Sept 13,2003 Left Home at 4:15 am to Pick up Kenny and Babsi in Riverhead.. On our way to the JFK airport in NYC..
Arrive airport in record time 5:30am and checked in very smoothly!!!
Plane departs on time and then tells us we will be early to Montego Bay!!
Transfer at Montego Bay very easy!! Everyone very pleasant..{I drank Ting for the first time, Thanks Annie P.}
Arrive at Flamingo Airport at 2:15 pm YIPPEEE

All luggage arrives and truck rental is procured ! Capt. Don’s here we come!!!
We check into our favorite cottage {2017} and quickly get into the water..
George and Kenny managed to do 32 dives each for the week and I did 19 and Babsi did 16..
We had 6 boat dives included at the resort so we took advantage of them going to Klein..
We did two adventurous dives on the east side with Bter Bas and saw 5 Eagle rays flying together and all sorts of other neat stuff.. ie: a nest of slipper lobsters must have been 5 or 6 in one hole.... Huge groupers, loads of spiny lobsters…etc.. We had a terrific time with Bas, he is a wonderful guide…

After my camera flooded I figured I would do a dining report..{I was really mad at myself for the flooding of the camera!!} But alas this is all I can remember…
We had ribs at The Rib Factory above the mall overlooking Karels on the pier.. The ribs were terrific!!! The ice tea , out of this world!!! We ate there a few times…
Capt. Don’s I think had the BEST calamari!!! And we tried it every place we went.. Definitely the best at Rumrunners!!
We had a wonderful dinner at Gibi’s Terrace.. Gibi is a very personable host and makes a mean Goat stew!!! Yummy definitely worth it!!! We also had wonderful company of Brian and Sue from the UK. And Gregg from the KLM dock{lol} and Bas was the local Bter as Jake was in the States and Linda was busy with the children..
One night we walked through the resorts and had dinner at the Lion’s Den. We had a very good meal with very good service..
The best dinner by far, on our last night, was at Cappricios. Everything was perfect.. The Service excellent, the ambiance, outstanding. The food unbelievable!! The Key lime pie!!OMG!!!!

I met Michael Gaynor at Chat and Browse and had the chance to check in with you all.. What a wonderful little shop he has there. Do stop in and say hi to him when you are on Island.. Hint: he likes Folgers Red and the NY times!!! And he is lucky enough to be in the same little strip mall as Lover’s Ice Cream YUMMYYYY…

Besides Brian and Sue and their menagerie of toys for the cams, we were lucky to meet up with Keith and Marie Mitchell, but unfortunately didn’t get to spend any time with them as we were all running to different parts of the island to dive…Next time drinks are on us at the Deco Stop!!!!
BTW Sue and Keith each won honors for picture of the week at Capt. Don’s, actually Brian may have snuck in there as well….
We had a terrific time with Ken and Babsi and everytime I think of some of the things we did I can’t help but to start laughing.. Like the time the Iguana TRAPPED Babsi and me in the room. We couldn’t open the door without the damn thing trying to get in…Finally George came and swatted the animal away.. BUT the Iguana won.. He swiped George across his tender, blistered toes with it’s lightening quick tail and sent him down like a shot..
Then there was the time that Ken, being the comedian that he is, carved a piece of dried papaya into a frog fish shape and took it diving with him.. He set it on a piece of dead coral and started to take pictures of it, this drew a crowd.. When he had enough people there he took his regulator out of his mouth and put the “frogfish” in and began to chew away. People were speechless to say the least!! George got back on the boat and announce that “Ken has to be stopped!! He has eaten all the frogfish that we have found!!” Mouths were agape!!!! And I couldn’t stop laughing!!!
Then there was the time that we were involved in a car chase.. Brian and Sue were with us!! Several times around the circle we went.. Thankfully it was only our two cars that were involved.. We managed to avoid a couple of donkeys during this little chase and also managed to get Sue and Brian home safely!!

Our week went by too fast for sure.. Maybe next time we will stay for a couple of weeks, or months ,or years.. Gosh I have PBD!!!!

flooded camera? pretty lame excuse for not posting pics

sounds like you had a good time;) would have loved to see the guy eating the "frogfish" ;)

well, you got the next trip to look forwars to (only known cure for PBD)

I LOVE TING..so glad u found this item..I wonder if I can get Cultimara or Consales to import it..YUMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

OH, no... a flooded camera!! But otherwise you had a lot of fun! Thanks for sharing!!

Freddie, too bad about the camera Sounds like you had a great and memorable trip. I can just see folks faces in horror and shock as Ken ate the frogfish, and then George's announcement...that would have sent me rolling! I love it! Did you get to see any coral "doing it?"

Yes we saw the coral doing it's thing and also a male brittle star..last year we saw a female..
I did manage to save a couple of pics so here they are....
George and Ken playing Cards


Angels

a couple more..

Hi, Freddie. great trip and great report! That sunset looks like the Divi spot, to me, right? Certainly looks like the Woodwind in the water. Love it there. You certainly did get a lot accomplished on your one week stay. Green with envy. If you have more photos we are ready to gawk at them! Thanks again. Carole

PS One of the Divi iguanas "christened" Joe's nose tip a few years ago....Joe gives them a little more "respect" now when he sees them and definitely handles them in a different manner than before! LOL. I wonder if it was the same one?? cb

Freddie...don't ya hate how fast the week goes!...Glad to hear that's Michael's place..we will have to stop in next time around, we had blueberry yogurt on our minds!
Sorry to hear about the camera! But, you came away with some wonderful shots!

Beautiful shots I especially like the one of the turtle. How close were you able to get to the eel? Rather how close did the eel let you get?? What type of camera were you useing?

Hi Freddie! Sounds like u had a great trip and a lot of fun.
If only there were pictures of the faces of the audience of the "FrogFish-Dinner"...
The pictures u rescued look great (cool turtle-shot!).
Thanks 4 sharing

Great trip report and pictures! You are making me hungry with the dining report! Sounds like a wonderful time!

Freddie, Glad you had a nice trip and sorry to hear about your camera. Thanks for sharing the pictures! Carol, I too think it is the Divi, but I think it is the boat moored next to the Woodwind. It is breathtaking no matter where it is!

Hi Again..
Carole and Darlene, the sunset was taken from Capt Don's.. I think that might be Ernst's {the camera pro}catamaran..I could be mistaken but it is certainly NOT the Woodwind..I love the photo though!!
Tod, The camera WAS a Olympus 4040 in an Oly PT010 housing..it flooded because of human error{UGH} it had a tendency to condensate so they {the powers that be..}suggest that you insert silica packs into the housing to absorb the condensation.. Well one of those little bitty packs found it's way between the O-ring and acted like a straw!!{UGH} The eels are generally quite camera savoy.I seem to be able to get quite close before they scare the beJesus out of me..plus I have LONG arms!!!
Thanks everyone for your kind words...

Freddie,

Thanks for the early morning laugh - the frogfish story had me laughing out loud! :-)

many thanks to Freddie for bringing me a six pak of miller lite (I was nearly out)...they definately gave me two more days of pleasure on the klm dock...the beer was good too

Freddie-- ABSOLUTELY HISTERICAL about the frogfish!!! I LOVE it! A must do for sure.

Annie, I like the idea of getting Ting on Bonaire! Do you think it's possible?! We'd have to move there for sure then. We did find that the little orange "Spa"s were pretty refreshing (but not Ting though). Anyone know if you can find them by the case (say, at Warehouse)? We were looking but to no avail yet.

Ahhhh Freddie.... I would just die for a Vodka-Ting right now....

Great trip report!

Hi Freddie a great trip report and wonderful pictures.
It was great meeting you all and I forgot to ask how you recognised me :-) at the deco stop.
Our trip to Bonaire was perfect and we both had a wonderful time at captain dons which was perfect for us.
We managed Gibi's the next week and had a good evening, its a shame we missed the night with you all there but that will be another excuse to return, the diving was just so good we just could not keep out the water so there are lots we still have to do.
We are already planning a return trip & look forward to seeing Jack at the Birmingham dive show in November.
I am in the middle now in writing my trip report with Marie’s input and making a digital slide show with a great bit of software called Pictures to Exe but there is not enough hours in the day LOL.
I must thank you again for coming to the rescue with my condensation problems it sure worked a treat and I had no further problems.

I hope we get chance to meet again

Regards

Keith

Freddie

It was good to meet you and Ken and the rest of the Hampton crowd. Here is to Coral Spawning 2004 - are you going?

Looks like an awkward one as the full moons are 30th August, 28th September and 28th October.

So will it be late or early?

We are going to try and combine a week on Bonaire for the spawning along with a week on a liveaboard in Galapagos as the Ecuador flight is now direct from Bonaire.

Keith good luck with the monthly photo comp. I think the results should be out this weekend.

Freddie & George

I would be dangerous if I could read, I remember now Ken is the cuddly little guy. Have a good weekend.

Brian

Thanks Brian I have all my fingers crossed
Good luck to Sue, you know if we don't win we will have to go back and try again and if we do win we will have to go back anyway :-)

Here is the link for anyone who would like to see Sue and Keith's great pictures..Best of luck to you both!!
photos

Thanks for the link. Keith's bottom shot almost looks as tho there is a mountain range in the background! Pretty neat effects. Great stuff all around, everyone. Carole