Jeff Billimek’s Journal

I woke up and had a smoothie for breakfast. Larry wanted to go down to a beach that was really close by that he had never been to before. We headed out, walking to it since it was so close to the house. This was around 10am, and there were hardly anyone else out there. There wasn’t much of a beach and there were mostly rocks and exposed reef. We worked our way out to a good area to get in the water and started to swim out past the shallow area. After we got further out we saw a lot of fish, but then we came across a large group of sea turtles. That was quite a sight to see. These giant turtles swimming around the water looked imposing and frightening at first because I didn’t know if they attack people who swim around them. Fortunately this didn’t happen, and it was really fun to watch them bob around in the water. I think we saw about 10-12 different sea turtles while we were out there. After a little while out there we swam back and walked back to the house.

After a while at the house, we all gathered our things to get some lunch and then go to Tunnels beach. We had some good deli sandwiches and drove to an area to park for the beach. When walking to the beach we could look down upon it from the road above and it looked incredible. The whole area was relatively shallow so it was very easy to see the topography of the immediate area. There were a lot of underwater ‘channels’ that looked great for snorkeling down. Sure enough, when we got there and started snorkeling we were able to go down these channels and see all of the sea life. There was a lot more coral in this area, and we got to see a large ’school’ of fish. There much as been over 500 fish in one place all swimming around. The interesting thing is that you adapt to swimming through the water with respect to how the waves move. When swimming ‘against’ the flow of the wave, you don’t go anywhere, but as soon as the wave changes, you get a nice ‘boost’ and cover a lot of area.

Amy swam back to the beach while Larry and I swam further out. We went to the wrong area because we started to get hit by waves crashing. One larger wave crashed right on top of my and knocked my mask off. I grabbed it before it fell, but it shook me up, and Larry wanted to head back, thinking we were too much in the surf. At first, swimming back was challenging for me as I was still shaken up from the wave hitting me. I was breathing hard and found it hard to relax myself. Fortunately after a little while my apprehension went away, but I need to try to focus more on not getting worked up in the water.

We laid out on the beach for a couple of hours and then went back to the house. I took a shower and read more of my book. By this time I already completed the first book of the trilogy, so I was over a third done with the book. I’m really enjoying it too.

At about 6pm, we left for a seafood buffet at the hotel down the street. The hotel is very lavish and expensive. The buffet was great. I had some sushi wraps, crab legs, shrimp, squid, and other things. It was expensive - over $50 per person, but Larry was paying for it and they wanted to go. I need to make a point of starting to pay for dinners and lunches. Larry is paying for virtually everything now and I feel bad since they are also paying a lot for the house and other things.

After the incredible dinner we went back home and I went to sleep, exhausted from all the activities of the day.