A Day of Play!

Woofie posed for my first panoramic shot... don't know why the last frame didn't take, but it is still a neat shot!

November 21, 2014  Friday

I thought the weather forecast said nice weather for the next few days… but it rained a lot during the night.  BUT this am it was beautiful.  Finally took photos of the house and grounds.  Extra beautiful in the light sunshine and covered with raindrops.  The it poured rain again!  Some folks had planned to go diving, some horseback riding, others just relax.  We thought the rain would dampen the plans, but it actually turned out to be pretty nice!

Flowers covered with raindrops.

Views of the property from the front.

Sandy, Mike, Harmony and I caught a taxi into West End to the Coconut Tree Dive Shop.  Sandy and I were signed up to do two boat dives.  Mike and Harmony were taking the Discover Diving course to do an introductory class, “pool” time (actually out in the bay) to practice some skills then out for a little dive!  They were very excited about it!

This little kitten is checking out Woofie!

Sandy and I got our gear checked out.  There is a resident kitty at the shop that kept having kittens.  We spayed her at the clinic.  There is still a litter of little kittens playing at the shop.  Hopefully they will all be taken to the March clinic!

Woofie is staying safe and dry in the center console of the boat.  

Because of the bad weather, we were trucked to the opposite side of the island, actually near where we did the clinics!  We took the boat out to the first dive site, “Key hole”, and geared up and in we went!  Our dive master was Tom, a good looking young man from London.  We also had two dive masters “in training” and two more instructors to watch our group of about 8 divers.  

Tom, our dive master.

The view from the boat.  Lots of tanks strapped in for the trip.

We went down to about 65’ and were in the water for 58 minutes.  The visibility was marginal but the coral and fish were pretty.  It was actually the nicest when we were at about 40’.  Better light and more fish.

Sorry, no pictures from under water.  I wanted to get back into the groove before trying to use a camera!

I have no idea what I was doing...

We got back on the boat and motored to our next site, “Mandy’s Eel Garden”.  Still poor visibility, but we did swim through a “tunnel” of coral to get to the deepest site, again about 65’.  We were diving along a coral “wall” and saw lion fish, eels and lobster among the many and varied fish.  Again, the most interesting was back at about 40’ for variety of fish and best light for visibility.

We got back to the dock and there were Mike and Harmony all suited up to get on the boat to go out for their dive!  They really enjoyed the class and training and were excited about getting out for the real dive.

Waiting patiently for lunch!

Cindy putting the garlic sauce on our Lobster Tail Lunch.  (  Includes  two tails for only $13!!)
And only an hour ago we were admiring the live lobsters in the ocean...

Sandy and I signed up for getting our “advanced open water certification” and we will do the training and  5 dives on Monday and Tuesday with Tom.  Then we ordered lobster tail for lunch (!!!!!) from the little kiosk next to the shop, then hurried to the other end of town to catch the party boat.  We were late and the others had just gone by in the truck but it was just “a 5 minute walk”.  After about 5 or 6 minutes we were concerned, and here comes Sandra in the truck and picks us up!  It was another 5 or 6 minutes in the truck(!!!) to the dock.  So glad she came to pick us up!  Hmmm, “island time”….  

Cindy's cute little daughter.  She was quite the ham for the camera!

Sandra, our local liaison.  

Al, Sandra's husband, joins the captain at the wheel while Kimberly enjoys the sun.

Sandra and Sandy!

Anyway, we had a wonderful time on the boat.  There were drinks and snacks and some nice, though a bit rough, sailing.  We got to snorkel in the West Bay area.  Very rough water, but did see some nice coral and fish.  Had to be careful, a few folks got pushed into the coral and got pretty scraped up.

LOL!!  Appropriate boat for the vet crew to be on!

Kimberly and the gang were taking tons of "selfies" using the extension!

Oh My!  Now what am I doing???

Kimberly

Dr Scott

Back on the boat we had a nice sail back to the dock, including a pretty sunset.  

The "Stray Cat" at the dock at the end of the day.

Oh, but the night was only beginning!  Most folks headed back to the house to get cleaned up and changed.  Others stayed in town to listen to music.  

 I was one that went back to the house!  After a nice shower and getting into clean (and dry!) clothes, a group of us headed back to town to meet up with the others. 

"Sexy Lexie" with her human!

Foxie with Shelley and Chris.

We all met at the Sundowners to listen to good music, have a few (or more) drinks and snacks.  We finally left there and went up to the Oasis Restaurant just outside of West End.  There we played pool, had another drink (or two!) and had a very nice dinner.  This was the place that catered the lunch on the second day of clinics.  They are wonderful!

What a fun way to end the week with our wonderful World Vets group!

Until our next trip... Hasta La Vista!

ps  If we have internet at the new lodging, Seagrape Plantation Resort, I will continue to blog the rest of our trip.  So check back to see the rest of our adventures!!  Sandy and I are staying to continue diving and exploring.  Scott is staying one extra night, so we can get together again.  Harmony won't head for home until Tuesday and my pal Linda C, from Belize, is flying down Sunday to spend the rest of the week with us.  So, plenty of adventures to come!!