On Wednesday we headed back to Smith’s Reef. Why? Because it’s there! No seriously, there are five or six pieces to the reef, separated by seagrass, and we’d only explored two of the smaller pieces on Tuesday. We headed to the further point, and while it was slightly more difficult to enter, only a little rockier, it was certainly worth it!

This is really an amazing reef. It’s so alive and gorgeous. The many types of coral give an amazing panorama, any which way you look. In fact, it might be its biggest problem! You can’t just focus on one thing, because you’re worried you’ll miss something fantastic, just to your right, or just to your left, or straight ahead! It’s so amazing. Pam calls it eye candy, but it’s way sweeter than that!

We had been in the water about two minutes when we saw our first turtle, cruising over the seagrass. He was a good size, and it sure made us think that today was going to be a good swim. And it was…

We saw so many things, it’s hard to even put them down on paper. There was an amazing school of horse-eye jacks, ranging in size from eighteen inches up to about three feet, just cruising over the sea grass. The huge leader of the pack just casually kept them on the move. Pam has a nice movie of them, and I’ll get it uploaded over the next while.

We saw a second turtle out over the reef, just nonchalantly weaving in and out of the big coral heads. He had metal tags on both his front flippers, but they didn’t slow him down! I’ve uploaded a movie of him that Pam took. It’s a bit jerky, but it’s well worth watching. Note the amazing coral he’s swimming through. It’s a terrific thrill to paddle along beside him as he cruised about the reef.

There was a big stingray, nestled snugly in the sand. I dove down trying to get him up and swimming, but he just watched me. His big eyes followed me around, but wasn’t too worried about me! I dove down a couple times, but I wasn’t a threat, or else he thought he was too well hidden! You be the judge!

We saw this cool sand tilefish. He was a longish, thinnish fish, that moved really elegantly. His dorsal fins rippled in the current, and his bright white body bend and twisted around. Apparently they are a shy fish, but he didn’t seem to be too concerned, when suddenly he bolted down the rabbit hole! Check out the little movie Pam took of him taking a powder.

There were lots of Queen Angels, some very big. There were times three were within a foot of each other! Pam even caught a little juvenile with one shot. Not sure we’ve seen this many queens all in one spot. It’s been amazing to see so many of them… they are so colorful with their bright blue and yellow bands, your eye is just drawn to them.

We saw blue chromis, a beautiful bright blue and black fish, about four to six inches long, there was a big scrawled filefish, lots of coneys, and on and on. We saw a fish called a graysby, which looks very much like a coney, but is distinguishable by his distinctive black dots along his dorsal fin.

It was tough to get out of the water. An amazing amazing day of snorkeling.

For dinner we were going to go to a place called the Tiki Hut, where Wednesday is “cheap night” for bbq ribs and chicken, but the place was packed. So, we decided to give Baci’s another try. And we were glad we did! What a nice restaurant. Everything spot on, and enjoyable. From the maitre d who seated us, and told us of the specials, to the many waitresses, to the view…

Usually when you are served by so many waitresses, it can be a disaster, but they were fantastic. They quickly brought us a basket of hot garlic bread, and took our drink order. We started with the antipasta mista, a selection of meats, cheeses and greens with a balsamic dressing, and a very nice caprese salad, served on a big beautiful platter for two ($16.95). For dinner, we made a mistake and ordered a pizza. Not that the pizza was a mistake, we ordered the large! And it was HUGE! We only managed to eat half of it. A small would have been more than enough. Total bill was $59 – and VERY well worth every penny!