<< Day 7  Day 8: Sunday, September 5, 2004

It was six o'clock and Lara woke me up. I got my camera and snorkel gear ready and headed for Caneel Beach. This is where I saw the barracuda(2? or might have been the same one in two spots) the first day. It was very peaceful, except for the ever-present seagull calls. The sun was behind the mountains to the south which made the visibility a bit less than perfect. I could see fine, but my camera complained about the low light levels. I didn't bother switching the ISO, which I probably should have experimented with in hindsight. Anyway, the flash was on auto and I took a few with the flash.

Caneel Bay: Tail-less Southern Stingray with pal

In less than five minutes in the water, I saw a southern stingray! It was probably about 2 feet wide but was missing its tail. It had a pretty large fish swimming just above it wherever it went. I took a few pictures and then headed to the point on the right side of the bay. The reef seemed less impressive to me now that I had snorkeled more coral-plentiful reefs elsewhere on the island. Nevertheless it had a lot of cool stuff to look at, with some nice elkhorn coral and a bunch of colorful fish.

Caneel Bay: BARRACUDA!!!

I kept heading toward the tip of the point, looking all around for any sign of the barracuda. Looking around me I turned my face forward again and there he was! He was about 10 feet away, which is quite intimidating, but this guy was only about 2 feet long. I think they're territorial, so this was probably the same one I saw on the first day. He started swimming toward shore and I followed him. It was obvious that he wanted nothing to do with me and would swim away whenever I got close. I took some pictures and then lost him when I took a split second to check around that I wasn't getting too close to coral in my reckless chase after the fish. They blend in so well with the water and all it took to lose him was half a second.

Caneel Bay: Barracuda

Caneel Bay: Barracuda

I was excited because I managed to get some pictures. Satisfied that I had a good last snorkel I headed back in. After a minute or so of heading back in, the barracuda was in front of me again. I chased him for a couple of seconds and then he stopped and turned, going counter-clockwise from me, toward deeper water. He opened his mouth and showed me his teeth. I took some cool pictures, one with his mouth open! He kept on toward deeper water and I let him go without a chase this time...I figured he deserved to be left alone.

Caneel Bay: Crab Alley...every morning we went by here on the way to breakfast and there were tons of large crabs who would scurry into their holes when we got close

After taking a shower we headed to the breakfast buffet for the last time. It was so sad. I had an omelet, waffles with powdered sugar, and bacon for the 8^th day in a row. This has been a rough week. After breakfast we checked out the Internet room and I checked the box score for the UVa./Temple game the day before...44-14...awesome, but it was Temple.

Caneel Bay: Ferry dock

Caneel Bay: Ferry...no, please don't make me leave!!!

Checkout was a breeze...they take care of your luggage for you and bring it to the ferry. We spent about an hour chilling out on the second floor porch waiting for the ferry. It was very nice but it was torture watching other people on the beach and in the water as we were about to leave. The ferry ride was nice...it was shorter this time...turns out for whatever reason they took us to another port and drove us via Taxi to Charlotte Amalie. Lara and I agreed we would have rather traveled most of it by water again. Like much of the Caribbean, St. Thomas appeared pretty run-down and it showed on the taxi ride to the airport. We passed two K-Marts, Wendy's, McDonalds and other stuff...civilization is no fun. Customs was painless...we're now waiting in the St. Thomas airport for our flight to San Juan and then D.C.

Southern Stingray	Barracuda	Barracuda	Barracuda	Barracuda	Barracuda
Barracuda	Barracuda	Barracuda	Barracuda	Caneel Bay grounds	Caneel Bay grounds
Caneel Bay grounds: Hermit Crab	Caneel Bay grounds	Bye Honeymoon Beach!	Bye Cruz Bay!	Bye St. John! I'll be back!	A random Caribbean island near Puerto Rico