8 Days a Week

Exactly 8 days ago, we started trying to save our beachfront.  We have made significant progress, but still have months of work ahead of us.  After working 8 Days a Week (click to listen), here is where we are:

After shoring up the sand around the end of the dock and in front of the buttonwood tree and the tropical almond tree, the stalwart crew started working on the breakwater.  They started under the dock and worked to the north for a few days.

Positioning the boat for offloading the sand bags about 20 feet from shore.

 The sea was not too rough the first day, but the water was high.

Elan, Richard (carrying bag), Mason (getting bag off boat), and Tiger (shifting bags in the boat) dove right into the work.

Our boat, Patience, has an electronic lift on the engine, so it was perfect to use in the shallow water.

This is load number 2.  To left of Richard and Elan is a bank of submerged bags.  See how the water glides over the bags.

The wind died down as the day progressed, and by load number 3 the water was noticeably lower.  The wind actually has more influence on water level than the moon does.  Together, the sun and moon account for only 18 inches of difference in water level on the tide charts.

Load number three.

One more load on the north side of the dock.

The last load of the day as seen from the dock.

 So this is how it works; the cement and sand and empty bags are at the end of the road at the north side of the mouth of the Monkey River.  Our place is a little more than a mile up the coast.  So the guys mix the sand and cement, keeping it dry, shovel it into the bags, and the tie the bags off.  Then the bags are loaded into Patience and boated over here where the bags are offloaded. One team stays at the road's end filling bags while the other team brings the bags here.  But the boat needed repairs on Thursday, so all 5 of the crew worked on filling bags all day.  That meant things moved very quickly on Friday and Saturday with bags at the ready.

Friday morning.  A turtle gap will go here.

 We have seen hawksbill turtles nesting on our beach, and green turtles are very common around here.  And even loggerhead turtles might be around, although we have never seen one here.  Anyway, we want this remain an attractive area to nest.  Dennis looked up the flipper width of the turtles so we could be sure to make the turtle gaps large enough.  We decided on 4-5 feet since flipper width is a little more than 3 feet.  We will also replenish the sand in the 3 spots we have seen them nest before and make a clear path for them to get to the nest sites.

After going about 40 feet to the north of the dock, the crew started extending the breakwater to the south.

The water on the south side is much shallower than on the north; progress is much faster.

At the end of Friday we had about 75 feet of breakwater.

View from the loft.  You can't see it because the tree on the left is in the way, but there is a nice turtle gap in the breakwater.

At the end of Saturday, after an 8-day week, the breakwater is about 90 feet long and has 2 turtle gaps incorporated into it.  We have not lost any more sand where the breakwater is and may have actually gained some back in front of the breakwater.  The breakwater seems to cut the big waves off at their knees so that only small wavelets make it to shore.  And when the waves slow down like that they drop whatever sand they are carrying.  Time will tell.

You can see the turtle gap behind the elbow in the tree branch.  This photo was taken from the front steps.

The water is starting to clear, and if the east wind holds off, there won't be much Sargassum coming in overnight.  But in recent weeks, the wind picks up a little in the afternoon and then starts blowing around 6:00 pm.  We have another 300+ feet of breakwater to build like this, which is Stage One.  Stages Two and Three involve putting posts in to mark the location of the breakwater for boaters (it is well out of the way of the channel, but sometimes people like to to put in at the shore.  The smaller canoes and dories can go through the turtle gaps.

Look at that nice clear water 60 feet offshore.  It will be a happy day when the water closer to shore is clear again.  This photo was taken from the little balcony in the loft.

There is more to life than building breakwaters.  One of our friends in Louisiana who own a lot a little more than half a mile up the beach from asked if I could see how their beachfront is holding up.  So Laquita - this shot is for you.  It looks very good.  Your lot is protected from the destructive east wind by Greater Monkey Cay.  There does seem to be one coconut palm that has toppled over.

What a difference 0.5 mile makes!  Relatively intact beach just north of us. There is that little palm in the center that seems to have tipped over into the water.

 Still lots of wildlife to photograph.

Colorful little crab hiding under an old palm stump.

 And the air is filled with butterflies.

The always photogenic Gulf Fritillary.

Sunset Balcony

A quick construction update here.  The screening for the veranda has been completed.  It joins up with the screened in portion of the old veranda and wraps around to the northeast corner of the addition.  Most of the north side of the covered veranda will remain without screen.  We like having a mixture of screened in and open areas.  What we call the "sunset balcony" on the upper level of the west side has been completed, too.  I am in happy anticipation of evening cocktails while sitting on the balcony and watching the sun set over the jungle. Salut!

The north side of addition.  The sea is on the left (to the east).  This shot was taken while they were putting up the rail on the sunset balcony. 

The sunset balcony has great views over the swamp around Black Creek and the adjacent jungle.  Before we venture up the stairs to the next images, queue up the appropriate music from the movie Vertigo by clicking here.

Stairs from the back veranda up to the balcony.

The footprint of the balcony is a roughly 10ft square with a tapered end off the north side of the square.

Looking toward the tapered end from the top of the stairs.

Looking toward the top of the stairs from the tapered end.

 The views are grand.

Looking south from the top of the stairs, you can see the older cabana with the shade cloth-covered pergola.  That 10-yr-old roof doesn't look too bad! 

View to the southwest across the swamp and Black Creek.

Those taller trees along the left horizon are the dense jungle through which the Monkey River runs.  The jungle is home to troops of Howler Monkeys that give Monkey River its name.  We can hear the monkeys howl during the still, pre-dawn hours.  It is a sound unlike any other.

The sunset balcony is 22 feet above the ground.  

15 steep steps from the balcony to the veranda and then another 16 not-as-steep steps from the veranda to the ground.

Do you think we need stair rails?

Wanted: Lotus Esprit Amphibious Vehicle

I mentioned in my last post that the Monkey River Road was flooded.  Monkey River Village itself was flooded, too. Here is a satellite view of Monkey River Village, the end ofMonkey River Road, Black Creek, and Englishtown (where we live) just north of  the mouth of Black Creek, with Black Creek proper to our west.  

The sinuous Monkey River winds along south of the Monkey River Road.  At the mouth of Monkey River, the dirt road ends in a parking lot with a small dock.  On the south side of the mouth is Monkey River Village.  A handful of dwellings are on the north side of the river.  a little farther north is Black Creek .  Our place (red asterisk) is at the south of the area called Englishtown, and Craig's place (orange asterisk) is at the north end.  

The village has no paved roads or sidewalks (the road ends on the north side of the river and the village is on the south side), but does have houses laid out in lots along "streets" and paths across public areas.  

There are close to 40 households in the village along with at least 1 bar, 1 church, 1 school, 2 guest house/hotels, and several places you can buy a hot lunch.

Even lower than our place, the village is only a few feet above sea level and is also bordered on 2 sides by the river.  With as much rain as we had in just a few short days, it is easy to see how the village gets waterlogged.  Richard took the next 2 photos with his phone October 28th. 

 

 

Ironically, with the road flooded, the village ran out of "pipe water" (Belizean for municipally supplied water).  How did that happen?  It was only about 6 or7 years ago that the government provided funds for the village to install its own well, water pump, water tower, pipes, and water meters to the inhabitants of Monkey River Village.  The well and pumphouse are about 3 miles from the village on the site of a natural fresh water spring; otherwise, a well around here will hit a water table that is brackish rather than fresh.  The water tower is a little removed from the well and pump.  Prior to this setup, villagers relied on rainwater just like we currently do.  The pump is turned on and off manually, which means that someone has to go to the pump house to turn it on and then go back to turn it off once the water tower starts to overflow - a very low tech system.  The village has an official Waterboard who oversee the operation, meter reading, and bill collection. But with the road flooded, no one could get to the pumphouse to turn the pump on.  The solution to this problem?  Go by boat!

Take the boat up the Monkey River (which, remember, is in flood!) to the farm at the bend in the road.  Drive the boat up the boat launch and down the driveway to get to the road.  Then drive the boat down the road to the pumphouse!

The next 2 photos were also taken by Richard on the boat trip to the pumphouse.

Crossing the flooded farm by boat. 

Going down the road in the boat.

 They were successful in getting the pump on and water to the village.  You do what you gotta do, eh?

Meanwhile, back in Englishtown, we had a little flooding from Black Creek at the rear of our property, but it receded quickly.

Black Creek water edging onto our property from the west.

 And from the east, we were getting pounded by the sea.

The waves were so high, they were breaking over our dock.

The rough sea brought a lot of things to the beach.

This sea heart was deposited right at my feet by a wave.

Cubic yard after cubic yard of dead sea grass was washed ashore, along with plastic trash of all descriptions and some little treasures.

The lovely sea purse was mixed in with dead sea grass and a plastic bottle cap. 

We always have the sea grass raked up to use as a soil amendment.  Basically our "soil" is just sand, so organic material is a great addition.

The occasional golfball-sized Valonia ventricosa was in the sea grass too.

 I loved spotting Valonia ventricosa.  Valonia, also called sailor's eyeball, is a green alga that is normally attached to something hard like coral or rocks throughout tropical waters.  The stormy waters must have detatched quite a few of them.  They are very cool organisms.  Each ball is just a single cell covered with a cell wall that looks like glass!  I got a little carried away trying to take photographs that do them justice.

With a little help from Picasa photo editing, I tried to highlight the metallic sheen of the Valonia.

This single celled green alga is home to other organisms that grow on its surface.

After more than a week of stormy, rain-filled nights, we finally got some clear and calm weather.

I love the sea when it is calm and flat.  I can spend hours mesmerized by subtle greens and silver colors.

 After several days of clear calm weather, the roads and villages dried out.  And that means - 

The guys unloading our lumber.  This is boat-load 1 of 3.

 You got it - we can get our next construction materials delivered.  Work will soon re-commence on the cabana.

If anyone has a lead on James' Lotus (seen in "The Spy Who Loved Me") for a good price, don't hesitate to let me know!  I have some sea hearts and sailor's eyeballs I could trade ...