Snorkeling Smith’s Reef

We didn’t set alarms this morning and took our time getting moving. Erica was up first and set out to explore the surrounding area. She was excited that that she spotted 3 turtles in the canal. When I got up she was already gone and Amanda was still sleeping, so I jumped in the shower and got ready for the day. When Erica got back we sat on some comfortable swinging hammocks by the pool and chatted. We eventually made our way back upstairs where we found Amanda up and moving about.

By this time Desmond, the tour guide for the North and Middle Island tour, had gotten back to me with his availability and price We all agreed we were good with what he was offering so I messaged him back. He replied that he wanted to meet us today (he didn’t specifically state it, but I’m sure it was so he could collect a down payment in cash). He said he was at the Sands Resort which was about 10 minutes away from the BnB. Erica and Amanda still had to get ready so I told him we could meet him in 45 minutes. It actually took us longer to get out the door than 45 minutes so I message him when we were leaving saying that we were on our way. He had never told us where to meet him at the Sands so we just went in the hopes he would message back. I connected to Amanda’s WiFi hotspot (I didn’t spring for cell service this trip) and he messaged that he had to go to the airport and would be back soon. We sat in the comfortable open air lobby to wait, and an hour later he finally showed up. I thought we would just have a quick conversation and hand over the cash and be on our way, but he wanted to walk us down and talk to us at the restaurant on the beach. I was starting to have timeshare sales rep vibes. We told him we didn’t want to eat at the restaurant so we just sat on some chairs by the pool. We had a quick “get to know you” conversation and we gave him cash for 50% of the tour cost. He does seem like a super friendly and and funny guy so I think Tuesday will be great. I’m just not sure why we couldn’t have the conversation in the lobby. Maybe the hotel prohibits that kind of solicitation or maybe if we would have eaten in the restaurant he would have gotten a cut or something. I don’t know.

By this time it was 1:00ish and we were hungry. Since we had so much time while we were waiting for Desmond, Erica researched places to eat and found a little sandwich and salad place called “The Tribe”. I had a chicken, caesar, bacon sandwich and Erica had a jerk chicken salad and Amanda a quiche. Erica and I split our meals which worked out great. The jerk chicken was spicier that we’re both used to, but it was still good. I enjoyed the sandwich as well.

We now finally felt we could start our adventure for the day and headed to Smith’s Reef to do some snorkeling. The water was colder than we thought it would be, but of course it was fine once you just went all in. There wasn’t a ton of fish, but we did see some. The most interesting thing I saw was a lobster. My mask kept fogging so that was quite frustrating and after a little while I decided to get out and walk the beach while they continued to snorkel. Not many treasures on this beach, but still my happy place. When Erica and Amanda got out the said they saw an interesting creature that they weren’t sure what it was. It had two legs looked like a cross between a toad and a fish . . maybe like a large tadpole. Amanda took a GoPro video and will try to show it tomorrow to her dive team so that maybe they can identify it.

We left the beach about 4:30 and set off to find some ice cream. We found a shop in Grace Bay where I had a fruit punch, Erica pineapple, and Amanda apple pie sorbet type of ice cream. It was good and refreshing. We decided to go for a little drive and Amanda navigated us to a hidden beach called Turtle Tail Beach. Here we enjoyed walking the beach and finding little sea shell treasures. Amanda even spotted a small starfish in the water. No sea glass to be found, but I did mention my quest to Desmond (our tour guide for Tuesday) and I think he’ll lead me to what I seek. It was a nice walk, but once we realized that Amanda had not re-applied sunscreen when she was done snorkeling we moved a little quicker to get her out of the sun.

On the way back I wanted to stop at a different grocery store to grab some things for dinner so we wouldn’t have to go back out once we got back to the AirBnB. We picked up bread, peanut butter, and jelly and some pasta and sauce so we would have options. Impulsively I also bought some danishes for breakfast. They were $7 but I figured in town it would probably be $7 for one danish where here I got 4.

Also on the way back Amanda led us to a little sight known as the “The Hole”. This is a huge sinkhole just off the side of the road. Conveniently it is also a location of an earth geocache. Earth geocaches are typically not my favorite because they come with a little bit of homework, but this one wasn’t too bad. The hole was pretty impressive and I’m glad we stopped. Amanda didn’t even know about the geocache when she had picked it as a stop.

Back at the BnB I did my earth cache “homework” while Amanda went through her snorkeling GoPro photos. For as hungry as I was when I felt the need to stop at the grocery store, I ended up only wanting a PB&J and made myself and Amanda one.

Tonight I taught the girls Swoop. It’s a very easy card game to learn and they picked it up right away. You play until a player hits 250 points, but after 8 rounds nobody was close to going out and it was getting late. We put a pause on the game to be resumed tomorrow. Current scores is Jess 95, Erica 124, and Amanda 177.

Tomorrow Amanda is going on a diving excursion that goes from 8:15 to about 2:00. There were no open spots for Erica and I to join to snorkel while she dived, so we are going to head to Leeward Beach for some beach treasure hunting and then plan to head to Bight Beach for more snorkeling.

Stats of the Day

Steps: 5,710
Seashells Picked Up: 4
Geocaches Logged: 1