it pretty hard, but, luckily, it didn't sting me. It caught me totally off guard - guess I don't watch where I'm swimming. I backed away from it pretty quickly and went towards the shore trying to make sure I hadn't gotten and wasn't going to get stung. Then I found Dave who was on his way back during his 7th length of the beach and told him to watch out. But since it was getting dark from ominous clouds and I'd heard someone say something about lightning, we decided it was just time to get out. So I think we swam about 2 miles each today. Hopefully it won't rain tomorrow, that way we can swim some more. I think one of the hardest parts about open water swimming is not getting scared about all the things that could be around. I'm hoping that for the race, I'll at least be near other swimmers for most of the time. The first two miles are what I am most nervous about because there is no land nearby. But there will be plenty of kayakers to keep an eye on us, so it should be okay!

Pictured above is a moon jelly. I think it might be what I saw. But I didn't stick around long enough to really find out. It just felt firm but gelatinous and was kind of shiny and somewhat see-through. I wouldn't mind if I don't see one again!

Working on a Saturday

Dave and I are both doing a bit of work today. Right now he's probably finishing up a kayak-hike tour, and I'm at the office trying to catch-up on some work. It was a long work week for me - working from 8-7 most days. But yesterday I was determined to leave in time to get some swimming in before dark, and I actually left by 5:15. Probably the earliest time I've ever left work. Dave and I swam at Magen's for about 30 minutes. I plan to swim this afternoon for awhile; hopefully Dave won't be too worn out from work this morning.

I just saw a seaplane take off outside my window. I actually get to go on my first seaplane on Tuesday with my first case on St Croix. The seaplanes they use here aren't the ones where the belly of the plane hits the water. Instead there are things kinda like skis. I'm sure there is a proper word for them.... Anyways, I'll be spending Tuesday night on St Croix, but Dave won't get to St Croix until our swim race in two more weeks, as he's going to stay home and try to work some tours instead. The tourist season is definitely picking up. More and more days with multiple cruise ships, and fewer days with no ships at all.

One of the NBA San Antonio Spurs players is from St Croix, so there are tons of Spurs fans here. The Spurs have been here all week for spring training. (Someone explain why they don't call it autumn training?) Multiple times a day I'll hear sirens from the road below my office, and sure enough, there go the Spurs' convoy. Since the team is worshipped, they get police escorts so they don't have to deal with traffic, etc. A little excessive perhaps...
Our curtains are coming along nicely. Finished one completely. Three more to go! Hope everyone has a nice Columbus Day weekend!

Kendra's Job

Finally, a post about what Kendra's job really entails. First, a little background on the courts here in general. Most places in the US (i.e. the states) have both federal courts and state courts. [For instance, Arizona has three levels of state courts - Superior Court (trial court), Court of Appeals, and the Supreme Court (highest level of appeals). Federal cases that arise in Arizona start in the District Court of Arizona (trial court), and appeals go to the 9th Circuit (Federal Court of Appeals) and then they can end up in the US Supreme Court.] In the USVI, there is the same federal system. I work at the District Court of the V.I. (federal trial court) (pictured on the right - my office is on the top story near the lamp post). There are two federal judges in the District of the V.I. (aka DVI), one on St Thomas and one on St Croix. I'm with the division on St Thomas, but sometimes we go to St Croix to hear cases there (like if the judge there is good friends with a party involved, or for some other reason shouldn't or can't hear the case). Appeals from our decisions go to the 3rd Circuit and they, too, can get to the US Supreme Court in DC.

Locally, however, there is only one level of courts for the territory - the Superior Court (trial court). Appeals from the Superior Court actually end up in the DVI, but for those cases we call it the DVI Appellate Division. We have an appellate panel that is made from both judges in the DVI plus one Superior Court judge. When appeals are from cases on St Thomas, we hear them on St Thomas with a local judge from St Croix. Panels happen almost every month, alternating islands each time. The local judges rotate, so they each get to hear appeals only about once a year. This is a long way of explaining that my judge is a judge for federal trial court and also for the territory's appellate court. (Appeals from the DVI App. Div. go to the 3rd circuit, which acts as the territory's supreme court.) So, I really have two roles - one as an appellate clerk and one as a trial clerk.

I'll start with the appeals since I've just explained it a bit. When a case is appealed from the territory's superior court, our job is to review the trial court's record and see if something went wrong there. As law clerks, we review the record and do lots of research. Each of us is assigned different cases, so I might have three appeals per panel. Then, I write "bench memoranda", aka bench memos, to the judges to explain what happened in the trial and what the legal issue is that is being appealed. I explain what the law is to the panel in these memos, either through statutes or prior case law, and I explain what I think the outcome should be. The three judges review the appellate briefs from the parties as well as our bench memos. Then we all get together and talk about it. The three judges discuss what they think of the memo, while we law clerks are sitting there, and they may ask me questions about the case or the law that I found. If I'm lucky, they'll all agree with my analysis and tell me to turn it into an opinion. If I'm not lucky, then I may have to do more research or develop the analysis more or come up with the opposite result and give them a new draft. They circulate the draft and make sure they all agree with it before it is issued.

Most of my time, however, is spent working on federal trial cases. I'm assigned to 40% of the trial cases and 20% of the appeals. My two co-clerks get 30% of the trial load and 40% of the appellate load. (picture of the three of us here is from an office field trip to St John) That makes it seem like I have less work than them, but it really balances out since appeals are only every other month at the most. (We only work on appeals that come from St Thomas; the clerks on St Croix deal with the St Croix appeals.)

For trials, the work I do varies a lot. My first week of work, I had 2 hearings and a trial. That was a unusually busy week. I have only been in court one day since then. Trials often get postponed or even cancelled at the last minute if parties settle. For a scheduled trial, one of my main jobs is preparing jury instructions. Clearly, these are really important because it summarizes the legal issues for the jurors and explains under which circumstances they should rule which way. During the trial itself, I sit in front of the judge at a computer. He'll often pass me notes and ask me to look up issues very quickly as they come up in trial.

Before a case even gets to a trial though, there are lots of other issues. Parties file motions a lot and they have to be ruled on before trial. For instance, a defendant might file a motion to dismiss for lack of jurisdiction. Then, just like for the appeals, I read both sides' documents, do some legal research, and write a bench memo to the judge. There are lots of different types of motions, like to exclude evidence or for a preliminary injunction, etc. Sometimes we hear oral argument on the motions, and sometimes we'll make a decision based on the documents that were filed by the parties. When the judge makes a decision, then I turn the bench memo into an opinion. Sometimes those get published (without any mention of my hard work of course).

I'm also technically the senior law clerk as I started work a week before my co-clerks. This means I get the biggest office, but also I have a few administrative duties as well. Mostly I just help the judge's awesome secretary make sure things get done. Before an appellate panel, the judge has to issue an order officially placing the cases we're going to hear on the calendar. So I write that up and make sure it gets out on time. Things like that. So there you have it. Now you know what I do all day. Or at least, what I try to get done, while other random things come up. Of course, I also look out my window at the view of the harbor, as you can see here.

Technical Issues and How To information

I've been having problems posting to the blog lately. I wrote up a lovely post about what my job is like and for some reason it won't post. I can't post at all using my computer, and whenever I email the blog contents to Dave (so I can post it using his computer, like I'm doing now) or myself (so I can post at work), it doesn't arrive. Very peculiar. (You'd think I could figure it out as a former tech support rep for the very email I'm using... ) My computer has been acting strange in general lately. Next time I turn it on I'll put the post on a USB disc so that I don't have to rely on the internet to transmit it. Just know that it is on the way. Some day soon you will get to learn about what it is I do all day.

In the meantime, here are a few How to's for those of you who are relatively new to reading blogs. If you get the email version, remember you can post comments if you go to the website version, located at www.nielsam.com. You can ask questions and we will follow them up in future posts so other people can read the answers too. Or you can just let us know you're reading the blog.

If you missed some posts or want to read the older posts again, you can read older posts by clicking on the archive links on the left side of our website. (By the way, the blog titles listed on the left are always the ten posts previous to whichever you are reading, but since it is only ten posts, you need to use the archive links to get older ones.) By clicking on the archive from 08/01/2005 - 08/31/2005, for example, the website will pull up all of our posts in August, but only the last ten will be listed by post title. So, to read the very first post in August, you have to scroll all the way to the bottom of the website because they are posted in reverse chronological order.

Rain, Rain, and more Rain. Oh its raining again.

Since I was so brash as to post about how on "...the rare occasion where it rains for several hours, the sun manages to shine at least a little...", someone on high has decided to punish me. Foolish of me to tempt fate like that. Yesterday it rained 2 inches between 9:00am and 9:45am. Today it has been raining pretty much all day. I haven't seen the sun at all. From 9am today to now (5:30pm) it has rained about 3.5 inches. Most of that came down in the morning hours. The first picture is what it looked like this morning right before it started raining. The second picture is what it has looked like pretty much all day after the intial downpour. Feels like I'm back in Berekely, but about 20 degrees warmer (although it has hovered around a cool 75 or so all day).

It is a bit odd, the NOAA radar makes it look a bit like the storm has rotation, centered on Eastern Puerto Rico, but that might just be an artifact from the radar image. (Hopefully it isn't a tropical depression forming on top of us).

My first day of training was cancelled. No tours went out today due to lightning/thunder, tomorrow I am scheduled for a 1pm kayak tour. Hopefully there will be no lightning.

So to sum up, it has rained ~5.5 inches in the last ~32 hours, and it is still raining.

Oh, on a more happy note... Kendra signed us up for the 5 mile swim on the 23rd on St Croix (well, not "on" St Croix, next to St Croix, would be more accurate), and I booked our flights, so we just need to get a hotel room and we are set.

What the... I'm Cold!

Wow, its 7:30am and I feel like I need to wear a shirt to not be cold! It rained quite a bit last night, and it looks like it might rain some more. The radar image is of precipitation at all levels in the clouds. The storm seems to be moving SW, so the main part will miss us, but we will probably get some more rain. (The big island in the middle of the radar is Puerto Rico, St. Thomas is a couple of islands over to the right).

Its too bad... Kendra and I were going to go to Morningstar Beach and swim around 11am, then picnic at the beach, then swim some more. Of course, the way the weather acts around here, that storm might just disapear (or turn into a hurricane :p ).

USVI Facts

The point of this post is to give you an idea of the weather that affects the USVI, and the people who live here. Interspersed is a sequence of pictures I took toward Magen’s bay during a “scattered thundershower”. This drop and recovery in visibility is common to rainstorms here. The entire storm took less than 30 minutes from first to last drop.

The CIA World Factbook (to be abbreviated as CIAWFB, you have love acronyms) lists the resources of the Virgin Islands as “sun, sand, sea, surf”. Subtract “surf” and add “inexpensive jewelry, crystal and booze” and it is fairly accurate.

Three main islands make up the US Virgin Islands, St John, St Thomas, and St Croix. St John and St Thomas are very close to each other (~3 miles), while St Croix is ~40 miles to the south. St Thomas and St Croix both have about 50,000 people, while St John has about 5,000 people. St Croix is also home to one of the largest oil refineries in the Western Hemisphere, which seems a bit out of place for a Caribbean island. In addition to the main islands, there are many cays, some of which are populated (up to a couple of hundred people), all the way down to cays that are just a rock with a stunted sea grape tree.

Despite the fact that NOAA lists a 20-70% chance of rain just about every day, it only rains infrequently (example: it has not rained at the house that I have noticed for several days, despite having 50% chance of rain for each of those days), and then not for very long. The two months that I have been here, it has only rained for more than 2 hours straight a couple of times. Most rain comes in scattered showers, accompanied by thunder/lighting about 1/3 of the time. When it does rain, a strong breeze of (blessedly) cool wind is followed by the rain, which often builds quickly to a downpour, continues for several minutes, and then quickly tapers away. There has not been a day where it has been cloudy all day. Even on the rare occasion where it rains for several hours, the sun manages to shine at least a little.

We don't have a regular trash pick up here. Instead we take our trash to one of the sets of dumpsters that is around the island. I would estimate that there are 10 or so groups of dumpsters. The closest to us is about 2/3 of the way down to Magen's bay. Dumpsters don't help traffic, especially the one in town that has no place to pull off the road. People just stop in the middle of the road (on a hill no less) to toss their garbage.

Kendra pointed out that I refer to myself as a “white boy”, so it might be worth pointing out the racial breakdown of the island. According to the CIAWFB, the USVI has 109,000 people, subdivided as below:
Black 76.2%,
White 13.1%,
Asian 1.1%,
Other 6.1%,
Mixed 3.5%

It seems (to me) that there are less than 13% white people, but that could just be because I haven’t ever been the minority before (unless you could Revelle College at UCSD, where Asians were the majority). There is a little racial tension on the island. I think most of what I perceived as racism when I first arrived was just a combination of social rules different from what I knew, islanders not liking mainlanders (who happen to be mostly white), and islanders really not liking tourists. Since I was “not from here”, and I didn’t know the social rules, people were not super friendly. These days once people realize that I live here, they are generally much nicer, but there is still a wide range in the responses I get from islanders, from rudeness to friendliness.

Having said that, there have been incidences which have raised racial tension on the islands. There is also a group who feel that they are “natives” (ironically, all the pre-Columbian natives are dead/displaced) and that whites, having previously been slave owners on the islands, owe them reparations of some sort. The motto on the vehicle license plate frame says, “Our Islands, Our Home.” Depending on who “our” represents, that can mean a lot of things. Anyhow, most people who I will be interacting with for an extended period of time (Kendra’s co-workers and VI Ecotours people for example) are friendly, and even strangers tend to become nicer (or at least less rude) when you greet them directly.