Maiden Voyage

After a long day of travel, I finally arrived in Jamaica to be immediately surrounded by my SF homies. It was just like being back in SF only way way better. It was Emily's 30th birthday party and the festivities were underway.

The others had gotten in early in the afternoon and they quickly got up me up to speed. Our pied a terre was a quick 15 minute jaunt to the beach, Gloria, our personal chef, had made delicious jerk chicken for dinner, and best of all . . . Brian had brought a suitcase full of beach toys. Awesome!

As soon as Brian was up the next morning we put the raft into the pool. The raft was all of 2 feet shorter than the pool so there wasn't much ground to cover. After we went round for a spin, and others humored me and let me take them for a spin too, Brian and I began to plan our maiden voyage. The plan was to take the snorkeling gear and the raft down to the ocean. We'd paddle out and then take turns snorkeling around while the other person stayed in the raft.

Once we had our stuff down at the water, the ocean was a bit choppier than expected. Undeterred we said our goodbyes, walked the raft out as far as we could and hopped in. The voyage was underway!

Brian and I paddled as hard as we could and got a decent way out. He took a quick dip and then I got out to swim around. As soon as I was in the water, the surf took Brian and the raft back to shore. Our voyage hadn't lasted long - but it was fun. The lifeguard let us store the raft at the beach and we went back up to the house to immediately plot tomorrow's adventure. We agreed that going in the morning would have less waves and allow us to get further. Brian also created an anchor to keep the raft in place.

Day 2 was far more successful. We were able to get the raft out further and drop anchor. we donned our snorkel gear and began the fish hunt. Only there were no fish! After swimming around for 20 minutes Brian finally found a few. Brian went in and Ethan and I swam a bit further by the rocks and found a variety of fish, including some small angel fish.

The rest of the time was spent lounging on beach chairs and catching up with everyone. It was a very relaxing 5 days and a very happy birthday for Emily.