Days like this...

Today was one of those days you just thank the Lord for all the things you are blessed with. Yesterday Brandon took his final comp to finish his fifth and final semester at AUC, so this weekend we decided to spend it celebrating and enjoying our last few days in St. Maarten. Some of our friends were telling us about a place near the airport that you can rent small boats for full or half days, so we decided today was the perfect day for riding around the island. The boat was small but perfect for two, with plenty of extra room for our cooler and snorkel gear. We began our drive towards the Marigot bridge and continued around Friar's Bay, Happy Bay, and stopped at Creole Rock for a little snorkeling. We saw some amazing fish and beautiful coral. After snorkeling we continued on to Anes Marcel and even further to a beach we had never even heard of. We stopped there and just lounged in our boat and enjoyed the rays. We did a little swimming and took tons of pictures. After exploring a little we decided to go back towards Marigot to have lunch among all the sailboats and yachts. We parked our little boat right in the middle of the bay and enjoyed our little boat picnic. After lunch we went back through the channel across the lagoon and to get a great view of all the mega yachts and hidden resorts that you can't see from the roads. We continued on to the dutch side, through the Simpson Bay bridge and over to Sunset Beach, where the planes take off. The water was a little more rough on this side since it was actual open water but it was worth seeing from the ocean. We sat right in front of the beach by the airport to try to get a video of planes landing and taking off from an ocean point of view. As I was filming a plane coming right over our heads my video camera died and I wasn't able to get it. I was so disappointed because it is very rare that planes take off in the opposite direction. It felt like the plane was coming right AT US! It was a scary feeling but also so neat! By this point our time on the boat was dwindling and it was time to return to the dock. On the way back we had to head back into the waves, which seemed kind of scary because they felt bigger than before. As we were rounding our last turn to head back into Simpson Bay beach we kept having the feeling like the boat was raising up in the front. It felt as though we were going nowhere fast! I asked Brandon if he thought something was wrong so he decided to stop for a second to check if seaweed had possibly rapped around the propeller or something. As I turned around to look at the engine I was shocked to see a large rope tied around the propeller that we had been dragging for who knows how long. I don't even want to know what was attached to the other side of the rope. I became very concerned because all I could think was "we are going to be stranded in open ocean, in a tiny boat, with no paddle or way to contact anyone to come get us!!" Needless to say we carefully untangled the rope and headed back to the dock as quickly as possible.
We had such a blast enjoying a different side of the island than we normally get to experience. I have to say that nothing is better than being on a boat, on a beautiful island with the person you love. We both agree that one day we would love to own some type of boat and live near a beach. We loved just exploring the island freely and getting to see things we haven't seen before. This was probably one of the best things we have ever done since we have been here. This is one day that I will be able to look back on and smile and think we are so blessed. It's days like these that I can look back and think, thank you Lord for moving us all the way to the Caribbean for medical school. I wish we would have figured out this little treasure sooner because we definitely would have done this several more times.