When I drove across the Causeway last week and this week, I could smell the stench of seaweed. Sometimes in late spring and, occasionally, during the summer, seaweed takes over the beaches. This was the worst week of it this year. Approximately two weeks ago when we still had a little bit of an occasional north wind and pretty little waves, the water and the beaches were clean. The water was a pretty green/blue for a couple of weeks and the beaches were prepped for the upcoming summer traffic, meaning that it was almost as if the sand knew that it was like a carpet ready to accept special visitors. It looked as thought the city had prepared for summer by cleaning the beaches. However, this weekend, during a busy three day Memorial Day weekend, the beach was covered with seaweed again. It washes in and covers everything. The seaweed is quite thick in some areas and it's gross stepping into it to get to the water. Everyone has to walk into it who wants to be in the water. And, it has a sour smell to it. I'm not sure if it's my imagination or not, but, as I said earlier in this post, I can smell it the minute I get on the island.
Some of the locals refer to it as sargasso weed/grass, which is technically the real name for it. I looked in my Oxford English Dictionary to confirm the spelling and found a definition for it where it succinctly says "GULF-WEED; also a mass or a species of this." The earliest use found was in 1598 by a writer W. Philip, with many other uses found throughout history including a 1934 poem by Dylan Thomas and Arthur C. Clarke's "2001: Space Odyssey." (And this is why I love my Oxford English Dictionary!!) This sargasso weed/grass/seaweed is just plain nasty when it covers the beach.
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| Seaweed carpets the beach this weekend |
The seaweed, though, didn't keep me from going surfing. I drove down on Friday afternoon and this morning, despite strong winds and sloppy conditions. Getting into the water not only requires stepping through the gross seaweed, but it also requires stepping into muddy-looking/brown water filled with the stuff. I managed to fight the washing machine-like current to catch a few small waves, but they were definitely hard for someone with my inexperience to read, meaning that I only caught a few and was surprised when I did. A couple of experienced surfers Friday and today made it look easy, but the rest of us were left guessing. Several times, I had to sit awhile in the water just to clean the seaweed/sargasso weed off my leash. It's amazing how one small piece can get caught in the leash and make it feel as though you are pulling a 2 lb. weight. I also heard that sea lice likes to nest in the stuff, and I sometimes feel like bugs are biting me when it gets wrapped around my foot/ankle. I can't wait for it to be gone. I thought last year's seaweed/sargasso weed invasion was the worst, but this one seems almost as bad. All I know is that I can't wait for it to be gone!
