CURRENT LOCATION: Anchored in Ensenada Honda, near town on Culebra
18 18.326' N, 065 17.979' W

It had been far too long since our snorkel gear had gotten wet. Between housesitting, algebra teaching, library duties, pool cleaning, card playing, weather watching, and boat chores, the weeks have simply slipped by without a single visit with the fishes. To be fair, waters churned up by recent tropical systems and reports of our favorite snorkel areas still thick with purple jellyfish made for good excuses to justify our long absence from our favorite pastime.

Well, today the lengthy moratorium was finally lifted as we went snorkeling at Playa Melones. Although a larger group of people from the Culebra Card Club were slated to join us, morning showers kept folks close to home. We did, however, stop to invite Rick and Debbie from s/v Miss Heidi to tag along as we kayaked by their boat. With the sun high in the sky and the waters a perfect shade of turquoise, Rick and Debbie rounded the point in their dinghy to find us treating our kayaks like lounge chairs. We were in no obvious hurry to break the still surface of the crystal clear water.



Once we finally got our lazy bodies into the water, it was glorious. Like a visit with old friends, the usual cast of characters abounded. Sergeant majors, four-eye and banded butterflys, yellowtails, blue tangs, parrotfish, and angelfish were sighted in scores. As a rare treat, a porcupine fish was swimming about in the open (we most frequently see their big eyes peeking out from within coral caverns). We also made a sighting of something new, a Yellowline Arrow Crab.



Sheryl has finally had an opportunity to update her Flickr photos so you will find a new link at the top left corner of this site. Note that we have been reduced to sharing a single computer because my laptop died the other day. Our resident computer expert, John (Caribbean Computer Company), suggested that it is likely to be a failed motherboard. It looks like I will be shopping for a cheap replacement on eBay over the coming weeks. Until then, postings may be limited as I would hate for my technologically jinxed fingers to spend too much time in contact with our precious remaining laptop.