This morning I took a walk around the salt pond and nearby Grand Case Airport. Around the main pond and nearby smaller ponds, large muddy flats with some succulents and other vegetation predominate. I found a buckeye-type butterfly very common in this area, and numerous fuzzy orange caterpillars that I am guessing belong to the same species as they are neither monarch nor swallowtail caterpillars.

Also seen on this exploration were the so-called water chicken, a flock of egrets and a small bird’s nest with its entrance on the bottom. I’m guessing the nest belongs to one of the local finches that have bright yellow belies. I also saw another iguana, and like the last one it was in a tree over a marsh. A dirt road off the main road on the other side of the airport looks promising, heading up a forested hillside.

I have also noticed that despite seeing monarch caterpillars of all sizes on almost every milkweed plant I have encountered, I have yet to see a single chrysalis. Perhaps it is not quite time for that stage of life, but I would have guessed the butterflies would breed year-round in this climate. Perhaps I am just not good at spotting them.

Dr. Maillot had the great idea of blogging about the history of underwater exploration, inspired partially by the awesome 16th century painting of Alexander the Great being lowered in a diving bell. According to Wikipedia, the first account of diving bells was a description by Aristotle in the 4th century BC, making it the oldest known form of underwater breathing apparatus. Aristotle explained “…they enable the divers to respire equally well by letting down a cauldron, for this does not fill with water, but retains the air, for it is forced straight down into the water.”

The basic idea is to have a big bell with a guy inside and lower it into the water so the pressure of the water holds the air in the bell. They are always attached to a tether, and to keep them full of air at depth, air must be pumped into them from the surface. Any excess air bubbles out the bottom, making it an open circuit system.

After some design improvements in 1535 by Guglielmo de Lorena, numerous innovations followed in the 1600’s, when they were used for salvage operations, recovering canons and treasure. Today, diving bells are still used by commercial divers, particularly for diving to great depths, like on deep sea oil rigs. However, it is more common now to use sealed diving chambers, although they may be attached to a diving bell for access to the water.a

In the gallery below is the aforementioned painting, as well as a diagram of a diving bell, a diving bell from a Swedish maritime museum and the SAT system diving bell, used as a taxi to take divers to their saturation diving living quarters by the NOAA.

This morning I went out on the boat with Chris, Sally, Aure and ERB to explore potential new dive sites. Our first stop was in the channel between St. Martin and Anguilla. The seas were choppy, so we hopped in quickly. While the exact location of the site is top secret, I can tell you that we descended to the bottom at 74 feet and did a 35 minute drift dive. The landscape was what I refer to as a reef prairie: a long, flat underwater plain sprouting with corals and sponges. At one point, we crossed paths with a large school of sardines. The photos below are from this site, which we christened Fisherman’s Reef.

Next, we dove off the point to the north of Anse Marcel. Exposed to the current, the visibility was worse here, but there was plenty of life. We started at 55 feet and worked our way around the point to finish in the shallows. At the end of our dive, we were surprised to find an octopus sitting out in the open on the ocean floor. It studied us for a while before turning white and shooting off into a coral refuge.

Our last dive was at the rock in front of Anse Marcel. Similar to Creole Rock, the waters were quite shallow. We maxed out at 27 feet. This site was probably the best of the three, with many coral overhangs. Beneath one, I found an adult spotted drum and a small nurse shark. On the higher points, there were large coral heads. As we came around the southwest part of the rock, the reef gave way to areas of sand and sea grass with intermittent corals. Probably a great place to see rays. The cutest thing I saw on this dive was a young queen angelfish, less than two inches long, but still gloriously colored in blues and yellows.

After my morning excursion, I decided to try snorkeling the west end of Grand Case Bay near Molly Smith Point. By the afternoon, the wind and waves had picked up, making for tricky snorkeling and low visibility. I did explore a little, though. The underwater topography consisted of numerous sandy valleys between rock outcrops providing plenty of hiding places for fish. The area was not dense with life, but did feature a decent variety of corals. I would say it is worth further exploration on a calmer day.

On the way back I took some photos of the cemetary, the remains of Sebastiano (presumably an Italian restaurant) and a shot of the sea and a dog (a sea dog, I suppose) seen through the remains of an abandoned shack.

Madam J and Marc AuMarc are settling in to the pace and island rhythms of their grande expédition. Currently, they are exploring the shallow waters, deep waters and above water environments of Saint Martin while also eating many baguettes and a great deal of cornichons.

This morning I took a walk to a pond ringed with mangrove on one side down at the west end of Grand Case. I found several birds, including a black, duck-like bird with a red bill, an egret and a dove. I also noticed a large iguana on one of the mangroves.

After circumnavigating most of the mangrove, I went up the hill on the west end of the bay, starting from a small cemetery. At the top of the hill, I found the exact same tree that was at the top of Goat Mountain, and so far, those are the only two I’ve seen. I’m not sure if there’s a natural cause for that, or if they are purposely planted at the top of hills.

From my vantage point, I could see that the beach directly beside the cemetery holds considerable promise as a future E.S.S. location. Perhaps I can explore that this afternoon. A small sailboat is wrecked on the shore there.

Other life I encountered on my walk included some sort of weevil, crabs with one big pincer arm, a land snail and le champignon. Some of the photos from today aren’t that great, particularly some of the longer shots using the 70-300mm zoom.

The winds from Tuesday and Wednesday brought crashing waves to Grand Case Bay, and either swept in or uncovered quite a bit of shipwrecked boat in the bay. With the waters calm again, I investigated and found a small clay pipe, perhaps a year old, perhaps a hundred. I also found the sea floor full of the little sandy volcanos that perplexed Jacques Cousteau for so many years, apparently built by small mantis shrimp. In the photos below you can also see what happens to rebar after some time in the water.

Yesterday morning I went up Goat Mountain for a little look see and saw a pretty amazing capture. A large (4-5 inch wingspan) sphinx moth was caught on a long spider web that stretched probably 12 feet between two trees. It was still alive and tried to fly away a few times, attracting the attention of a monarch butterfly. Also pictured below are a baby lizard that was on our front steps and a lensbaby photo of the town of Grand Case.

Also, the goat skull I retrieved a couple days ago was missing from our balcony last night. Were the staff concerned about Obeah (the local voodoo-type religion)? No, it just got blown off the balcony by the wind.

Last night I found an interesting insect whilst walking to the beach. I forgot what they are called, but I feel like it might be mole cricket. If that’s not what they’re called, it should be. I also tried taking some long exposure photos. On the water side, you can see Grand Case on the left and the photo taken to the right is Grand Case Beach Club. In the distance, the lights are from British-owned Anguilla. The last photo is Goat Mountain, as seen from our back veranda. If you look closely, to the left of Orion’s belt you can see a shooting star.

(Update: it is a mole cricket.)

Yesterday afternoon I decided to climb the mountain behind our house. Maybe it isn’t exactly a mountain, but it was a pretty good hike. On the way up I encountered many interesting things. In certain sandy areas near trees there were numerous funnels, and when I stepped near them, causing sand to fall in, something started flinging the sand out. I’m guessing they are some sort of spider that uses the funnels to trap insects. I also encountered a green caterpillar with a big yellow head and a pair of brightly-colored moths.

At the top of the mountain, there were many goat skeletons and a special tree with white flowers. Perhaps they died of natural causes, or perhaps they were used in Obeah ceremonies. It is hard to say. The view from the top was pretty impressive. Looking back towards Grand Case, it was easy to see the whole bay as well as the local airport. On the far side of the mountain I looked down on Anse Marcel. I again took the Tokina 35mm macro lens, which I think was a good choice to capture landscapes in decently wide angle as well as macro shots. I came back down the mountain very much scratched up and covered in little seeds.