Fort Lauderdale, USA

Well, the vacation is almost over. I spent the weekend in Fort Lauderdale exploring parts of the city in the evenings and relaxing in the pool or hotel room during the day cause the heat is just unbearable. I have taken a few pictures at the beach, but be warned: they display not as much wildlife as usual. ;)

It seems I was quite lucky to not have experienced any really intense consequences of Irene as here it's all quiet and peaceful. Still wallowing in thoughts of the beautiful days I spent on the Bahamas. A great bunch of people and lots of great experiences...good memories!!

I hope you are all good, cheers,

Stefan

P.S.: I added a few more pictures to the Bimini album, too

Leaving Bimini

Here we are at the Bimini airport, almost an hour of waiting for the customs officers to come in now. Don't know whether they were hiding from the storm, but it really wasn't that bad at all. Dany's flight already got cancelled yesterday but we seem to be the lucky ones to fly out soon, depending on the mood the customs guys are in. If things go as planned I will spend the weekend in Fort Lauderdale diving, maybe kite-surfing and definitely shopping. No trip to the Keys or the Everglades, I am in chill mode right now.

Cheers,

Stefan

Bimini, Bahamas

So here we are. The Bahamas. On a boat called Indigo and the name suits it perfectly. A liveaboard boat, 18m long and made of steel with a deep blue skin. Since Sunday we are on board, a crew of three and 4 guests. 2 from Canada, 3 from the US, 2 from Switzerland and myself. Had to skip the first day cause we waited for a honeymoon couple who was too late for the morning flight and finally decided to cancel everything due to the hurricane warning we received. By now we got news that it will only be a tropical storm (60-70mph) and we came back into dock just minutes ago.

Three beautiful days we spent out on the crystal clear, light blue sea. Went snorkeling and got towed behind the boat on our first dolphin tour. 29 spotted dolphins upon first contact. Unbelievable. The came so close that they almost touched me. Extremely curious and playful. And the best thing is: its all their choice. They can leave anytime but they "decided" to spend time with us. Even when we let go off the rope to swim with them. Incredible. Another 13 individuals on our trip yesterday which I took pictures and videos of. I still don't know what to say, out of the many, many encounters I had with animals this clearly was one of the most amazing.

Today we went to a reef nearby and spent 90 minutes snorkeling, saw lemon sharks, lobsters, parrot fish and I swam with two huge adult eagle rays, then had another 2 hours with the "local" stingrays. They like to rub onto you and when the do they almost cuddle. Like a cat they like to be caressed on their wings and "noses" and they hung out with us the whole time we were in the water. Another wow out of the many I had on this trip.

So tonite, since the tropical storm is coming up, we will spend in the harbour to have some delicious seafood in the local restaurant and then try to sleep on the ship. Which will be very interesting. No need to worry though, the hurricane won't hit us, there will just be strong winds and rain.

So take a look at the pictures if you like and feel free to leave your comments.

Cheers,

Stefan