A Little Swim

The weather today is perfect here in St. Croix. Despite sporadic rain over the last couple of days, the sun has been shining all afternoon and the breezes have kept the temperature in the low 80's. Looking outside my window after lunch, I began to feel cabin fever so I did the island thing, I went to the beach.

Cane Bay Beach is about a 10-minute drive from our house and is site of "The Wall," a massive coral reef that drops thousands of feet deep and offers the best scuba diving spots on the island. Although I've been making noises for months that I want to give scuba diving a try, I still haven't gotten around to it. Today I just wanted to take a little swim without having to learn a new sport in the process, so I took my snorkeling gear and swam around the shallow coral. I didn't see a sea turtle as I'd hoped, but a large barracuda paid me a visit, and I saw lots of fish and spotted a flounder camouflaged on the sand.

Back on the beach there were about six boys, ages 10 and under, howling as they took turns jumping off the shoulder of their dad or uncle or cousin. Then a man came with his puppy and tried to get him to swim. The doggie could swim, but he was clearly uncomfortable with the whole idea and opted out of the water. The man gave up and headed to a beach bar instead. I was watching them and smiling with empathy for the little guy, and when they walked past me, the pup gave me the most sheepish look I've ever seen on a dog.