Continued...

Hello again!


Cass, Andy Daltons significant other, had picked us up at the airport and brought us back to their home, where Kristi promptly made use of the sleeping facilities and took a short nap. Not too long after that, Andy came back from work and started cooking on the grill.


That first night at Andy’s had us stuffed to our gills with BBQ’ed meats. I love eating meat. What I love even more the eating meat, is eating LOTS of meat.




The next day, being Friday and the beginning of the weekend, we were loaded up in Cass’s station wagon, headed for the boat ramp to haul out to Rottnest Island for a weekend of boating, boozing, and scuba diving for crayfish amongst other shenanigans.



With everything on the jetty and unloaded from the car, we’re nearly ready to go!



Sooner than later, we are on the boat, and Andy is demanding a beer be opened. We are on a boat. It is 10am. But we ARE on a boat.



The river that leads out to the ocean has a max speed of 8knots. Cass and Kristi enjoyed it on the front of the boat.



I didn’t remember to bring a hat with me to Australia. For one reason or another, it never made it in my bag. Captain Andy let me borrow one.



Pretty soon we were clear of the 8knot speed limit and in the open ocean, hauling ass for Rottnest.



Captain Andy at his finest.



First thing on the list of activities is Scuba Diving. Last time I went Scuba diving was in Honduras in June of 2010. So it’s been a while!



Mean while, while Andy and I are underwater searching for Crayfish, Kristi and Cass were hanging out on the boat. I imagine that this is what they looked like.



When we came up, we had caught one Crayfish, though we should have caught more.  I was a half assed hunting partner on that first dive.

A short while later, we had the boat ted up to shore buoys and were marveling at Pelicans. Neither Kristi nor I knew first had how ENORMOUS these pelicans are in real life. They were BIG.



HUGE!



Seriously, they are big. And, remember, my Madre likes to look at birds, and this bird is kick ass.



After a while, Andy decided to teach Kristi how to rip a crayfish in half.



She gave it a shot, as you can tell in the video I posted a few days back, but she wasn’t able to manage it. So Andy stepped in, tore/twisted it in half, and tossed the head into the water. Soon thereafter, the Sting Rays started showing up.



At Rottnest, there are enough Sting Rays around to justify the removal of their barbs, as they become a danger to the beach goers. So while Kristi was inches from this Sting Ray, it posed no danger.



She even fed it a baby octopus that a neighbor boat offered her to feed them.



She petted this one and wrote, “HI” on its back. Hahaha!



Kristi was having a pretty damn good time. It was fun.



She was even happier when Andy chopped up Garlic, tossed it in the butter and started cooking the crayfish.



YUM! Beer and Crayfish!



Throughout the rest of the night, all 4 of us were drinking beer like we had nothing better to do. In truth, we didn’t really have anything better to do. Captain Andy spent part of that time challenging the boat next door in an Australian song play off. We think we won. They think they won. It was good fun either way.



This was our neighbor’s boat.



These are our neighbors.



That night, the BIG sting rays showed up. This one was about 7 feet across. The other one we saw was well over 9 feet. It was massive.



This guy was scared out of his mind, but he “petted” the sting ray anyhow.



Kristi got in on the action too.



The next morning, after a night of dancing at the bar just on shore, we were still debating with our neighbors over who won the Aussie Song play off from the night before.



I forgot to mention that Saturday morning was the beginning of Australia Day, and boat mooring spots are at a premium. As we left our shore mooring spot that morning, there was a boat waiting to take our place immediately.



On the way back to the mainland, Andy and I first went for another dive, and again came back with only one crayfish. Of course, the goal is more than one, but it doesn’t always work out.

That night, Andy had a couple of friends over, and while Andy was grilling up a storm, Mr. Charlie Hamersley showed up! Here is Charlie, Kristi and the Grill Master Andrew Dalton!



Since the Australia day BBQ, life has been straight forward. I’m working now, and therefore I’ll be saving up some money as well. I’m having a kick ass time so far!

--Alex