Snorkeling with the Rents

Courtesy: http://best-diving.org/stkitts-diving-nevis

With all the activities we packed into one week while Julie's parents were here I couldn't possibly get them squished into one post or even two posts, but I wanted to share with everyone some of our pictures from snorkeling.

St. Kitts has quite a few different snorkeling spots and although you may not see the huge coral reefs you see in other Caribbean destinations you are guaranteed to see some interesting sea life. If you are willing to do some searching you will find some beautiful spots too. (From my research I believe a lot of the lack of great snorkeling spots is because of the lack of artificial reefs that most other places build.)

Snorkeling is definitely one of my favorite hobbies now and has been since I tried it for the first time in The Bahamas in the early 2000s. Julie and I did some more on our honeymoon in Cancun last year and even snorkeled in a Cenote. I find snorkeling very relaxing and am always amazed at the diversity of all the fish and sea life. I mean who comes up we these things?? A human couldn't dream up some of the animals you see in the ocean. It's simply humbling.

The difference now is that we can do it almost as often as we like. We like to share our favorite spots with our visiting guests and the rents were no exception. Julie's mom even bought a full wet suit because she doesn't handle the cold water very well. Her only request was that she wanted to see a sea turtle. We were pretty sure we could meet that request.

Our first snorkeling location was Timothy Beach. Southern Timothy Beach to be precise. If you want to see some sea turtles chances are darn good that you'll see at least one along to way to Dolphin Cove, as long as you stay near the shoreline where rocks and corral serve as protection for the turtles.

We got suited up and Patti, Julie's mom found it a little more difficult to put her wet suit on, especially after it got wet. Julie's dad called the suit the "Orca Suit" and I guess I can kind of see why. All was well though and we hit the water.

Julie helping her mom get her "Orca suit" on.

I forgot to mention that I don't have a waterproof camera but Jim, Julie's dad did bring his and man did it do the job. Just look at these pictures:

Seafans

 

 

Starfish.

It didn't take long before our wildlife spotter extradanaire, Julie spotted a sea turtle.

And then another one:

These guys are faster than you think.

We all saw interesting sealife during the snorkeling including Spotted Eagle Rays, Starfish, Pufferfish, and many more. Julie's mom got to see and snorkel with the turtles so our mission was accomplished.

I wanted to mention that another fantastic snorkeling spot is Shitten Bay, as I may have said in the last post. You can't get there unless you are on a boat though. While snorkeling out there on our sailing trip we spotted an amazing new sight —A large Octopus. Apparently they're nocturnal but this guy was hiding near a rock, puffed up, and changed colors right before our eyes. He didn't squirt his ink but he didn't look happy. Did you know that Caribbean Reef Octopuses only have a lifespan of around a year to a year and a half, according to most marine biology experts.

Their eyes are really creepy. Too bad we didn't have our camera with us but this looks just like him. Photo Courtesy:funscubadiver.com

 My next step is to become dive certified so I can get out to the deeper water and see some shipwrecks and some more reef systems. Anyone want to join me?