Under the Sea!

Under the sea Under the sea Darling it's better Down where it's wetter Take it 
from me Up on the shore they work all day Out in the sun they slave away While 
we devotin' Full time to floatin' Under the sea... thanks for obliging me some 
"Little Mermaid" music! But let me tell ya, I devoted a ton of time "under the 
sea" today. In the morning I spent 4 hours snorkeling. We went to two different 
spots and the water was crystal clear and the areas were teeming with fish. 
Funny side story is we all were hoping to see a turtle but didn't and then when 
we got back to the dock, there was one floating right behind our boat! (See pic) 
One of the spots they take us to is the Captain Cook monument. This is the spot 
on Valentine's Day in 1779 where the British explorer James Cook was killed at 
the age of 50 in a petty skirmish over a stolen row boat! I add these details 
for my Trivia team in case they get this question while I'm away traveling! The 
pic of the white obelisk is where he died and also had the best snorkeling! LOL 
The cool thing about this snorkel group is they take you out in one of those 
rigid-hull inflatable boats with only about 10 people so they fly across the 
water (and sometimes in the air!) And they're also small enough to go into 
several of the sea caves along the way which was really cool. I enclosed a pic 
of one of the sea caves and a shot of the rocky coast line. It was so beautiful. 
They also stopped to show us the "Ghost of Red Hill". See if you can pick out 
the eyes, nose and mouth of the "ghost" in the rock. 
 
But then came evening.... and I did the one of the coolest things. I did a night 
snorkel with the Manta Rays!! It was unreal. All these divers below (I need to 
learn to dive!) held these bright underwater spotlights and we had some from 
above and the light draws these millions of plankton which then draws the Rays. 
They were so beautiful. Some with wing spans of over 14 feet. They'd just open 
their wide mouths and eat away. They were so graceful just turning and diving. I 
don't have underwater pictures but just Google "Manta ray night dives" and you 
can watch one. It's breathtaking. 
 
Well, I need to dry out since I've been under water so much and also get to bed 
since I'm tired! I think tomorrow will be just an exploring day. Happy Friday! 
 
Jeff