Sailing on these banks in the Bahamas is indeed beautiful, the water is crystal clear and we are all learning how to read the different colors of the water. The deep dark blue is nice safe ocean water and very deep-depth wise! Then we have the different shades of blue going from dark blue to greenish-blue which can be 20 feet or more. There are also areas of black which can be either grassy areas, coral heads or even the clouds overhead which cause the shadows!Whenever we see the darkened areas we must be alert until we figure out what it is!The green colors will change to lighter shades and when you see water that is almost white then you will be hard aground! Most of the sailing in the Bahamas is in 8-15 feet of water- that's right 8 feet!! It still is a bit unnerving to look at the depth gauge and see 8 feet and know that all is OK! We always play "How deep do you think it is?" We can look out and see the bottom all of the time and see star fish,sting rays, spotted eagle rays, lobster hotels, dolphins, turtles, colorful coral heads, purple coral fans and of course fish! While we were at acnchor in Spanish Wells a family of dolphins would swim around the boat and drive Daisy crazy! Daisy still prefers chasing after birds but she is slowly beginning to acknowledge the life in the water below her. She loves to spend most of her days sitting in the dinghy tied up to the back of the boat. The "school boat" was going by us the other day on the way to the main island for school and all of a sudden we heard the kids all yelling"Your dog has fallen in the water!" Sure enough, Daisy was in the water! We were all below at the time in school ourselves! We are in the process of teaching Daisy how ot climb up the ladder on the back of the boat. Menno has attached a floaty to it for Daisy to grasp on to. I will update you on her progress.