Swimming with Turtles

Light-green lace fans gently swaying in the warm current. We’re swimming in a coral garden where live coral animals in a myriad of shapes and colors mimic plants. There are mustard colored "lettuce leaves", rust-red "branches", light yellow Brain coral. Hiding in the nooks and crannies, under shelves clownish aquarium fish peek at us, then dart out, their bright parrot colors, spots and stripes glowing. A skinny "walking stick" fish perches itself vertically, mimicking the swaying corals. An animal playing plant. Only the "plants" are animals! Black spiny corals threaten with their infection-causing spikes. Most of the corals have a stinging secretion, so all is not paradise in this garden of eden.
And were already excluding real nasties like Portuguese man-of-wars, stingrays, barracudas and sharks!

On our second forage out we're snorkeling back, over the grey-blue bottom, a starfish-pattern in the sand. When whom do we spy? A big turtle. And with what looks like a long dorsal fin?! Only it's not; it's a long fish, in fact there are two of them. They're feeding on parasites they find on the turtle's shell. A win-win scheme.
Suddenly this huge sea-turtle paddles upwards through the blue water. He gains a greenish color towards the top, sheds his fishy friends, as he gasps for air at the surface. Just in front of Ørnulf and me. A few more gulps of air and he's diving down in the murky depths again.

A bitter-sweet last glimpse into the watery deep. At our next stop, St.Marten we'll be busy busy with onshore "marina" life. Fixing, provisioning, watching the weather. At our last stop.

Our launch-pad to our second Atlantic sail. To The Azores.