It’s only in the last ten days or so of being in the Bahamas that we have found coral reefs to snorkel on, but what a joyous experience!  Particularly in these warm waters, I could enjoy the underwater explosion of colour and life for hours at a time. Today I couldn’t work out why I was getting some water in my snorkel and mask and then realised it was because I was grinning and singing too much.  A new fish today was tiny but very cute.  It was fluorescent indigo studded with silver stars – very glitzy.  A highlight (there were many) was following a turtle for several hundred yards.

When you appear on the horizon (well, surface), different fish react in different ways.

Some hide, diving in under the rocks or thinking they can’t be seen when wedged between two bits of fan coral; some, particularly whole shoals, seem oblivious to you; whilst others don’t mind your company at all and are happy to let you swim alongside them. And then there are the predators.

I was warned not to wear jewellery or anything glittery as barracuda are attracted to it.  Barracuda are big, long, sinister-looking and have very big teeth. They seem to appear from nowhere. Rather than minding their own business they hang just below the surface and watch, not moving, just watching, sizing you up – it’s very unnerving.  Additional advice was that  sharks only attack from underneath you, and are far less likely to be attacked if you don’t splash about or show fear. Having eyeballed the barracuda I felt we had an understanding, but when I saw a small shark I wasn’t feeling at all brave and swam back close to the dinghy, trying to swim in smooth strokes and giving an aura of calmness!

Based on this limited bit of snorkelling, I was working on the theory that the deeper the water, the bigger the fish.  Imagine my surprise then when snorkelling from the yacht to the beach in a sandy bay when, 5 ft away, I saw those cold barracuda eyes watching me.  I don’t like them!  John had taken the dinghy to the beach and when I was in about 2 ft of water a small stingray swam straight towards me and stopped about 3 inches in front of me.  That was a shock, yet I was enjoying the privilege of being so close to this flying saucer.  I was a bit taken aback when two larger ray came up to be from behind and seemed to be sniffing my legs, but they were very gentle and soon swam off.

This morning we were the only yacht in a beautiful bay off Cat Cay in the Bahamas. After a final snorkel, we set off for the USA, sailing across the Gulf Stream with the wind behind us.  We did some put on some washing, made fresh water, polished some stainless, had a leisurely lunch and prepared some e-mails, making landfall as the sun was setting. We were back in the bustle, sophistication and wealth of Florida and the American hospitality. A passing sailor called out how beautiful they thought our boat was and a local person in a RIB offered to escort us through the shallows to a good anchorage.  By the time we had called Customs and Border Protection, Downtown Miami was lighting the sky very differently to the stars that we had laid underneath the night before.

I don’t think I shall ever tire of being able to just sail from one country to another:  another day, another discovery.