Tuesday, May 19 -- Boating!!

I know what you're thinking -- and, yes, this is a lot more powerful than a surfski, but a lot smaller than the King Kamehameha Club yacht. But Skipper Larry was in his element. Whatever the equivalent to the "happy biker" with bugs on his teeth, that was Skipper Larry at the helm.

Here he is moving wakeless out of the harbor.

Then, whoa, we picked up speed and we're on our way! We're heading to St. John's and the bays or coves where they can snorkel there.

I think I better sit back or I'm likely to be flung overboard. Does this thing have a seatbelt???

Ahhhh, this is the life . . . .

At the first cove/bay on St. John's that Larry went to, way around to the north side of that island, where they stopped to check out snorkeling,

(Note: that's a pretty goodly distance for a non-swimmer to attempt to get close enough to the shore to snorkel.) I was left on board with golf while Larry snorkeled toward shore to see if it was worth golf's getting in the water. I tried my hand at the helm . . . .

I could handle this little rowboat on steroids . . . .

Oh, Larry? What's the report?

This is a LOOOOOOOONG way out from the shore for golf to paddle in on her little Window Surf Rider Kid's Raft (see the 7th item down the list here http://www.poolcenter.com/pooltoys_inflatable_mattresses.htm) -- you may recall she can't swim, so she has to float and just put her face down in the water. Larry decided this was too far for her to have to paddle all the way in, snorkel along the shore, and then paddle back. And he reported he didn't see much at this point worth her making the tiring (for her!) effort.

In the meantime, . . . . "I'm king of the world!!!"

No, it CAN'T be time to head back yet!!

No, it wasn't. They went to several other coves/bays and finally found one where Larry could tie up to a mooring that wasn't too far for golf to go in, so she was out of the boat in a flash and paddling toward shore. She got close in and headed down the shore awhile, seeing lots of fish and coral. But she realized going along the shore that she was going with the current and therefore getting back might be a bit of a problem, so she turned around and came back to the boat.

As she was getting out of the water and handing her fins, snorkel, mask, and float up to Larry, Larry told her, "You realize your air mattress has a leak?" It was half-deflated. golf looked with horror at Larry. It was a good thing she had headed back when she did or she would have ended up flailing to the shore where she would have had to wait for Larry to swim in and bring her a life jacket. She could not have gotten back to the boat without assistance.

With the Band-Aids they had in golf's tote, they attempted to "patch" the float. No dice, couldn't get an airtight seal. golf was beginning to get a little depressed, as the purpose of this trip to motor over to St. John's was to find places to snorkel. If she didn't have a float, she couldn't snorkel. Larry pulled out an inflatable life vest and simply inflated it by blowing into the nozzle. Not ideal, but it would support her. They headed back toward St. Thomas and on the way found another cove where boats were moored closer to shore. So they went in there and golf had a blast!!

So, they ended up spending most of this day motoring around looking for places to snorkel and not really finding any good places, mostly due to the distance from mooring to shoreline. Still, it was a pretty day, Skipper Larry was happy, and they enjoyed about five hours out on the water seeing the scenery of St. John.

Heading back to St. Thomas, Larry wanted to get a picture of his First Mate (not me . . . . obviously, this is golf.)

Then they drove around to the bay below the apartment where they were staying. So here's the view up from the water to the deck of their apartment (shown in Sunday's pictures, which showed the view down from their deck):

So back to the harbor and turn the boat it. A fun day for all -- I was the only one who didn't get a little sunburned.