Stonehole Bay and Free Bermuda Shorts

Stonehole Bay.  Another one of my favorite spots on the island.  I don't need words to explain why, just this picture I think.

Still committed to beach time, I picked this one for my Monday morning.  My poor former boss sent me a random text inquiy about Aspergillus, and I replied....after first sending the above picture to flaunt my location and vacation status.  Not nice, I know but it's OK, I will use some of my free time to bake for my former coworkers later in the week.  Other than that, the phone is only on the beach with me to take pictures and act as a watch to monitor my time in the sun.  The picture quality may not be as good as with the camera camera, but it gets the point across.  However, Murphy's Law also dictates certain events when you do things like leave the real camera, or the camera camera, behind.  Take this for example.

Yes.  That is a Longtail.  He was flying directly above me, possibly attracted to the light reflecting off of my bright white midsection that has not yet acquired a tan this year.  Yes, that is the closest I have been to one of the creatures I have been photo stalking for years.  And that grainy phone photo is all I have to show for it.  Sigh.  Maybe he will be back tomorrow.

I did notice that the waters have been a little rougher this week than usual.  Today I was greeted this larger waves than I expected, but the water was green and glistening all the same, and so I went in.

Little rougher shorelines than usual this week

It was a little bit like a scene from the movie Jaws.  Minus the shark of course.  There were a few people sitting on the beach staring at the water, not looking willing to go in the water.  Only after I went in and bobbed around for a while did couples slowly start approaching the waves, holding hands, looking a little nervous.  I felt a moral obligation to mention the undertow to them, as it really has been noticeable this week, but everyone seemed to stay in the shallows.

And so I went back to my routine of drying off for 15 minutes, rolling over, and counting my 30 minutes as done.  Except...it felt soooooo incredibly nice out there in the sun with the cool breeze on the ocean.  I rationalized that I had been in the sun the last few days and not burned, I could tag just a few extra minutes on. In fact, I didn't even have tan lines, unless you call my arms a line, they are golden brown this year.  And so I flipped over, just for 5 more minutes.  I checked the time on the phone, flipped again, and stared at the beautiful water.  Honestly, how can you not rationalize just 5 more minutes when staring this down?

And so I sat happy, warm, at peace with the day, with life, and soaking up this gorgeous view.  And yes, soaking up the UV rays.  I admit I forgot about that for a few moments in my bliss.  I snapped one more shot for the road, and headed home to get out of the sun, and wondered if maybe I could come up with a theory about UV rays melting fat cells to release more Vitamin D precursors when needed.  California girls are skinny right?  I needed more time to develop the idea...well, actually, I just liked it and didn't want to disprove it by thinking about it.  Speaking of developing, just like in old school photography darkrooms where the picture appears with time, skin only seems to need an hour or so in the shade to show its colors too when you have tried to cheat the UV timer.  I am pretty lucky that most of my melanin cells were already awake and ready for action from the last few days, but a rather interesting pattern appeared.  Despite not having tan lines on my legs or much color, the exposure from wearing shorts a lot these last weeks obviously did something to prepare the skin on my lower legs.  Because my mild pinkness seems to mirror the fit of my shorts.  That's right, I only burned from the bikini bottoms to the mid thigh, in a distinctive pattern of shorts.  Guess I finally got Bermuda Shorts after all!