Less newbie Newbies TR Part II

[mindehankins]

On Sunday, we were up before dawn, enjoyed the beautiful view briefly, had a quick breakfast at the condo. I struggled for 45 minutes to stick a piece of plastic over each eyeball so I could see, then off we went, to
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We were trying to see new beaches this trip, and skipped Trunk the first visit. We were in the water post-haste! My new most favorite activity is snorkeling. I'm going to be really good at it, someday! And we had our new D10, that we were dying to try out.
Please tell me, Anthony, if I use up too much space with photos in my reports. Here's some of what we saw:
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and these happy-looking fish:
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and this happy one-horned-buttfish:
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Precious little undamaged coral:
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The snorkel was okay, not great. We saw much better at other snorkels. I tried to shower off some of the sand at the showers, but I don't know how you're supposed to push that button in AND smear the sand off of yourself!
We picked up our first lunch at the Deli Grotto; a New Yorker (corned beef, swiss and coleslaw) for me, and a Cordon _______ (chicken and something) for Blaine. They were only about $8 each, and pretty good, but not fantastic.
Next, we drove to Francis, another new beach for us. I was too excited to get into the water, to take any beach pics before the float, and out of battery power after. Snorkelling here was GREAT! We snorkeled the entire right side to the point and back. DUH....newbie stupidity....didn't realize we might have a heck of a current on the way back. As soon as we rounded Mary's Point and turned around, we both thought "UH oh......" We made it back by getting out to rest at a couple of sandy spots. I read just today, somewhere, to look for the fan corals (see if they're bent over)to know that you're going to have current. I've tucked that away for future reference. We'd left the camera turned on, the entire time at Trunk. The battery lasted all day, when we turned the camera off between pics. Here's our few from Francis:
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We sat liming, the rest of the afternoon, in the shade. Blaine kept asking me "are you okay?" I was just so grateful and feeling so peaceful that I was quiet. We went home and showered and went down to the Beach Bar, but didn't find anyone. The music was nice, though. We passed a couple from Massachusetts that we'd befriended, at High Tide, had a drink with them and then gave them a ride up to Samuel's Cottages. They said they liked it there, loved the bedroom AC and were comfortable. They didn't like the walk up there much, though!
We made it home and tried to fire up the grill without success, so I had to pan-fry our steaks. Then we fed DickHead,
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called the kids, made a drink, and hit the sack. With the Off lantern, and Off spray, we went to bed with no bug bites! We didn't have a plan for tomorrow, but couldn't wait for Tuesday to get to Vie's

[toni]

Two thumbs up so far-keep those trip reports coming!

[LandLockedBeachLover]

Great reports and pics! Ouch your face looks a little burned or perhaps you just took off your snorkel mask?

Love the cat Dickhead. We have one at home that gets called that by the hubs, although her REAL name is Bailey

[Carolyn]

Nice reporting Minde. Francis is one of our favorite repeat snorkel spots. We always used to go to the rocks to enter closer to the island but the last time we went the distance from the sandy beach and found we like that much better. The starfish were plentiful when we went from the sandy beach but they do move around a good bit. It is all good at Francis! You will be an expert snorkeler in no time!

[tipsy]

Fantastic pictures Minde and love the reports. You are helping us to choose the beaches to snorkel at.

Thank you for the work in doing this.

[loria]

nice reports! keep them coming--I love francis--it's a beautiful spot in the morning---it has lovely light. and the Francis chickens are a cut above the Maho chickens IMHO......

[hoosierdaddy]

Thanks for the pictures. We went to Francis for the first time this year and realy enjoyed being there. It seems like you had a wonderful day.

[XOXO]

I like the way you resized the pictures!! I love Truck Bay. You must have gotten there early.

I love your reports!

GG

[msgcolleen]

Great underwater shots! Especially that happy one-horned buttfish!

[bubblybrenda]

Nice underwater pics.

[mindehankins]

Fantastic pictures Minde and love the reports. You are helping us to choose the beaches to snorkel at.

Thank you for the work in doing this.

Ah, it's not work, Deb! I get to re-live the vacation, by doing the report

[PA Girl]

I always see good stuff at Francis, I really like snorkelling there.

Tell me again where you stayed.

[mindehankins]

Cruz Views #1, PA girl.

[liamsaunt]

I am really enjoying your reports!

It is true, you have to watch the current at Francis. I got into a little trouble there once because my foot cramped up when I was all the way out at the point. I had to take my flippers off and swim all the way back against the current barefoot--NOT fun, and it took a really long time.

[madness]

Minde - great reporting and photos!!! We have visited St. John five times and have yet to snorkel Francis and we stayed at Maho one year! We did rent kayaks and snorkel around Whistling Cay.

Please keep up the good work and Thank You!

A friend of mine keeps telling me to go someplace else, but there is still so much to see and do - such as snorkel at Francis.

liamsaunt - I hear ya on those darn cramps. Hate them.