Down Island Trip, Day 2!

Good evening,

It was an early morning for us today. We woke up on Daddy Jo’s beach at 5:45, packed up our tents, and left the site in hopes of catching the sunrise. We drove to the Glass Window Bridge which is a piece of land between the Atlantic and Lucayan Oceans only as wide as one lane of traffic! After parking our vans on the side of the road, we climbed up death rocks, where we were hoping to see the beautiful sunrise. However, the clouds blocked the sunrise and we weren’t able to see it, though we were able to see the wavy deep blue Atlantic Ocean and the calm, shallow, greenish Lucayan Ocean. Kache, our educator-in-training, said that the drastic differences between the two waters resemble the two different ways you can deal with problems. You can either handle them with rage and destructiveness or peacefulness and calmness.

Check out the rough Atlantic on the left and the calm Lucayan on the right!

While admiring the split of the separate oceans, we ate cornflakes and Chex mix for breakfast. We dangled our feet from the edges of the road and watched the water while chowing down. After breakfast, we filled our water bottles and ventured to the historic sites of Preachers Cave and Devil's Backbone, where William Sale first encountered Eleuthera in 1648. William Sale was an Englishman living in Bermuda who was seeking religious freedom. He left Bermuda with his band of "Eleutheran Adventurers" and landed at the northern tip of the island. 

Scoping out Preacher's Cave, the site of the original settlement of the "Eleutheran Adventurers."

Following our visit there, we then were surprised with a fun-filled visit to Sapphire’s Blue Hole. A blue hole (or ocean hole) is an underwater cavern that forms in limestone rock that is exposed to the surface. There, we jumped off a 20-foot cliff into a pool filled with crystal clear, deep blue water. The best part about this was that many people conquered their fears and decided to jump even though they initially didn’t want to. 

Maggie takes the plunge into Sapphire Hole!

After countless jumps off the edge, we drove to Queen's Baths. There we witnessed the intensity of the Atlantic Ocean. We saw numerous waves’ crash into the 'death rocks' (what we call the jagged, eroded, exposed limestone that makes up much of the island) ahead of us. We were lucky enough to be there when it was low tide which allowed us to get a better view of the crashing waves and the small pools of water. The caverns here were formed from physical erosion caused by the rain and waves.

The aqua pools and bright blue Atlantic meet at the Queen's Baths!

The last place we had to visit before returning to The Island School was Gregory Town. There we got homemade ice cream from a local shop, owned by a friendly woman who gets her fruit from a local farm. The flavors included vanilla, cookies and cream, guava, and mango. Everyone enjoyed the ice cream in the heat of the afternoon. After finishing our snack, we walked down the road to a souvenir shop. We were able to buy shirts and little trinkets made by artisans on the island. From here, we walked down the road again to a local beach known as "Sea Glass Beach." We skipped rocks and looked for shells and sea glass. We stopped at the bakery AGAIN and also munched on tortillas filled with jelly along with chips and fruits for our lunch.

Sarah, Dalia, and Ellen enjoying their guava and mango ice cream!

We left Gregory Town and headed back to The Island School.  When we arrived, we unpacked and cleaned all of our camping gear and FINALLY took showers. We ended the day with a soupy dinner and our first taste of Bahamian Johnnybread, a call home, and a tutorial in homemade bracelet-making! This day marked the halfway-point of our trip and we can't believe we will be heading home to the snowy weather soon!

Signing out,

Maggie and Koron 

Down Island Trip, Day 1!

Hello everyone, 

Today was special—we got to sleep in! (Except for a few people, who headed into the trails for an early-morning run.) After meeting at the flagpole at 7:30 and enjoying a breakfast of meat, potatoes, grits, and cornflakes, we finished up any final packing for our long-awaited camping trip. Soon we’d be heading north to the very tip of the island of Eleuthera, stopping to see beautiful sights and eat local food along the way.

We just left the parking lot for our road trip! We are so excited!

Finally, after packing two vans, we embarked on the trip! About an hours drive later, we arrived at a small bakery in Governor’s Harbor and devoured cheese Danishes, doughnuts, and other sugary treats we’d been craving for days. We also stopped for a bathroom break at a gas station, where Michael was finally able to stock up on Altoids. 

Stan, showing us how to do it right. A cheese danish in one hand, and a coconut danish in the other. 

Our first major landmark was called Hatchet Bay, which we soon discovered included an intricate and dark cave. We experienced ‘spelunking’ (cave-exploring) as we wandered through the rocky passageways and painted ourselves with the red, iron-rich clay on the cave floor. We even turned off our flashlights for an eerie 24 seconds of pitch-black silence. 

A big group of us in the muddy cave!

After returning to natural daylight, we enjoyed a lunch of sandwiches, cassava chips, and fruit. Off to our next adventure! Stan and Whit led us to the other side of the Hatchet Bay site, where we saw Seahorse Pond. We were going to snorkel with seahorses! We explored the crystal-clear waters of the pond and successfully found crabs and various invertebrates (and seahorses, of course).

We dried off and climbed back into the vans for the last leg of today’s trip. Our final destination was Daddy Jo’s beach (we passed the house of Lenny Kravitz, Eleuthera native, on the way), where we arrived to watch a beautiful sunset along the white sand of the shore. We unpacked the vans, set up our tents, and starting cooking food. Within a few hours, we were all sitting around the campfire eating homemade veggie stir fry, complete with rice, broccoli, onions, carrots, and green peppers.

Check out the sun setting over our amazing campsite!

Our amazing fire-building team, with some OLers and some newbies!

As the sun went down, we played games, told ghost stories around the campfire, walked along the beach, and took pictures of our incredible campground. Tired from our long road trip yet excited for the second day of the journey, we went to sleep at 10. We were going to awake at the early hour of 5:45 to see the sunrise at the Glass Window Bridge—a sight we couldn’t wait to experience.

Playing the game "Mafia" around the campfire on Daddy Jo's Beach!

See you in a week! Hope you’re enjoying the snow :)

Laura and Sarah

Team Plastics and Team Stingray, Part 2!

Hi everyone,

We started this morning off with a bang; the dreaded Run Swim! We met at the flagpole at 6:30, sang the anthem, and then headed off to the boathouse to begin the two-mile-long ordeal. Leading the group was Island School co-founder Chris Maxey, a former navy seal. As one might expect, he ran the Run Swim much like a former navy seal would, making everyone perform different types of exercises while waiting for the rest of the group to catch up. Before starting the swim, Maxey pointed out the horizon-less view over the ocean (because the ocean was so calm and the air so clear!), saying that it represented that there was no limit for what we could do. The Run Swim began with a jump into the brisk ocean water from the boat house docks. The course consisted of switching between land and water every several hundred feet. At one point, we all lined up together and leaped off a ledge as a group. On the other side of that specific channel we needed to work together to scale a seven-foot-high cement wall. Later, every individual jumped off a much higher cliff while everyone screamed encouragements. Although most of us were very hesitant about the Run Swim in the beginning, almost everyone said that it was an excellent experience and offered a feeling of exhilaration and accomplishment at the end.

WE DID IT!!!

After a filling breakfast of eggs, sausage, and potatoes the group once again split off into their two teams. One group headed out to do some raying, while the other stayed back on campus to check out the Center for Sustainable Development and aquaponics.

The rayers headed out in vans for a quick twenty-minute drive to Deep Creek to try their luck in finding some Caribbean Whiptails (a type of ray). The group lined up in the ray catching formation (a giant line with about 10 feet between each of us), and headed into the creek with their eyes peeled for dark shadows right under the water. After several false alarms that turned out to be just rocks or sea turtles (JUST sea turtles!!), it seemed like all hope was lost for the ray squad. After almost two hours and as they were about to head onto land for some lunch, they spotted a Southern Stingray. Working together to encircle the creature, they forced it into the safety nets and caught it. This ray had been already caught several times by the researchers, and had been lovingly named “BARBara Streisand.” Since this ray had already been caught several times and they had already completed their quota for Southern Stingrays, the researchers didn’t feel the need to take any samples.

The researchers showed us how to measure the ray and flip her over too!

Back on campus during this time, the other half of the group was checking out the CSD. After getting a quick tour of the facility including the recycling center, the woodshop, the biodiesel center, and the bio-compost program, they worked on turning coconut husks and Casuarina logs into carbon to be used as fertilizer in the compost. The process involved filling a closed barrel with the material, and then heating it to 500 degrees Celsius. Next they took a couple samples of plastic from the recycling center and helped their guide Alex work on his current process of returning plastic to its original form: petroleum. The Island School tries to practice a completely no-waste lifestyle and eliminating plastic is one of the last steps. The way they did is was pretty rudimentary but the school hopes to have a large scale system eventually. After seeing the CSD, the group went over to the aquaponics facility. They learned about how the system worked and also got to fillet their own tilapia. 

The biodiesel fuel tank at CSD!

Once finishing their lunch, the rayers headed to Page Creek in search of more stingrays. Much to their excitement, they spotted two Caribbean Whiptails simultaneously after only three minutes of searching, just after they stepped foot on the beach. They captured both rays and were happy to see that neither one had been previously captured. They took blood, tissue, and barb samples and then performed gastric lavage (pumping water into the rays stomach to force them to vomit) to see the recent contents of the rays’ bellies. The combined three Caribbean Whiptail captures between the two groups now means that Ethan and Molly (the researchers) only need four more rays to complete their Masters degree research. Needless to say, they were very grateful for the help from Hawken.

The two groups met back up around 4:30, with everyone feeling a massive sweet-tooth. We all hopped on bikes and headed down the island to the marina where there was a convenient store and other attractions. After filling up on candy and soda, we gathered around a group of native Bahamians feeding a group of large sharks the remains of their fishing catch as they were cleaning it. There were a few nurse sharks and even some massive bull sharks. It was a terrifying but exhilarating experience to be so close to the creatures, even from the dock above! Mr. Daly convinced us to head to Sunset Beach quickly to see a beautiful sunset over the pristine ocean waters. Then we came back to campus and ended the night by watching Racing Extinction, a documentary about the all the negative impacts that humans have on nature which is leading to many animal extinctions.
We get an extra hour of sleep tonight to prepare for our camping trip tomorrow. We all had a ton of fun today and are looking forward to another full day tomorrow.

The nurse sharks in the marina this evening! AH!

Both teams saw a Spotted Eagle Ray today... yesssss!

As always, Mrs. Becker found an aplysia during the day, so enjoy this pic.

Aplysias two days in a row! We named this one Minerva.

Love,
Zach and Kevin 

EDITOR'S NOTE #2: There will be NO BLOG tomorrow, 12/9. We are going camping! There will hopefully be two blogs posted 12/10, unless we get back late in which case they will be posted the morning of 12/11. See ya then!

Team Coral Reef and Team Stingray!

Hello everyone,

While few members of the Marine class awoke at 5:20am to go for a morning run, the rest of us stayed fast asleep until 6:00am. As 6:00am struck, the alarms went off and the actual day began. We started off with a fun, united game of beach volleyball and newcomb until 8:00am. During the span of intense beach competition, Seysha even saw an actual “cat-dog thingy” rarely seen in The Bahamas (not actually; it was just a small dog). Afterwards, everyone pitched in to do chores and got ready for the first day the group would be split in half. One group would explore and capture sting rays, while the other group would snorkel and learn all about coral and aquaponics as well.

The boys in action on the volleyball court!

The cafeteria was quiet as the Island School semester students left for home this morning as their adventure here came to an end. We enjoyed buttered grits, fruit, cereal, and sloppy joes. This would fuel our bodies for the adventures to come.

While preparing for the day, Mr. Daly charged the dorm areas and shouted, “There’s a Manatee!”. We grabbed our snorkels and bathing suits early, so that we could all see and swim with the Manatee (this animal is a pretty rare sighting in The Bahamas). We were the first group from Hawken to see such an extraordinary animal in The Bahamas- and it was amazing! He (or she!) was just hanging out and eating grass by the docks. 

Isn't this amazing!?

After the Manatee sighting the Stingray group got a brief intro to the Southern Whip Tail Stingray by stingray specialist Ethan. They grabbed life vests and hopped onto a boat and went on a forty-minute boat ride to their first mangrove stop with the hopes of capturing their first ray. The last time the Cape Eleuthera Institute Ray team was out and about they caught five rays and saw ten in this location. The group jumped out of the boats and began to float into the mouth of the mangrove river armed with two giant nets and multiple other circular nets. They walked down the river to no avail. They ended up turning back around and returning back to the mouth of the river where they ate beautiful sandwiches on the beach. 

Although they were frustrated the group got back on the boat and traveled to another river. After walking back and forth in the second mangrove the group was disheartened and believed there was no stingray to be caught. The group began to leave when a giant stingray began moving around at the mouth of the river. They circled her strategically and after about ten minutes of prodding the ray was caught. This would be the largest Southern Whip Tail caught in this study! They took measurements as well as skin and blood samples. They tagged the ray and released her back into the wild. The group would travel to a third and final river but would not find another ray. They returned around 4:30pm.

Here she is! Our Caribbean Whiptail Stingray! (See our feet? This is when we released her!)

While the Stingray group went out exploring and catching stingrays, the coral group went out to an old, abandoned golf course that has a beautiful beach with a house reef just off shore. Instead of jumping straight into the ocean, we first learned about Coral even though our wonderful teachers Mrs. Becker and Mr. Daly had taught us the majority of facts that we needed to know. During the lecture, we stopped mid-sentence to watch a green sea turtle pop up to the surface to breathe! Afterwards, we were able snorkel and join the fish in the ocean. We saw many fish such as flounders, barracuda, squirrellfish, and many more. Overall, snorkeling in coral-filled water was a magical experience. 

 This peacock flounder has both eyes on the same side!

Dalia is holding a living sea biscuit, and it's tube feet are sticking to her hands!

After returning to the campus and eating a great rib and potato lunch we jumped into aquaponics and learned all about what it is and how the entire system works as a whole. We got to plant seeds, place plants into the grow beds, harvest mint, and even harvest tilapia! We each got to learn how to fillet a fresh fish after individually catching fish with a net.

 The boys harvesting mint!

Caroline filleting her first fish (this one's for you, dad!)

As aquaponics came to an end, we still had amazing explorations ahead of us. Some of us watched in awe (and a little terror) as a pig gave birth to piglets, other watched a snake slither across our paths, and Mrs. Becker saw the unbelievable, her most famous sea creature, an actual, living Aplysia! Aplysias are like sea slugs, or gastropods without shells. Many of us got to hold it's squishy body and it even spit out purple ink on Nick, which he thought was pretty cool. Today was an amazing day for both groups to embark on the extraordinary adventures that took place, with students seeing rare creatures and witnessing beautiful moments of new life.

Finally, after a delicious dinner of couscous, turkey, and broccoli, we came back to the Octagon room and began our one-match beach fire building contest. First we learned about some fire-building techniques, and then we set off in teams to attempt to successfully light a beach bonfire with only one match. Devlin’s team won as the only team out of 5 to get a fire going. We then got to enjoy the fruits of our labor, sitting around the fire and telling stories of the day and creepy ghost stories. We then returned to our quarters for shut eye. Wow, what a day!

Signing out

Koron & Devlin

Mangrove Party!

Hello, 

We were promptly awoken at 6:00am to be submerged in cold, morning water (it was a good way to wake up though!!). Really, we woke up at 6am, put on our suits, and then were handed a snorkel, mask, and fins. Then we made our way to the marina to take our swim test. The students got their ‘buddy pairs’ (always swim with a buddy!) and then swam out to Stan, Whit, and Kache to tell them a strange fact about ourselves. Afterwards, we learned the basics of snorkeling, and went on a short snorkeling trip to the end of the marina. 

Acing the swim test to our teachers out by the dive flag!

After a scrumptious breakfast of cereal, yogurt, and breakfast pizza (with eggs, cheese, and sausage), we split up into groups to get a tour of CEI and the Island School. We split into groups and learned about septic tanks, aquaponics, permaculture, and all the other ways the Island Schools works to preserve resources. After the tour we had a J-Party (…Jeopardy) between the two groups as a fun little way to review. 

Stan shows us how the lettuce grows in the aquaponics beds- with roots submerged in fish poop water!

As soon as lunch was over, we all grabbed our snorkeling gear to explore the mangroves. Two minutes down the road is an amazing, lazy-river style mangrove habitat. The tides going in and out make it seem like a lazy river; we can just put our faces in the water and watch as the water pulls us along! As we snorkeled and drifted, we saw sergeant majors, beaugregories, checkered puffers, and even a stingray!  

Gather round ye merry red mangrove!

We learned about the mangrove environment, and how they help fish, birds, the land, and much more. We saw the variety in mangroves, from red (pointy head!), to black (salty back!), and even white (hold on tight!). Once we had reached the end of our drift down, we marched on in hopes of seeing a baby shark. Juvenile lemon sharks are known to live in mangrove habitats. Instead, we faced treacherous quicksand (thick sediment) that consumed our shoes. Nevertheless, we prevailed and had a great journey through the strange, new habitat. The tide then changed, and we were able to drift back to our starting point. There we played a fun mangrove-based game, kind of like sharks and minnows. Michael was the ‘conservationist’ and the rest of us were propagules (baby mangroves) and we had to try to ‘drift’ past Michael, lest turning into adult mangroves. 

After returning, we had roughly an hour of exploration time for us to do whatever we wanted. Many of us took much-needed showers, while others took walks on the beach, or happily napped away. Around 6:00pm, our current Caciques, Maggie and Aryeh, nominated the next two: Michael and Ellen. We then headed off to a wonderful dinner of fried chicken, rice, tofu strips, and other assorted goodies. 

Then came the highlight of the day: bonding with our Canadian neighbors, the students from Trinity College School. After getting into a large circle of 35 students total, we silently arranged ourselves in a line alphabetically by first name. After that, each Hawken student paired up with a Trinity student, to find something strange they had in common. We ended the bonding session with an exhilarating game, called Birds and Perches. Evan and his Trinity partner won the game, beating all 17 other teams! Finally we sat down to take our nightly quiz, and ended the day with a nice game of Uno in the Octagon. 

Signing off - Caroline and Nihaal

WE MADE IT!!!

Good evening everyone,

It all started at 4 a.m. when our alarms harshly awoke us. Everyone met at the Lyndhurst campus at 5:15 a.m. in lovely 30° weather with brisk winds. The parents longingly drifted around their children, trying to squeeze final moments of time together before our two-week adventure. The bus left promptly at 5:30 a.m. and arrived at the airport in plenty of time. After going through the painstakingly slow process of checking bags and getting tickets, the group moved on through security to our gate. Some of us were even lucky enough to get TSA Pre-Check (although it didn’t help us in the long-run)! After some quick stops at Starbucks and a brief wait, we hopped on our first plane to Atlanta. 

The flight was only about two hours and we then landed with time to spare for lunch. We enjoyed fine cuisine from Panda Express, Qdoba, Villa Pizza, and Frëshen Smoothies. The next leg of our journey took us to Nassau, the capital of the Bahamas. After changing into our shorts, flip flops, and Hawaiian shirts, we charmed our way through customs, answering questions like “Is this your first time in the Bahamas? What do you want to be when you grow up? What are you most excited for?” One of us answered this last question by saying “I want to swim with the sea animals!” with only a slight panic. 

We then chugged the rest of our water and passed through security again. Like a group of migrating whales, we made our way to our final gate to Eleuthera, which, in traditional Bahamasair fashion, had been switched around and slightly delayed. After descending the escalator and walking out on the tarmac in beautiful 80° weather to board our plane, we were pleasantly surprised by a new and updated propeller plane (quite the opposite of the rinky-dink plane that we were expecting). After a quick twenty-minute flight and breathtaking views of the water and island, we touched down in Rock Sound, Eleuthera, right in time to see the sun set. We were met with warm smiles and welcoming handshakes from our Island School team of Stan, Kache and Whit who then split us up into three vans for a forty-minute drive to Cape Eleuthera Institute and the Island School. On the way we saw numerous potcakes (stray dogs) and the vibrant colors of the setting sun. 

About to board the tiny plane to Rock Sound, Eleuthera! 

 The view out the window- almost there!

In the van on the last leg of our long journey- driving to the Island School! 

Can you tell how excited we are?!

Upon reaching the Island School, we quickly dropped our bags off in the dorms and headed to our very first dinner in the Bahamas. They served rice, pork, chickpeas, peas and salad. We commingled with a few of the current Island School students and they gave us sound advice for our stay here, including that we would never get used to the giant bat moths hovering all over campus (eek!!). When dinner ended, we headed to the common space called the Octagon to get an introductory presentation from Stan and Whit. We reviewed Island School rules and our daily schedule which includes a wonderful early morning exercise routine at 6:30 a.m. sharp. 

Before ending the meeting, we learned of our first Caciques (student leaders) for the next day. Congratulations Maggie and Aryeh for your excellent leadership skills throughout the tough travel day! After that, we were allowed to call our parents to tell them we had arrived safely in the Bahamas and that Stan says “Hi!” Finally, we sat down and took our first nightly quiz of the trip. Now, we’ll head to bed and look forward to a Mosquito-free sleep and the exciting activities to come!

Signing off – Caroline and Kevin

EDITOR'S NOTE: FOUND IT! PHOTOS ARE HERE! MORE TONIGHT!

Eve of Adventure!

Hello everyone!

As we prepare to leave, most are feeling a mixture of excitement and nerves. There is so much we’re looking forward to: incredible new experiences, like SCUBA diving, snorkeling, and boating; learning more about the ocean in a hands-on environment; seeing everything we’ve been learning about in action (we can’t wait to see stoplight parrotfish, spotted eagle rays, and great barracudas!); and strengthening our friendships and making new ones. Some of these experiences, however, will be so new that they’re a little scary. Swimming with sharks, for example, may be a challenging one. Or early morning workouts with a former Navy SEAL.

Before we conquer our fears, however, we all need to pack. Packing is proving difficult; there are more than 40 items on the list! Trying to fit enough clothes for two weeks without laundry and leave enough room for seashells and souvenirs, while keeping it under 50 lbs is a tall order! Surprisingly, though, packing is proving to be a learning experience as we are getting to know some new products (Rash guards? Adult baby powder? Itch cream?! Oh my!)

Almost done! Impressive, huh? And yes, each one of us has to bring all of that!

It’s finally time! Woohoo!!! Make sure to check the blog for nightly updates, and we’ll see you all when we return in two weeks time!! Yippee!!

Annie and Aryeh