Given we'd just recently been to Heaven (Hog Heaven that is) we decided to spend some time in...? Why, the (S)Hallow Depths of the World Directly Under Us!!

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"Looks like some nice weather coming for the next few days" says my Capt'N, "Why don't we head out for some swimming and some snorkelling?"

"Sounds like fun" I replied, "And bonus, we can have ourselves some Zero Dollar Days", I joked.

Given the recent Sint Maarten Spending Spree, where Banyan got way more toys than we'd budgeted for, we were seriously in need of some Zero Dollar Days.

We were anchored in Leverick Bay, and the plan was to head around the Northern end of Prickly Pear Island, inch our way in behind the reefs of Eustatia Sound, and find a parking spot for a couple of days.

"Make it so" we said !!

Not even 40 minutes later we were anchored by Eustatia Island, in some amazingly pristine waters, with a view of this.



The island you see? Richard Branson's Necker Island, which you can Google yourselves, but where, if we had $62,000 U.S. per day, we might perhaps consider lounging about by the pools with 28 of our friends, not to mention 60 staff to wait on our every wish and desire, all while relaxing in "Bali-type of 360 degree view" accommodations.

"Instead" I laughed and teased "we're enjoying Zero Dollar Days in 40 feet of space, right m'luv?"

After lunch we geared up with our masks and fins, and jumped into the beautiful, crystal clear waters. So clear we could see the ripples of the sand formations. So clear we could see the sandy brown bumps of the turtles as they swam by. So clear, we could see our anchor quite perfectly set, wouldn't you agree?



Swimming around we saw this baby ray quietly gliding along, disrupting the sand around him to try and dig up some feasts of food.



A little later in the day we took our dinghy to the reef,



dropped our anchor, jumped in feet first and swam towards the mild breaking waves as they hit the shallow waters of the reef.

There wasn't all that much fish to see, and the ones we did see were just little baby ones. But the coral formations, the Coral Formations were... Dazzling.

I later found out that they are called Elkhorn Coral,



the incredible underwater seemingly jagged edges,



look very much like never ending expanse of giant deer antlers,



all of it breath-taking. Dazzling in fact !!

According to some googling, Elkhorn Coral used to be "one of the most abundant species of coral in the Caribbean and the Florida Keys. Since 1980, an estimated 90-95% of elkhorn coral has been lost."

Sad. Very, very sad. When you live with and swim in Nature, with views such as this,



it makes me so very sad to know that life such as this,



and views such as this,



are disappearing. And there's worse out there, I know. Le Sigh.

Look what we saw hiding,



a baby Nurse Shark. Haven't seen one of these since The Bahamas !!

We did swim with the Blue Tangs for a while,



they didn't seem to mind, not one little bit and we did the UnderWater Undulating Dance with them. Fun.

A little later Dave had a face-to-face showdown with this feisty little creature, trying to stare him down as if to say "Hey, this is my Turf, go away!"



Back near Banyan, I was swimming along. Enjoying the quiet, the solitude, the water. When suddenly, a dazzling dark grey triangular shape starts to emerge mere feet below me.

My first reaction was "Oh Shit and WTF" combined, and then as the shape came into focus, I could see the beautiful spots on his back, the beautiful pointed nose and face, and my next thought was "A Spotted Eagle Ray... Oh Wow"!



He was huge, much larger than I. I immediately surfaced to try and find Dave, and I yelled out loud, "Dave, back here.. A Ray!!" and quickly dove back down to keep him in sight.

Amazingly Dave heard me, swam back in my pointed finger direction, and snapped this WOW photo.



And as we feasted on supper that night, (BBQ Steak Tenderloin, baked potatoes with sour cream, and a fresh veggie medley)



we were still talking about all we'd seen, all we'd experienced...



Still BeDazzled by the Beauty of It All.