Serendipity, Part 4:
U.S. VIRGIN ISLANDS, 1986 - p.2
The next morning, it was very foggy and soggy, and I hurt my tailbone when I sat down on a rock. I waited a long time for the sun to reach and dry up the tent and cut a stick to help me get around because I was
very sore and had cramps in my legs. Climbing back up to the main road took me hours and was torture. Two cars passed me, then I got into a taxi and asked to drop me of at some guesthouse in Charlotte Amalie. Two places were filled, the third was Miller's Estate where I stayed for the rest of the week.
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It took me a two nights and one day to recover, but I did a lot of talking with two middle-aged traveling Dorothies and the landlady, all intent on spoiling me and confiding their adventures on the mainland (New York) and other islands.
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On Thur Jan 9, I felt sufficiently recovered to pay a visit to the College of the Virgin Islands, where I met with dozens of faculty and staff, with most of which I shared common friends. Specifically I got to meet Mark Sabeno, Diver and Captain, Bill MacLean, Director of Marine Programs (who later became Provost till his premature death) and LaVerne Ragster, a fellow UCSD alumna and future President of UVI. Bill's wife was a leading real estate agent and showed me some houses. Everybody was kind and helpful and I seriously considered relocating and getting closer to the sea.
On Jan 11, I returned to chilly Pennsylvania to start preparing for the spring semester, make thank you calls and send resumes, then waited . . . . found I only had two students signed up for Marine Geology: Dan O'Sullivan and Steve Stetler (but almost 200 in World Oceans, which I won't list here) but, on Jan 30, I got a call from Bill MacLean that they had been offered a $ 50K single source contract to report on toxic substances in the USVI coastal environment, but had no time or expertise to prepare the required proposal which was due by Feb 20. Could I do it? Yes.
I worked day and night , made dozens of phone calls and sent the proposal in time, calling for a one week pilot study during Spring Break, a full-fledge sampling project in Summer and a final report before the end of the year. I would be the Principal Investigator with Helen Gjessing at CVI as Project Manager, two student-technicians each from MSC and CVI, and toxic substances analyses to be performed on a specified number of seawater- sediment- and biota samples by RCI of Pottsville according to the EPA instruction manual.
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