The night before my birthday Michelle and I took evening shots of the full moon - the night was just pure magic. Balmy and bright from the big fat round moon.........it glowed and shone on the beach and cove. We strolled up the beach testing our cameras for "full moon" effect and came up with some interesting shots! This year my birthday was yet again in paradise, but there was a difference.........there was a full moon the night before and for some reason we have 1000's of tiny sardines in our cove. These tiny fish are attracting so much wild life I feel I have a "Caribbean Sea-world" right at my front door.
I woke up on my birthday ready for a snorkel and was rewarded with awesome discoveries. Right out-front of our house I discovered two baby lobsters; I dived down and greeted them by stroking their long delicate feelers. They looked at me in trepidation as I smiled at them. They were safe! I also discovered about 8-10 beautiful conch shells..........all alive and so colourful, one in particular pulling itself along the sandy bottom. Gosh, I wish I had an underwater camera!! I ventured further along the rocky coastline towards Gunn Creek only to discover something jaw dropping! Underneath a medium sized coral head two GIANT feelers caught my eye as I snorkeled above..........again I dived down only to discover two of the largest lobsters I have ever seen in these waters. The feelers were over 3 feet long - as I hung upside down in the water I gazed at these two lobsters gazing at me and sitting side by side! They were enormous.........I was so excited I told my Dad all about them when they made their "happy birthday" call. Part of me imagined grilled lobster with garlic butter BUT the other half was so happy to see God's creatures living so close to our beach in these pristine waters and know that they are relatively safe!
Before I write any further I want to thank my dearest friends and loving family who all emailed me for my birthday! Thank you so much for remembering and taking the time to write!! My darling Becky, thank you for your loving poem and e card. I wore AJ's perfume and clearly remember our fabulous night in NYC at Nobu with Nankies and Michelle, you spoilt me so with dinner and presi's; thank you Angie and Christl for your gorgeous phone call and of course my Dad and Margret whose love was felt through the phone line. So many emails to reply to, which I will, but I wanted to publish this post with the most amazing experiences today to share this wonderful part of the world with you. I wish you could all be here and share this magic little corner of paradise with me! I started to tell you about the amazing wild life in our cove..........it must be the millions of tiny fish which are attracting all the others...........from my cottage windows I watch HUGE tarpon fish meander up and down our shallow waters. My previous post below speaks of the "kamikaze" dives our pelicans are making to catch these tiny school fish but today was incredible. I grabbed my camera to take some close up shots.........from our resident stingray, to the 3-4 foot tarpons, to our local pelicans with full bellies, the other fish like the barracuda and yellow tailed snappers in small schools all close by, the white delicate birds strutting along the beach, to the millions of sardines that are attracting them all........its just jaw dropping..........all of these swimming in 2-3 feet of crystal clear waters outside our place. NOTE how the tiny fish move away from the larger ones and create like a 'halo' around them. The tarpons are about 3-4 FEET long......not a small fish when you are innocently snorkeling along. They come right up to you and then turn and swim away. Apparently harmless but tasty they tell me! It was as if the fish were curious and swam up to me - sometimes together as I stood on our jetty. I took these pictures only a few hours ago.......check this out!
Room with a view! Birthday morning!
1000's and 1000's of tiny fish, how awesome is the "heart" shape around these two tarpons!
Percy Pelican in full flight after scooping up breakfast................
Right under me whilst standing on the jetty.............wow!!!
We counted no less than 17 pelicans this morning!
I had invited Esther and Vincent for dinner one night and my birthday evening was spent at the stunning new restaurant called "Cocomaya", down in the valley! They were still in St Thomas so couldn't make it but here we are; Tiina and Helena came a bit after this picture was taken, so missed out on the group shot.
It was a fabulous day all round and a magic evening to follow!
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