A lovely day on the water!

It was different ... somehow. The morning was ... unusual. The song birds were chirping loudly, the sun was shining, the boat was ... still. Wow! What a change, as the harbor was calm! Truly, it a gorgeous day today, at long last, with light winds and lots of sunshine, and we were SO grateful! It was actually rather interesting how loud the song birds were, and we so reveled in hearing them, it was delightful. Ron was up early, as always, but today he was geared up, ready and waiting to get picked up by Valentine's Dive shop for a morning of diving. Then, just when we were lamenting how late the dive boat seemed to be, Shawne, the dive master from Valentine's came by on his bicycle, with the news that the others scheduled on the dive boat were no-shows. Thus, the dive boat wasn't going out. BUMMER! 

After a flurry of discussion, Shawne headed back to return to work at the dive shop, despite our pleas to have him join us. (We were NOT about to waste such a beautiful day, and wanted to head out ourselves.) Shawne was bummed, wanting to dive, so we agreed to wait until he called us if anything changed -- perhaps he could join us, depending on the situation at the dive shop. SO, Ron and I got our tender ready: he prepped his dive stuff, I made sandwiches for a picnic lunch aboard, then grabbed my dry bag, stowed my books, journal and camera, still being on "do-not-dive" status. Just as we were wondering when Shawne would call, happily, he showed up! He was free until noon so was able to dive, and off we went! Nothing like a private dive charter aboard our own boat with a local dive guide!!

Shawne and Ron, enroute to the dive site

We went to a dive site called the Plateau, just south of the Glass Bridge on Eleuthera. It was a treat to have Shawne along...he's personable and just fun to be around. As we came out of the Harbour Island cut, I immediately noticed that the megayacht Pelorus was already gone....it came and went in just a day, oddly enough. (Too big a fish for these waters, apparently!) Anyway, I just turned my attention to the water and enjoyed the sights along the coast as we went, commenting on this one large "resort" on the cliffs of eastern Eleuthera, only to have Shawne tell us that the dwelling was actually a home owned by Tom Jones, the British singer! It looks like a castle from the water, let me tell you --- again, you just never know who will pop up here, apparently!

Post dive, Ron came up raving about the dive site, which was a delight. Shawne kept telling him it was a great site, and he was right! Not that I wasn't conflicted, having resigned myself to being aboard. I didn't mind being the boat babe and anchor wench (so to speak!), but I am really looking forward to being able to dive again once I get clearance to do so!! The waters here off Harbour Island are so clear, and the reef profile so pretty, that it was hard to watch the bubbles going down. Still, wonderful to have the boys get a dive in, on such a gorgeous day!

Afterwards, we dropped Shawne off at the dock in time for him to return to work, and...decided it was too pretty a day to let it go. We grabbed the fishing rods and headed out to try our luck. Now, you must know that we are total neophytes when it comes to fishing...we definitely need to learn a lot about it!  But, we figured it was such a beautiful day, we wouldn't let it go to waste. Ron and I shared our picnic lunch under way as we went out the Devil's Backbone, and then proceeded offshore to put out our fishing lines. We followed the contour lines, with the simple goal to fish the drop-offs as we went. We basically just enjoyed the day, the water, the sunshine, etching our way east around the corner of Harbour Island....nothing wrong with that! 

We were going to fish all the way south, but...Ron got the jones to dive again, and....so he did! We stopped back at "The Arch" and he jumped in. I manned the boat, enjoyed more sunshine, and read more of my book while keeping an eye on his bubbles....all good! Upon return to the marina, we found that some local fishermen had come in with a nice catch of grouper and some IMMENSE lobster, so Ron procured a bit of each to bolster our supplies. (Not that the supplies are dwindling at all, mind you..!) So?? Who wants to come and enjoy the spoils??