Man, the water is so flat today it's amazing. I can't believe the surf was as big as it was two weeks ago and now there's little evidence of anything.
The water has been clear though, so I paddled out to the wharf again today with two German guys I met on the beach. They were trailing behind, and we were out in the open water between the beach and the wharf, when I felt a sharp pain on my wrist. I turned around and saw nothing in the water. I looked at my wrist and saw no apparent injury, but the pain felt like I'd been thrashed by barb wire. I knew right away that it was jellyfish, but did not see anything in the water. I turned around and began paddling out towards the wharf, and about 2 minutes later felt a sharp sting on my other wrist. Sensing the urgency, I decided it would be wise to don my snorkel and take a look at what was surrounding me below the surface.
I held my body at the tip of my surfboard, and peered my head into open blue expanse beneath. I saw off in every direction, the ghostly translucent bodies of hundreds of long, thin jellyfish streaming upwards towards the surface like spirits ascending to the next world. Fortunately, they were distributed with enough space as to make avoiding them a simple task, and I was mesmerized by their soft undulating pulses of motion and delicate, yet dangerous, ribbons of tentacles drifting freely in the current. As I swam out towards the wharf, I looked at my wrist and saw small hives forming in the areas where I had been stung. The second sting seemed to have broken the skin in a few small lesions that were not quite cuts, but more like scratches that stung quite a bit. I was able to ignore the sting while I kept my hands moving in the cool ocean water, but the pain was very uncomfortable and very similar to being stung by stinging nettle.
I saw a really cool brown eel and a few other corals and much of what I had seen before- was a bit preoccupied with my stings but stayed out for about an hour.
Resorting to a commonly known remedy for jellyfish stings, I promptly pissed all over my hands as soon as I got back to the shower, and remarkably the pain subsided almost instantly. Might just swim out from the reef next time.
Let Me Feed You..
