It POURED BUCKETS again Friday morning and that’s okay, because our Fridays are not very productive for the next few weeks as we spend Thursday nights patrolling beaches for turtle activities. We did meet with Mr. Syedali from the Department of Planning and Natural Resources (DPNR) at noon, though, and the Muddy Mongoose was not only muddy, but it was runny. Rivers were running through the property.

Mr. Syedali told us that the plans for this project include an above-ground storage tank for gasoline. Still sounds like a disaster waiting to happen. We will continue with our research on this project in the coming weeks.

After that meeting, we met MaryAnn at the yacht club and bought her kayak. She’ll be leaving island (and we’ll miss her), so she needs to liquidate her fleet of floaters, and we are happy to have a one-person hobie pedal kayak added to our armada.

Saturday, we walked another beach, found and recorded two turtle activities, and headed to the polls to vote in the primary election. We saw a bunch of people we knew, and were interviewed by a reporter from the local paper. Then it was off to the hardware store to get water seal for the pool deck, and then home for a late breakfast.

Michael spent most of the afternoon with the pressure washer getting the black mold stains off the deck while I repotted many of our ornamental shrubs and trees and planted more in small pots. Asparagus ferns and flamboyant trees, Christmas palms and double hibiscus. I also had time to take out a couple of dozen tan tans that have sprung up with all the rain.

That night, we met Cindy and her sister Julie at the restaurant of the haughty hostess. We love the food and the staff here, but the hostess always has seems to have her nose in the air and a sour puss on her face. Maybe she just doesn’t like us. Oh well.

The cool thing about this gathering was that Cindy and her sister just found each other. Julie was given up for adoption five years before Cindy was born. I still get goosebumps just writing about it.

Sunday found us walking a beach again hoping not to get soaked. There was still thunder and heavy skies. It had been days since we’d seen the sun. No activities and no rain, but we picked up a little more trash and hauled it off to the dumpster.

We later met Sonja and Christian at the Waves at Cane Bay for brunch. She was concerned about the weather, but even though it was stormy all around the sun was hot and bright out there. I’ve always loved that spot, right above the crashing waves. And they do serve up a nice Sunday brunch. The staff is extremely friendly and accommodating, too. We started with a tamarind and tequila white sangria. It was yummy, so I only had one and a half - didn’t want a headache later in the day. Michael and I shared a crab cake benedict and veggie omelet. Sonja had a smoked salmon and cream cheese platter which was served on a bed of greens. It looked yummy. Christian had a veg omelet, too. We’ll have to try the Waves at Cane Bay for dinner one of these days.

After waiting the requisite 30-60 minutes  , we went for a snorkel. The water was flat and clear. There were scores of beautiful pink moon jellyfish, undulating and floating in the gentle current. They were between 3 and 10 inches in diameter and it was really cool to see them hanging in the deep blue of the water like breezy ethereal space aliens.

We swam out to the dive buoy where we saw a small hawksbill turtle resting at the bottom of the mooring line. It was so still, it looked fake. Michael dove down to check and decided that it was real and alive. From the top, I could see it ever so slightly move its head from left to center. Unfortunately, the camera was on the beach with Goliath, and he wasn’t about to bring it to us. At this depth, we see different species of fish. Black durgens are really cool to watch as they alternate their dorsal and ventral fins which are lined with a fluorescent silvery-blue. We also checked on and saw that the seahorse is still out there.

After hanging out on the beach drying off, I was hungry and Michael was thirsty, so off to Off the Wall we went. We had some pizza, fat papi, and beer and good conversation with Joe and Val, other fellow water lovers, and Michelle from Dive Experience, one of our favorite local activist, environmentalist and business person.

The sky was getting dark and we could see rain in the surrounding valleys. By that time, we really had to get home to the hungry pups.  We drove into heavy showers on the way, but although they were damp when we arrived home, the cuddly canines had not eaten any of the furniture or each other.

This entry was posted on Monday, September 15th, 2008 at 10:39 am and is filed under Reviews, St. Croix, Terry Talk. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.