Inadvertent foot salad

This is crazy. Okay, first of all, we start w olive oil.

To protect my skin, I put olive oil on every day. Especially here, where you can suffer so much skin damage, it's critical. I applied it all over, just this morning.

Then, inspired to take a morning swim to this gorgeous island (see pic), I set out in a straight line to it. Had I taken a chart briefing beforehand, I would have noted the very shallow coral field that lay probably 2 ft beneath the surface, directly between me and the palms.

But even with a briefing (and who, really, is THAT anal), I would not have known that this coral was totally covered w spiny sea urchins, just waiting for passing, swimming, innocent feet to flipper by to lodge their barbed spiny spines into!

Grrr, and ouch. I received three in my toes, which was plenty for me, thanks.

Morning swim done, I went back to the boat, found the remedy for a punctured foot via sea urchin spines on WikiHow, and learned that one simply needs to soak the affected area in vinegar! Go figure.

(I had tried to pull them out w tweezers, but failed in spectacular fashion which I will not detail in this pg rated format).

Thus, today, as part of my exercise, I had an inadvertent olive oil/vinegar salad. Toe, anyone?