Yesterday dawned rather grey with heavy overcast. The morning weather report predicted more of the same with intermittent rain. It did not seem like the best weather for diving. Jana suggested we travel today going as far East as we were going to go and then work our way back on hop at a time. So that is what we did. We motored (no wind), made water and refilled batteries. Bryan caught a small Spanish Mackerel but it was too small to keep. Unfortunately it was not too small to break the tip on my lightweight spinning rod. Bryan says he has some new tips and can fix it, but that is the end of it for this trip. I packed it up in its travel case and put it away. Since it was so calm, we took the 'outside' route cruising just outside the reefs of Naguargabdup Group and the Coco Banderas. We did get some open ocean swell, but it was more direct and less tortuous than the inside route. Pugadup is a lovely little island that we have visited on each trip to the San Blas. It has an encircling reef like most islands here, but it has a break in the reef that allows one to CAREFULLY work inside the reef and anchor in very calm water. We approached cautiously and anchred outside the reef in 20+' of water. The we launched the dinghy and explored for the entrance. I thought I had found it but Deb thought it was a different one. We explored both. Deb's certainly was wrong The entrance was too narrow and it shoaled too quickly. Mine did not look as I remembered it either, but it looked viable with two nice sandy spots to drop twin anchors with the boat in between. We went back to the boat, lifted dink, raised anchor, and went in. We dropped the first anchor and were headed for the second spot when I decided it was just too small a space for us. It has looked OK from dink, but a 43' x 26' boat is a lot bigger! So out we went to anchor again in 20+', launch dink and explore again. Traveling much further to the E, we found the proper entrance. It was just as I remembered it. Deep entrance with a couple of huge coral heads right in your path, but they are deep enough to just go over. Once inside, hang a sharp left over turtle grass @ 11'. Anchor mid way between shore and the reef being careful of the reef near shore. Back to the big boat, raise anchor, head in. Both Deb & Jana freaked at the coral heads in our path and insisted that I try to steer around them. That nearly put us on the reef to starboard, but I could see that and kept off it. Once inside, we dropped our primary (a 20 kg Spade) in a nice sand hole near the reef. We backed and let out 100' (the minimum we ever use). That put us a little uncomfortably close to the reef that came out from shore, so I took our secondary anchor (a 20 kg Bruce) in the dinghy and carried it to a sandy patch near the false entrance. I set it with the dinghy and after adjusting both rode were comfortably hanging facing the reef with adequate room behind us. The only problem is that is we were to get a strong wind from the NE (the usual trade wind direction), neither anchor would keep us off the reef. We needed a third anchor. Back in dink, I take our tertiary anchor (a Fortress 60 which has the holding power of a 60# Danforth, but only weighs about half that since it is made of magnesium) and head for shore. I angled away from the near shore coral such that when it was set, it too would pull us further from that danger. After getting everything adjusted, we essentially have a Bahamian moor between the Spade and the Fortress with the Bruce helping to keep things in line. We will be comfortable here. Since we had all our anchors out, Bryan suggested we clean the anchor locker. So, we dumped the remaining 300' of chain (no coral here to snag, just turtle grass), and washed out the locker with the washdown hose. It hasn't looked this nice in years. Thanks, Bryan. After that we were all hot. Bryan and I dove off the bow (carefully, only 11'), then had a beer, then all four of us went snorkeling. We'll use the hookah on the outside tomorrow, but for today we just snorkeled the inside. It was great to see so much healthy coral growing back on top of an old dead reef. Beautiful new patches of elkhorn and button coral. The usual reef fish. Bryan saw a large Jack Creval. A nice little snorkel. I made onion rings and conch fritters using Aunt Mae's recipe (in Mom's hand writing). Wonder what either of them would think of where we are now? Lots of stars. We even turned off the anchor light to enjoy them (Like anyone could run into us here?!) I did put it on for overnight. Tomorrow (well, today now) hookah.