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First day to have our place back to “ourselves”. We both slept in a little bit and rolled out at the same time. I have ‘my’ bathroom back now – so we each moseyed off to do our wake up thing. I finished up, came and started coffee and headed for the patio… but what to my freshly opened eyes do I see ??? Turtle tracks…. lots and lots of them…… 4 different sets of new tracks. Our little beach must have got awfully busy after we went to bed last night~! Looks like 3 of them nested with one of them making more of an exploratory kind of trip — as the tracks came up, made a big loop and went back out to the sea without any kind of digging~ Locations have been duly noted and we’ll track them accordingly. You will see in the pictures – our nice neat beach is just absolutely thick with turtle tracks and holes now. Love it~! We lounged around enjoying our once again quiet time together, having a bite to eat and watching a couple episodes of Blue Bloods before the internet crapped out. Then cable crapped out…… Dammit Emmit~! Some new friends pinged us and said they were headed up to Blues Backyard and ‘why don’t we join them’? So we put on some traveling clothes and in short order was sitting up at our favorite place with our new friends. They had friends visiting from the states, so we all sat around discussing the island and just enjoying each others company. My Queen said we would stay for just a drink or two…. LOL … now’s that was some funny stuff right there~! The drink or two turned into too many to count and we finally agreed it was time to head back for some A/C.

Back at the condo, we got back into our comfy’s and munched on left over KFC while we enjoyed some more Blue Bloods (cable & internet finally came back on) Time came for me to get on here and run my spiel for a little bit. We took a smoke break before I started and was very happy to see another big turtle, working her way up the beach……. we gave her time to find a place she liked and start her digging.  I started writing and we went out occasionally to check in on her. On the last check in, she was gone, with her hole barely started. Not sure why she changed her mind – but hope she comes back later to finish what she started. Not a lot of new pictures for you today — so might put up some from the past couple of days in case I missed putting some up – or some you may have missed. A new day tomorrow — we’ll see what it brings~!

(Happy Birthday to my ‘Mouse’)

Good night Ya’ll —– Thankx for stopping in~!

 

 

 

Rolled out again at around 06:30 after a pretty peaceful nights sleep…. my Queen followed shortly afterward and we walked out to a pouring rain and wind….. We enjoyed a little bit of solitude watching the storm as Rachael slept in. We were happy about it as we figured she would need the rest for a long day. We [at the time] didn’t know the half of it. She finally rolled out around 10:00 0’clock and ‘woke up’ with us watching the rain…… We determined we needed to leave around 12:15 to pick up her rescue pooch (she is taking a small piece of the island home with her) before heading to the airport. I fed her a nice breakfast hoping it would fuel her long day before we headed out. We picked up Juice (her new dog) and headed for the air port. Her airlines (Spirit) had already changed her departure times, several times…. so it was kind of a shot in the dark when she would actually leave. We got her to the air port, luggage checked in and all precautions checked on for the pooch. Because we can’t go in with her — we waited until we knew she had cleared customs and TSA before we climbed back into DD and headed back for the condo. We both agreed we were hungry, so we made a pit stop at KFC and pick up some material to munch on. As we got into our ‘comfies’ and settled in with smashed taters, coleslaw, corn on the cob, good greasy chicken and apple pies…. we had several up dates from Rachael saying the airlines was still bouncing her departure times around. Last we heard, she was in Ft. Lauderdale and preparing to board the next plane. We made pigs of ourselves while we lounged and watched multiple episodes of Blue Bloods. We are now waiting to hear Rachael has made it to her final destination.

We had another big beautiful visitor last night~! I only took a couple of pictures because I was dead ass tired from the previous nights episode….. so enjoy these pictures. I’ll try and get some more up tomorrow night….. right now, I’m tired and ready for some serious sack time. I got a LOT of response from the video of the previous nights video of the turtle laying her eggs ((apologies for having to go to FB to see them))….. I’m really happy you all are enjoying the videos shots and I look forward to learning better editing techniques to get you better pictures and video’s. Keep the feedback coming – I love hearing from you~!

Good night Ya’ll —– Thankx for stopping in~!

These pictures don’t do her justice…. it’s hard to tell but she is almost 4′ long and weighs probably 250 lbs~!!

I LOVE this shot~!!!

This one too~!

Rachael and her rescue pup – Juice~! Getting ready to head back to the main land.

 

I went out last night around 22:30 for my last smoke before bed (everybody else had already crashed) As I opened the patio door, I was hit with the unmistakable smell of freshly dug sand……. I lit a cigarette and scanned the beach with a muted light. A mere 10′ from the patio I saw the outline of a big turtle. I quickly shut the light off and let my eyes adjust to the darkness. She was just getting started on her nest, so I went in and worked on a red filter for my light. I tried multiple options until I finally come up with one I liked and could use.  I took my ‘new’ filtered light out, and quietly walked out and around behind the turtle. I turned on my light and crept up to her, not wanting to alarm or disturb her. I could see her very well and she was not the least bit disturbed by the light. Over the next hour I experimented with what I could do with the light without bothering her. I got some really good video of her digging her nesting hole for her eggs. I have already shared it on FB….. I also got video of her actually laying her eggs~! She dropped what looked to be close to 50 eggs. It was fascinating to sit and watch her. I am satisfied, she had no idea I was back there. It was absolutely amazing~!! The video gets a little grainy because the camera was having a hard time focusing…. but you can easily see the eggs. I took another video of her covering the eggs up. She spent an easy hour covering them back up. The video’s are all much to “big” to get up on here – so you’ll have to go to FB to see them [[sorry]]. I sat out there, kneeling in the sand, dripping with sweat and covered in pi$$ ants to get those video and pictures – but worth.every.second.of it~! I am still learning how to use my photo editor to get the redness out of the shots and keep the other colors – so bear with me there. Finally came in, took a shower and dropped into bed about 01:30 this morning….

Rolled back out of bed about 07:30 ready for another day with Rachael. Decision had been made, we were to go uptown for breakfast and get some more shopping done. Had breakfast at Toast Diner again – Meals were just as delicious as always and we all left with full bellies and smiles on our faces. Shopping turned into a much longer venture than any of us planned, but mission accomplished~! Hot and tired and some ominous looking clouds to convince us just to head back to the condo for some conditioned air and relax. Good call, as it started pouring shortly after we got back…….

Ordered out for dinner…… bellies once again full, we watched some Blue Bloods and now the girls are watching Beach Front Bargain hunt. We go out for the occasional smoke and scan the beach for turtles (big and small), none yet…. but we keep looking~! Rachael heads back tomorrow. We’ll miss her – but at the same time – it’ll be nice to have the place back to ourselves again….kind of a double edged sword.

Good night Ya’ll …… Thankx for stopping in~!

So you can see what the originals look like……..

Digging the nest….

Eggs~!

Slinging sand during the cover up~!

Me and Mom were up bright and early to get our ‘old folk’ stuff out of the way before we launched into [what was to be] a very busy day.  We had scheduled an ATV tour through the lower part of the rain forest that we have here on our beautiful island and then on up to some of the higher elevations on the island. We have done this tour with another daughter and family but was looking forward to this tour none the less. We arrived much earlier than we were supposed to because I am an idiot and had the wrong time written down….. so we used the opportunity to hit Polly’s…a local establishment that has a really nice breakfast menu. We filled our bellies and then went out to enjoy the view that is offered by the West end of the island and the Frederiksted pier. That being done, we headed back to our assigned appointment with Gecko Island ATV tours. We filled out required paperwork, got our helmets and soon headed out to the location of the ATVs’.  After a short briefing, we climbed aboard our ATV’s and headed out. Beautiful scenery going through our local rain forest. The trail was muddy this time due to recent rains, so there was ample mud puddle splashing and slipping around corners. Arrived at the first ‘break’ area and Sean, acting as our guide, did a bang up job, telling us about the local sites and some of the history of the area as well as offering drinks and snacks. We finally loaded back up and headed for our next stop. A big sugar mill located at the top of one of the taller mountains in the area. Fascinating history – that people of all ages can enjoy. After a nice break and history lesson, we loaded up and headed back to our starting point. Sean and Cynthia [owners] did a wonderful job throughout the tour~! We will definitely be back to do it again with them~!

We headed across the road (where the tour ends) to Rhythm’s Bar, located on Rainbow beach, for a little bit to munch on and some icy cold adult liquid refreshments to wash the dust and road dirt down. Happily, we were joined by Sean and Cynthia and sat and talked about how much fun we had. We finally left them to head out to our next adventure…… Mont Pellier Domino Club. I have heard a ton about this place, but had yet been out to it. After a long missed turn drive – we finally found it. The place is noted for it’s ROTI (which they were now out of), it’s Wannamama (or something like that)  drink (which they happily still had plenty of) and their beer drinking pigs. Sadly they were out of O’Doul’s……. so we didn’t get to do the ‘pig thing’.  The pig thing consists of taking a full can of beer, shaking it vigorously and then feeding it to the pigs. Supposed to be quite the show when they bite into the can. Apparently for years, they were fed regular beer, but PETA or one of them other feel good, goody-goody operations decided, that getting the pigs hammered wasn’t a good thing and threw one of their fits… so now the place can only feed them the non-alcoholic beer (which is VERY hard to find on the island)…… talk about cruel and unusual punishment~!!!  We stayed and had a couple of drinks before heading for Blues for a bite to eat and another drink or six……. 😉

Now back safe and sound sucking up that wonderfully fabulous conditioned air…. we are talking about activities for tomorrow. I think it starts with breakfast at Toast Diner…… which means at a bare minimum a decent Bloody Mary to start the day…… so I’m excited~!!!  Yea-Rah island life~!!!

Too many pix for one posting – so more tomorrow — OOOOHHH~!  We had another late night visitor  last night too…..  # 27~!

Good night Ya’ll —– Thankx for stopping in~!

 

 

Rolled out this morning preparing for a day at the beach and an evening in a kayak for a Bioluminescent tour.  After sitting through a power outage for about 30 minutes…. we finally got some breakfast in us and headed out for the West end of the island, to close to Sandy Point. A little spot we found that has amazing visibility and really great snorkeling. Finally got near our spot only to find out they have locked up the gate we had to go through to get to it. We parked as close as we could and figured we would hoof it down the beach to get to it – but the sea surge was oddly rough, launching 4′ – 6′ waves onto a usually tranquil beach. We decided because of the waves and a distant thunderstorm, we would head north a bit to Frederiksted Fort beach. Loaded up and headed that way arriving after a quick minute drive. Waves were much calmer, but we were greeted with a huge lightening bolt followed almost immediately by a clap of the thunder. That’s all it took to run us away from there. My Queen recommended Buccaneer beach or Cramer beach, so we jumped back into DD and headed back East. A 40 minute drive and we were at the Buccaneer Resort at their beach……. massive swells have greatly rearranged that beach as well and was still being pummeled pretty good with big waves. I didn’t figure going on out to Cramer would get us any better beach, so we opted to stay there. Besides…. they have a bar and food there at Buccaneer.  Me and Rachael jumped into enjoy that wonderful water – although it was horribly stirred up from all of the waves. My bride tried to join us, but one big wave dropped her as she started in, and once she finally got stood up, she was done. Me and Rachael jumped and rode big waves for 30 minutes or so, before we decided to call it day in the water. We gathered our stuff and walked up to the bar for some liquid refreshments……. we opted to go elsewhere for food as they were strictly enforcing their no smoking policy. Struck me and the bartender as kind of odd, as we were just about the only ones on the beach…..  Grabbed our drinks and jumped into DD and headed into town. We stopped at a little Mexican place. Mom had soft taco’s, Rachael got some fries and nacho cheese – and I opted to try their Mexican pizza with beef. Everybody agreed the food was good and the drinks were cold and delicious. I was duly impressed with my pizza…. it didn’t taste anything like pizza – but very tasty none the less~ We finally came back to rinse the salt off and soak up some A/C before heading out for our kayak tour.

We arrived on time and spent the next 2 hours paddling around in a secluded bay watching the marvelous effects of the bioluminescent little critters. Dang it… already at my limit…. I’m going to leave you with this little snippet, for those of you unfamiliar with bioluminescent….. Sadly no pictures to share of it, because it was very dark – and unless you have some very high dollar camera equipment…. It’s almost impossible to get pictures of them little beggars.  ” Bioluminescence is the production and emission of light by a living organism. It is a form of chemiluminescence. Bioluminescence occurs widely in marine vertebrates and invertebrates, as well as in some fungi, microorganisms including some bioluminescent bacteria and terrestrial invertebrates such as fireflies. In some animals, the light is produced by symbiotic organisms such as Vibrio bacteria.”

When you put your hand in the water and ‘swish’ it around – these little dudes light up….. your paddle in the water did the same thing….. It is fascinating to watch. I could have stayed out there all night~! ATV tour tomorrow~!

Good night Ya’ll —– Thankx for stopping in~!

 

Up bright and early as usual followed quickly by my Queen. Rachael was still asleep. so we got our morning routine out of the way and settled into electronics to catch up on the previous days events. Rachael must have been worn out as she didn’t roll out until close til 10:30. By the time she got ‘woke up’ it was late enough in the day to do much of anything ( I had to leave for my dives at 15:00~ish)  It was decided that Rachael and my bride would go get their eyebrows and such done. They finally loaded up and I stayed and did the breakfast dishes. Then I had to sit here all by myself and watch Blue Bloods….. AWEeeeeee……  😉

They got back in time for me to gather up my gear and head once again to the West end of the island. Halfway there I got a ping from the dive master and said it was pouring rain there…….now rain don’t necessarily cancel a dive….. but it does tend to mess with the visibility under the water……. At the time I got the ping ( I had Seri read it to me) I was driving through a down pour of my own. I went ahead and met the dive master at the pier. It was still raining and now we had the occasional flash of lightening, followed up by low quiet rumbles of thunder. I’m not against diving in the rain – but when the sky goes ‘boom’ — my happy a$$ ain’t getting in the water. Kinda like sky diving~!  😉 It was a joint decision to cancel the dives and go drink at a local bar….. good call as it continued to be ugly weather conditions.

I finally cut out and headed back to the condo – stopping at Subway to pick up dinner for everybody.  Sammiches, drinks and a couple of episodes of Blue Bloods and here I am……. so – no pictures from today – but still lots from yesterday. I think we’re doing Sandy Point beach (where the final scene of Shawshank Redemption was filmed) tomorrow and then we have a Bioluminescent tour that evening… if we don’t get weathered out…… so we bow to island weather……..

Good night Ya’ll —– Thankx for stopping in~!

Now THAT is  a sammich~!

Fort Frederiksted

IMG_7741 IMG_7742   <—–video

Got up bright and early to make a 2 tank dive this morning out in Frederiksted. As it turned out, it wasn’t where I thought it we were going – but it was a chance to get wet and look at fun stuff underwater. My Queen and Rachael came along to drop me off so they could have the truck while I was out bobbing around in the Caribbean. They had breakfast at Polly’s while I gathered up my gear and headed for the boat. There were 4 other divers besides me and the boat was much more crowded than I cared for, but it was a friendly bunch and we weren’t traveling very far to the ‘new’ dive sites. Pulled up to the first dive location – called locally as Armageddon. Back in [I think] 1989~ish Hurricane Hugo decimated the cruise ship pier…..when they cleaned up the mess, they took it to this location and sank it which eventually turned into a gorgeous reef and dive location. My buddy and I were the first in the water and quickly to 60′ to start the dive. We wasn’t there a couple of minutes until I spotted a shark. A small black tip reef shark~!! Hot Dang~! this was going to be an awesome dive. Ton’s of fish and as we got down around 90′ – more sharks~! Wound up with 3 of them swimming around, not paying a lot of mind to us. I got some pictures and a couple of videos. I know the ‘good’ video will be too big to get on here but the other one might make it. (it didn’t)  🙁   So you’ll have to go to FB to see the videos. Lots of fun pictures for you for the next day or so. Finally finished up out dive and popped up next to the boat, climbed aboard and waited for the others. They boarded and we moved off to the second dive location. It was called Sugar Mill reef….. called that because there is a big sugar milled located just off of the location on the island. After the appropriate surface interval (about 45 minutes) we geared up and was back in the water. A new experience for this dive…… a current. A strong current. A very strong current. I have dove in currents before, but nothing like this one…… wow. The dive was mostly mediocre compared to the previous dive – but there was one shark and some nice fish life. Heading back to the boat, the Dive Master slightly miscalculated our return and we wound up much farther from the boat than we should have……. and had to surface swim back….. in that current…..wow~~~ Let’s just say I have my cardio in for the month~! Oh my goodness. My legs still have a lot of power and endurance in them – but this took pretty much everything I had to get back……. wowser……

My bride and Rachael came and picked me up when they were finished with their Mani/Pedi’s…… we stopped by Blues for some adult refreshment and a bite to eat. Rachael had the triple threat burger and polished it off in short order. My bride and I had the smoked egg salad sammich. If you’ve never had smoke egg salad…. I highly recommend it~!  Past my word limit… so I will stop here and put up pictures…. too many for one posting so will be putting them up for the next several days….. I have another 2 tank dive tomorrow…. one of them being a night dive…… not sure how I feel about that yet…… should be interesting to say the least~~~  😉

Good night Ya’ll —– Thankx for stopping in~!

October 1st, 1956…… the day probably one of the most important people in my life made her appearance on this planet. A short 21+ years later, she entered my life….. and nothing has been the same since. It was by all standards a whirl wind romance that culminated in a marriage, 4 Daughters and a lifetime of memories that is by a lot of standards unmatched. There have been disagreements, fights, resolutions and EVERYTHING in between…. but 40+ years later…. we still get along. The newest ‘angle’ in our relationship is that we are together 24/7 …. a new revelation that I am still learning to deal with…. but it gets mostly easier everyday — and today, we celebrated the birthday of my Queen, my bride and my friend…… We started the day out by me making her breakfast of her choice…… we followed that up by heading to the East end of the island to see Point Udall — the Eastern most point of the United States…… from there, we left and headed for Hotel on the Cay…. a beautiful hotel set upon a small chunk of rock, 150 yards off the shore of St. Croix. It has arguably one of the prettiest calmest beaches available. It is, I think my brides favorite beach, and the one she requested for the day. Got out there and got set up with a cabana and a couple of lounge chairs and we were all soon in that gorgeous blue water.  Many drinks and a sammich or two later…… we were ready for a shower and some conditioned air. We came back to the condo, got showers out of the way and settled in for an hour or so of electronics time.

Finally loaded up…. and headed to our favorite spot on the island (Blues Backyard BBQ)…… everybody knew it was my Queen’s birthday and she was greeted with a rousing round of “Happy Birthday” and we walked into the yard. We stayed for a handful of drinks including my Queen getting her birthday drink….. Rachael got to meet ‘the gang’ and we all sat, drank and chatted for a bit. I had made reservations at one of the ‘better’ restaurants in town for my brides birthday meal. The place that serves Oysters was closed on Monday’s, so we opted for somewhere else. The Bombay Club……. fairly nice place, inside, minimal A/C and what turned out to be fair to decent food. We had appetizers of Escargot, Calamari and stuffed crab, all which were decent within their own right…… Main courses included Duck…. my Queen had Filet Mignon and Lobster and I had Fettuccini with mussels and scallops [kinda]. Everybody agreed, none of the meals were remarkable, but they weren’t bad. Best part of it was we got to enjoy the event with a Daughter on this wonderfully special day…… We wrapped it up with a couple of pieces of some pretty decent Carrot cake  ( I think they loused it up by putting coconut in the icing – but what the hell do I know??) Bellies way past full, we came home to relax and soon to sleep it off.

I have a 2 tank dive tomorrow while Rachael and my bride do their thing (Mani/Pedi’s I think) – so should have lots of fun pix for you tomorrow as well.

Good night Ya’ll—– Thanx for stopping in~!

Point Udall

My Queen enjoying her day~~ <3 

 

Actually slept in a skosh this morning… 30 minutes  but hey – I’ll take it~! Rachael was already up and my Queen was a couple of minutes behind me, so I did not get the nice quiet morning of usual….. but still nice to have extra family around when you stumble out. What seems like odd now….. no new turtle indications this morning. It is  much tougher to see with the Sargassum scattered all over the beach, but I looked it over real good and satisfied we didn’t miss anything. I am a bit concerned we may miss baby turtles popping out because of that seaweed all over the place, but I don’t want to spend time on cleaning it up while Family is here… so I will just keep an extra sharp eye out for the babies. We had us a nice small breakfast while we watched more massive waves pummel our beach. Around noon, it was decided we needed to hit the beach ( a nicer swimmable beach than ours) Rachael commented she liked to dive into waves, so I chose Cane Bay for our beach of choice for this visit. We arrived a touch before 1:00pm and found the place amazing empty. A parking spot was easy to get and it wasn’t very long before we were in the water. Visibility [under water] was terrible because of the waves, but wave diving was at it’s best. We would swim for a while, rest for a while and then swim some more. It was very hazy and I was nervous about sun burn a little more than usual. We spent about 3 hours in and out of the water, before we finally decided to wrap it up and check out the restaurant (Eat@ Cane Bay). Loaded up DD and drove the short trip to the parking lot. Place was mostly full, but we got a table and sat down. Drinks followed shortly along with French fries, onion rings and Mahi-Mahi bites for an appetizer. Main course includes a chicken club sammich, some breaded shrimp and a Caesar salad. Definitely was not one of the best experiences we’ve had at the place – but we enjoyed each others company and some scenery that is terribly hard to beat. Bellies full, faces lightly sun burnt…. we took the long scenic route back as we headed for some conditioned air.

Some of us have had their showers and everybody is catching up on electronics stuff. Tomorrow is my Queens Birthday~!! There is talk of hitting Point Udall and then spend the early afternoon at Hotel on the Cay. Dinner reservations have already been made for later than evening….. so it should be a good full day. Of course there will be pictures and I’m looking forward to sharing them with you. For now, I’m gonna get my shower and wash the salt off. More tomorrow.

Good night Ya’ll —– Thankx for stopping in~!

 

Woke up to a mostly cloudy day and lots of wind……. my bride rolled out of bed a couple of minutes before me, so I ‘lounged’ while I waited for my turn in the bath room. With my turn finished in the bathroom… I moseyed out to join my bride on the patio for the first smoke of the day and to see what the new day brought….. not only did we see “weather” coming in – but the evidence of yet another turtle. (We saw her last night, but she was gone before we got to take pictures)  Thank goodness, she dropped into a spot that had been used only once, so there was no evidence of hurting an existing nest. From the looks of it, she did lay her eggs~~~!  Yay~!! We spent the morning kind of lounging as the weather deteriorated quickly producing some pretty awesome wave action on our beach. It apparently got pretty intense, even though I missed it. At some point, during one particular heavy squall, we apparently had a wave(s) hit the beach hard enough, it took all of the neatly stacked pile of Sargassum along the beach and blew it across almost the entire beach. If you will look at the first couple of pictures I took of the turtle tracks this morning – of what the beach looks like, then look at the ‘after’ pictures you’ll see what I’m talking about. I would have given almost anything to have seen (and been able to video or photograph) the wave(s) that hit the beach to cause that. Now I have a bunch more clean up to do.

We had decided we were heading to the West end of the island so I could pick up some weights I had ordered and then head to a small place called the Lost Dog Saloon for dinner. They also advertise ‘best pizza on the island’…… challenge accepted~! After we got to the West end – We swing in to Adventures in Diving STX only to find out my weights did not make it in….. DAMMIT Emmit~! Not to be deterred, we went to the Tap Deck bar for drinks while we waited for Mitch (Co-owner of Adventures in Diving STX)….. Change in pans…. we wound up staying at Tap deck for drinks and Dinner and some nice conversation with Mitch (he finally joined us) and some other folks we knew from the pier cleanup dive. We drank, chatted and ate for an hour or so before we finally loaded up and headed back to the condo. In that time frame I did manage to book two different days of 2-tank dives next week…. woo-hoo~! Finally back at the condo and a healthy dose of conditioned air…. we watched even bigger waves hitting the beach. As beautiful as they are, it has become readily apparent, we have lost about 8′ of our beach to the Sea because of these waves….. which includes at least three different turtle nests that I know of. And as much as I hate it, I figure it is some form of natures selection…. and there ain’t a friggin’ thing I can do about it…   I think we’re heading for a beach tomorrow for swimming and snorkeling…. fun and pictures…. I promise~!

Good night Ya’ll ….. Thank for stopping in~!

IMG_7650    <— Video….. turn volume up

Sargassum washed up on the beach  

IMG_7659 <— Video….. turn volume up  

Captain Morgan pose