We spent Day 13 on Raggamuffin’s sailboat tour that stopped at three snorkeling spots. We had beautiful sunny weather and some wind, so it was an ideal day for being on the water. Our captains and guides, Kevin and Ramsey, were warm and entertaining, Kevin in particular as he sung along with his own reggae music.
Our first snorkeling spot was Coral Gardens. The fish life here is not as dense as in Bonaire, but we did see some different specimens. We saw some grey angelfish on this snorkel as well as some cornflower blue pencil coral. There were plenty of boulder corals, fire corals and sea fans.
At our second stop, Ramsey chummed the water and up rose a bubbling sea full of nurse sharks, jacks, and southern stingrays. We quickly put on our gear and jumped in to see them close up. It was a bit petting zoo-like, but it was still a thrill to be in the water with so many nurse sharks and rays. We even got to touch them (we needed Kevin to capture one of the sharks to feel its skin). Later, when Quentin was swimming around underwater, one ray tried to cuddle with him.
The last stop was near the cut at Hol Chan Marine Park. Unfortunately, you have to go with a guide when snorkeling in the Marine Park. Ramsey wanted to take “the family” because he was nervous about letting the kids swim out near the break in the reef where there was a lot of current, but also more possibility of seeing big creatures like eagle rays. We convinced him that the kids are strong swimmers and so off we went. No eagle rays, but we did see a some large and curious groupers, a queen angelfish, a couple of tarpon, a rainbow parrotfish, a green moray and three massive turtles. We also saw schools of grunts, blue tang and black margates.
The wind picked up on return trip home (on which Gerard got to take the helm) and it whistled all night long. We had dinner at home and treated ourselves to another Belizean ice cream at one of the stands after dinner.
