Conception Island Below Surface

Shortly after my kayak trip, as in 3 days later, Dallas was leaving on another one. This one happened to go out over our 8 year anniversary. We were bummed about that, but as I mentioned in the one I posted for our anniversary...we don't need a special day to remind us we're in love. I think we do a pretty good job of that on a daily basis around here :)

When he got back from that trip, we had some guests that did a fishing charter with us, and somehow during the day of fishing, Dallas talked them into doing another private charter over the Conception Island and the boys and I were allowed to go too :) YAY!!!! Here's a little map to show you it's location to us. It was a nice little trek which why we haven't been able to go yet. You need lots of things to line up well: 1) someone paying for gas (or at least pitching in a good bit) and 2) really calm weather. 

View Conception Island Charter! in a larger map

 I am doing the post for Conception in two parts one below the water and the other above. I have too many pics and this will make it easier :) I'll start with the underwater stuff...

Conception Island is an uninhabited and protected Land & Sea Park. That in itself gives you hope of seeing lots of wildlife and beautiful reefs. The first spot we chose to snorkel and dive at wasn't that impressive to be quite honest. I was so excited the whole way over at the life we would see underwater, we anchored in this really cool spot off a tip of some rocks, but again, we were there on a calm day. 

After thinking about it a little further, we realized that this area probably gets pounded by waves and weather which was probably why it wasn't more lively. It was probably about 25 feet deep here. Joss, as you can clearly see, wanted to go in without his life jacket! We were soooooo proud of him. He really turned a curve this day with his snorkeling and swimming. Of course, we were close at hand to offer him help when needed and to give him little breaks. 

He was so sweet every time Dallas would dive down he would watch him so closely. Then Dallas would turn around and face Joss as he was ascending and the closer he go to Joss the more excited Joss became. His little legs would start kicking and he would start reaching for Daddy. I loved watching it! Before whenever they did/do this the boys usually have their heads up out the water and can only see from above the surface. But with Joss watching the whole time he could see everything clearly to know exactly what was happening :) 

This is not a great shot of this school of squid, but its the best I could get. They are very skiddish. The closer you get to them, the faster they move away from you. 

Emit was in the water with me, but he still isn't crazy about using his mask yet. He'll round that corner when he's ready and then we'll really be rolling :) But until then, I am going to enjoy him still being my baby. I know it won't be much longer that he's clinging to mommy and riding on my back in the water. He'll be ready to explore all by himself soon too. He's already milestones ahead of most little ones his age in the water. 

Poor little guy was sleepy here. This is with the underwater camera still, so technically I haven't gone to my 'dry pictures'. 

There were definitely a lot of fish to see. And cute little toesies dangling for mommy's to nibble on. 

We went to a better reef for snorkeling and it was about 100 yards off an incredible beach and maybe 15 feet deep, but there were fish (mostly small ones) all over the place. This was more like what I was expecting and I got really excited :) Joss did too when he saw all the fish. 

The boys swam around for a little bit and then Dallas got back in the boat with them. The guests that were with us got back in the boat too, so I swam around for a few more minutes and then reluctantly made my way back to the boat too. I didn't want to hold up our guests if they were ready to move on. 

To my surprise they were gearing up with the dive tanks so they could go scuba diving for a bit at this spot. YAY!!! I was very happy to get more time in the water at this location. 

Of course I made sure Dallas and the boys were alright and that he didn't want to get back in. Being the wonderful husband that he is, he said he was more than happy to stay on the boat with the boys. Each time I poked my head out of the water to see if all was well on board, I would hear the sounds of the boys laughing with their daddy and singing some of their favorite songs with the radio :) Momma could enjoy her snorkel!

I tried to soak it all in. It was really beautiful at this reef. I'm already looking forward to going back and swimming here again. And of course, I got some great pictures to use for our church music slides :) 

There were lots of fish, as I said before, but the fish in the parks act so differently from the fish that are out in the open and exposed areas. I swear, they can sense somehow when they are being hunted and when they are just being admired. I make little noises (unintentionally most of the time) when I'm down there with the fish as if the say "I come in peace and just want to take your picture!"

These two fish below were my reef buddies. I know it is probably silly to most of you that I get this excited about the fish and sea life... but this is coming from a little girl that used to walk up and down the fake flower aisle at wal-mart talking to the flowers and telling them all I was sorry I couldn't take them all home with me. That when I grew up and became rich I would come back and buy them all so they could live with me. Embarrassing?? Yeah, a little, but that's me :) So real live animals that I'm interacting with in the wild... forget about it, I'm over the moon with excitement. 

Anyway, back to my friends up above. I found out they are Whitespotted Filefish, thanks to a new REEF FISH book I got :) I was swimming above them and sort of following them along and they just kept turning on their sides like this to look at me. I swam down to get a closer look and picture and they just stayed put, so I kept swimming. Part of the fun to me is to see how close I can get before they scurry away. I keep getting closer and they keep looking at me. I can see their eyes moving all over trying to assess what in the world I am. I got close enough and actually touched one. And it wasn't just a graze of the tail as it hurried away. I poked the crazy thing in the side and he just stayed there and took it. I started laughing and then my bubbles scared it away, but just a little bit. 

After watching our guest scuba diving on this reef while I was diving up and down taking breath after breath and getting tired after a while, I had a realization.... I HAVE TO GET CERTIFIED!! To scuba that is. It is cheaper with a group of folks doing to course at one time, so I'm going to work on recruiting some folks around here to do it with me. The problem will then be the cost of the equipment. But, that's the joy of living somewhere like this. I don't have to rush and do it all right now, but someday, and hopefully soon I will get my certification and be able to scuba dive. Boy oh boy, the fish friends I'll make then :) 

This image below is a still taken out of a video clip we took. You see the 'fish' on the left side of the image, that's a reef shark. Probably about a 6' shark. The white sandy bottom below him is about 70 feet from the surface (my furthest free dive {meaning in one breath without a dive tank} was in 60 feet of water). BUT, the really crazy thing here is the dark area on the right side of the photo. This is a 'wall' for lack of a better term. It completely drops off in the dark water to a depth of around 3,000 feet. CRAZY!!!! You can see the 'wall' from the boat. It was a bit murky here so the clarity wasn't great, and I wasn't about to dive down...even before the shark came. It just has a really eerie feeling knowing that is where those really creepy ocean creatures live. The dive shop here takes groups to dive this ledge sometimes, and I might be tempted to dive it after the training and with a group of folks, but it would have to be nice and clear and bright in this water. 

My brave little Joss wanted to jump in and see the shark. It was very far away from us and it was just cruising down there. We were all holding on to the ladder at the back of the boat. He got it, looked under the water and saw the shark and the depth and said "WHOOOOOAAAAAAHHHH!" through his snorkel. Then he was ready to get back in the boat :) 

My sweet little explorers! Such good boys all day in the boat. They got so hyper and silly on the ride home, but they were still really good. I'll have the 'above water' pics soon. 

Conception.... We will be back!!!