*The view from my cabin this morning. Not bad.*

It’s been a full day and it’s late so I’m going to be stingy with words but generous with photos (because the photo part is done and it’s only the words between me and bed).

Captain Canyon set us free from our mooring at 0700 and we headed North to new terrain.

But wait, how about some dolphins for breakfast? Yes please. Seconds please. These were HUGE. I believe they were bottlenose. Very playful and curious. What a way to start the day.

Walliabou Bay is home to a gorgeous natural stone arch made famous my the Pirates of the Caribbean movie. We’ve motored by it but never swum there so today’s the day!

We backed into the bay and a lovely guy named Bernard rowed out to us in his pretty white boat to take our stern line and tie it to shore. He also wanted to sell us some of his lovely jewelry, but also Tracy and I passed and this did not please Bernard. Apologies, Bernard!

To the arch! But first, a wall of incredible geologic composition, two caves, tons of fish and clear clear water. Heaven.

The Arch did not disappoint. They all said we couldn’t swim under it. Of course we found an underwater path in the shallow rocks to do it. Another SwimVacation first!

Beyond the arch I was so excited to find a Lettuce Sea Slug (Elysia crispata) - related to a nudibranch and so pretty. It was enormous. And as I was enthusiastically sputtering to Tracy about it, I looked again and noticed there were actually tens of them down there. Maybe hundreds!! What? So cool? Why this spot? We’ll never know. Here’s something I just learned about them though: They eat green algae off the reef and rocks and siphon off the plant's chloroplasts instead of digesting them. The chloroplasts live inside the slugs' pretty ruffles for weeks, producing energy via photosynthesis and giving the slug its green color. Nature is amazing.

Around a few more corners and back to the boat. A new, 90 minute swim that checked all the boxes.

Lunch checked more than a few boxes I’ll tell you that much. Build your own chicken burgers with Mal’s special sauce. Let’s digest.

We moved back South to one of our all time favorite bays, Mount Wynne. It has a black sand beach and remarkable stone reef in one corner that is always full of life. In the spirit of doing What We Want, Tracy and I decided to snorkel for our afternoon water experience. I grabbed my big rig camera and with masks and fins we jumped in.

The reef was absolutely teeming. Underwater was noisy with cracks and pops of nibbling and noshing and life doing its thing. I’ll let the photos do the rest of the work here, but needless to say it was another 90 minutes of wildlife discovery and marine joy.

It poured much of the day but we didn’t mind. We came here to get wet. Because of the rain we ate dinner inside, Canyon and Mal sitting with us at the table. Family dinner!

Time for bed. I’ll dream of lettuce sea slugs stealing chloroplasts under stone pirate arches and the crackling eden beneath me.

Love,

Heather

Monday is finally through that arch.

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