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Once again we had a nice sleep and we woke up at 9 am. Craig immediately put the coffee on. We headed out to the patio and looked down at the beach. People stake out a desirable location early in the morning, and some of them looked like they had already been there for hours. We sipped our coffee while enjoying the gorgeous view of the turquoise ocean. Craig made his signature "Craig McMuffins" (omelettes with bacon and cheese on English muffins) which were absolutely delicious. We washed them down with orange juice.
After finishing breakfast, we went down to the beach. We selected three beach chairs and then Craig and I did some snorkeling on the southern end of the beach. We saw all kinds of coral, and a really interesting fish with a yellow tail and coloration that was a gradient between black and royal blue. It had iridescent turquoise spots on its head and was very pretty. I dubbed it "my favorite fish" and I became obsessed with trying to get a good underwater photo of it. We also saw a camouflaged mudskipper type of fish on the sandy bottom of the ocean. The sunlight was projecting interesting patterns on everything below the water's surface. We swam out toward where the calm waters of the bay met the more chaotic open ocean, and Craig pointed out a sea turtle. I followed it into a little turbulent cove and managed to snap a single photo of it before it swam away. We had heard that there were turtles at Secret Harbour, but had never seen one ourselves. The area where we had seen the turtle was pretty choppy, and it was difficult to swim against the current. We turned around and headed back toward the shore, into the protected bay. We snorkeled some more, really enjoying the sunny day and the wide variety of fish that we were seeing. There were no other snorkelers around, and it was very peaceful. Steve took a walk to the bar to get bushwhackers, and when he arrived on the beach with them we got out of the water, sat down in our chairs, and enjoyed a nice frosty drink. When we were sufficiently dried off, we went back to the room for a while. St. Thomas is really the only place we go (with the exception of Guatemala) where our days are not fully scheduled. It is rare for us to be away from home and not have a lot of activities. This was all down time, and I found it strange not to have a myriad of things to write in my journal. Today was Sunday, and the Patriots would be playing at 5:00 (4:00 at home). We decided to take one last dip in the ocean before the game, and went down to the beach for a quick swim. Then we went back to the room to watch the Patriots and the Steelers. Our room had a large flat screen TV on a movable stand. We positioned it so that we could watch the game from the patio, and it worked out perfectly. Reluctant to miss much of the game, I went down to the jetty to get some sunset photos. I could see Craig and Steve on the balcony watching the game, and I figured I would be able to tell from their reactions if I missed any important plays. On my way back to the room I noticed a small lizard sitting on top of a sign, and took a picture of him. When I got back to the room and back in front of the TV, we called to order calzones from Señor Pizza in Red Hook. Craig and Steve ordered the Meat Lovers and I got "white", with lots of cheese, onions, and green peppers. It was delivered and we ate out on the balcony while watching the end of the game. After only abuot two bites, Steve suddenly didn't feel very well and couldn't really eat much. We put our leftovers into the refrigerator, at which point we realized that we were out of milk and would need some for coffee as well as breakfast tomorrow. Craig and I made a quick mission to Food Center to pick some up. The location really was perfect, and we were easily back at the room half an hour later. Steve still wasn't feeling well when we got back, so We sat in the room, where he was comfortable in the air conditioning, watching "60 Minutes" followed by "The Amazing Race." Then we watched some Sunday Night Football until we could no longer keep our eyes open. We went to bed at around midnight. |
 Turtle  Snorkeling at Secret Harbour  My "favorite fish"  Sunset at Secret Harbour  |
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