Tales of a Shoebox Princess

I'm still thinking about the trip. I got an email message from Captain Bob, the owner of the boats, asking how we liked the tour. I gave him a glowing review on tripadvisor. It really was a good time. The tours are designed for cruisers, so they try to pack the sights and the snorkeling all into a specific length of time. We weren't limited by time, but 6 hours cruising on a speedboat was enough. The last bit of the tour is the jet flyover at Maho Beach. We had stopped at some resort beach that had such clear blue water, but we were only there a minute (and already one guy had jumped off the boat into the water), when our captain, Roddick (a French person), looked over his shoulder and shouted out, "The plane is coming! If you want to see it come in, we have to get going!" (all with an outrageous French accent) Everyone, including the guy already in the water, agreed we wanted to haul boat butt over to Maho for the flyover. The swimmer climbed back in the boat and w...

One thing we didn't do when we went to Florida Keys back in 2013 is go boating or snorkeling. I take that back, we did travel on the catamaran to Fort Jackson, Dry Tortugas. But we didn't snorkel, and while we were at Fort Jackson, I was sort of jealous of the people I saw snorkeling. They said it was great fun and they saw all sorts of neat (and even keen) things. Well, dangit, while on the island, we were going to snorkel, even if it killed me, and I was worried that it would. I do love being in the water, but I wasn't sure I could handle the mask and snorkel; that I would feel claustrophobic, or that it would bug me not to breathe with my nose. But I thought I wanted to try anyway. Jim, who doesn't much like being in large bodies of water, said he would try it too, even though I gave him an out by saying I wouldn't be offended or think anything of him staying in the boat. Jen and Mike recommended a day trip that included snorkeling with Soualiga Tours and we ...