Swains Island

Swains Island, one of my favorite places in the world!  Our last day at Swains was spectacular.  I dropped the oceanography team off on the beach early to begin their water sampling routine in the small brackish water lagoon in the center of the island and spent the rest of the day poking around the margins of the fringing reef surrounding the island.  I shuttled tanks to and from the ship for some of the other teams and did a little coxswain training for one of the ship's crew members.  I had been hoping to get to go ashore on the island as I had two years ago and, as luck would have it, we happened to have a few extra minutes at the end of the day.

After retrieving the O-team, they dropped me off just outside the reef where I could swim to shore through a small cut in the reef. As I entered the small lagoon inside the reef the water turned clear as gin and must have been near 90 degrees.  I waded through the shallow water and finally made it to the snow white beach and the cool shade of the palm trees, still laid out in neat rows from the plantation days.  Edmund, one of the members of the Tow team had joined me on shore and we quickly met up with one of the families that live on the island.  

The two children couldn't have been more than 6 or 7 years old and were completely fascinated with the small digital camera I had brought with me and we spent quite some time taking pictures of each other, marveling over the results on the camera's small screen.  Before long it was time to leave to begin our transit back to Pago Pago where we would change out eight of the scientists, a few of the crew and make the ship ready for the next leg of the expedition: Jarvis, Palmyra, and Kingman.  These are three of the places I have yet to visit and I must admit, I am very excited.