Friday, April 6. Yesterday we hiked about half way around St. Catalina; today we circumnavigated it. The six of us (Craig & Liz from Salida and George & Pixie from Silver Sea) took our dinghies out to Morgan's Head where we anchored in about 8' over white sand. I had all four lines on the hookah and George & Pixie were delighted to join us using it. Neither of them really had enough weight, but they refused to fuss with it and just went out and had a great time. Craig & Liz snorkeled. The coral was fantastic and it went on forever. Never deeper than 20' and rising to the surface, there were ridges and canyons, isolated heads, jumbles of different coral all together. And lots of reef fish. There were a couple of dinner sized snappers, but this is a preserve so I did not bring the spear gun. We spent more than an hour under water and when we returned to our dinghies, we left the hookah and snorkeled up to the many caves at the shore where the water had undercut the ledge. This was obviously where they “hid the loot.” Back in the dinghies, we continued around the island. It seemed like every few hundred yards we would find another spot that just demanded we come back and hookah. Big coral rising to the surface, white sandy bottom, caves along the shore and even a couple candy beaches for a picnic. We will need to make a day of it. Back at the boat, I noticed that the fresh water flush was not working on the watermaker. It is supposed to come on about 45 min after you turn it off (to allow the pressures to fall). I set a timer and kept checking, but it never came on. Of course, the pump is located under the port aft bunk, which is piled high with provisions. Deb moved things around and I got under and found the pump. Everything seemed OK, so I spliced a switch in to the line allowing me to turn the pump on manually. When I did, it just went “chunk” pause “chunk” pause, etc. Something was blocking it and it was shutting off by the pressure switch. I undid the outlet hose and had Deb switch it on and off quickly. Yup, pump works, made a big mess! So I changed the charcoal filter that is to remove any chlorine from the fresh water as that would destroy the membrane. When I installed the new filter and switched it on, it worked fine. Then I cycled the automatic function and it worked fine too. It was just a clogged filter. Problem solved. Hamburgers for supper followed by Key Lime pie. Tomorrow we go to the boat races. No idea what to expect. Last Saturday they had horse races (we were not here yet). It turned out to be two horses who raced across the beach for about two minutes, but everyone was betting and cheering, etc. Tomorrow might be sail boats or power boats (I'm betting on the latter) and Lord knows how long they will last, but I'm sure the outing (to the other side of Providencia) will be fun.