This morning we took Will & Sandy in to walk the beach on Alcatrito (one of the 'cinco cayos') and then Deb & I went in search of snorkeling. We headed straight out to the breaking reef. As is fairly common, there was a band of white sand just inside the breaking reef. It averaged 8-10' and was littered with nice coral heads. Close to where it was breaking, there was a wall ~6' to the surface where it was sheared off from the waves. We anchored dinghy and jumped in. We were not disappointed. The coral was as pretty as it had looked from above. And lots of fish. Clearly the best we have seen in Cuba. "This is definitely hookah territory," Deb said, and I agreed. After returning to the beach and walking that a bit ourselves, all 4 of us returned to the boat for lunch. After lunch, I assembled the hookah which involves digging it out from its storage location, firing it up and using the accessory hose to inflate the tube after wiggling the tube inside its canvas cover, and then mounting the pan in the tube. Then you attach the expansion tank, unroll the hoses and attach them, fill the gas tank, and you are good to go. It took ~1 hr. which is why we leave it set up after the first time. Then it is just grab and go. Will & Sandy wanted to just stay on the boat and rest while we hookahed and then take the dink exploring when we got back. We loaded everything in the dink and headed out to the reef. Since it wasn't very deep, the hookah is sort of a luxury, but it is a nice luxury as you can just go along the bottom chasing the fish and not having to keep surfacing. It is much more relaxed and enjoyable. We anchored amidst a large group of coral heads and swam in a circle visiting them all. We had just gotten back into dink and I was pulling in hookah when I realized that the breaking reef wasn't that far off and even though it was even shallower there, the hookah would be fun. Deb agreed so I fired up the hookah again and we went back in the water and swam to the reef. It really was great. Below the surface there was very little surge which made swimming fairly close easy. And then the hookah died. We both heard it at the same time and surfaced. We swam back to it and I tried starting it again (which is fairly difficult from the water, but I have done it before). It wouldn't start. I figured we were out of gas even though it had not seemed like that long. Oh well. We hooked our weight belts onto the float and swam it back to dink. While Will & Sandy went off in the dink, I tried to figure out the problem with hookah. It still had 1/2 tank of gas - not that. Maybe the carb is dirty (a common problem when it sits, though I had run all the gas out of the carb the last time we used it) I tried starting it and it fired up but would only run at an idle. As soon as the compressor built up some pressure putting a load on it, it died. Checking further, I found that the little spring that connects speed lever to the load compensator and then to the actual throttle had rusted and broke. When I tried to bend the end of it to create a new hook, it broke again. I finally stretched out the spring enough to sort of attach it, but I had little faith it would work. Nonetheless, I tried starting it again. This time the rope on the recoil starter broke. It is discouraging. I replaced a lot of the critical parts of the engine last year, but tiny little inconsequential things like this spring defeat me. Even the recoil starter was new - must have had crap for string. I'll see if Gilbert, the small engine mechanic in Bocas, has things like the springs and rods and replace all of them. If I can't I may just replace the engine with a new one. It is too great a toy to be without. But for the rest of this trip, it is dead. Sucks. We all agreed that this spot is good enough and large enough that it deserved another day. Even without the hookah, there is a lot of reef to snorkel. (I would guess the encircling reef here is over a mile.) and many miles of beach to walk. So we will stay another day.