Our interesting Caribbean vacation.

[Tuffyyyyy]

Anyone else come into this thread knowing Paul B was rich, but didn't realize he was this rich? Looks like an awesome trip.

 

[Paul B]

Oh yes, Very rich. It started when I inherited half of my Father's tiny fish market in 1959. That $900.00 really started my "fortune".
Then I wrote a book that is still "flying" off the shelves, especially in places like Mozambique, Tibet, Tunisia and Siberia, the salt water capitals of the world. My largest profits come from selling pictures of tangs eating algae off of my feet. :rolleyes:

 

[Paul B]

Why didn't that picture show up?

 

[Ento-Reefer]

Wow, what an awesome trip Paul. So glad you shared your adventure with us.

 

[Paul B]

Thanks, I did SCUBA dive with my Daughter and I will post that when I have time. But it was an uneventful dive so not that exciting. But I will try to add a few Great White sharks, Orca's or a Hippopotamus to make it interesting. :rolleyes:

 

[Paul B]

At the last party we went to , Mick Jagger was there but he didn't dance. Kelly Ripa did a lot of dancing. Next to the party place is the "Fish Market". My family had a fish market so I wanted to see what they had. The fishing boat, comes in right next to the place and it was filled with conch. As a matter of fact conch is their main catch and almost their only catch. Those and lobsters. There are conch shells all over the Island bordering houses and piled up in hills. The "fisherman" SCUBA dive for them and I did see some on my dive. I can't believe there are so many of them in this place that they can take so many every day. They were boiling them in a huge kettle like you would see in a Disney movie over a wood fire. The kettle was precariously perched on some rocks and the guy cooking them looked like a conch himself.
There were a few fish laying in the market or in the sun but they had no ice, just flies and it didn't look very appetizing. The local people buy from there, the guests and homeowners get their food shipped in every day on a ship.

Our next to last day I wanted to go diving with my Daughter as I rarely go anywhere with her where I can dive. She has only dove 5 or 6 times and we were flying out the next day so we did the shallow dive which was fine with me. Me and her were the only ones on the dive which is my kind of diving. I don't like diving with a bunch of tourists but sometimes, in the tropics it is unavoidable.

Our Daughter is very scared of barracuda and sharks and if she sees one she gets behind me and points at my head so the shark eats me first.


Once we went on a dive together and there was this huge barracuda which was bigger than her and it came right up to my face to show me his broken teeth. The guy was very old and probably senile. My Daughter was petrified and held on to my tank. She had to do that for quite a while because it was a decompression dive so we had to make friends with this fish for a long time. His name was Elvis.

But here on this dive the biggest thing was me. Most of the Caribbean is void of large fish and sharks now. But the diving here was very nice. The corals were in great shape and the "Coral Restoration Foundation" who I met in Key Largo a few years ago had some coral trees there that they were growing so they could "plant" them there.



This is how they grow them before they re seed the sea with them. We seen a bunch of these


In between the healthy corals was a lot of seaweed.





There were also quite a few turtles there but they were much smaller than I am used to seeing. Quite a few rays also.

 

[Johnike]

Paul how cool! Our Illinois Valley Reef Club makes regular donations to the CRF from raffles and stuff!!

 

[Paul B]

Thats cool. I visited them in Key Largo and wanted to meet them on the Island, but they were not there then.
The Caribbean is not the best diving but you have to dive where you are.
For people who are afraid of a little algae, look at this.

 

[dricc]

You are the only one that could tell a story about a turtle eating a banana and keep me on the edge of my seat.

 

[fishybizzness]

One of our residents strolling through the yard!

 

[Paul B]

We are booked to go back here this spring. Invited again. Must be my fish experience. :rolleyes:

 

[Branespikin]

Awesome. I went back few months ago!! Hopefully ill go back again. Met some great people there!

 

[Paul B]

Great place, Isn't it!

 

[Branespikin]

Great place, Isn't it!

I love it! GreAt place to relax and reboot the mind!

Fishing with locals

 

[Paul B]

AAh The fish market. I wouldn't eat anything from there.

 

[Paul B]

Last week we were invited back to Mustique for 7 days. Our closest friends came with us as they are also our SCUBA buddies and next door neighbors.
We went there on the same tiny puddle jumper plane we went on last time.



I could tell it was the same plane because I was in the last seat. (it only holds 18 people) Behind me was the bathroom which was basically a cardboard cat food box with adult diapers in it.
The windows were open but if you stuck your hand out, the propeller would cut it off. We also cruised at the same altitude so I am glad this time I remembered to bring along my fishing pole that I used to troll out the back.


We stayed at a different house this time. It was a 5 bedroom on our own private beach but it was just the four of us. We had a staff of three including a Chef.
This was our deck where we ate.



We also had the entire lagoon. I can't tell you whose houses are on the other side, but everyone knows them. This was one of our snorkling beaches


Sometimes you have to click on the exes to get the pictures. I think I took them too large with my SCUBA camera, But I am working on changing them

 

[dougers31]

Awesome! One of my favorite reef to reef threads yet :-)

 

[Paul B]

Awesome! One of my favorite reef to reef threads yet :)

Thank you. I appreciate that. :D

 

[Paul B]

Does anyone know how to make the file smaller so the pictures come out?

 

[fishybizzness]

Use your shrink ray gun!