How Majestic is God's Creation....

I have said it before and I will say it again.....I feel closer to God under the sea than anywhere else in the world.  I don't know how anyone can look at the majesty and wonder that surrounds us on earth, above the earth and under the earth and not believe there is a God.

Today on our first dive I was very pleased.....we saw a lot of marine life and the coral was some of the most beautiful around.  St. Eustatius is a protected marine park and it shows.  Everything is vibrant and alive.

Our first dive site was called "The Blocks".  These blocks were formed by lava flow from the now dormant volcano on the island.  It was a beautiful site with tons of barrel coral and sea fans. Not to mention fishies, lobsters and eels.  Here are a few of the things we saw on our first dive of the trip.

A little baby crab hiding in some coral.

A pretty large drum fish, normally we only see juvenile drums.

A fire worm...you don't want to touch it!!

A lobster nestled into a barrel coral.

And a small spotted eel acting tough.

After our first dive we returned to the resort and had lunch after which we went on our second dive to a site called "Double Wreck".  This was dive number 215 for me.  I just want to say that this was the most amazing dive I have ever been on.  I was completely awestruck.  I don't know what it will take to top this dive but I sure am anxious to find out.  We jumped into the water and within moments we were surrounded by so much sea life that we did not know what to look at or photograph first.  Poor Frank would be in the middle of one photo and I would be hitting him and pulling on his fins because something even more amazing was happening right behind or next to him.  This was, by far, the most active reef I have ever had the pleasure to dive.  I don't know why they shared this with us on the very first day because I cannot imagine that any other dives this week will compare.  I only hope that they did this because there are bigger and better dives to come. 

But enough of my blabbering.....just take a look......

As soon as we descended we met up with this monster of a lobster.

So while Frank was photographing the lobster we found this ray hiding under the sand.

I pulled Frank away from the ray because this turtle was just hanging out chilling.

Another spotted eel.

Another Sea Turtle came over to see what we were doing.

And then we came across this mammoth manta ray.

He is nearly as large as I am.

After the manta ray we saw a couple of squid but I couldn't get Frank's attention.

But he got a great shot of this octopus hiding out under some coral.

On the way back to the boat we found this huge lobster.

And then this turtle resting in an adjacent barrel coral.

Right before we ascended we saw Mr. Hermit Crab walking along the sand floor.

What a tremendous day we have had thus far and it isn't even dinner time yet.  Holy Samoly....I cannot wait until tomorrow!!