Sun-Day
Through the blistering bright sun they came, our guests arrived and we exchanged excited, sweaty hugs before hurrying along the dock to yacht Cristophine. We’ve hosted all of these guests before and they are all pros, so we were able to cast off without much ado and get out to sea.
Maya is giving aplomb while preparing snacks in the galley, Myssie chats up Jason as we get under weigh, and Zack rescues a fly away deck cushion! We better strap those things down as we sail upwind!
Maya put out some delicious cheeses and crackers for a little snack to get us to lunch, which we ate on a mooring in Dragon Bay. A delicious fish, delicate and flavored with a basil pesto sort of sauce accompanied by a healthy green salad. We eat healthy on SwimVacation.
Miriam, Myssie, Samantha, Debbie and Martina & Marcus all know what we are about, but I gave them the drill anyway. My favorite part is the “next two hours” rule - we only tell them what they will be doing for the next two hours. We do this because things in our program can change quickly and we need to be able to pivot and change our plans, but also because they are on vacation, and we encourage them to let go and let us drive. On all of our trips and especially this week, we commit to not talking about politics. Everyone seemed in agreement on that point. What a relief.
It’s so hot.
We all squeezed sweaty bodies into bathers and splash we were in. The water here this month is pretty darn warm as well - sport watches reported 86 degrees of water temp, and we went around a point that felt even hotter. Sadly, after two summers of a hot water global bleaching event, we are seeing a lot of white coral heads where we’ve never seen them before. Bleaching may not be permanent, but if waters don’t cool so the photosynthetic algae can return to their coral hosts soon, the reef will starve and die. We hope for resillience.
Remarkably, I found an incredible head of staghorn coral looking pretty good among the blobs of white bleached heads. The staghorn was probably 5 feet in diameter and home to a very handsome adolescent French angelfish. It seemed to be defending its territory as I carefully dove down for photographs, standing its ground, which makes for nice fish portraits.
In spite of the low visibility here, we located the famous sunken statues in this bay and enjoyed free diving down to visit them.
Look carefully and you will see the green flash as captured by Jason’s glasses camera thingy!
We all lounged around drying in the waning sun as Zack prepared some Grenadian Sparklers and Maya put out a nice plate of appetizers. We gathered in groups on the various comfy on-deck lounging spaces as the sun got big and orange and descended into the sea, delivering the often debated green flash. I saw it but wasn’t quick enough on the camera trigger. But Jason got a snap of it with his Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses Gizmo Thingers. Thanks, Jason! I’m almost used to the idea that you are taking photos with your glasses!
Dinner was a deconstructed paella - lots of food allergies aboard this week, so Maya cleverly served each of the ingredients separately so we could each build our own. Gluten free brownies did not disappoint for dessert, especially once Miriam got the naughty idea to drizzle Grenadian Sea Moss Rhum Cream on top of them - a spicy, buzzy treat.
Everyone is enjoying the evening breeze and one by one they are wandering off to bed. I’m camping out this week with fellow guides Alina and Fitzy, and we are excited for our top deck slumber party beneath the stars. Tomorrow we’ll make our first in a series of sails that will carry us all the way to St. Vincent - new territory for us, and the first time we’ve ever started a trip in one country and ended it in another. We will swim and swim our way through the Grenadines, exploring sites unknown to us. This gang is game to be the first to swim this way, and I am so honored to be guiding them.
Love,
Heather