Snorkeling
21 June 2015 | Swimming Pool, Eastern Holandes
Mark
On the morning net, Lorenzo filled in the missing bit of info I needed to understand our weird currents. I knew that the waves breaking over the reef filled the area with water that had to go somewhere - hence a current. What I did not understand was why it varied so much. The answer was obvious - wave height. As the waves outside got bigger, more and more water came over the reef and had to go somewhere. Right now we have fairly large waves 'outside' and so a strong current 'inside.' The answer for snorkeling is to pick a location on the S (leeward) side of an island. Which is what we did. We went around to the S of Bug Island and anchored dink while we swam on the broken reef there. It was interesting - quite nice in places, totally white out from sand in the surge in others. We had a good swim. It felt good to be exercising my legs. I can feel they are getting stronger again - important since I have surgery coming up. In fact, one of the reasons I decided to have my knees replaced now instead of waiting is that I could see I was starting to lose muscle mass. I want to be able to do anything and everything post op so I decided to go for it before I lost any more. It is gratifying to feel some of it coming back from all the swimming. On the way back to Always, we stopped at Eileen Farrell to say 'Hi' and chatted briefly with Joyce - picking her brain for the best snorkel spots in these conditions. She suggested a couple. She also said the veggie boat was supposed to come today, but didn't know when. After lunch, Deb didn't feel like snorkeling (she much prefers the hookah, but in these conditions, it was not really an option). The rest of us took off in dink leaving her behind to catch the veggie boat. (It never showed.) We went out to the patches of reef we had seen on the way in and Joyce had recommended. Probably great dive site as the reefs are constantly breaking and the walls go down ~70', but not today. There were large breaking waves 360*. No place to anchor dink and snorkeling would be right on the breaking waves, No. We looked at a spot in the 'hot tub', but the reef was boring - mostly marl and turtle grass. Finally we decided on a patch of reef on the S of Ogoppriadup. It looked as good as anything we had seen and we could beach dink and go off the beach. Which we did. Initially the surge stirred up the sand making visibility nil, but as we got off the beach, it cleared nicely and we had good coral down to ~20'. Would have made a good dive with hookah. Interesting coral, good fish - a huge school of durgeons - 50-60. that swam with us for a while. About the time we headed back, I got rather suddenly cold. I swam faster to try to generate body heat. It felt good, but didn't really warm me. As soon as I got out and stood in the sun, I was warm again. The beach was powder white sand, but not many shells. When we got back to the boat, Deb informed me we were out of water - AND SHE HAD NOT TURNED OFF THE PUMP. It had been running for more than an hour! It was blazing hot, but not burned out, so I shut it off and cranked the watermaker on. The solar was not keeping up with the watermaker, so I fired up and engine as well and ran both for two hours. That should give us 30 gal of water (enough for quick showers) and we can make more tomorrow while underway. Jana's mother (94) needs to have surgery and she wants to go home to be with her. The ONLY flight out of San Blas for the next couple weeks is from Porvinir on the 23, so we will be there. Sunday we will sail from the Swimming Pool to the Lemmons and swim there for the afternoon and Monday morning, then we will make the very short hop to Porvinir for the overnight. The flight is at 7:30 AM. While we are there, I will renew our cruising permit and get a zarpe to Bocas. When we actually leave will depend on weather, but it is supposed to moderate by mid week. It has been fun, but I think we are all getting ready to go home.