Cowtail Stingrays

I just figured out what species of stingrays we saw at Diego Garcia's Turtle Cove pictured in the 23 June blog. Thanks to Amanda we have a great site for identifying rays or sharks spotted while diving or snorkeling. In this case just walking on the beach! Check out the link describing the Cowtail Stingray. The part about not gettting spooked by people is definitely true of the Diego cowtails. Cowtail Stingray

I sent the photos to the webmaster at Elasmodiver. Maybe they'll update the species distribution to Indian Ocean as well.

Anthony has been asking me to post something for a while now and I always tell him I don't really do anything exciting to write about. But today I actually didn't have to work and I volunteered at the Special Olympics that were held at Kadena Air Base. It was very hot and humid but no one seemed to mind. It was all about the children and adult athletes! There were an amazing 900 athletes and 300 artists that came from around 30 different schools on the island that participated in this years olympics. And its the largest special olympics event held in Japan!
I arrived early to help set up and prepare for the opening ceremonies. Once the torch was lit and the speeches were said, it was time to get to work! I was then asked to help in the entertainment section (no, don't worry I wasn't the one on stage). Actually 250 performers were scheduled to entertain. They ranged from traditional Okinawan dancers and drummers, children performing religious song and dance routines, and an Okinawa rock band. There were clowns - even Ronald McDonald showed up and was a huge hit! I think he made the other clowns jealous!
The games opened with the 30-meter and 200-meter dash. Other events included the wheelchair 50-meter dash, frisbee toss, field hockey, and the wheelchair beanbag drop. Many athletes, whether in wheelchair or on foot, fast or slow, finished their race or event with expressions of determination and joy. I didn't remember my camera and wish I had so I could capture a few of the images and include them in my post. I know I will never forget all of the happy faces and the sounds of laughter and cheer!
- Amanda

Last week we explored Turtle Cove on the south side of the lagoon. Unfortunately we only saw one turtle. It was fairly good sized maybe a 2 foot long shell. I think it was a hawksbill. The coolest thing we found was a family of stingrays swiming a foot off the beach and they were cruising along parallel to the shore not minding us only a few feet away.

I haven't been able to figuer out what kind of rays these are.....If anyone has an idea please put it in the comments.

Time is flying by here on Diego Garcia. It's like summer camp with sailing classes, windsurfing classes, 5K runs, lagoon swim competitions, etc. Just today I got my license to check out the Pico Laser two-man sailing boats at the marina. It was only my second time out on the water and I pretty much got the hang of it.

The hardest part for me was launching the boat off the beach. You have to keep the boat pointed into the wind and at the same time control the tiller/rudder and hold onto the lines that stabilize the sail. Once I got going it was awesome with winds of at least 15-20mph. There was only one scary moment where I almost capsized but I managed to get the boat pointed back into the wind.

On June 10th there was a parade for Philippino Independence day which falls on the 12th. That morning me and three of my compadres competed in an 800m lagoon swim. The first photos is just after we finished. We were worried that half of it would be swimming out into the waves, but fortunately a marina worker drove all the swimmers, about 10 total, to a buoy that was 800 meters off shore. I finished in just shy of 19 minutes...which was surprisingly first in my 30-39 year age group. The winner finished in 13 minutes. The timing was great because we got done swimming just in time to see the Independance day parade. The pictured float is General McCarthur's return to the Philippines.

Tomorrow will be the end of my first week on Diego Garcia. It's a small lagoon island in the Chagos Archipelago under British Indian Ocean Territory or B.I.O.T. as you can see on the link to Wikipedia. Work is steady but I have had some time to relax and get some good workouts in. My marathon training is on hold since I won't be able to do the Kona marathon on June 11th. I'll be here at DG then. The gym recreation services down here have some cool activities. This morning the latest event was a mini-triathalon; 600 yard(200meter) swim, 6.4mile bike(10kilometer), and a 1mile run(1.6kilometers). I was hurting after the swim, but once I got into a groove on the bike I was fine. For the first few minutes of the run I thought my legs were going to cramp up on me but I was fine. I can't imagine the feeling after a full triathalon! Next week there's a 5k(3.2mile) run and a 800m(2500ft) on different days that I'll probably try to finish if I'm not working.

I can't talk too much about work, but you probably guessed it has to do with the global war on terrorism or GWOT. We're a big fan of acronyms in the military. The only bad thing about being on a tropical island in the indian ocean is being away from my sweatheart Amanda! She's braving NBC exercises back in Kadena AB, Japan! No pictures yet but I'll post some shots in the next few weeks.