2014-April 16, Wednesday--St. Vincent (10am-6:30pm):

Another new port for us.  My research mentioned some snorkeling at a beach on the southernmost point of the island.  So we got off the ship and looked for a taxi dispatcher and asked where we should go for snorkeling.  They, too, mentioned Indian Bay on the southern point---specifically Villa Beach.  So we headed there with another couple who was also looking to go to a beach.   

  The beach was beautiful, but there were a lot of young resident adults hanging around.  One even followed us saying he'd watch our stuff so no one would take it.  I was a bit skeptical, but Ken chatted with him for quite awhile and liked him enough to "hire" him to watch our stuff.   Ken does have a waterproof case on a lanyard, so nothing of value was left at the beach---just our towels, sunscreens and water in a back pack.  We snorkeled about 2 hours.  The young man stayed there the whole time (we periodically looked up to see if he and our stuff was still there).  When we were done, we gave him $5 and he was thrilled.  There was also a woman in uniform with something like Visitor Police on it who was also keeping watch on the beach.  
We headed down the beach away from the crowds to leave our stuff and enter the water.   Where our snorkeling base was from.

Looking towards the left.

Never seen these guys before!  I assume they're some type of wrasse.

another wrasse

I believe this guy is a file fish.

 We became curious about what the snorkeling around those outcroppings would be like, so we took off swimming towards them.

 The topography along the way.

a snake eel at the rocky outcropping.

a flounder

a school of small fish forming a ball.

Another new wrasse to me.

 a pair of butterflyfish.

It was spring break for St. Vincent kids, too.  Lots of families enjoying the beach---fortunately for me!  As I was coming to the shoreline to walk back to our stuff, the wrist strap of my underwater camera unknowingly slipped off my wrist---along with my camera.  A local woman there with her kids came up to me as I was walking away and said she noticed the camera come off my wrist.  She made my day!

walking along Villa Beach.

 Back at our stuff, we tipped the gentleman for watching our stuff and sat and dried in the sun.  Our driver was due back at 3:30 and we didn't want to be soaking wet when he picked us up.  He actually arrived 30 minutes early and we were all ready to leave then.  By the time we got back to the ship, I had quite the headache---too much fun in the sun I guess---or not enough fluids and food, so off to the Lido we went.  Then back to our room for another sunset.  We got lucky with the sunsets this year!

   It was a formal night, so we dressed up and headed to the restaurant for prime rib---yummy.

 After dinner we decided to check out the Karaoke which was accompanied by the HAL cats.   We were surprised to find a lot of  staff there taking turns singing--including the digital class guy and several of the Showroom singers.  Seems they couldn't get anyone else to sing.
At 10 we went to the Showroom to see the female ventriloquist-comedian Norma McKnight.  She was a very good ventriloquist, but we didn't care too much for her material.

 Then it was off to our room and our newest towel pet.

  
Another new port for us, and another great one.  I wouldn't mind going back here.