A really slow day as we are not going anywhere which is lovely. I finally decided to try out our new, full faced snorkel mask that we bought on the recommendation of our friend Hugh Beevor (can’t thank you enough!). Oh my what a success for me, you get a much bigger area of vision and you can breathe through your nose and you don’t have to clench a mouth piece. Phoebs and Rowan were busy so I went off on my own in search of turtles that had been bobbing up all around us. It wasn’t long before I found a huge one, I kept incredibly still and enjoyed following it, as it munched at the sea grass. Then I came up to another huge one, but this one instead of ignoring me was facing me and watching me intently. I realised why when I spotted two much smaller turtles half the size. They must have been off spring. They ignored me, I just lay and watched them for ages. It was wonderful watching them come to the surface for air, through the shafts of the sun’s rays. I wished I had the go pro, but actually it was lovely not to be distracted by trying to get a good pic, and just enjoyed the moment.
Look carefully to see the bobbing turtle!
Lovely patterns of the water!
Quite a few day boats turned up later and the neighbours on the enormous sailing yacht had kids who were wake boarding, so all a bit noisy. By 4pm it was once again a peaceful paradise and Rowan and I snorkelled over to the shore. The reef running along the shore had an enormous overhang and was full of fish. On the way we came across a smallish stingray, Rowan dived down to take a pic and he did not like it he whipped around and did a big standoff with him. Brave thing, we left him in peace. Rowan spotted a lobster, we have seen so few, that we have decided not to eat lobster anymore or conch. We remember our holiday to the Bahamas nearly 20 years ago and the sea floor was covered in conch, you see their shells everywhere, but hardly see any alive now. on our return we spotted our ray, he was lying on the seabed and had covered himself with sand, just his eyes out watching us.
Rowan got his drone out, which is always a little nerve wracking wondering whether he is going to get it back to the boat, but he has mastered catching it with his hand! We think a bit of moisture has got in as we left it on board while we were back in the UK and it seems to be be struggling a little with exposure, but the colour of the water is pretty accurate.
You can see Rowan operating the drone, the big yacht behind us is twice our length, just to give perspective
Good show of the solar panels and paddle board
Another glorious sunset over Monserrat, we had a brief moment of seeing the peak without it being hidden by cloud.
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