I'm not sure Carrie is going to be able to swim for a long time and she might feel more comfortable if she has a life jacket on while snorkeling. I hate to carry a life jacket on to the plane with how much space they take up. Just out of curiosity how much are life jackets or other flotation devices she could use for snorkeling on the island and where would we pick these up? Thanks ahead of time!

We are not strong swimmers, and we both wear floatation vest when we snorkel for two reasons. 1) for additional buoyancy, 2) to be SEEN in the water by boats and in case "anything happens" we will be easy to spot. The vests are inflatable with your breath are very light at take up about the same amount of room (when deflated) as a tee shirt in the luggage or dive bag. We highly recommend this type vest. We'll be back at the Sand$ from 24 Jan to 1 Feb.

Abe and Gail, Concord, NC

Shawn, a BT'er, Darlene wears an inflatable vest while she snorkels, I'll point her to this thread and maybe she can give you info on the type she uses.

cool, didn't even think about an inflatable one. I've been trying to think of ways we can conserve space when we go since we're going to have 2 sets of snorkel gear+clothes. My carry on will be filled mostly with my camera stuff and a pair of clothes in case they lose my luggage so need to make sure i'm keeping everything as small as possible.

Do a google search for "snorkeling vest", you will find many, many choices all similar to the one Darlene uses.