Life aboard is good as we get to snorkel every day--sometimes twice per day! We have found several "new" sites this year that are exciting and different. One of the sites is an intricate series of caves and caverns that leads to the outer reef of the Holandes Cays. For this snorkel, access is tricky and you must weave your way toward the outer reef--dodging shallow sand bars and scattered coral heads. Closer to the reef, the depths increase with some nice sandy patches for anchoring the dinghy. A "slot canyon" with large overhangs and deep caves leads out to the edge of the outer reef. When the winds and seas are up, snorkeling this site would be impossible. But when the weather is calm, as it has been recently, this is a GREAT experience. The canyon is about 4 feet wide at the top with lots of different corals at the surface. About 4' down, the slot opens up with large overhangs and huge caves. When diving down, there are tons of fish--including some nice "dinner sized" snapper, an occasional nurse shark, and other creatures, like lobsters and HUGE bearded fireworms. (Typically, the fireworms are about 3-4" long, but in this canyon, they are 10-14" long and perhaps bigger.) If you are brave, you can dive down and swim thru a cave and up into another opening (or "vent") in the reef for another breath of air. The first time into another portion is a bit intimidating as you can see the light, but you have to hope that the opening is big enough to poke your head out! Luckily I sink when I let out my air as one of the small openings was just big enough for my head and snorkel to poke out, but not wide enough for my shoulders. This meant that I had to breathe out and "sink" without doing the typical jackknife type dive to dive down in order to get back out again. Another of the sites is called "the waterfalls" by the cruisers here. At this site--again on the outer reef and accessible only in calmer conditions--the waves crashing into the outer reef spray high into the air and come over an overhang with a nice air pocket. Swimming against the current created by the crashing surf (the waves crash here even in calm conditions as the seas on the outer reef are always running 3-5' even when the winds are dead calm), you dip under the surface so your snorkel clears the overhanging ledge and come up into the air pocket. As the waves crash on the reef, the water rushes over the overhang creating a thunderous roar and a beautiful waterfall that you are looking at from the "inside". It's always a good idea to have a "look" into the small cave created by the overhang before going "in" as the day we did it, there was a large nurse shark resting on the bottom--wouldn't want to inadvertently sit on it! And, of course, we have continued our night snorkel excursions since the first experience was so fantastic. Last night we had a glorious night snorkel under a full moon. We saw octopus, tons of lobsters--including a slipper lobster, several eels out--many free swimming, spider crabs, along with urchins, sea cucumbers, and brittle stars out "walking". One of the other divers came up and nearly bumped into a huge sea turtle--scaring herself and it so much that it actually "jumped" out of the water making a huge splash! This night snorkeling has become a "tradition" with a 'raft-up' of dinghies with hot chocolate spiked with rum, Baileys, or some other spirit and a snack--last night we had chocolate chip brownies and banana bread. It's a tough life, but someone's gotta do it.