Shoulders, Zack, British Crepes and Bossa Nova.

As I was sending our guests their stroke analysis videos today, I was thinking about how many of our guests and other swimmers I know have had shoulder problems, many leading to surgery. This includes my sister (Happy Birthday, Erin!), and many friends from age group and college swimming. Some of these shoulder problems have cut promising swimming careers short, taken away a lifelong fitness activity, and even limited some daily activities for the rest of their lives. This led me to thinking about my years of coaching youth baseball, and the lengths we go to keep our little pitchers’ arms healthy. All organized youth baseball leagues have tables that spell out exactly how many pitches a kid can throw in a game and how much rest they need between games. We also try to teach proper throwing and pitching technique to the kids at a very young age. Which got me to thinking about how there are NO limits (that I know of) on young swimmers when it comes to yardage. When I was competing in the 80s and 90s, high yardage workouts of more than 10,000 yards per day were common. I think that has changed a bit, but I wonder if USA swimming needs to put some hard limits on weekly yardage to save these young, vulnerable shoulders. 

Our morning swim brought us to the “dragon’s claw”, a rock formation in the bay that we swam to, then circled the bay. Hurricane Irma really scoured the sea floor here, and the once plentiful coral is still trying to recover. Simple organisms like urchins, sea cucumbers, feather duster worms, and anemones have begun to inhabit the old coral structures. Pioneers. Cleaners. Up on the hills, the trees and shrubs still haven’t filled in all the bare spots, and the ruins of a former residence from the 1920’s that was previously hidden is now completely revealed, as is the occasional goat. A resident green turtle followed us around, remoras and all. 

You’ll remember that we lost our deckhand Zack this week, who had been exposed to CoronaVirus just before the trip (he’s tested negative since). Guide Alina has been filling in a lot both in the kitchen and on deck, and Heather and I have tried to do what we can, but we all miss Zack. 

After 4 nights of sleeping in a hand-made hammock I bought from Captain Jason a few weeks ago, I can claim that this is a wonderful way to sleep, rocking all night, mostly protected under a bimini. 

Tacos for lunch: fish, shrimp, and beef. A big sail down to Norman Island into Privateer Bay. Our afternoon swim led us into the caves that line the shore here, and the walk-through cave produced some laughs as we crawled out onto the rocky beach. Schools of blue tang dazzled below.

I zipped back to Yacht Toekiss (Tulkas) to start squeezing limes for margaritas, and happy hour commenced quickly. We chilled out with some bossa nova rhythms, then ate a pile of chicken and ribs that Lisa had been marinating for days and Richie finished off on some coals made from coconut husks.

Crepes for dessert with all the fillings, quite the feat for a British Chef. She kindly let us lick the bowl - so many spoons led to guests and guides drunk on yacht made nutty chocolate yumness. Richie and Lulu sat with us to share some laughs, and before retiring, Celine gave Miriam a latin dance lesson (that’s Canadian teaching Mexican to dance, y’all). Moon set, stars rise, guides’ final splash of the day, then my nightly ritual of stringing up the hammock. Tomorrow we explore Angelfish Reef. 

Hopper