Snorkeling at Catalina's Bay

After a quick lunch of a sandwich and potato salad, it was back into the water! Most of the folks were lolly gagging with their lunch, but I did not pay to spend my day eating lunch...I had fish to swim with!

This was my favorite spot of the day. The reef was very close to shore and I was able to sneak up on a Brown Booby and 2 Brown Pelicans using the water as cover! There was also a very small beach with a few Divi Divi trees where I eventually went ashore for a few minutes.

The photo of the Brown Booby was a little blurry because I kept getting pounded by the surf onto the reef! This whole snorkeling day took by birdwatching to a whole new level!

A close up of the Brown Pelican preening!

All ashore for some land exploration! I pretty much got washed right up onto the beach with the next wave!

I was the only one that spotted this really cool fish....a coronet fish!

Oops, I forgot this Aruban Whiptail Lizard that I spied on the beach here!

All too soon everyone was summoned back to the catamaran, it was time to head back to the dock. Boo hoo! But, it was for the best as I was already quite sunburned despite the waterproof SPF 50 I had reapplied multiple times! What a great day!

Snorkeling the Antilla Shipwrek

Just a short distance from where we

 anchored near Malmok Reef, was

the shipwreck of the German

freighter Antilla. The 400 foot long vessel sits in about 50 or 60 feet of water. But, visibility today was not the greatest. The water was a little choppy and every once and a while it would cloud up for a few minutes. Still, this was my first time exploring a shipwreck and I was not going to let poor visibility dampen my spirit! I wish I could have gotten closer, but try as I might, I couldn't submerge more than 10 feet underwater, I think I need weights to counteract my buoyancy.

Some pretty fish and corals attached to the hull of the ship.

More fish! 

The Antilla was built in 1939 in Germany and quickly put into service with the German navy supplying U-boats in the Caribbean. On May 10, 1940, the Dutch Navy gave a 24 hour warning to Captain Schmidt that they were going to board and take control of the Antilla. The following day, May 11, Captain Schmidt gave orders to scuttle the ship, rather than have it fall into enemy hands. Moments before the boilers exploded, he and his crew of 46 left the ship in lifeboats and were captured by the Dutch and were imprisoned for the remainder of the war.

Like I said, the visibility wasn't the best, but you can get a pretty good idea. I was told over the last decade the ship has started to deteriorate.

Snorkel....Malmok Bay & Arashi Beach

Finally....we were going to get into the water! Wednesday, January 26 we left CPV and took a taxi to Pelican Pier for a nearly 5 hour snorkeling tour at 3 sites with Pelican Adventures. It was a little cloudy, but I knew it was going to be a great day when I saw this rainbow! We were warmly welcomed on board by the gracious staff.

The first spot we would jump in at would be Malmok Reef near Arashi Beach. Since we were headed to the western end, we got to see the California Lighthouse again! Today, the waters were MUCH calmer and I only fiddled with my camera a little bit, and Ellie had found her sea legs once again!

It was announced that the "pool was open"! Ellie and I were among the first to get into the water, we don't mess around when we explore! Here she is at Malmok Reef with the catamaran in the background.

I kept seeing a lot of these pretty yellow fishes. I really wanted to find a "fish of Aruba" book, but these wasn't one to be found.

Now, the visibility was less than optimal, and the sun kept going behind the clouds, but I saw a fairly large fish in the background behind the smaller fish. I'm not sure what it was, but it was pretty big!

I had remembered to bring along a packet of fish bites that hand from my wrist, and I tried it out on these friendly fish!

The highlight of this site was spotting a large sea turtle!

...but he swam a lot faster than I did, so I soon lost him.

I tried to get down closer to these fish, but I'm just too buoyant.

Ellie swimming along with a school of fish!

Just before being called back to the boat, I lifted my head out of the water for a few moments and was surprised to see the cacti growing so close to the ocean! Once on board, we were served snacks and I had some fresh pineapple juice! Yum! On to the next spot!

From sea to table...

So mid-afternoon, I finally met Chef and asked him if he would be so kind as to prepare for us a meal with the wahoo we caught. He seemed delighted and after asking a few questions as to our tastes, he seemed to have an idea in mind and I told him to run with whatever he had in mind.  Prior to the main course we were served these wonderful flat breads with choice of spreads, butter, some sort of garlicky cheese spread and some black stuff with olive oil that was pretty tasty also. Sorry, for the blurry photo's, it was this evening that I discovered that my flash had died and was no longer operational.

Soon, the main course arrived....oooooooh!

The wahoo was very tender and light and was marinated in some sort of wine and spices. The sauce tasted somewhat mustardy but it all blended together and was absolutely delicious. White rice, polenta were served along with carrots, zucchini and summer squash were hidden under the fillets!

Chef stopped by to see if we were satisfied with his creation ! Absolutely! And he invited us back so that he could wow us with something else! Yep! We'd be here!

The following evening, he prepared the same spreads, but the fish had a southwestern theme. The wahoo was covered in a red sauce with tomatoes and green peppers, yet had grilled pineapple underneath! He made star shaped tortillas and filled them with rice and coleslaw (now I really don't care for coleslaw, but this stuff was awesome and I assure you none went to waste!). He also created a type of pyramid of hand cut french fries! I am so sorry these pictures do not do these creations justice! They ranked in the top 5 meals of my life!

Chef again visited us to make sure we were satisfied.....like he had doubts????? We thanked him profusely and insisted that he keep the rest of the fillets for himself!



Fish anyone?

So, after a long hard morning of fishing, we arrived at Hadicurari pier to a growing crowd of onlookers. They found it hard to believe that 2 girls could catch all these fish! But, they sure wanted to buy them all up before we had even finished unloading! Jamie told them to back off as "the ladies want to take some photo's and need to decide what they are going to keep first!". That's right! Back off Jack! I got pictures to take!

Here's me with my 2 wahoo! The pic of me with my barracuda didn't turn out :(  And, so you know, the cuda was very very slimy! Yuck!

Ellie with the monster wahoo and her second one!

And, don't forget the two tuna!

The bad bad barracuda! Not squirming around in the cooler trying to get me now...are ya?!!!

Our anxious "fans" waiting for us to finally figure out what we wanted to take home so that they could acquire the rest!

Having no clue about what to choose, we relied upon Swa to select the best fish. He chose a wahoo for us and recommended that we take the fillets to the chef at our resort and have him prepare it for us.

Swa quickly got to work...

 The wahoo he selected for us was quite meaty and tender....

A brown pelican flew in and Swa would occasionally toss him a fillet!

Soon, we had a bag full of fresh fish fillets and were on our way back home. I was very much looking forward to getting cleaned up and  a treat of a manicure and an afternoon by the pool and Ellie indulged in a pedi & a massage (which was probably a good idea after her falls!) !

And it's one, Two, THREE fish I caught!

Morning arrived very very early, and we were picked up and whisked off the Hadicurari Pier for our 4 hour deep sea fishing adventure with Captain Jamie, expert fisherman Swa and crew Alejandro. I was excited to go fishing and I explained that I had never fished before, they assured me that it was quite easy, but queried if I get seasick. Uh, no! I been on boats, mainly of the sailboat variety since I was a kid and had never been seasick. Ellie responded the same. So Jamie set a course to the west side of the island, a tad rougher, but better fishing. Bring it on! I just wanted to try fishing, catch one fist and eat it for dinner. And to be able to see the California Lighthouse too....sweet!

So, I intently watched Swa work at getting the bait and lines ready...and took LOTS of photos of him w
working.

Here we are motoring far away from land......

Jamie, tying the bait onto the lines....(or something like that!)

So, the lines were baited....but...nothing...... We had 4 lines baited, and were 6-8 miles offshore in water 200-500 feet deep in 6+ foot waves....and nothing. So, we just kept going round and round in big circles....and I just kept documenting the day with my camera and fiddling with it and looking here, there and everywhere.......and then suddenly, I really didn't feel all that great. Oh my, it couldn't be....I had even worn sea bands (I'd heard horror stories)....I quickly handed off my camera (and binoculars) and ran to the rail......oh my...... Fortunately my pop tart breakfast didn't come up and it was just stomach acid. Still, ewww. Serves me right for screwing around with the camera and not keeping my eyes to the horizon....

I swear, not more than 10 minutes later a fish was on! Swa was hollering for one of us to come down and reel it in. Ellie was urging me to go first, but not knowing what the hell to do, I insisted that SHE go! (Plus I had not yet learned my lesson and wanted to get some pics)! Here she is reeling in the 1st fish, a wahoo!  



She hadn't even got it in the boat yet, when Swa started hollering again! Crap...my turn.....I got into position and after it was apparent that I had NO clue as to how to properly hold the fishing rod, the put it back into the holder and instructed me just to keep turning the reel clockwise until he came back. Although my arm got a little tired, I could handle this! Here's Ellie's fish about to be brought in, Swa is grabbing the club to knock it out, and you can see me a little in the background turning the reel.

Here's me......it took a little while and it was sort of heavy and...wow...the folks that land fish a few hundred pounds must have massive arm muscles!

I'm not sure who's wahoo this was.....but we both landed a wahoo on the first round. So, I made it back upstairs, Ellie was right behind me..then we took a nasty wave, and she didn't quite have her sea legs on yet, and took a nasty fall on the deck. Yikes! The men helped her to her feet quickly and all of us were quite concerned but thankfully she was ok and even laughed it off! So, I went back to taking photos and such, she was chatting, we made another loop....and then everyone started asking me if I felt "ok", and not just once! I assured everyone I was ok, really, I'm not the one who had just wiped out! Well, about 5 minutes later I was again racing to the side....apparently, they had noticed a distinct color change in my complexion! So, with more chocolate chip pop tart chum trailing behind us...a few more minutes and 2 more lines went taut!

Ellie wound up with 2 tuna (one right after the other) and I landed another wahoo, despite my poor technique.

Back upstairs we went, me feeling better, Ellie this time wiping out on the stairs in an even nastier spill!! I can't say how happy I was to learn that she doesn't have brittle bones and bounces well, especially being in a foreign country! One more loop around, I was satisfied to go back already, but we were on a roll. I put the camera away....relaxed, chatted a little....now I swear every time we got to the southern end of the loop and made the turn to go north THAT is what made me sick! Up and off to the rail again.....this time I was so grossed out I just started sobbing and Swa just patted my back and gave me napkins and water...I wasn't settled down 5 minutes and both lines had something on again! I really had enough at this point but Swa made me come down and reel it in! Ellie got another wahoo......and I had a barracuda on my line! EEK! Those teeth! They knocked the wahoo out, but the baracuda they just threw in the cooler.

Ok, now I was REALLY done....I puked 3 times, we had 7 fish between the two of us...I asked Ellie to beg them for mercy and let us go back earlier than our planned 4 hour....surely it must be close to 12 noon! They motored on a bit more, but they agreed to go back...THANK GOD! They advised me to sit on the back deck in the chair so I could get some fresh air....watch the horizon...and soon we hit calmer water.

All of a sudden...there was pounding coming from the cooler and the lid started to open and close...the tail of the barracuda soon was waving in the air...I SCREAMED!!!!!!!! Swa hurriedly came down...as I frantically told him I was about to be eaten alive by the baracuda that he didn't knock out with the billy club! He calmly looked at me, slowly opened the cooler, said something to the fish and then patted my hand and told me it was ok, and then went above. Oh my! All I could think of was it leaping out of the cooler and latching on to my foot or leg (and being in a foreign country with no insurance!). So, I watched the cooler intently. Several minutes later it lifted again a few times, so I grabbed the arms of the chair, like I do when I'm at the dentist, and was ready to make a run for it if I had to! Thankfully, that was its last hurrah. By the time we reached the dock, I was no longer green, Ellie could walk without falling, we had 7 fish and a crowd awaiting our catch!