Monday, May 14. Although still gusty, the wind has dropped a bit more from yesterday. It seemed reasonable to me to try snorkeling. Craig & Steve (Salida & FineLine) decided to take a taxi in to Coxen Hole and clear out so that they can be ready to leave at a moment's notice if the weather turns. Deb didn't feel like going and Liz was in the middle of some project (I didn't talk with Ann) so I went alone. There are several balls on the inside of the reef that would seem to be for snorkelers. I picked up one by the beginning of the Blue Channel (a canyon that starts at ~15' and goes all the way out to the outer reed dropping gradually as it goes). Because I wanted to swim into the wind first, I headed away from the channel and swam around the coral in the shallows (10' average). It was boring. The coral was covered with whatever that growth is the effects coral and there were few fish. But the current was nil and I then felt confident swimming out the Blue Channel. Immediately everything was different. The coral was healthy, without growth. There were lots of reef fish and several pelagics. It was beautiful. Visibility was great and even as I approached the outer reef where the canyon was 30-40' deep, I could see it clearly. The Northern wall (the one I was swimming) rose not quite vertically giving a nice opportunity for lots of sponges and fans to grow and sway in the current. It stopped at about 5' from the surface so I swam over the shallows to see what was there. There were lots of deep cracks down to sand at 10-15', some big enough to swim down into. I saw a small (~18”) hawksbill turtle in one depression. He looked at me warily but didn't swim off. I just hung above him and watched. I could see he was getting more and more nervous, so I moved on before he fled. Back at the channel, I crossed to the South wall. It came all the way to the surface and was overhanging with great caverns and even some tunnels. I could hold my breath long enough to do a swim by of some of the caverns, but I didn't dare try any of the tunnels. I'll bet it makes a great dive. I found a large grouper at a cleaning station, his mouth open and gills flared as tiny fish cleaned them. He was busy enough that I got to approach fairly close, but again stopped before scaring him off and ruining his cleaning. After swimming back in the South wall, I moved dink to a different ball in an area of sand behind the section of reef that was breaking. I'm not sure why they put a ball here, but I decided to find out. About that time Liz & Ann showed up. They had “snorkel envy” and decided to join me. We swam around the flats for a bit. It was OK, but nothing great so I took them out to the channel. (It was only a short swim from where we were.) They both loved it, but Liz got worried about how far she was from the boat and went back. (She nearly drowned once while snorkeling alone - had to be hospitalized overnight – and that still affects her.) Ann and I followed the South wall out to the last possible turn before the breaking edge. If we had continued outside, we would have had to make a BIG loop outside to get to the next available entrance. Ann wasn't up for that, so we swam through canyons of nearly breaking coral on the inside. It was pretty cool. The coral was nearly all that lettuce style, but following the canyons (you had no other choice) and finding large openings, dead ends, and branches was quite a swim. The canyons were only 5' or so deep, sometimes down to 3'. Eventually we made our way back into the flats where the dinghies were. We saw a huge dog snapper. What he was doing there, I'm not sure. He was so big in such shallow water that if he had stood on his tail, his head would have broken the surface. Right by the dinghies, we saw a trio of reef squid. These were very colorful, much more so than ocean squid – deep browns and yellows - and the let us get quite close. All in all, it was a very nice snorkel. It was noon by the time we got back. We still hadn't heard from George & Pixie (who had rented a car and were maybe coming here for lunch or dinner), so I made a sandwich and ate. No sooner had I finished than Craig called Liz saying they had met George & Pixie at the Migration office and we were all having lunch at the Mexican restaurant in town. Liz & Ann went in Salida's dinghy (Craig & Steve had taken FineLine's) and Deb & I took ours. The 8 of us had a very nice lunch at Canibal Cafe (sic). I had a margarita and a few bites of Deb's fajitas – which were great. Then we did the tourist thing and hit all the T-shirt and gift shops. I bought a T-shirt at the Marine Park store, mostly to support the park since they provide the free mooring we were on. We found a veggie truck (pick up with the back full of crates of fruit and veggies) and got really nice pineapple, limes, grapefruit, and melon. Deb got a couple gifts. At the end of the short main street where our dinghies were, we said good-bye to George & Pixie. They are very worried about the weather and are leaving tomorrow directly for Guatemala, so we won't see them again until... The remaining 6 of us all put on swim suits and hung out behind Always floating on noodles or floaties of some kind to cool off. None of us are quite sure what we are going to do. Deb & I will probably head for Utila tomorrow unless the weather really looks bad. Craig is more nervous and may go back to French Cay Harbor to sit it out. FineLine is heading for Belize (we gave them our old website for info), but not sure when they will leave or if they will go to Utila first. Here is NOT the place to be in any kind of a Norther, so we will probably all leave tomorrow or Wednesday. We'll wait and say our good-byes tomorrow, however, when we each decide where we are going.