I looked away for a second, and then it was gone! I actually saw it slithering about and it got sand over it. So, it was hidden. Would never have noticed it. Can you see it in the picture below? If you don't, then look at the grass pattern, and look at the corresponding areas. You can see the tail is the only part that is obviously visible. Some sort of protection, I assume. Neat!!!
Some blue fish feeding in the shallow reef.
Emily and Sammie doing a selfie. Connie photobombing them.
Emily doing a selfie.
Sunday AM we awoke with anticipation of our Snuba outing. We met Jodi at the Coral Gardens on Grace Bay, and quickly went through the basics of Snuba. The three of us were attached to air lines which kept us alive down below. There were two five foot rafts on the surface which carried all our equipment. This allowed us to maneuver wherever we wanted to go. The rafts just followed us as we swam underneath. Jodi was self contained on her Scuba gear.
We saw a bunch of things. We saw three turtles, including two Hawksbills. Here is a turtle "scratching her back" on an underwater "twig." Click on any of the pictures to see full definition pics.
Here we are trying to keep up with Timmy the turtle. Dale is having a really hard time keeping up. Fast turtle.
Beautiful area.
Here is Emily trying to fly. Not too bright. We're underwater.
Sammie let some bubbles come out from her behind. Emily does the smart thing and tries not to breathe while holding her nose. Dale is even smarter, and stays away.
We saw a bunch of things. My camera isn't rated for the depths that we went to, so I didn't bring it. We saw a forearm sized sea urchin, a couple of huge lobsters inside a coral grotto, a barracuda (actually they saw it; I missed it), and a bunch of little shrimp. Probably a bunch more stuff that the kids will remind me about later (and I will edit this post).
A great experience!
After resting a bit, we went shopping for groceries and supplies at Graceway. Then lunch at Sharkbites, where we had our first meal here. Connie had two salads, a Conch salad like we had the first day as well as a caesar salad. Sammie had conch and chips, like I had the first day. I had a Conch sandwich, below, while Em had the veggie wrap, also seen below in the background. The conch sandwich was impossible to eat, so I ate the tomato and pickle first, then ate some conch, then put it together with the tarter sauce. Mmmm.
Afterwards, we went out into Smith's reef again.
I was in the reef about a hundred yards out from the kayaks at our complex. A bunch of people were already on the beach, lounging under the umbrellas. It was windier than the other days, which made for a bit rockier swim. But it wasn't bad. The others would join me later.
I was circling the reef, when I saw a bigger-than-usual movement in my left field of vision. A cute turtle. This was another Hawksbill, with two tags on her (his?) rear legs. Toward the end of the video, you can see it going up for air. This one also got bored with me and sped off, leaving me in the dust. The video quality is ok; just the operator is getting rocked about on the surface.
Here is another flock of blue fish engaging in some weird eating behavior. They would go and eat in a bunch of coral, like mad. Then, they would swim gracefully to another spot and then repeat their frenzy.
I saw Kink again!
Then, while in the sea grass, I turn to my left, and gasped! I see a four foot fish. Barracuda. Their teeth are pretty sharp and ugly. Actually, they really aren't that vicious. Attacks on snorkelers are rare. Nonetheless, I did NOT try to get a picture of its teeth! Sorry, but get your own picture.
Sorry for the poor, shaky, video. Again, my excuse is that the water was very choppy from the wind.
We were still full from Sharkbites, so we rested in our "villa," afterwards. I was sleepy and nodded off on the computer, while reading about the dominant Giants!
Tomorrow, the kids want to go back to Taylor Bay.
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