June 15th Day 8 on the ship
0130: I'm pretty sure I believe in sea monsters, and I'm pretty sure there is one under the ship right now. It's really an eerie feeling. I was trying to give a medication to a little girl and barely could stay standing the boat moved so much. We're anchored. I thought maybe I was just getting super tired but then the corpsman with me mentioned he felt some big rocking. We laughed at ourselves and then lieutenant Lily came over immediately and asked if we felt the big sway. We figured it must be storming outside, so we went out and looked. Creepy enough the ocean was perfectly calm, the the area all around the ship- and only around the ship with a clearly defined line- was a cloudy blue color that looked just like the sand on the ocean floor had been hugely disturbed. We couldn't see down very far like we usually can at night, even though the ship lights illuminate it so well. Schools of little fish darted around the surface. Weird currents seemed to come out of nowhere. It was all very surreal and it adds to the night time mystery of the sea. The mystery is the fact that more animals come to the surface by the ship the later in the night it is. I thought it was just a weird coincidence that all the fish and dolphins I've seen have been at night, but then the corpsmen say that's the case for everyone. Maybe it's just easier to see when the ship lights penetrate the water at night? Or maybe the fish are attracted to the light? I don't know. Someone reported seeing s shark, and my corpsman last night took me and another nurse out to see if the puffer fish she saw was still there. Lots of jellyfish and squid sightings are floating around too.
I feel like a very privileged person because I saw something that very few people in the world ever get to see. Bioluminescence. I didn't know what it was at the time, but I saw glowing blue dots all over the surface of the water. I thought maybe it was my eyes playing tricks on me in the dark, but then the corpsman with me pointed it out and asked if I saw it too. We were both a little unnerved. It looked like the little dangly blue thing on that big scary fish in Finding Nemo, and that's all I could imagined it being, only there were tons of them. We came up with several theories and then gave up because they were all impossible. Later I told Lily about it and she said they were bioluminescent little plankton things, that only live for like 15 minutes after they start glowing. I'm going to look this up as soon as I get internet access again, because that is awesome and super rare to actually see. The corpsmen (who seem to know just about everyone) say they've never heard about anyone else seeing it before.
What a fascinating place. I can't wait to peek around and snorkel it on Thursday. I read that Timor Leste has one of the most biologically diverse reefs in the world. There are a bunch of species that are only found here, both on land and in the sea. I believe it after all the weird things I've seen here. Between sea monsters and glowing water, I think there's magic in the mysterious ocean below us.
"If you leave me, please don't comfort me because each" #timortranslations
No comments:
Post a Comment