2015 in review

Hello Boatblog® fans, and Happy New Year to you all!

Or should I say, Feliz Ano Novo!

Once a year The Boatblog stats helper monkeys prepare an “annual report” for this blog. We were pretty surprised to see that we had had about 3,700 visits last year, from over 93 countries. Mainly the UK, but followed closely by our fans in the US and Brazil!

We didn’t know we even knew anyone in Brazil.

But thank you and Obrigado for visiting.

Ju & Lyn

Here’s an excerpt:

A New York City subway train holds 1,200 people. This blog was viewed about 3,700 times in 2015. If it were a NYC subway train, it would take about 3 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

Virgins Underwater

Hello again Boatblog® fans,

Welcome back to another exciting edition, this time coming to you live from Nanny Cay in the British Virgin Islands. To be honest, we hadn’t expected to be here for so long, but we have been waiting for a “weather window,” that would allow us to sail over to Antigua where we are catching our flights home for Christmas. Unfortunately, the wind has been pretty strong, and going in exactly the wrong direction, so we have been stranded here, forced against our will to while away long hours in beach bars supping cocktails.

Ju at The Bitter End

But it hasn’t all been idle time wasting . We attend self improvement classes in yoga…

Yoga

…and meditation.

Hammock

But fortunately, still manage to find time to go for lunch with friends.

The Hog In Heaven

At  Hog Heaven, with the Captain & Crew of Second Wind (Left to Right, Howard, Hope, Lyn, Ju and Ed). Not only are they justifiably famous for their barbecue ribs, there is a breathtaking view too.

View from The Hog In Heaven

The red arrow is pointing to Domini. And that’s Richard Branson’s place, Necker Island, in the top left corner. (Apparently they are called The Virgin Islands after his record company.)

But our thirst for adventure was growing, so we decided to go SCUBA diving. We dug out our PADI  diving licences, which have barely been used since we qualified…

Who is this boy?

Ju PADI

Check out these glasses…

Lyn PADI card

…and booked ourselves onto a dive boat.

At first we didn’t know our air supply from our elbows, but it wasn’t long before it all came flooding back, and soon we were jumping in with complete confidence…

Ju jumping

…even if the instructor did look a bit worried.

Next it was Lyn’s turn….

Lyn Jumping 2

It may look like she’s wearing a Santa hat, but that’s actually the dive flag.

Soon we were pulling ourselves down into the depths.

Roping Down.

We saw jellyfish…

Jellyfish 1

Stingrays…

Ray

Barracuda…

Barracuda Shoal

…and lunch.

Lobster for lunch

But most exciting of all…

We saw…

A….

Gigantic…

(Der, dum, der, dum…)

SHARK!!!

Shark  Ju

Now before you start panicking, this was the most friendly shark you could ever want to meet.

Shark 3

It’s a nurse shark, and apparently they don’t have much in the way of teeth. If ever Spielberg was going to do a movie sequel, he’d have to call it  “GUMS!”

Gums

It was quite happy just swimming around us.

Shark 1

A really amazing animal.

The coral is pretty too.

Coral 3

All too soon it was time to return to the surface.

Just have to get past the Giant Tarpon…

Giant Tarpon

…and the killer jellyfish.

Jellyfish 2

But everything was….

Divers Ju  Lyn OK

…O.K.

This edition’s arty farty prize goes to marine photographer Devin, who came down with us.

Arty Farty 1

Thanks to Kay and Ben at Sunchaser SCUBA who dived down with us, and reminded us how to do it.

That’s all for now Boatblog ® fans. We’ll get back to the exhausting work of waiting for the weather window.

Ju & Lyn

Diver Aces

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