09 May 2024
We chose to do the 3 hour snorkel charter with my group of three people. It was PHENOMENAL! Such a good experience.
One of my friends doesn't always feel comfy on a boat, and I myself am not always a confident swimmer, yet Bonnie and Matt made us feel so safe and secure while providing us with a really excellent, immersive sail and snorkel. We started out discussing what we wanted to do and Bonnie helped us land on doing a drift snorkel where the current would carry us between beaches over a gorgeous reef, while Matt followed in the dinghy in case we got tired or needed help. I was a little nervous to snorkel for a long time, but the current-drift situation was perfect for us to see as much reef as possible with very low swimming effort. Bonnie had diving fins on and swam down to highlight creatures for us, and even bring a starfish gently to the surface to show us! We saw rainbow parrotfish, a barracuda, all kinds of coral structures, big and baby sea turtles... it was so special, I got emotional!! She also took photos with an underwater selfie stick, so that we have these pictures to look back on forever.
Back on the boat, they made us some delicious cocktails and a tropical fruit snack platter. Their boat dogs Oyster and Ruby were adorable, affectionate and low key. Matt and Bonnie are really fun and easy to talk to, and just have such a warm energy. This experience was totally worth the money, and made me feel so relaxed, happy and grateful to be alive!
One more side note -- they actually SAIL the boat. Sometimes on boat trips apparently it's more motoring around, but Bonnie and Matt had the sails out and even explained to us what was going on with the wind and how and why they made certain choices, so it felt really engaging and we got to kind of absorb some knowledge from them. I love that it was a learning experience as well as just a blast. PLEASE do yourself a favor and book with Sailing Tipitina