Beach Bonfire with Tabitha's Crew

This morning was a slow starter. Although I was up at the normal 6:30, there is no weather report at 6:40, so I just updated a few GRIB files, and all seemed fairly good, so we settled in for the day. I am reading a book titled Galileo's Daughter, which is based on correspondence between Galileo and his daughter, Sister Marie Celeste, in a monastery. It relates, through the letters, Galileo's career and his trials (very real in front of the Inquisition) with the Catholic church when he tried to defend Copernicus view that the earth orbits the sun, not vice versa. Interesting. So I spent a good part of the morning on poor Galileo's tribulations. But then I decided to attend to the anchor. When we arrived last night, we set the anchor, and as usual, backed down on it to set it. But we obviously snagged it on a rock. The boat stopped with a jerk and swung back. So although we were firmly anchored, I didn't like being snagged. If for any reason we needed to depart in a rush, I knew that the anchor would not come up. But it was a calm sunny morning, so we decided to postpone the anchor task and dinghied down the shore for a walk on the three mile beach totally alone. Back at the boat, we had lunch and I read some more about poor Galileo's tribulations, then time to deal with the anchor. I got on the wet suit and dived on it, pulling it out from under the rock and re-setting it in a sandy patch. This is a typical problem here in the Jumentos. The holding is very poor. And now that we are looking at weather, the shift of winds to the south, then through to the west, with all the anchorages exposed, means its time to go. It is a shame, as it is beautiful here, with only a few boats here, almost (as it really was a few years ago) totally isolated. But we have had a beautiful time here and will remember it forever as a beautiful spot. It reminds us in the rugged nature of the landscape and the coast, of the Eastern Shore of Nova Scotia, except no fog! So with the anchor re-set, we went off snorkeling, first at a small coral patch we passed earlier in the morning. It was very nice, and I harrassed some fish, but didn't really damage the stocks. But Jeannie didn't feel comfortable with the large Barracuda that kept watching us, so we moved to another site for a nice swim. Then I decided to do some fishing and got some bait and went off. But two triggerfish (blue weird looking fish that I would be cautious of eating) and a tiny grouper later, I returned to the boat to pick up Jeannie to go ashore with Tabitha's crew for a bonfire (and to burn garbage that was accumulating and making its presence known). On the beach, Elspeth recited from memory the poem "I must Go Down To The Sea Again" by John Maisfield. It was very nice and very impressive. We had drinks and appetizers on the beach and watched the sun set, then returned to the boat for a Conch currie and called it a night. Tomorrow we will start back.