Days 61 to 65
16 May 2008 | Southern Abacos
Day 60: Sat 10 May 08
Lat: N 25.3� Lon: W 076.7�
Continued
[Photo: famous lighthouse in Hope Town.]
We landed the dinghy somewhat more west on the wharf, but when we found the nearest street to go over the hill to the laundry, it didn't seem like it saved us much walking. After a nice walk, except for the heat and lack of cooling breeze, we found the grocery store where the laundry was supposedly located. As we feared, the sign said they were closed for lunch until 1330. Diane waited there and I continued on with the laptop to find the place where I could pay for Internet access.
After five blocks, the place I sought had nothing obvious to indicate such service, so I inquired at the restaurant at that address. The kind waitress said they had moved a while ago to a place a half mile down the road. I did find the computer shop where she said it would be and paid my $10 for one hour of connection time. Fortunately, the connection speeds were quite good and I could do all I needed to do without much frustration.
Lo and behold, Tick and Andree came in near the end of my session; they also found out the hard way about the new location. I said good bye and joined Diane at the laundry facilities. It turned out that there were just one washer and one dryer under an open shed in the back of the grocery store. The store hours had no relevance to the ability to utilize the machines. Diane was within 20 minutes of finishing when I returned, and we carried all the stuff back over the hill to the dinghy.
It was fair to say we were both spent from the heat and all the walking, so we rested awhile. Later we got the dinghy engine secured onto the stern railing of Diva Di and then took Clyde ashore to the small island to the south of us by rowing the short distance. It was not the most pleasant environment (sticky clay and sand with scrubby vegetation), but it was something for all of us to do.
Before our dinner, we used our cell phones to phone home to family to apprise them of our location and to wish the ladies a happy Mother's Day. For dinner, we took the browned beef from the other day, added it to the tomato sauce from the other day, boiled pasta, and made a salad. It wasn't memorable, but it tasted OK at the time.
At the pretty sunset, I blew the conch horn with a great note for a long time; I am finally getting it down pat. It was another unsuccessful evening trying to reach John from Invictus on the SSB at 2100. He is checking our blog, so he knows where we were headed and when. When we last spoke, he might have tried to tell me of some period of unavailability, but I could not really copy (understand) him well.
These facts need to be mentioned and this is the best place I could think to do so: water here costs over 20 cents per gallon to produce from sea water using reverse osmosis, and electricity from the diesel-powered generators costs the consumer over 43 cents per kilowatt-hour. We may complain about it back home, but the costs here are about 20 times more for water and almost 4 times more for electricity. Travel to many areas can certainly make (or should make) you appreciate what you have in the good ole' USA.
Day 61: Sun 11 May 08
Lat: N 25.3� Lon: W 076.7�
I did not sleep through the night, though it was not because of any trepidation about the passage today. It might have been mainly due to the heat and lack of cooling breeze. We awakened for the last time today at 0550 and prepared for today's passage. The pilot who would lead us through the dangerous maze of coral heads near Ridley Head arrived at 0630 and a flotilla of five boats followed like little ducklings.
With the cost shared among five boats, it came to $20 each for the pilot's services; not bad for us, or bad for his one hour of round-trip work. After entering safe water, we all set similar courses, but thankfully did not sail as a tight group the entire 53 miles to our destination: Little Harbour, Abaco. It's nice not to have to worry that another boat only 100 feet away might veer into you. Within a half hour, we had a separation of at least 1000 feet as we all made our way at slightly different speeds.
Antic and we appeared to be the most keen on sailing, so we turned off our engines as soon as the breeze picked up enough to give us over 5 kts of speed. We were able to beam reach in swells for many hours before the wind went light and we needed to turn on the engine to keep up the pace. Fortunately, we got the wind back more from the west than the southwest in short order. For a 10 hour passage, we only motored for about 2 hours, and that's not bad.
The wind was blowing harder as entered Little Harbour. We did not know if we could make it into the inner harbor due to the shallow channel, so we first tried to anchor in the lee of Tom Curry point. After two failed attempts to get the anchor to set (could be the reason no guides list that as an anchorage), we started around to another section where Antic intended to try. When they hailed on the radio that the wind strength was more than they wanted to endure at that spot and were headed to another place a few miles farther north, we elected to try to enter the inner harbor.
We have learned that boats drawing more than five feet are somewhat limited in where they can go in the Bahamas. Sometimes it appears to be more caution than reality that prevents them from getting into many places, but we heard many deeper draft boats on the radio lamenting their limits. I guess I won't feel so bad in the future when those deep draft boats point higher on a beat. Everything is a compromise of some sort.
We had to pass several moorings that had no pendants, and one which was too close to an anchored boat (you are not supposed to anchor inside a mooring field as the boats swing differently and could collide). At 1620 we finally picked up a mooring and were done sailing for the day.
Diane set about defrosting the freezer compartment with my help. Eventually, it was all done and the food was placed back into the proper location. We wanted to get it done while we still had plenty of solar power to help the refrigerator with the extra load of cooling everything back down.
Not too long after that, we showered and relaxed with a beverage while planning dinner. We decided to eat the second of three grouper fillets with the same wine, lemon, butter and caper sauce I made last time. This one turned out tasty also, accompanied by scalloped potatoes from a dehydrated package (OK, but not great) and the last of the cole slaw.
I blew another great conch horn at sunset, and we read below until 2100 when I spoke briefly with snoozer on New Hope back in Marathon, FL via the SSB radio. After the long day of sailing, it was an early bedtime for both of us near 2130.
Day 62: Mon 12 May 08
Lat: N 26.3� Lon: W 077.0�
We are in a very protected harbor, which is good, but the light winds of last night were barely noticeable at the deck level. Consequently, it was a warm night until early in the morning when the winds picked up enough to be felt noticeably on the boat.
At dawn the battery monitor showed us down 63 amp-hours, the most we have seen on this cruise so far. I am sure it is because the refrigerator thermostat was set on maximum and it ran most of the night cooling everything back down after our defrosting efforts late yesterday afternoon. With the new batteries, however, the voltage appeared as expected with a discharge of that much energy, and not 'nearly dead' as the old ones showed. Since it is a cloudy morning, it will be interesting to see how the solar panels fare in recovering all that energy.
I spent the early morning with me listening to the SSB weather at 0630, then lowering the dinghy off the davits and mounting the engine. When Diane arose a bit later, she set about cleaning the interior. Then near 0730 I went ashore (it's very close this time!) to stroll around before it got too hot. There are a number of private residences (many on the hilltops), but I did not want to trespass, so I only checked out the sculpture/art gallery and Pete's Pub. More about that later.
When I arrived back at Diva Di a half hour later, Diane was listening to the beginning of the Abaco Cruiser's Net on the VHF radio. It was much like the net in George Town with lots of great information sharing. We introduced ourselves over the airwaves when they called on new arrivals in the Abacos to do so. We did not hear any boat names from our home town, but perhaps we will see someone farther north; we are about as far south in the Abacos as you can be in an anchorage with civilization and decent protection.
At 0920 it was blowing about 20 kts from the W and it is expected to blow near 30 kts tonight as the cold front passes. Our cruising buddies on Antic, along with several of the boats who crossed from Spanish Wells with us yesterday are all huddled up about five miles north of us where they have some protection from west quadrant winds. We just chatted on the VHF and we agreed that staying in place today and tonight makes sense. We have approximately one month here in the Abacos before we head back to Florida, and they have perhaps two weeks, so we will link up again soon.
Today is a national holiday in the Bahamas (and I believe in the UK), being the day after Whitsunday, which is the seventh Sunday after Easter. Not all stores are closed, but all government and banks certainly are.
Shortly after 1100, while we were reading in the cockpit, we noticed a number of cruisers going ashore in their dinghies. I had noted that the gallery opened at 1100, so we assumed they were all headed there. We readied ourselves and got ashore ourselves, only to find we were the only ones in the gallery. We chatted with a very friendly young woman behind the "desk" (actually a beautiful wooden boat) for a bit about the weather, hurricanes, and the natural disasters in Asia that had recently made the world news. We disengaged from the conversation to look around and found the bronze sculpture work (made in the foundry adjacent to the gallery, by the way) very nice indeed. There were also original paintings and many small prints and we bought one of the prints (a Bahamian racing sloop like what we saw in the Family Islands Regatta) as a memento of our visit.
Next, we strolled next door to Pete's Pub, a cool outdoor bar with thatched roofing. This is where we found everyone who had come ashore; apparently thirst won out over culture. We ordered a rum and fruit juice drink they call a blaster; it was very tasty. We also ordered a cracked conch sandwich with rice and spicy baked beans as side dishes. It was pricey at $14, but very good in all respects. Having shared it also meant we were not overly stuffed. We were able to pay for our food, beverage, and the two nights of mooring fees on a credit card (with no surcharge - hooray!)
We asked the young server, Tammy, about things to see by foot in the area and she mentioned the lighthouse. So, we followed the only road/path as directed until a sign directed us up the hill through a very narrow path and many sea grape plants. At the top we were greeted by a ruined building which was nothing to look at, and a modern (but quickly deteriorating) truss and guy-wire structure holding the navigational light about 20 feet in the air. Considering the iron bars holding the guy-wires into the ground looked rusty enough for me to have snapped them with a sharp kick (I did not, of course), we should not be surprised if the next big storm topples this light.
We're not trying to sound too cynical or jaded, but we couldn't see the attraction of visiting the lighthouse. The view was OK, but nothing great. We strolled back to the dock and found the couple from the trawler, Frances Ray, which had crossed with us from Spanish Wells. We chatted with Tom and Linda a while, exchanged boat cards (business cards for boaters with contact info on them), and gave them our impressions of the lunch and lighthouse.
Back on Diva Di it was time to do some more reading and napping. Even though the wind is blowing, the humidity is very high and any exertion saps your energy. We must be influenced by Clyde, the cat. After a night of sleep, he needs to awake just long enough to enjoy above deck about 40 minutes on both sides of sunrise while the light is not too bright. Then he closes his eyes for a while to rest up for a long day of napping ahead. He is not a total slug, of course. He will awaken, stretch, and then decide what his next nap location will be. After moving there, he has exerted himself enough and takes another rest.
We kid about it, but I can't imagine living the life of a house cat. When we had to euthanize one of our previous cats due to a debilitating illness, I used the rationale that we were only "putting him to sleep" an additional 4 hours a day. A bit flip, perhaps, but many cats do sleep close to 18 or more hours a day.
At 1600, I am happy to report that despite the partly cloudy day, our solar panels have produced enough energy to meet the needs of the day (refrigerator, radio, and computer charger), plus put back the 63 amp-hours lost last night. This is most impressive to me and I am glad to have bought the extra two panels from my friend Paul at Four-Winds Enterprises back home in Punta Gorda. Our friends with wind generators are also doing well here in the windy Bahamas, but I do like the silent way the solar panels do their job.
We brought Clyde ashore to the nearby beach at 1700 and while Diane was walking with Clyde, I exchanged a few words of greeting with a barely middle aged American who was constructing a nice home for himself just 100 feet from the beach. I didn't ask any questions as he seemed preoccupied with some task, but you always wonder how people got to the places they are at any given time.
It started to drizzle (we really could use a good rain!), so Clyde was eager to get back into the dinghy and aboard Diva Di. After a bit, we discussed the dinner plans. I will share them in detail because it may help other aspiring cruisers. First, we assessed what food we had that should be eaten first to prevent spoilage. Then we assessed what we had available that would work well with those ingredients. Lastly, we let our mood and taste buds be our guide.
We had some previously browned ground beef and onion to use up, so I took some dry taco seasoning mix and salsa from a jar and started heating the beef into a bubbling mixture. Meanwhile, I crushed some tortilla chips into individual bowls. Next, I added big layers of shredded lettuce and diced fresh tomatoes and a small can of sliced black olives. When the meat mixture was hot, I added a little shredded cheese until it melted, then ladled portions into the bowls. We added sour cream to taste and it was fabulous.
I mention this mostly to encourage cruisers to be creative with meals without being too restrictive. It is possible to eat well without too much fuss, dirty dishes, or expense, and it can be fun to create tasty meals with stuff you have to use up anyway.
Sitting in the cockpit as it grew darker, we saw a beautiful turtle (not sure which species) gliding along the surface not far from the boat. Unrelated to the turtle, Diane was later startled by a very loud splash. She guesses it was a barracuda after the bait fish that were near the surface around the boat.
Clyde and I spent some time on deck as the breeze got lighter and lighter and there were some noseeums felt. I don't know why they don't seem to follow you down below as much as you might expect. All I know is that most of the time we will be getting bitten on deck, but it stops once we go below, even with no screens in the hatches (and they could fly through our screens, anyway).
Day 63: Tue 13 May 08
Lat: N 26.3� Lon: W 077.0�
I slept in the main saloon berth mainly because the evening started out with little wind and it is more comfortable to spread out without another warm body right next to you. Plus, while the forward berth has a large hatch, it is over your head and you get no breeze on your body which extends forward towards the bow. In the middle of the night, the cool air behind the "cold" front dropped the temperature to the mid 70s and it was very comfortable again.
Clyde and I spent time in the cockpit from just before 0600 until the 0630 SSB weather broadcast. Then I read a while in the early light of what promises to be a beautifully sunny day with much lower humidity. I made notes for the next five or more days of our cruise while the cruiser's net rambled on. It is an excellent resource and all the volunteers and contributors do a great job, but it does go on for a long time. Perhaps that's what you think of this blog. ;-)
At the risk of repeating myself, I will say that it can be a challenging puzzle to piece together, but rewarding when it all comes together. First, you need to consider the expected weather and what protection you will have at various locations along the way. Next, you may have to consider the tidal heights and/or currents to get into or through certain places, or to snorkel areas where slack water (no current) is required for safety and comfort. You also need to consider what services you might need (fuel, water, food, etc.) and where they can be found. Beyond that are the guide books' notations for interesting things to do or see at the various spots.
Diane asked why we seem to get "stuck" for days of heavy weather in places that are not isolated and pristine. My explanation was that most anchorages that are well protected in heavy weather have become settled by shore side inhabitants for that very reason. The majority of pristine places are fine for settled weather or day stops, but not so great for overnight when the winds pipe up.
At 1000 we went out in the dinghy with the handheld depth sounder Diane had bought me for Christmas four years ago and which was not much used before today. We sounded the narrow and shallow channel and found, as I had suspected, that the strong north wind was blowing water into the harbor (open only to the north) and the tidal height was higher than predicted by almost a foot. So, despite the fact that low tide was at 1000 with a charted depth of only 3.5 ft, by 1115 we had enough water to get out. We registered only about half a foot of water under our 4.5 ft deep keel at one spot, but it was all sand and grass, nothing hard, so a bump at very slow speed would not have been a real problem. Sailing in the Punta Gorda area certainly prepares you for that.
Our course was mostly north into the 18 to 24 kt winds, so we motored to our first stop in the lee of one of the Pelican Cays abeam Sandy Cay. Anchoring there was interesting because the first attempt was in heavy grass (nothing else around, or so we thought) and the anchor did not set well enough to trust it. There was a bright sandy spit which extended out under the water about 30 feet and I asked Diane to head for that and call out the depths. We were still in over 10 ft of depth when the bow was in the sandy spot, so I dropped the anchor there and paid out the rode. The anchor set well, as evidenced by backing down on it with the engine in reverse and by inspecting it with the looky bucket.
A few minutes later we piled our snorkeling gear into the dinghy for the approximately half mile run in beam seas to the east side of Sandy Cay. When we were approaching the area just 20 minutes earlier, there were only two boats on the five moorings set aside for small boats to tie up while snorkeling. By the time we got there in the dinghy, there were none left. We motored past them all from north to south and asked this woman drinking a beer and sitting on the bow of a local boat about the snorkeling. She was helpful and friendly, and we finished the conversation by saying, "I guess we just need to wait for a mooring buoy to open up." She said yes we did, and that they might be leaving in a half hour or so.
We assumed that they must have been awaiting snorkelers in the water. The next boat was a go-fast type with two twenty-something guys aboard. They said they did not plan to be too long, so we idled in circles outside the snorkeling area watching for any other boats which might leave sooner. There was another small boat with a young couple aboard drinking beer and cuddling. We assumed they must be awaiting snorkelers to return as well.
Only about 10 minutes later, did a different boat leave its mooring and we tied up. While we were donning our gear, it appeared that all the go-fast snorkelers had returned and they were starting to drink beer. The first boat we contacted was leaving with no one else aboard. Apparently, they were not awaiting snorkelers, but just relaxing and finishing their beers. When we later finished snorkeling, the go-fast boaters were still there just drinking beer, and the cuddling couple was just getting into the water to start snorkeling. I don't mean this as a rant, but it seems to me that tying up a precious mooring ball (intended solely for use while snorkeling) while you are just kickin' back drinking beer is pretty rude, especially while we were bouncing around in a dinghy waiting to use one.
Anyway, the reef was quite large and pretty nice. It might have appeared very nice if the visibility had been better and the wave action had been less. As it was, we were bounced around in the water and exerted a lot of energy moving around the shallow coral formations with all the swirling currents and waves. It was not the first time we had seen it, but one small school of grunts was attempting to hover under a shelf of Elkhorn coral. With each wave surge, the group was pushed out from under the coral by two to three feet, then back under. It was comical to watch.
The colors of the coral were not that dramatic, but there were some interesting elements to the session: larger schools of blue tangs than we had seen here and a large triggerfish. We didn't stay long since it was not a great day to be there, so we got back aboard the dinghy and Diva Di in short order.
The rest of the passage to our overnight anchorage was pretty and fun. After a short leg north, we turned NW and could use the sails. Actually, I let out the Genoa only three-quarters and left the engine engaged at low cruise power. The speed jumped from 4.5 kts to 7.0 kts as we tacked up and around the Tilloo Bank. After a few more tacks, with the gorgeous white shallow sand bank fading into turquoise and deeper blue colors, we furled the sail and motored to the anchorage.
Normally, I don't anchor upwind of someone already there. In this case, all three boats in the small anchorage had anchored quite a bit farther from shore than it seemed necessary. For us to anchor downwind would have put us so far out as to offer little protection, so I elected to go in very close to shore where the depth was still over 10 feet and drop the anchor. When we settled back on a long scope, we were still over 200 feet from the nearest boat, and with the expected wind shift, we will not be upwind of anyone.
Diane and I took out the dinghy to check the anchor set with the looky bucket and it was well buried in good sand with just a little grass. Antic and we spoke on the VHF and our offer to have cocktails aboard Diva Di was transformed into dinner aboard Antic.
Shortly thereafter, we were hailed by Peacock, our friends Tony and Kaaren Burkhart from Punta Gorda. This is the first of the back-home boats we hoped to find when we entered the Abacos. [There was a large contingent of friends going just to the Abacos from mid-April to end of May.] We will try to rendezvous with our friends on Peacock sometime in the next week in either Marsh Harbour or Hope Town.
After a nice warm shower to get the salt of our bodies from the snorkeling, and some clean, dry clothing, we felt great and settled in to relax a bit. I later set out to "morph" the leftover ground beef from last night into hot appetizers to bring to Antic. At 1740 we left Diva Di and dinghied over to the nearby dock where three fishermen were cleaning their catch.
They were obviously American by their speech, and after a quick hello, Diane made the quip, "So, what are we having for dinner tonight, guys?" They quickly replied, "Dolphin. Want some?" One guy handed Diane a quart-size Ziploc bag full of two thick fillet pieces. As we had a bottle of wine aboard to take to Antic, I offered that in exchange and they were quite pleased. They asked if we wanted more and we said yes for the other boat we were going to visit. Another Ziploc full, more thanks, and we were off.
As we boarded Antic, they had seen (but not heard) the exchange and were understandably curious. We quickly explained the situation as Andree placed the fish in their freezer compartment. They were not only thrilled to get more fresh fish, but amazed at Diane's ability to make these deals out of nowhere.
The appetizer we brought was very good and the grouper dinner Andree prepared was even better. Real mashed potatoes and green peas rounded out the meal with Jell-O for dessert. We played Mexican Train (domino game) and finally got into the game for the first time. The previous few times we had played it, we had just not warmed up to it much. It was after 2200 (late for us) when we went back to Diva Di after a very enjoyable evening.
I did miss the nightly check-in with Invictus at 2100, but John knows where we are and is not concerned, I am sure.
Day 64: Wed 14 May 08
Lat: N 26.5� Lon: W 077.0�
We weighed anchor around 0740 and proceeded under engine only up the short route for shallow draft boats. It was a falling tide, but we got through the shallower sections with a foot of water under the keel. It was a scenic run, despite the high winds and mostly cloudy sky. There are a lot of beautiful waterfront properties scattered around the larger and smaller cays on both side of the channel we used.
Picking a place to anchor was not easy: the one spot was almost full and the more desirable location had depths slightly shallower than I liked. We finally anchored at almost low tide in 5.5 ft of water on a soft, sandy bottom with no wave action thanks to the protection of the hills to windward and close shoreline. After checking that the anchor was securely set, we dinghied through the channel into Hope Town Harbour past the very picturesque and oft-photographed lighthouse.
We first tried for the docks near the lighthouse, but were told it was closed for renovations. We could see a man painting the exterior while sitting on a small seat suspended by ropes from the top. The light is still created by a kerosene lamp that shines through a large Fresnel lens to maximize its visibility. Too bad we were not able to see it for ourselves this time; it is really something, we are told.
Rather than take the direct route to the other side of the harbor, we made a circuit through the moored boats and spied Chat-Eau, a clever name for a catamaran boat previously owned by current friends in Punta Gorda and now owned by new friends who live there, too. They were "home" at the time, so we stopped aboard for almost an hour, with Nancy and Diane talking in the galley while Steve and I talked about our boats and the cruise so far. They have been in the Abacos since April and have family coming now for the next few weeks to join them.
After leaving them, we got ashore to the nice dinghy dock and hailed Antic on the handheld VHF radio. The conversation was sporadic, but we confirmed they were anchored south of us and were coming ashore in a little while. We strolled
to the south of the dinghy dock viewing the lovely homes and shops and quaint alleys and paths. We bought Diane a new snorkel since hers was flooding rapidly through a faulty valve and she didn't like that for some selfish reason. ;-)
Antic hailed on the VHF while we were in the shop, and despite our difficulty maintaining contact, we found each other soon enough. We strolled in the other direction for a while, enjoying all the scenery, buying the famous home-baked key lime pie from Vernon's Grocery, and getting a cute Bahamian calendar. It was about 1330 when we stopped at Cap'n Jacks for lunch. I had a cracked conch sandwich with French fries and a cup of conch chowder; it was all very good. Diane's lobster roll was not so great: it was frozen lobster due to it being the off-season, the spices were not to her liking, and the roll was not good, according to her. Other than that, it was fine.
A quick walk to the beach after lunch, then we went back to Diva Di with our purchases. It wasn't long before we weighed anchor and headed to Marsh Harbour, just 8 nm away. It was a very nice sail for much of the short trip, but the winds got fluky and finally went so light that we furled the sail. Of course, 10 minutes later, the wind picked up again, but we were so close to the entrance channel that we just motored the rest of the way.
Marsh Harbour is the hub of the Abacos and a fairly large town by Bahamian standards. It has a substantial commercial port and a large anchorage for cruising boats. To my surprise, we found ample room to anchor without crowding anyone else. We expect to be here a few days for sure due to the expected strong winds coming from the next cold front.
We showered and relaxed a bit, then had a piece of the delicious key lime pie from Hope Town instead of dinner. Shortly thereafter, I hailed Peacock and Tony answered. We chatted for a short while and they invited us to join them ashore at the Jib Room for drinks and entertainment.
It turned out to be a fun evening of both catching up with our friends Tony and Kaaren, enjoying the island music, and the watching the other visitors (especially the young children) dancing and participating in the limbo contest. We made plans to snorkel the local reef with them tomorrow after lunch.
On the way back about 2130, we stopped at Antic to say hello and invite them to snorkel as well. They invited us aboard for a little while and we had fun discussing things over a night cap.
The wind is picking up a bit, as expected, but we are in a great location to ride it out.
Day 65: Thu 15 May 08
Lat: N 26� 33' Lon: W 077� 03'
[I will be reporting the LAT/LON position in degrees and whole minutes from now on to make it easier and more accurate.]
It was a wonderfully restful night. I actually slept past sunrise, but still in time for the 0630 SSB weather report. It looks like we will be enjoying very sunny days with mostly low humidity for the coming week. Higher winds are expected as the next cold front approaches, so we will stay here in Marsh Harbour through at least Saturday night. I pointed out to Diane that we have about 26 days of time to spend seeing the rest of the Abacos before we look for a weather window to jump back to the USA, so we don't need to rush anywhere.
We are told that Marsh Harbour is the only big place to reprovision in the Abacos outside of Freeport, which we don't plan to visit. So, Diane has to decide what we might need for the next month or so until we are back in Florida. We will likely cross over to the east cost quite a bit north, so it will take a while to work our way around to the keys and back home. But, that is in the distant future.
We went ashore near 1000 and disposed of a week's worth of trash, stocked up on a few items, and searched for a hair stylist for Diane. She is not letting me touch her hair again, and wanted a professional to reshape it. Once place we found was just opening the shop and was advertising for a barber, stylist, and manicurist. I jokingly told Diane I would apply for the barber job. It was good for a quick chuckle before she punched me.
Our walk was not terribly interesting, but they seem to have more auto parts stores in a small area than anywhere else I have seen. By 1130, we were back at Diva Di and got ready for our snorkeling trip with Peacock. Antic joined us and five of us went snorkeling on Mermaid Reef while Andree strolled into town.
The reef was nice, with lots of variety in fish and not so much in coral. There were a number of concrete hemispheres with holes in them, perhaps 3 feet across. These reef starters already had coral growing and some fish hiding. I don't know how many years it will take to become a full coral head, but they look destined to add to the reef.
Afterwards, we bought beverages at the Jib Room bar and swam in their fresh water swimming pool. It was not strictly proper with us not being guests, but we had spent a bit of money there last night and today, so we did not feel like we were freeloading. There's nothing like a swim in a pool to get the salt off your body. Well, a warm, soapy shower is even better, but you take what you can get.
On the way back to Diva Di, we saw Rare Indigo and our friends from Punta Gorda, Jake and Pat Dye. We had a great conversation for 20 minutes and then found out the Punta Gorda contingent was invited for happy hour at 1700 on their boat. They knew we were dining aboard Peacock tonight, but it will be great to visit with the Dyes and Shelly and Freya Harris from After Tennis.
There was quite a crowd on Rare Indigo: Dye, Harris, Johnson (and family), Burkhart, and us. The appetizers were great, as they always are, and it was a nice time to reconnect. We said goodbye to Harris and Dye as they are trying once again to leave for home, then headed over to Peacock for dinner. It was a simple, but delicious dinner of cheeseburgers and home-made potato salad, and it really hit the spot. We didn't tarry too long after dinner as we did not want to miss the SSB check in call with Invictus for the third night in a row.
Back on Diva Di, we made our call and had a good chat with John. His Boy Scout High Adventure sailing and diving camp will be in high gear starting soon through August, so we wish him well. After such an early start with the partying, we were both ready for the sack by 2130.