This Hawksbill Turtle was sleeping under a shelf when Dan and Bob found him, woke him up and took him for a swim over to Veda L for a photo shoot, we then took a video and watched him swim away....VERY FAST! He had what they call a rude awakening, but it made my day. Check out the entry on the right "Capt Himes......." and the link to the photos on Picasa showing the fabulous surprise we found underwater, I wonder if anyone out there has ever seen anything like this? When we came back with 18 conch, all mature with good ruffled edges, we said "Yes, we took 18 but we left the other 2,000!"

Capt Dan Himes, our delivery Capt when we bought Veda L has FINALLY made it down to play with us, and we call it Snake Karma that has brought us such fabulous adventures since he arrived. The reason for "snake Karma?" Capt Dan saved a snake that had gotten tangled up in a net from sure death, which we then accredited our smooth ride over to Great Guana from Emerald Bay, the turtle experience, and then witnessing the migration of thousands of conch!

http://picasaweb.google.com/lindabesk/AdventuresWithCaptDan Have a look at these incredible photos, the likes of which I have never seen on any of our trips! We are blessed each day with natures wonders, like a living National Geographic magazine!

It's not chocolates, but it came in a large red "container" and was healthier for me! Bob and I were smiling as we motored out to Poor Betty's Reef just a couple hundred yards out of the marina entrance as our new engine purred smoothly! Due to rough seas I drove the tender around (more like up and down!) waves as Bob dove the ledge where he has gotten lucky previously, and in just a few moments he came up and said "Happy Valentines Day Honey!" with my present on the end of his spear. Bob dropped it into the bucket that I held over the side of the tender; next he dropped a conch in the bucket and said "now that we have dinner; let's find a place that you will like to dive and do some photography......."

We headed NE of the marina entrance and found some little rock cays where it was relatively calm, I swam around the largest of the coral heads and found many varieties of coral, above is Stag horn coral, but there was also a huge area of Elk horn coral that sat atop fire coral. My favorite little fish (not shown) are the yellow tailed Damsel fish as they have these little purple iridescent sparkles that just glow, you always find them around fire coral as they know they are protected, also makes them hard to photograph as I sure don't want to get too close to any corals, let alone the fire coral.

This Porcupine fish was swimming along the bottom with a pal, I surprised them (and they surprised me!) but I got a picture of one of them swimming away, it was a good sized one, probably just under 2' long, this is the fish that I mistakenly called a Puffer fish that was under the docks at Compass Cay. I love these guys, so chubby and cute with those big eyes.

This Caribbean Reef Squid was one of 8 that I swam with for awhile, impossible to get a good picture of more than one at a time however. I popped up to see what was going on as all of a sudden I was feeling an increase of surge and waves above me, oh yes...the wind had clocked around and now the Atlantic is starting to break over the reef not far from us. Time to leave. Once in the boat I looked at the surf and said "Buffalo Bob, pray tell, how are we getting through that?... Hang Ten, Kowabunga, Shoot the Curl?" Bob: No problem, I have paddled a board through breaking surf enough times to know how to get through breaking waves, and sure enough, no problem, he waited for a break in the surf and quickly sped through. Once out however I had to be in the front of the tender in order to keep it up on plane (with our less powerful 15hp vs our former 25hp, standing up to time the bounces through the waves (I yelled back..."I don't like this...but I'm glad the boys used to make me ski moguls!" as that is what is was like, Bob driving like he was skiing moguls, and me with bended knees in front doing the shock absorber crunch as needed, it was actually pretty fun! My husband never ceases to amaze me with his abilities and his confidence which is never unfounded.
When we arrived back at the marina we had a call from Sandals asking Bob (Uncle) to come over to teach a windsurfing lesson; so off we went, a fun afternoon with the water sports kids as Bob was teaching his student, a man from Texas, I was helping the staff, my lessons all (kind of) came back to me, and I was hoping that I remembered them correctly. By late afternoon the kids were yelling "I feel it!" Nothing like the thrill of hanging onto that boom and flying across the water for the first time. Best compliment of the day from these kids for Bob "Uncle has mad skills!"

This is the view from our aft deck as we enjoyed the marina at Cave Cay http://www.cavecay.com/ a safe harbor that has an interesting history, there was nothing but a swamp when purchased and a few million dollars later a beautiful anchorage was dredged out for all of us to enjoy! A safe hurricane hole for sure, but we love it as it gives us a great place to tuck into on our way back to Emerald Bay from Compass Cay. We took the canoe out and had a fun little paddle within the harbor, then got brave and went out into the sound, well.....that provided a little more excericse as we were paddling against tide and wind on the way back. Let's just say that Veda L. looked mighty good as we came through the cut!

We are really worried about Buddy as he is such a nervous traveler.... We see him do this pose while sleeping frequently, but not on the dining room table! He certainly will not get a kitty ulcer. He has however given us a test in our Vet Tech skills of late, he has been going back and forth between diabetic and non-diabetic (the only mammal that does so), which keeps us in touch with Dr. Jen at Stillwater Vet, who gives us good advice and assures us that we are doing the right thing; he is one high maintenance cat...arthritis med in his special diet cat food, followed by his insulin shot, then before his morning cat nap he has his cat lax (as he can't be straining with arthritis in his lower spine), then we brush his teeth once a day, but smear salmon flavored cat "toothpaste" on his gums as well to eliminate tartar and any gum infections that "older" cats can get, then of course we do the glucose tests to be sure he is on the correct dose of insulin. He is 14 now and we have had him since he was 3, and we have certainly done more than bonded with this guy! He chose good "staff!"

Here we are back in Emerald Bay waiting for our new tender engine to arrive, we just hope to get the old Yamaha cranked up enough that we can get out and play on some nearby reefs, we need to get wet! The former Four Seasons Resort was purchased by Sandals,http://www.sandals.com/main/emerald/em-home.cfm which also owns the marina that we stay in, scroll down the main page and take a look at our "home away from home" Marina. The Grand Opening was yesterday and the helicopters have been buzzing overhead, dignataries zipping around in their golf carts, a golf tournament was being filmed, and everything is really looking great! Nice to see golfers out again, and especially nice to see The Marina At Emerald Bay filling up with boats, we just saw the new dive boat come in tonight and it is slipped next to us, will be fun to see where they intend to take their dive tours. Tomorrow I am having lunch with the Realtor who is handling the Grand Isle development and she is giving me a tour, it is lovely and has one of the most dramatic infinity pools that I have ever swam in.http://www.grandisleresort.com/

Yes, the homebody made bread today. I take some frozen loaves and some box mixes of bread for emergencies, but the emergency supplies are gone and now it is time to "do it yourself" which is always fun, I love working with yeast breads, today was the normal loaf variety, but I make a killer caramel roll.