Dockside antics
Noelle captured the work portion of the day very well, now a brief "play interlude."
During today's field ops, we noticed that Fetch was listing, or leaning, to the port (left) side during her surface swimming, which we attributed to some internal ballast weights having slipped to the port side. So once we returned to Land Base, we cracked Fetch open to have a look inside and potentially better-secure the ballast. As we were diligently working, I noticed a coconut floating up the canal and approaching our boat, so I stepped onto the stern, grabbed a boat hook, fished in the coconut and pitched it to Noelle.
Being the hard-nosed, partially-bored, slightly sleep-deprived, part-Hawaiian that Noelle is, she immediately wanted to open up the coconut but didn't feel like digging up some proper tools so she used the next best thing...the concrete dock.
Spiking and slamming the coconut onto the dock NFL-style, she kept me in stitches for a solid dozen attempts. Knowing the shape of the coconut, you probably realize that after throwing it toward the ground, it's not going to simply bounce right back up into your hands. So each of Noelle's spikes was followed by quick, haphazard foot steps to ensure the coconut didn't fall back into the canal. Repeat after me...Graceful. Much to my absolute amazement, and now in front of a few outside onlookers, she finally busted open the coconut and shared it with Mark and me. It was the best coconut, opened via concrete by a part-Hawaiian, that I have ever had.
By far the funniest thing I've seen on this trip.