Last Saturday, I had the amazing privilege of riding on a chartered boat to bays around the island of St. John to snorkel with three wonderful families from my church. To begin with, I had not planned to snorkel...at all! In fact, I almost didn't go because I felt so bad that Trent had to work and I didn't want to go without him, but he sincerely urged me to go. I was also anxious about watching the 187th annual General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which I would miss if I went. Luckily, it is all recorded and available to view later, so I had no good excuses not to go!
Now, if you know me, you know that I am claustrophobic and afraid of swimming too far out in the ocean. The thought of things like jelly fish, stingrays, or any creepy, crawly sea critters makes me extremely uncomfortable. So again, I'm saying that even though I decided to go on this day trip meant for snorkeling, I was just going to stay on the boat the whole time. But that didn't happen.
The start of the trip was so lovely. I had not been on a boat in a while (a year) and being out on the wide, blue ocean under a big sky full of fluffy white clouds and sunshine made my heart and soul so happy. I forgot how much I really do love being on the ocean. I love being on it more than in it! As we rode about 20 minutes, we passed lots of beautiful cliffs and amazing houses near the beaches. I was really amazed to find that the foliage on many of the non-inhabited islands was just about identical to what you would find off the coast of California, and it was all comforting to see. (What is really strange is the amount of cactus you can find: it is everywhere!)
When we got to our first location, Salt Pond, everyone started grabbing their snorkel gear and hopping into the water. My friend, Tanya, who I trust, also got into the water, as well as all the children. So I decided that if they could all do it, I had no reason not to. It took me a few minutes, sitting on the edge, before I slowly lowered myself into the clearest blue water and started swimming. I was terrified. Looking back, it's kind of funny, because there wasn't much around me, just short, patchy sea grass and some little fish. But I was scared and a little cold so I was shivering like crazy and through my breathing tube it probably sounded like Darth Vader, I was breathing so loud! Within my first minute of being in the water I found a sea turtle. When I saw it, I had a brief feeling of peace and wonder. Somehow, that turtle made me feel a little bit safer. I thought, "If a peaceful creature like that can be here, I am probably safe." And that is what I had to keep saying the whole time I was in the water. It was my mantra, I guess; " You are safe, you are safe, no danger." So I kept going! I next saw what are called Ballyhoos, little silvery fish with long, blue snouts that swim near the surface. When I brought my head up to find anyone else, Tanya invited me to swim over by the reef. Now, the whole time I snorkeled that day, I never went totally under the water, only stayed at the surface, and even being on the surface -kept afloat by a pool noodle- I was about 10 feet above the floor and I still couldn't bring myself to swim over the coral! So I stayed at the edge, viewing the fish. There were so many kinds of all different colors! Soon, someone was calling out to us to come see the "squid." I did but didn't want to see it, but when I got to it, I found it wasn't exactly what I expected. It was cute and little and later we discovered that it was actually a cuttlefish (which is not cute up close, haha!) Then, I swam of the coral, little by little, and saw some beautiful fish! My favorites were the foureye butterfly fish and the bluehead wrasse. When I surfaced again, I talked to Tanya for a minute and then all of a sudden I found myself in the middle of a chase: a thousand tiny fish jumped out of the water all around me at the same time, one direction then another, with a ballyhoo on their tail! I said, "Woah, did you see that?!," but somehow Tanya missed it! After the coral, I went back to see more turtles. I could only find the one, but I got to watch it swim up to the surface for some air. When all were ready to go, we headed back to the boat. On our way, Tanya yelled to me "Hey Liz, check out the stingray." And I did. I stopped dead and stared it in the face (I'm still about 10 feet above the floor.) I watched it flip its stinger up and down and ruffle it's flappers in the sand. He looked so angry! They all look so menacing to me! I was frozen and wanted to swim away but I didn't want to turn my back on him. I felt myself shaking more and on the verge of tears when I heard Steve Irwin's voice in my mind telling me something like "You are as afraid of him as he is of you. He's not going to hurt you. It's alright." I don't know how, but I swam away from that stingray, still not enchanted, but somewhat conquerer of my fear. And everyone thought I was just fine out there! Tanya could see the fear in my eyes when she invited me over to the coral, but no one else even suspected!
After that, we went to a place called Hurricane Hole, so named because ships and boats anchor there during storms because it is fairly protected. Here, we were surrounded by mangrove trees, so no sandy beach but lots of life. We found a bunch of starfish, but I didn't (still don't) think they were alive because they were stiff and not moving. Someone swam down and brought one to the surface for everyone to see. Tanya's husband put one on my head, and even though I squealed a little I was okay. Now, if it were wiggling, that would be a different story! Over by the mangroves, there was tons of long, red coral which I was told is fire coral. It burns/stings if you touch it but that's not a problem if you stay 5 feet away all the time. One of the most beautiful things I saw here was a school of tiny fish that were basically tiny rainbows! They were striped horizontally from top to bottom, blue, green, yellow, orange! For a while, I thought that was their normal body color but I quickly realized that being a naturally silvery or translucent color, they reflected the rainbows made by the sunlight refracting in the water! All around were thousands of little rainbows! It was a happy thing to see! After that, while swimming through deeper water, I noticed the rays of sunlight streaming from the surface at an angle to the ocean floor. It was so amazing. Just before we all got back on the boat, someone brought up a conch for us to see. I have seen the shells, but I had never before seen the squishy creature that lives inside it. It wasn't anything too exciting, but for me it was fascinating.
We had lunch at another location after that, where we found a boat on which a guy lives and has a bar. It was so cool! It was a cute little house with real windows, beds, a bathroom, kitchen and sun deck with faux grass and beach chairs. I wanted to live in it! (Except, I would make it an ice cream and soda bar instead;)
Then, we went to a little island called Flanagan. This is where the most beautiful coral was. My favorite is the purple sea fans (I'm actually not sure what it is, but it is beautiful to me!) There we found two more cuttlefish, which were changing colors. There were so many different kinds of fish, it would take me days to name them all! But overall, for some reason, my absolute favorite thing I saw was the sea urchins. They are the strangest, coolest critters! I love how they wiggle their little spines! They just look like little ink splatters or scary bombs that you would find in a video game. They are scary but fascinating.
The next week was good, and Saturday the 8th, Trent, Casey and Will all had the day off so we took a ferry from Red Hook (the East end of the island) to Cruz Bay on St. John and hiked to Salomon Beach to snorkel. It was a good hike and the beach was worth it. I didn't see anything new, really, but swimming through schools of thousands of tiny fish was fun. This time I covered a lot of my skin with clothing because I still had tender skin from the weekend before.
After hiking back to the main town, we stopped at a place called Mongoose Junction, at a shop called St. John Scoops where they make homemade ice cream and waffle cones. It smelled so good! Trent and I got two scoops, one of hazelnut truffle and the other of honey lavender. I can't even describe it. It was a smooth, refreshing flavor. I had never tasted anything flavored with lavender, so I had to try it! It's not my favorite, but I definitely felt peaceful eating it.
The 1st was such a long day, but I loved it! It was not what I expected at all. I can hardly believe I wanted to get in the water! There was just so much to see! The only one bad thing about the day was, I didn't apply enough sunscreen. I applied twice, as much as I could -I thought- but the sun got me good. When I got home, spots on my shoulders and back and the whole backs of my thighs were redder than a tomato and felt like they'd been licked by a fire-breathing dragon! I applied tons of aloe vera, but I had to endure wearing clothes for the next few days. I could hardly sit! Even a week later, my legs were as red as Trent's brand new sunburn from snorkeling on the 8th, and SO ITCHY! Gross, I know, but even grosser was peeling off the sheets of skin, haha; I have never had a sunburn so bad. I am strongly looking into board shorts and a rash guard. Yes, I am going to be one of those women with funny tan lines:)
I am so grateful for the beautiful things God created for me to love and enjoy. I love all the colors, smells and feels the earth has to offer. I am grateful for the peace that fills my soul when I am out in the open air, among the trees and even in the ocean. It is true, "we live in a beautiful world"!
Salt Pond
Hurricane Hole (all the mangrove trees and blue water!)
Flanagan Island
On the way home, everyone was so tired!
Some guy owns this island!
The dome all the way to the right is a library!
(The pictures of the fish aren't mine. I need to take a waterproof camera next time!)
Ballyhoo
Bluehead Wrasse
Parrotfish, haha! (They are pretty big and they look funny but the colors are amazing!)
Purple Sea Fan
My very own snorkel gear!
Saturday the 8th, on the ferry to St. John
Dock at St. John
The guys were way up ahead of us!
Cactus that act like vines!
Finally made it to Salomon Beach!
Getting on snorkel gear
Trent throwing trash at me, haha! (I love this picture:)
Safe from the sun in my garden gnome shirt and spandex tights!
It felt like something was biting me!
Pinguin!
A cute little church
Looks like a palm tree and a cactus had a baby!
I love the steel drums!
Going back home (everybody is so tired here!)
A strange, silver tipped leaf!
A horse who hates selfies (he kept turning away, it was difficult to get a good picture and I ruined this one with my face, haha!) I got to go groom some horses at a horse ranch on the east end of St. Thomas.
No comments:
Post a Comment