CURRENT LOCATION: Tied to a mooring ball near Cayo Pirata, in Ensenada Honda, Culebra, Puerto Rico

18 18.400' N, 065 17.842' W

Chris and Gretchen, friends from North Carolina, joined us aboard Prudence today. They are brave souls who have volunteered to be our first overnight guests on the boat. As a part of this experiment, they will have the pleasure of sleeping on a cramped pull-out settee, next to our salon table, and they will get to experience the communal familiarity of four adults sharing a very tiny head. On the plus side, we will have the liberty of going out sailing without the constraint of having to return them to a land-based bed each night.

The main activity for day one had already been suggested by our conversations at breakfast the previous day. Gretchen had never been snorkeling and it has been many years since Chris breathed through a tube. The couple purchased their own snorkel gear specifically for this trip, and they were anxious to try it out.

The ladies took the kayaks over to our favorite snorkel spot, while Chris and I took the dingy to the municipal dock and walked through town with our snokel gear in hand. We met up with the girls on the reefs off Playa Melones and both of our guests had a wonderful time exploring the wonders of Culebra's underwater world. Gretchen's smile was ear-to-ear as she exclaimed, "It is like being inside a huge aquarium!" I feel certain that there will be more snorkeling included in our plans for the days ahead.

Until then, here are a few good underwater pics from this particular trip below the waves...

a Juvenile Damselfish:


a really big Lobster:


a Smooth Trunkfish (Photo courtesy of Chris & Gretchen):