Once again our charts provided little help. Sea Level was looking for a way into a large area of reef surrounding an island about 3 miles to our north, and we were heading for a little sand island that appeared to be floating alone in the water. The islands were a group of 7 spread out over as many miles and surrounded by a complicated network of coral reefs. We came into a channel between three islands that looked passable, and threaded our way with Manjula on deck looking for shallow water. We slowly approached one of the islands and were disappointed to find our depth gauge reading over 100 feet deep right up to the edge of the reef. The ocean was so flat and calm, and the wat er so clear that we were emboldened to go very close to the edge of the reef. We could see right down to the bottom in about 80 feet, and we were able to go along the edge of the reef within feet of the sharp coral. Unfortunately, as beautiful as it was, there was no way to anchor in water that deep and so close to the reef. We continued searching and just enjoying the spectacular beauty of the small islands. They were just little circles of rock, with white sand beaches, covered with palms and tropical bushes. Sea Level continued searching around the islands the opposite direction from us, and after a while we met having circumnavigated a group of three. At that point we had found what we thought was our best chance of anchoring and we were both dropping and picking up anchors trying to get a safe spot. We were ending up either too close to the reef, or to close to the edge of the drop off the small shallow patch we had found. Just then to our irritation, two men appeared in a canoe and a kayak respectively. We had hoped that we could get a little break from visitors. Not wanting to be rude, I greeted the older of the two men as the other had paddled over to Sea Level. He was a man in his 60s, paddling a plastic kayak. He introduced himself as Jimmy and said we could anchor near his island across the channel. Skeptical, I double checked that he understood the requirements for anchoring a boat like ours, and he smiled broadly and said, "Can I come aboard? I'll show you where to go." "There is a pass into the lagoon."