Swimming with stingrays

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Geo: 17.0817, -61.8077

The ship docked at St.John, the capital of the pretty island of Antigua, which is also paired with the smaller island of Barbuda. Outside a man using water jets to fly over the water caused quite a stir. He made it look so easy and it certainly looked fun. We left the ship and were bussed over to the other side of the island to a beach where we were briefed about how to handle stingrays without harming them or ourselves. After the short briefing we sailed out to sea to a landing stage in an area of shallow water. I was a little nervous at first as I don't really take to water. However it was only 4 foot deep close to the landing stage. We were issued with snorkels and masks so a few people ventured out further but we didn't. The water was warm and clear with a sandy base so the stingrays were easy to spot. We had to shuffle barefoot through the sand so as to avoid standing on them. There were lots of them around attracted by the squid which we were given to feed them with. The trick was to hold the squid in a fist with the thumb pointed downwards. They took the bait very quickly. Stefan nearly had his thumb taken off as he had his hands under the water, so I kept mine above sea level after that! Stefan also got the equivalent of a love bite or "hicky" on his arm but I remained unscathed. The stingrays flap by and bump into you. Their body feels soft and smooth but the tail is rough. It was an amazing treat to be with these graceful creatures. Back at the beach we were handed a rum punch and then bought the photos of the stingray encounter on a CD before going back to the ship. Like Barbados, Antigua is a lovely island. Perhaps we like them because they were previously British!

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Comments

[steve]

Any chips with that??