Isla de Culebrita
18.19.128N
65.13.738W

Today was just another beautiful day in paradise. Dale and I started our day with a swim to the beach and then a walk back and forth the entire length of the beach. Shortly after we returned, Gerry & Nicky came around and we all jumped back in and went for a snorkel by the reef just a short distance from us.

After snorkeling the Tobago Cays, I’m either spoiled or the reefs here are in worse shape than they were a year ago. In any event, I took our new underwater camera and started playing with it. As luck would have it, the fish just wouldn’t hold still long enough for me to compose a good shot, so eventually I learned to use the widest angle I could and hope one would swim in front of me. As you can see, I got a few shots with fish in them.

We returned to our respective boats for lunch and agreed to meet up again after lunch to hike over to the Culebrita ‘baths.’ Once again I jumped in to play with my new toy but everyone else took in the sights without taking the plunge.
On our way back, we were delighted with the observation that almost all of the moorings were occupied by sailboats today. Not only were they sailboats but all were live aboards. It’s the first time we’ve seen more sailboats than motor boats in this anchorage.

We finished our day by sharing a pot luck dinner with Linda & Jerry (Summer Breeze), Gerry & Nicky (Orpailleur) and Tom & Jordan on St. Christopher. Summer Breeze is heading back to Jacksonville, so we’ll catch up with Linda & Jerry on down the road. Tom & Jordan are heading to St. Thomas in another day, so we’ll more than likely say our final farewells to them there.

In a way, I suppose you can say that this is the beginning of the end of our sabbatical. We’ve both started talking about heading back to work and where to live. We’ve got six more months to go but already our trip is starting to feel as if its almost over. We’ve had a great time and answered the big question of whether we could live in such a small space 24/7, without killing each other. Jordan says that we’ll have more of a hard time returning to our ‘normal’ lives and not being together all of the time. She believes that we’ve gotten too used to having the other around as best friend, sounding board and partner in every sense. In other words, we’ve succeeded in the biggest goal of all: renewing our commitment to each other and why we work in the first place. Isn’t that what a sabbatical is all about?