Mel promised an elderly gentleman (78) that he would take him snorkeling. He'd never been and really wanted to experience it. His wife was vehemently against it! While walking away from the port he said she'd gone to bed for the day, she was so upset that something might happen to him. That said, we met him at the gangway at 9:00. We walked thru the port gates, hoping to find a boat for hire at the marina. We'd seen that area on our tour the day before. There are always taxis inside the port gate and more just outside. Those inside have paid a bit for a permit to be there so the outside taxis are usually less expensive. We saw taxi drivers sitting in the shade across the rode from their vehicles. As we got close to them, a young woman approached us to see if we wanted a tour. We told her we wanted to snorkel, never expecting her to say "I have a boat"! Their boat could hold 10, so the fee was quite high for the 3 of us. She said she was waiting for 3 young ladies who had booked her for that day so Mel and I walked into town to some vendor huts while waiting for the others to arrive. When we returned to the young lady, she had found 3 others to go with us, they had returned to the ship for swim gear. They had just been walking along when she asked them about snorkeling and were excited to be able to do so. Turns out it was the Florist Manager, his helper and acupuncturist from the ship. I had taken a flower arranging class with Eddie, so knew him. I'd also told him how beautiful his floral creations are numerous times. He and Calista are very creative. I've been taking a picture of almost every bouquet I see on the ship. They are changed weekly, so that's a lot of pictures!
We were driven to a very nice hotel, right on the marina, to wait for them to go back for Eddie and Co. Their boat was about 30', twin engine and very clean. They had snorkel equipment for anyone who needed it. We headed just off the coast from Victoria where there are 3 small islands surrounded by coral reef. It is known as the St Anne Marine Park and is in the "1000 Places to See Before You Die" book. We anchored close to the coast of one of the islands and put on our gear. The island was so beautifully perfect that it looked like something Disney would create. There were large granite boulders interspersed with palms and other lush foliage, just beautiful. I jumped in the water, Mel followed. Pink (our gentleman friend, short for Pinkston) also jumped in and immediately filled his snorkel with water. He didn't really panic, but was in trouble. The guys on the boat threw out the life ring for him to hold onto. He got back on the boat and spent sometime inside, throwing up all the sea water he'd swallowed. So much for his snorkel experience. He did spend some time just looking under the water with a mask, then fed the fish from inside the boat, so said he had a great time.
The coral wasn't as beautiful as in New Caledonia. Most of it was dead. There were MANY fish though, so very nice snorkeling. We saw more of a variety of fish I think, many that we'd never seen before. We spent about 1 1/2 hrs in the water. Eddie, Calista and Lisa had gone further away from the boat and followed a sea turtle for a bit. They were thrilled. I took quite a few pictures of them underwater so am now carrying a flash drive around, hoping to run into them. I think they'll be thrilled with the pictures also. We circled the other islands before returning to the marina. It was a great day. Back at the pier we browsed the vender tents a bit then boarded the ship. Next we would be heading into dangerous waters, near the coast of Somalia.
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