Aside from waiting a bit longer than expected because lots of people were running late, things seemed to be going well…and then we headed off the ship. I know…it’s really early in the day for us to be getting things wrong. So we got off the ship and we’re directed to wait in certain spots based on your excursion. They said to wait across from the Effy shop, so we (and a few other families) picked a spot at the port across from the shop. After a few minutes, we were informed we were supposed to be on the other side of the port. After scrambling over there, they told us to line up in front of the catamaran. I knew we were going on a power cat, but I never saw a full picture of the boat, so we and 10+ others thought they meant the sailboat catamaran. Turns out that was not our boat, and it caused K to question everything. The actual boat was nearly full, so we were all left with the most exposed spots on the bow of the boat. Thankfully, the excursion employee that got snippy with K over what’s a catamaran was not on our boat. Hey…at least I knew where we were going on the actual excursion!
First stop, Buck Island National Wildlife Refuge!
Initially, I had gotten this confused with Buck Island Reef National Monument…which is off of St. Croix. That would have been a REALLY long boat ride.
Speaking of boat rides…it was rough! Not as rough as it was going to get, but we got bounced around a lot. It was like 20 minutes of being in the heart of the splash zone at one of the old Shamu shows. We were soaked by the time we anchored at the first island. The good news…the water was bath water warm. It also struck me as funny that my brain processed the water correctly. Growing up, we did a lot of saltwater fishing. So if water splashes into my mouth while on a boat, my brain is hardwired for salty. It really messes with me when we whitewater rafted in CO a few years ago. I knew it was freshwater, but my brain was on a boat so it anticipated salty. Crazy, I know.
When we arrived, everyone got fitted for gear and it was time to get in the water. We opted to go man to man, so I took Kendall. I was first in the water since I’m the only one in our group with experience. I scoped out things and then swam back to meet her when she jumped in. I was expecting panic from her, but she adapted right away. Sam was having snorkel and vest issues, so David had to get her back to the boat for help.
So K and I explored. I thought I was taking all of this incredible video, but I wouldn’t realize I was having issues until our second island. In this first video, if you jump to just before the 2 minute mark and then again to about 3:50, you can kind of see some of the reef and fish.
Unfortunately, the camera wasn’t stopping and starting as I thought, so you get a lot of the swim shorts I was wearing over my bathing suit as well as another person near me.
Even worse…I ended up with this ridiculous 1 second snip. It uploaded in real time, but it recorded in slow motion.
A really funny one…a still of the fabric of my shorts while underwater.
It’s really too bad because we saw some really awesome sea life at this stop. Since I don’t have the videos I was hoping would save, I’m going from memory. We saw: blue tangs, surgeon fish, doctor fish, three different kinds of parrotfish, blue head wrasse, sargeant majors, yellow tailed damsels, some kind of black damsel, these yellow and purple damsels, grey Angel, blue chromis…and who knows what else. There were also sea urchins, starfish, and a quite a number of colorful sea sponges (blue and lavender).
At one point, we were able to catch up to the guide. He was trying to help people find sea turtles. At one point I picked my head up to heard him say “I don’t want to alarm anyone.” I couldn’t hear well enough, so I put my head in the water to see whatever was causing the alarm. He was still far enough away that I wasn’t panicking, but it was a 5-6” barracuda out there. So, I guided k back to the reef area we were exploring.
I hit a point where I needed a break. It was pretty rough, which meant that white caps and swells were splashing into my snorkel. I’m pretty good about expelling water, but I’d swallowed enough to upset my tummy a little. The rough water was also pushing me too close to the shallows. The coast looked rocky and there was a lot of fire coral in the reef. So we headed back to the boat. After fighting my fins at the ladder, I climbed on board and took some pictures while out of the water.
Sam and David also came up shortly after us. Sam accidentally dropped her mask, but one of the guys was able to dive down and retrieve it. At least she got her gear figured out and was having fun.
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It was a combination red velvet cake and cheesecake. It would have been way too heavy with buttercream, especially with all of the white chocolate. 
