Sunday, June 28

Snorkeling Sunday and More Pizza

I woke up sometime around 5am this morning. I realized quickly that it was far too early to be awake and went back to sleep. Closer to 7 o'clock, I spilled out of bed and got my day started with my breakfast of yogurt and granola with a big mug of coffee. The mosquitoes left me alone last night and for that I am grateful. I finished my breakfast, gathered my snorkeling gear from the porch, and met with Dwight to head for the beaches. Along the way, we picked up Lauren across the island. Cinnamon Bay has two main areas for snorkeling that Lauren helped point out to us. We started by swimming around the western part of the bay and headed towards Peter Bay. After exploring that area, which was amazing and great, we headed for Cinnamon Cay. Dwight and I circled Cinnamon Cay and then returned to our spot on the beach where we'd left Lauren to sunbathe. During the snorkeling, I saw Keith and his son kayaking near Cinnamon Cay, and underwater, there were fireworm, cuttle fish, trumpet fish, and the other regulars that linger on the reef, such as damsel fish, angel fish, elkhorn corals, staghorn corals, christmas tree worms, brain corals, fan coral, sea urchin, various types of snapper, and more. The cuttle fish was my favorite sighting. I took a video of it floating above a piece of coral, where it appeared to be eating something.

Back on shore, I laid in the sun to dry off. The horizon is still slightly clouded by the dust event. We hung out on the beach for a bit longer, enjoying the white sand, sea grapes, and eventually headed back for Maho. I didn't think I had any sunburn from snorkeling this morning. Even when I showered and checked my back and shoulders for any redness, I noted there wasn't much redness. A few hours later, I came to realize I did in fact get roasted. My back and shoulders and hamstrings are nice and tomatoey red. I did apply copious amounts of SPF 30, waterproof, sweatproof, hardy Coppertone Sport. I was only out the one time swimming/snorkeling so I didn't get a chance to reapply halfway through the snorkel, since we were several hundred yards from shore. Fortunately, by the time I discovered the sunburn, I was at Lauren's and plucked a bit of Aloe from the yard and got the sticky aloe goodness all over my burned areas. Real, pure, unfiltered aloe plants have got a unique smell that is nothing like the stuff you get in the stores. It's also more of an orange-yellow color and less bright fluorescent green. It is a little more sticky, too. Despite its differences from the store-bought variety, it totally helps the burn, just the same, or better.

I finished my first load of laundry here on the Islands and have realized I may need a bit more detergent than the half-full bottle of Woolite I brought with me. I'll have to see if I can pick some up on a trip to St. Thomas soon. Apparently, St. Thomas is the place to get these types of items, since there's a Kmart over there. I am still miffed about my Olympus “tough” camera quitting on me. I can't get the screen to turn on at all anymore. Earlier, it would flicker on for a few seconds and then cut-off spontaneously several seconds later. Now, it's just lights-on, nobody's home. I'm not sure if I should go big and get the DSLR I've wanted forever or if I should just stick with my 7.1 megapixel clunker. I'll have to stew on it for a few more days. I'm putting in a call to the folks at Olympus first thing tomorrow morning to give them my two cents. I'm hoping I can just have them mail me a new one and I'll send them my old one. Maybe they can refurbish it and sell it again to someone else. Otherwise, I'm looking to never get another Olympus again and likely recommend that other folks do the same.

Even with a broken camera, sunburn, and nagging mosquitoes, I love it here. The view from just about any part of the island is good or amazing, or somewhere in between. When the skies are clear, you can see St. Thomas, Jost Van Dyke, parts of the Tortolas, and other Cays and islands. The water is crystal clear, blue in every shade possible, and the sands white and fine. The vegetation is tropical, green and lush. Small crumbling ruins, rock art, large mill ruins, and tiny four-wheel drive vehicles fill in the gaps between scenic landscapes of the beaches and sea. The winding, bumpy, and mostly unpaved roads beg for your attention, ensuring that no drive is boring.

I can't wait to pull on my SCUBA gear and do some diving here. I'm also anxious to rent or borrow a sailboat (any kind will do) and go for a leisurely sail around St. John. As long as adventures are the topic of the moment, I'd like to mention that I'm eager to visit places like Jost Van Dyke, the Baths on Virgin Gorda, and dive The Wreck of the Rhone as well as Alice in Wonderland, the latter of which is off Ginger Island.