Mar 3, 2007

Still here working at St John. I did manage to squeeze in a dive a few days ago. It was my first dive for at least 10 years and it was a great dive. We went to the Tektite Reef at the edge of Greater Lameshur Bay. The reef is very healthy and about 60 feet down. I was really out of practice and went through my air in no time al all so it was back to the surface to snorkel while Pete and Laura finished their dive.

Pete and Laura were leaving on Friday, back to warm sunny NY, so we did a sunset sail on Thursday night. Winds were moderate and seas calm making for a nice easy sail. We only went out about 8 miles but watched the sunset and then sailed back in under an almost full moon. It was so bright that we didn't even need lights to pickup the mooring and secure the boat. Another great sail.

Mar 5, 2007

They certainly have some interesting critters here. Tonight as I was coming back to the dock on my bike, I saw a couple of fruit bats. These have a wing span of about 12 to 15 inches and seem to like to fly along in front of the bike as I pedal along. Today we were power washing the eaves on some of the cabins getting them ready to paint. We chased out two tree frogs, tan colored frogs with big suction cups on their toes and huge eyes. Also in the eaves were several geckos and one small iguana, about 3 inches long. We'll be spray painting tomorrow so they'll all be cream colored if they are still there. Last night as I was heading back to the boat, I saw several bright green lights in the water. From the dock I could watch them and there would be one large bright green light and then several small green lights would converge on the large one. I believe it was the mating ritual of something. I didn't have my camera with me then but I had a flashlight. When I would turn on the light, a bunch what looked like little fish would come to it, apparently looking for whatever was making the large green light. Tonight I had the camera and tried to get some pictures of whatever was there. This is the best I could get. The long one near the top of the picture is about 2 inches long and most of the rest were about 1 inch long. They didn't seem to like the flash going off. In the dinghy on the way back to the boat, I saw several large glowing patches, about 1 foot diameter. By the time I got the boat to them, they would be fading and I couldn't see much. Last night was the full moon, and the lunar eclipse, so I guess they must come out on the full moon. I'll check again next month.