Entries by lisa

A very quick check in from the UK, for an update!

It is so cold now here in the UK, it snowed today where my cousin lives! So we have decided it has to be time to leave! I am now in the last week of my cooking course, I finish on Thursday, on Sunday we fly to Spain to start our Atlantic crossing! I can't wait for the warmer weather!

I have a million pictures, but they are all with Richard, so I will get around to doing them soon! The only down side of being warm and crossing the Atlantic, is no internet!!!!!! Which means no scrabble Kerry!

I will take a million pictures of the crossing and post them when we get to the other side, you never know we might swing past the BVI.............

Lisa here checking in! I down loaded my small snorkel camera yesterday and found a few random charter pictures, so I thought I would pop them up! This was our last charter with the St Marys group...........



This was Rich being naughty and playing how many pins can we get on there before she notices!



One of the murials



land crab hiding





we even got them on the banana boat, not for long, but they were definatly on! Made me smile finding those! Seems like a long time ago now!

It is really starting to get cold here now in the UK, but I am half way through my cooking course now, Richie bought me my first knife at the weekend! Those who know me might not think it is a good idea to give me big, sharp knives, but it really makes a difference and still no plasters Kerry (touch wood!) I always had a nasty habit of trying to chop my fingers off on the boat, the first week I started I had a plaster on every finger! So I guess I am improving!

So while I work hard, Rich is off sailing for the week with a friend, I am not too jealous though, sounds cold to me!

Lisa here with a quick note from the UK, I am guessing Kerry and Bazza are otherwise busy at the moment weather watching!
It was funny to see Kerry in her water proofs on the blog this weekend, as we were in T shirts all weekend in the UK, quite unusual for this time of the year, but I was very happy about it! It won't last for long I am sure!

Exciting news from Rich, he passed the first part of his Ocean master course, so that is the theory part done - he got 100%, not just a pretty face! The next part means we have to go to sea, so next month we are going to do an atlantic crossing, so he can do what he needs to do and we get an exciting journey as well, hope the weather is nice for that!

I am week 2 cooking, all is going well, I have learned so much, Rich can't wait for me to practice all my new recipes on him! I am putting weight on though from all the testing! Indian curry today, my favorite!

It has been great catching up with friends and families, it has been quite a while since we have seen some, but as it is starting to get colder, I will soon be more than ready to head away from the UK again, who knows where!

I must admit I have been very bad at blogging, but I have been busy!

A quick summary should bring you up to speed........We loved our vacation in Belize and didn't want to leave, it was quite a busy time though! After the dive liveaboard we went on to a sand castle called Cay Caulker, we rented a cute place for the week and travelled the island on push bikes, no cars on the island just golf carts and no pictures of me on a push bike either! One of my high lights was the discovery of blue margaritas!

While on the sand castle, suprisingly, we did a lot more diving and saw some special things (Rich has a million pictures) here we are in case you forgot what we look like already! This is the right way up!



We also went on a sail and snorkeling trip and got to swim with a manatee, that was one of the highlights of the holiday for me!



We saw a new type of booby bird, a red footed one



There were lots of dogs every where, which I loved, heres a random cute one!



We saw a lot of sharks in Belize, but also eagle rays



Richs favorites, blennys (we have a lot of pictures of those)





One of my favorite things that we didn't have in the BVI, nudibranchs



but we had plenty of these, Christmas tree worms



All the diving and blue margaritas came to a rude stop much to my horror and it was time to fly home before I knew it! When we landed in the UK it was 50 degrees, me and Rich looked at each other in horror, but big suprise the sun was out! In 5 days we did the length and breadth of the UK visiting family, I was looking for my clothes, I know when I left England I had some, where they went I have no idea and in the stores the clothes they are selling for the winter are less substantial than my summer clothes! oh well.

So me and Rich are both back in school now, I am cooking and Rich is doing boat stuff, I am really enjoying the cooking, Promenade certainly well prepared me skill wise for the course and its all I have to do, no popping off to dive or anything, so its not as fun! But I am learning a lot, much to Richs delight I am sure!

So here we are sitting on the beach, or at least as close as you can be without being sat in the sand! sipping blue margaritas and watching the world go past and checking in on the real world!

So far we have had an amazing time in Belize, the Aggressor live a board was amazing (but not a patch on Promenade!) We dived our little hearts out and saw some amazing stuff! Heres a few of Richies pictures, but not his best he told me to say!
First of all his favorite, a blenny and a type he hasn't seen before a diamond back!



Something we had no idea about, this thing looked black, in the picture it looks red, it was the size of a pin head and it could uncurl its back and swim with wings! any suggestions????



We saw a cute eagle ray who was terrified by Richie and his camera



A rare eel



You see these file fish in BVI, but they were every where here, a slender file fish



Something you don't see in the BVI and my ultimate favorite, a nudibranch



Then there was also big stuff, namely reef sharks, we saw some in the blue hole which was fabulous and a must for any one coming to Belize. We saw 3 reef sharks, about 6 - 7 feet long, these 2 circled for most of the dive though



We also had a 7 foot reef shark for a few dives on the reef, the guys on the boat caught a Bermuda chubb and killed it and put it in a pyramid and lowered it to the bottom to see what it might attract, there were big grouper, moray and in came the shark, he was around and stayed all afternoon, so we got some good pics, when they took the chubb out the pryramid a big old grouper ate him in one swallow, it was then Mr shark came back with 2 buddies, apparently he wasn't too happy about it, he swam straight at Richs camera, so he got some good close ups, but Rich had to bash him on the nose with the housing to get him to back off, so he then decided to look at my fins, I wasn't having any of that, so a quick fin in the nose and we decided it was time to go investigate the beer and hot tub back on board!!!! I certainly wasn't night diving that night!!!!





Anyhow, back to the cuter things, 2 tiny snails



A type of cowrie I had never seen before



and every ones fav a turtle to finish!



We caught colds flying to Belize (typical) but managed to get by with all the diving thankfully, it was a wonderful experience. After all that diving though we decided to head to Caye Caulker, a sand castle 40 mins NE of Belize City, it was a welcome relief, the word laid back doesn't quite describe! We are just out of "town" in a bug hut, so we have hired push bikes, a lot of fun apart from the numb bum!!

We had a day on a sail boat I took pictures to show you our 30 foot mono hull sail experience, there was no ice maker Kerry!!!! The boom was held on with electic tape, but it did the job and we snorkelled!!!!





We snorkelled with a mantee! It was one of the top 3 things I have seen in the water



then on to shark alley, nurse sharks gallore and finally a small reef which was Noahs ark, it had 2 of everything!

So here I am back to my margarita, more to follow (blog that is not margarita, although the blue margarita is like Kerrys blue drink on tequilla, I am liking it!)

You just can't get rid of us! I am missing my blogging, so a quick check in from Miami!

We have mostly spent our time, eating, watching movies and shopping and in that order! Last day in Miami today, off to Belize tomorrow. We have even more stuff now Kerry, we have been shopping our hearts out, we will see what I bought though, as I had my eye sight tested in the US for the first time and they put drops in that made my eyes look like sauces, I had to walk around in my sun glasses inside and everything was rather blurry, so I could have bought anything!

Had lots of emails from people wishing us well, thank you to you all and we will be blogging from Belize, Rich will no doubt have pictures galore. It was very sad saying good bye and tissues were involved!

Any how for some reason the bar in the hotel is giving away free drinks so we are off to investigate, more from Belize!