We’d gone to bed pretty early Saturday night, considering the activities we’d participated in (all that caffeine and sugar…), so were up before 8 on Sunday morning. The question was: Since we got a lot of stuff done on Saturday, what would we do for fun today?

We walked/ran the road down to the Great Pond, which we do as often as possible now that we know Paul Golden is hoping to break ground on his “resort” in March. We need to work-out, so this trip kills two birds (but not Yellow Birds…) with one stone. We’ll be the ones to blow the whistle on that illegal project if he tries anything. We go with cell phone and camera so we can call the newspaper, property owner and attorney, and Planning and Natural Resources Department if anything is amiss. Michael took pictures and we talked about kayaking and snorkeling out in Great Pond Bay since it was, once again, really windy and we needed to get out on the water.

We got home after our walk, had breakfast, Michael did a little “rover-tweaking”, we loaded the kayak onto the “Great Pumpkin”, and headed down the road one more time.

The Great Pumpkin Rides Again!

The Great Pond Bay is pretty sheltered by the hills of the surrounding landscape and the large barrier reef to the south. It’s nice and shallow and the most incredibly clear turquoise blue (no Wreg, not tidy bowl blue!) with scattered patch reef and sea grass covered areas between the white sand bottom. We pedaled out in the kayak and found a bunch of East End Marine Park mooring buoys that we could tie up to. Great! We chose one in the vicinity of a couple of larger patch reefs and jumped in. It felt great to be in the water again. We went for a swim last week with the local swimming group, but the water at Ha’penny was cloudy, murky and churned up. We couldn’t see the bottom at all. But here….oh, yes, THIS is paradise!

We swam over to the closest reef and it was a little churned up, but we saw tons of juvenile fish. There were french grunts and damsels and a spanish hogfish, blue tang, etc. We swam some more and came to a tiny patch with a lobster beneath it. A few yards away was another small reef with 3 or 4 of them, and then to the east was another bug. There was also the biggest conch I have ever seen, and an octopus! We could have eaten for a week with all the goodies there. Well, Michael could have. I’m not a fan of octopus. We turned around to look toward the kayak and there were three large barracudas and one larger one! Yikes! They were not, however interested in us, so they slowly swam off. We continued exploring and as I came around the west side of a reef,I spotted a small sea turtle. As soon as he saw me he took off like a flash. I swam fast and he swam faster. He just flew! He was small and pretty far away, so I could not tell whether he was a green or a hawksbill. But he was cute!

After close to an hour in the water, I started getting cold, so we went back to the kayak and pedaled to shore. The pumpkin was still there and I got to drive her part of the way home. It felt more familiar driving on the right side of the car this time. Soon I think I’ll be ready to take her for a real spin.

Tags: barracuda, Caribbean spiny lobster, conch, East End Marine Park, Great Pond, Great Pond Bay, hawksbill turtle, kayak, kayaking, Land Rover, lobster, octopus, Paul Golden, rover, snorkel, snorkeling, St. Croix

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