Day 3 - Out at Sea

Yo yo, back from a whole day out at sea.

Wah sei, dunno where to start from. Ok, maybe a brief run-through of our activities first. Today did 1) marine mammal investigation (try to observe, identify and characterize marine mammals as we roam the seas on a ferry-trawler), 2) snorkel for coral reef activity (go down into ICE-COLD waters to identify and characterize various corals), 3) trawler activity (throw out large nets and draw them back with trawler going at 25knots to see the range of organisms trapped), 4) plankton investigation (surface and column collection of plankton + observation under dissection microscope to observe diversity).

Man, I tell you, it was FREEZING COLD! Grrrrr... *teeth chatter shatter* esp when we did the snorkeling part. Woah... its winter my dears, and already the outside temp is below 20s... and the water... my goodiness, they said it was 16deg. I thought it's more like 13deg or less.. Took a lot of courage for all of us to strip down to swimwear and wriggle into the icy waters, not to mention we must start treading/swimming/breathing with snorkel masks on. So many of us were so freezed out, we could barely move once in water and the teeth just sorta did their stomping dance and the bones chilled out. To tell the truth, I was so scared some of the kids' (and my) hearts would stop in shock.

Anyways, many of the kids got out within the next 10min, some due to sheer cold, some coz they were not comfortable using the snorkel equipment.. A couple of us went for a longer period, drifted for prob some tens of metres away, trying hard to look at the corals beneath and not panic too much (currents were quite strong too). But safety precautions were in place, so yeah, no real danger, though really quite drama I thought. Everyone eager + afraid + froze-out + shivering at the same time. What an experience!

As usual, the sunset at sea's great. I belong to the sea. Everything about it is probably great to me. =)

Everyone enjoyed the days' activities and I'm super glad the programme's planned out nicely such that there were many new things for the kids (and myself) to see and learn. Truly experiential learning. Can see the sparkle in many of their eyes. Truly glad. Many of them already bonded very nicely. Would probably see a few tears flow next tue as we bid goodbye.

Tomorrow's swampy mangrove time. Dirty muddy time. Catch u all again.

Though whole day out at sea, not too burnt, just a little red and brown on the nose and cheeks as usual. Sigh. But real glad all's safe and happy despite the choppy seas. No one fed the fishes with their vomit. =)