I'll take that as a compliment...

One of our house guests commented this week that I seemed to be half-Turks Islander already.

"Because I only shower half the time?" I asked.

They laughed. I decided I'll take that as a compliment.

I do feel very at home here. When people ask me how long it took me to get adjusted I say "about 3 days". It was probably more like 3 hours. This is very much the pace of life I was born for.

I've been spoiled here. Few people. Good weather most of the year. Most of it.

The seas calmed down after the 6 weeks of "winter" and we've been doing a lot of swimming this week. Yesterday was the BEST. First thing out I found a turtle. For once he wasn't spooked. He made swam in wide circles and let me keep time. I think he was checking out what I was up to. Then we passed a coral head and I remembered why I was out here - it's lion fishing season. Fortunately, my friend the turtle brought me right to a big one. I paused for a moment and mentally marked the location. Unfortunately, when I looked up, the turtle had swam on. Bummer. That was a fun swim - I think I can say I had the attention of that turtle for a full two minutes.

That was only the beginning. I had a trunk fish swim up to me to see what I was about. Straight towards my outstretched hands with his little fish mouth testing out the waters. If you didn't know by now, trunk fish are my favorite, so getting attention from one was pretty cool. And that little baby one is still on it's coral head, growing up nicely. Lots of intermediate french angel fish.

Then an eagle ray swam by really close.

The seas were so alive yesterday! If you looked out into the distance you could see schools of fish gleaming in the afternoon sun as far as visibility allowed. While chasing down a cow fish, I dove about 10 feet down and tried to touch him - not really, just for the joy of diving. When I came up Neal was there. He surprised the heck out of me - I'd been alone and way out: where did he come from!

"Did you see that nurse shark you just swam over?!"

"uhm... no."

He pointed it out: resting in between a group of rocks was a 4.5 foot shark. Hm, didn't notice that. I looked around the shark: the coral was teeming with fish. You know my rule: If the fish aren't worried, I'm not worried. So I dove down for a closer look. Pretty cool.

Ten minutes later, I saw a group of fish scatter like their lives depended on it. Worried fish! I looked up fast, searching for the danger. Baraccuda! He was hunting, you could tell by the evil gleam in his eye (and the scattering fish). I started motioning to Neal, who was carrying the lion fish net, but I realized I was wiggling my fingers to get his attention. Eesh, why don't I just wrap them in a bow as appetizers for our hungry friend? Trying a different tactic, I tugged on Neal's flipper, probably scaring the heck out of him and pointed, then quickly put him and the net between me and the menace.

That was exciting. The barracuda swam off, but I was sure he'd be back to exact his revenge on those who had interrupted his dinner, so I spent the rest of the swim looking over my shoulder. He didn't show. The turtle didn't show up again either.

3 lion fish. We made sushi. Tasty.

Tonight is Moroccan night at the Bohio. I'm so excited - tangine! After dinner: espresso. I'm telling you, this life style is easy to get used to.