Here is a shot of Flat Island from the Pillbox hike. It’s not much to look at, which is why I don’t seem to have many pictures of it, but sure was a lot of fun to swim out to today. I had been planning this “epic” swim for weeks – I hadn’t ever swum in the ocean before and was a little bit nervous about it. I got the scoop from Laurie’s husband, Nate, who swims out many mornings while it’s still dark out. He was very reassuring, reporting that he’s only been bonked on the head by a disoriented bird, but had no run-ins with sea creatures. Mom played with Sam at the tide pools while I went out. I kept looking up and it kept seeming far away, but I gradually made it there. It was a bit of a battle against the wind and the waves (sometimes I looked down at the bottom and didn’t even move after three or four strokes!). Most of the way was very shallow, and I saw some neat fish – a puffer (no stingers on this one) and several weird wormy things that were 6″ in diameter and about 18″ long (Holuthuria atra I think). I certainly didn’t want to step on one so I just tread water while I looked around to see if a wind surfer or kite boarder was passing through. When I finally got there, I had to pull myself in to the beach on the rough coral bottom because I didn’t want to step down. I walked around the island (it’s a bit rough barefoot, but as some of my friends know, my feet have not been exfoliated by a pedicure in quite some time, so they were suitably rough!). I swam back and eventually found mom and Sam at the tide pools. It was fun to snorkel out and come in from the other side. There were tons of fish darting around the rocks. I am so happy to finally have this opportunity to swim in the beautiful ocean. It was such a nice departure from the tedium of swimming 30 laps in a pool, as nice as an outdoor heated pool in Hawaii can be 🙂