Snorkel Magic
22/12/07 17:35 Filed in: Vacation
Sat 22 Dec (morning) - I was in
the water this morning at Maho Bay for about 3 or
4 hours - what a great Saturday morning! There's
no way to describe the magic of snorkeling to
someone that hasn't tried it.
Maho Bay
I been lucky enough to do some really, really good snorkeling in the past (Bonaire being the best experience by far), but St. John is pretty darn good too. My dive mask worked much better this time out. The guys in the dive shop here recommended that I gently clean the inside of the mask with toothpaste. New masks have this clear coat that protects against scratches during shipping, but it also makes the mask fog up like crazy. The toothpaste is abrasive enough to remove the clear coat, but not enough to damage the lenses. It worked - what a great tip!
But snorkeling is magical. You can be as ambitious or lazy as you want. All you really need to hang out in calm shallows, close to shore, is a mask and snorkel - it doesn't get much simpler than that. A lot of times, you can just float along with the current and take in the sights below. You need fins to do anything more, of course, unless you only plan to swim a very short distance. I haven't tried scuba diving yet. I'm sure that's a whole step beyond cool, but snorkeling is just so simple; that's the appeal of it anyway.
So I was snorkeling around the rocks at the side of the bay and there was this Pelican sitting on a single rock surrounded by water. I wondered how close I could get without scaring her away. The current was in my favor, so I just floated up to the rock, nice and easy. She just stayed there, pruning her feathers, didn't care that I was right there watching. Pelicans probably see one-horned butt fishes all the time (as snorkelers are affectionately nick-named) and remember that they don't taste very good.
So I'm waiting for the Pelican to dive in and catch a fish, hoping, as close as I was, that I could just watch the whole thing. She never did. Just stayed there on the rock, pruning. In the meantime, guess who swims right in front of me? I would have jumped back, had I been able, because they came out of nowhere. Two really big barracuda! They must have been like two feet in front of me. I must be a barracuda magnet, because that's at least 5 now that I've seen in two days. None of the other sightings were this close. I didn't know if I should be scared or not, but before I had a chance to figure it out... they were gone. I'm not sure what you do to threaten these fish, but I'd rather not do it. Instead, I just give them plenty of respect and hope they understand. What a great morning!
Maho Bay
I been lucky enough to do some really, really good snorkeling in the past (Bonaire being the best experience by far), but St. John is pretty darn good too. My dive mask worked much better this time out. The guys in the dive shop here recommended that I gently clean the inside of the mask with toothpaste. New masks have this clear coat that protects against scratches during shipping, but it also makes the mask fog up like crazy. The toothpaste is abrasive enough to remove the clear coat, but not enough to damage the lenses. It worked - what a great tip!
But snorkeling is magical. You can be as ambitious or lazy as you want. All you really need to hang out in calm shallows, close to shore, is a mask and snorkel - it doesn't get much simpler than that. A lot of times, you can just float along with the current and take in the sights below. You need fins to do anything more, of course, unless you only plan to swim a very short distance. I haven't tried scuba diving yet. I'm sure that's a whole step beyond cool, but snorkeling is just so simple; that's the appeal of it anyway.
So I was snorkeling around the rocks at the side of the bay and there was this Pelican sitting on a single rock surrounded by water. I wondered how close I could get without scaring her away. The current was in my favor, so I just floated up to the rock, nice and easy. She just stayed there, pruning her feathers, didn't care that I was right there watching. Pelicans probably see one-horned butt fishes all the time (as snorkelers are affectionately nick-named) and remember that they don't taste very good.
So I'm waiting for the Pelican to dive in and catch a fish, hoping, as close as I was, that I could just watch the whole thing. She never did. Just stayed there on the rock, pruning. In the meantime, guess who swims right in front of me? I would have jumped back, had I been able, because they came out of nowhere. Two really big barracuda! They must have been like two feet in front of me. I must be a barracuda magnet, because that's at least 5 now that I've seen in two days. None of the other sightings were this close. I didn't know if I should be scared or not, but before I had a chance to figure it out... they were gone. I'm not sure what you do to threaten these fish, but I'd rather not do it. Instead, I just give them plenty of respect and hope they understand. What a great morning!