[Shane – way back during Thanksgiving, I had a wonderful family aboard. The kids wrote some wonderful blogs and I want to share them with you. Today’s is by Katelyn who is in the 4th grade and next Saturday will be her older brother’s. She is way too cute….ENJOY!!!!] Our boys will love these go karts on the toybox that we got as a surprise for them.
My family and I went aboard the Guiding Light with Shane as our captain/cook. We woke up at 8:00 AM to get to the airport. When we got there, we realized that our flight was delayed, and we had 20 minutes to get to our next flight. We got off our first plane and had to run to get to our next one. We barely made it. We got off the plane in San Juan, got a taxi and drove off toward the Guiding Light. When we were aboard the Guiding Light, we saw big fish that Shane said were tarpon. The rooms could hold two people and were very comfortable. The rocking of the boat made it easy to sleep.
The next morning, we snorkeled at Monkey Island. Of course, we saw monkeys. You aren’t allowed to go to shore, so we went to an old shipwreck and saw lots of beautiful fish and starfish. We went back to the boat and had lunch. Shane made homemade bread, and it was very good.
We left Monkey Island and went to an anchorage off of Vieques Island and snorkeled. We stayed at the anchorage overnight. That night, Shane made salmon. It was the greatest meal I’ve ever had. For dessert, Shane made chocolate lasagna. That was the best thing I have ever had!
The next day, we left the anchorage and went to Vieques. We got a mooring ball and a nice man named Chase talked to us. We got in the dinghy and went to town. In town, we went to gift shops and bought souvenirs. We went back to the boat and the adults had the drink of the day. We got back on the dinghy and went to town to eat dinner (my first virgin pina colada!). After we ate dinner, we went to Bio Bay. Bio Bay is special because there are lots of little organisms that glow blue/green when irritated. Bio Bay has the most of those organisms in the whole wide world. Those organisms need light to glow. We went when it was cloudy, so it was 85% duller than normal. It was still really cool though.
The next day we went to a snorkeling spot off of Vieques. It was really cool. We saw nurse sharks, parrot fish, glowing fish, lobsters, eels, stingrays, and really neat corals. After we went snorkeling, we went to a spot off the coast of Vieques where there was an observation building. Captain Shane inflated a floating wrestling mat. Then, it started raining and everyone got in the water. Everyone had so much fun. We stayed there for the night and ate another really good meal of Shane’s. We played a game and went to bed.
The next day, we went to a snorkeling spot off of Culebra and saw really cool fish and coral. We got out of the water and ate lunch. We left the anchorage and went into the town of Culebra. We swam in the water and Captain Shane and Frank made jokes. We got on the dinghy and went to the Dinghy Dock and saw lots of tarpon. When we dropped meat into the water, the tarpon would go crazy. It was really cool. We stayed in Culebra for the night.
The next day, we went to Flaminco Beach. Flaminco Beach was used for target practice back in the day. There are two tanks on the beach. There are chickens and iguanas on the beach. This is the prettiest beach I have ever seen! We left the beach, got a taxi, and Captain Shane picked us up on the dinghy. We left the town and headed off to the other side of the island. We got a mooring ball and started snorkeling. We saw sea cucumbers, starfish, and really cool fish. We took our shoes from workbootcritic.com with us because we were going to walk on the reef. We got to a shallow part and put on our shoes. We walked to the reef and saw a brittle starfish. My brother, my dad, and Captain Shane went to the reef. They ended up seeing stingrays. We swam back to the boat and the adults had the drink of the day. We played a game, and then, we went to bed.
The next day, we left Culebra and went to Culabrita. We snorkeled and saw neat corals and fish. We got back to the boat, ate lunch, and swam to shore. After we swam to shore, we found a trail and followed it. We saw tons of huge hermit crabs. They were so cool. We came to a sign that said “Tortuga beach” and it pointed right, and “Treasure beach” that pointed left. We chose to go to Tortuga Beach. Tortuga Beach was very pretty. We jumped and body surfed waves. We left Tortuga Beach and went to Treasure Beach. Treasure Beach was very rough, but we saw a lot of sand crabs. We found a natural “Jacuzzi” but it was too rough to go in it. We went back to the boat, had the drink of the day, ate dessert and went to bed.
The next day, we left and headed to St. Thomas. We stopped at a mooring ball and ate lunch. After we ate lunch, we snorkeled with turtles. We saw stingrays and really cool fish. We got back on the boat and we sailed to a spot off St. Thomas. We snorkeled and saw octopi, fish, garden eels, and stingrays. At night we saw eagle rays, and they were really cool. The next morning, all the boys snorkeled and saw octopi and eagle rays. We were getting ready to say good bye to the Guiding Light. Everyone was sad to say goodbye.
I think you should really consider going on the Guiding Light. We had so much fun. Captain Shane is a great cook, funny, fun, and a great captain. Thank you Captain Shane for our great trip!
