Fuel for Thought
Half Moon Cay
When we awoke we were anchored at sea, across the horizon as the sun came up we saw the most beautiful little island I have ever seen in person. Half Moon Cay. You could see the crystal blue waters and white sand. I couldnt wait to get off the ship and to the land! We headed up for breakfast and then grabbed our beach bag full of stuff again, as we had a big day ahead of us. Snorkeling on another reef, snorkeling with stingrays, and playing in the water!
We had to take a tender, which is a smaller boat that takes you to the land, due to the depth of the water. It was quite an experience getting on a moving boat from a larger moving boat. Once we made it to land, we found the beverage station and went to enjoy the beach for about an hour before we had to go off on our first excursion of the day. It was beautiful.
We loaded up on a much smaller boat this time, and headed out to ocean once again. We found a little area with many smaller little reefs around us. The water was much clearer than it was in Nassau, and surprisingly much warmer. This reef had more color and more fish to it, but again not what I had been expecting.
Once again after 45 minutes in the water they huddled us back onto the boat and back to the island. From there I laid in the sun for a while as Nick took our fins and some other stuff back to the ship in preperation for the rest of the afternoon. When he got back it was time to head over the side of the island in which we were going to snorkel with sting rays. That wasnt quite what I expected either. The water was cold, and only about chest deep. There were only 8 stingrays or so, one of which had no tail. It was interesting to have them swim up and rub on you. We were also able to feed them squid, and interact as we wished for about 45 minutes. We were also able to hold a Conch and star fish.
(Why I embarress myself like this I dont know :/ )
We headed back to the beach where it was time to jump in the water. We used our snorkels and masks to look at everything as it was beautiful. We played around for about an hour, diving down to the bottom and picking up shells, only to find a little crab living in them, and putting them back. All at once as we were out by the edge of the swimming area there were thousands of little fish. I started to panic since from watching tv I learned that usually means that there is a preditor near by. Nick and I are kind of swimming there stunned and then we saw it. A 3 foot long Barracuda. I held still. I remembered hearing that they like splanshing and sparkley things. I watched as he swam within 5 foot of me and then hauled butt back to shore leaving Nick out there with him. LOL. Nick had the camera and proceeded to take picutres and video of him. I watched Nick from the safety of the shore. After about 20 minutes he headed in and it was time to pack our stuff and head back to the ship.
From here the rest is history. We had a sea day that was spent sleeping as we were rocking quite a bit from the storm that was passing through southern Florida.
Hope that you enjoyed the little glimpes of our vacation! We are happy to say that we are on our first load of the new year!
Jenny Marcu
Leased to Load1
2006 Sprinter