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Written by Tania von Barkenhagen
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Monday, 15 February 2010 |
I woke up in time to see the sun slowly rising and begin to cast everything in beautiful colors.
This morning Starfish Beach was silent and deserted compared yesterday when it was filled with party goers from Bocas.
There is something intimate about the first few peaceful moments in the morning on the catamaran when everyone is still waking up and you have most of the boat to yourself and quality time to watch this part of the world slowly come to life.
It was so nice out, and getting considerably hotter with the rising sun, that I couldn't resist grabbing a noodle and floating around in the water. It gave me a chance to cool off and take a few photos of the Explorer, which at this point was starting to look a little like a laundry boat with all our drying stuff.
Ahhh...life...is...good...
Break time was over, time to be on our way! Today we had a little bit of wind and as we motored toward our next destination the crew put up a sail to help us along. I viewed the scenery from one of my favorite spots on the catamaran, the very front.
We now were close to the island of San Cristobal. Funny enough, the very same island that a good 10 years ago or so Keith almost invested in some property here. Too bad and very sad as the property had accrued tenfold! Oh well.
Captain Chris gave us the lowdown on the area and what we were here to do. There was a small reef and some pilings very close to where we were anchored and the divers would be checking out the pilings while the snorkelers would be following Dave, one of the crew, around.
There was an Indian lady waiting in a dugout canoe near the piling that we all just couldn't stop asking Chris questions about. Poor Chris, he tried to speculate but people just kept asking. Whatever it was she was definitely waiting for something or someone and wasn't going anywhere soon.
Keith surveyed the area from the front of the catamaran as we waited for the divers to get suited up and in.
Neither one of us were diving today, we both were having ear problems and decided to play it safe.
Watch out lady in the dugout canoe, here comes a strange group of bright noodle wielding snorkelers to your part of the water! I wonder if she heard Jaws music playing in the back of her mind?
The pilings were actually pretty cool, covered in coral and even with some small fish life. Yeah, my first attempt at using my new little underwater camera!
I saw a bunch of bubbles surround me and looked down to see the divers below us.
Unfortunately the water was a tad murky, after diving in Grand Cayman with visibility 60+ feet I've become so spoiled, it was a little disappointing to barely be able to see 25+ feet below us but oh well, time to find some cool sea life!
Dave found a sand dollar on the bottom that was quite intact and gave it to all of us to check out. This picture truly enforces the fact that masks and snorkels are NOT attractive!
Dave also spotted a really cool sea urchin that you actually could hold; it started attaching itself to my hand a little like velcro, it was pretty neat.
There goes Dave, our fearless crew, off to show someone else something he found. He was pretty good at spotting things through the water.
Here is a little look at some of the coral life below us, it was very colorful.
I spotted this cool little trunkfish below us. I love trunkfish, they are just so cute! He warily kept an eye on us as we floated above him.
Keith took the camera and dove down for a closer look. He only caught part of him but check out how amazingly colorful this little guy is, almost neon blue coloring!
We played around a bit more with the camera underwater, testing it and trying to learn the different functions.
Soo soon it was time to head back to the catamaran for some lunch! Snorkeling around with a noodle desperately trying to make a connection with a fish really builds up your appetite!
Today I made it out just as lunch was being served and the ladies had decided we would all sit together at one table. Sounds good to me!
Lunch was great, a chicken and noodle salad that was very tasty.
Aww...poor lonely men. That table was interestingly quiet compared to ours.
After lunch I lazed around on the front of the catamaran and worked on my sunburn. These are the lazy moments about being on the boat that I really, really enjoy. Where everything just seems to slow down as you close your eyes and feel the boat slowly rocking in the current. Zzzz....
As soon as lunch was cleaned up we were on our way, cruising along again, passing many mangrove covered islands along the way.
Vacation, baby!
We now had dropped anchor in a smaller bay surrounded by mangroves off of the much larger Dolphin Bay.
Captain Chris had brought us here because there was some amazing coral life near the mangrove shore to snorkel through and unlike in Dolphin Bay here there were little to no jellyfish. Bonus!
I had to capture my sexy hubby getting ready to jump in, isn't he cute?!!
We tooled over towards the shore. At first we saw nothing, not even the bottom but soon we were in 5 feet of water and all sorts beautiful things were coming to light.
There were thousands of this fern-like coral that if you almost brushed it would *whoosh* back in and disappear inside a tube.
The colors were so brilliant here; it was absolutely stunning and amazing to be seeing it in person.
Whoops, there goes a fellow cruiser and as a matter of fact he is snorkeling "au natural". He had a point; it wasn't like there were a lot of other people that were going to see him...
Back to the coral life...
I love the color of blue of the coral on the very bottom; it is the epitome of turquoise.
The purple ones were quite brilliant as well.
The shoreline was incredible; I've never snorkeled through mangroves or even had the chance to see them in the water, their limbs full of coral and mussels growing on them.
We came upon this school of fish; there were thousands and thousands of them winding around the mangroves.
...and more of the beautiful coral life...
Yet another HUGE school of little fish...
This is what the mangrove shore looked like from above the water and hey, there is Keith's pink noodle!
Keith hard at work with his new Flip video camera with the underwater housing.
There was so much coral here; it went on and on and on.
It finally was getting too dark to be able to see anything properly under the water. I decided to head back to the catamaran.
On the swim back I couldn't help but notice how beautiful the sunset was. You could hear the pairs of parrots flying back home from the mainland where they go during the day to eat bananas. They are pretty talkative (or squawkative?) as they pass above.
What a lovely, lovely evening. After taking a nice warm shower and dressing in something other than a bathing suit I relaxed with my fellow shipmates and enjoyed a nice cocktail. Soon it was time for dinner. We were in the middle of nowhere with no other lights to pollute the sky other than our own. The darkness felt like a blanket draped around us and made dinner on the back of the boat small and more intimate.
I enjoyed dinner so much I forgot about taking photos of the courses and lost myself in the meal.
After dinner Captain Chris tried to light some lanterns the last guests on the catamaran had left. The wind was a little too much and ended up blowing out the lantern before it could heat up and rise. It still was pretty while it lasted!
I wasn't able to capture it on film but Chris called us to the back of the boat to witness a pure phenomena. As you disturbed the water it lit up, it was phosphorescent and literally glowing when you moved it around, even the drops of water would sparkle. It was so amazing! Apparently it is caused by a large number of small luminous organisms in the water. Whatever the logical explanation for it was, the reality was beautiful and very surreal.
What a lovely evening!
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 09 March 2010 )
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