Perfect weather day

Sunny, hot, and very little breeze, too bad we were both so sunned out from yesterday.  Eileen spent the morning at home, did a couple of loads of laundry.  It was washed, hung out to dry, folded, and put away by the time I got back from the morning dives.  Things dry fast up here with the sun and a little breeze, although anything like a towel that has some salt water on it never seems to ever dry out.  Lazy afternoon in the shade, then we went down to West Bay to see the sunset and have dinner.  Ran into Trish and her group before we had even walked the beach.  They're down with a couple of the kids and some neighbours, so I think there is eight of them, staying in a rental just back from the beach that is right above the coffee bean roastery.
Had drinks and supper at the Thirsty Turtle, watched the crab races (ours didn't win), saw the fire dancers, and then headed back to the house.  For the crab races, you can buy a crab (number painted on his back) then they dump them all inside a circle and the first one to the edge wins.  Money raised goes to a charity that is buying baby food for some AIDs kids.

The token sunset picture from West Bay

Crabs heading towards the finish line

Anole escaping from the deck with a chunk of watermelon

Did two really nice dives today, especially nice because there was some varied terrain and because it was just me and the dive master.  He brought along a spear for the lionfish and we puttered along at a very leisurely pace.  He speared one lionfish when we were quite close to a huge Grouper, but this Grouper didn't seem to be interested.  Too bad because I've seen some pretty neat video of groupers taking lionfish off of a divers spear, and this Grouper was a big one.  Saw some interesting stuff.  It seemed to be Grouper cleaning day because we saw several "cleaning stations" where Groupers come and park themselves, then a swarm of minnows and Cleaner shrimp will crawl over the Groupers and clean them off.  In the case of the minnows, they go right inside the Groupers mouth and clean off his teeth and cheeks.  Got some decent video of one of them.  The divemaster put his hand down where there was one cleaner shrimp, and the shrimp came out and crawlwd over the back of his hand.

Big Grouper with his mouth open, getting his teeth cleaned.  I watched this happening at a second location which I videoed.  When I got a bit too close the Groupler took off but within seconds another one came into position and took his place.  The symbiotic relationships some fish have is amazing.

Also got some really good video of a couple of turtles.  The ones we saw today we quite casual about the two of us getting in close to them.

This was my fish of the day, a Queen Triggerfish.  I've never seen one of these before, and this guy followed us around for most of the second dive. 

And finally, these two little guys called Flamingo Tongue.  I see pictures of them all the time but I rarely see them and have never gotten a good photograph.

Tomorrow, I think we're going to go up to French Harbour, restock the beer crate, get a few groceries, visit the Iguana farm, and probably have lunch at a Sports bar at Pineapple villas.