Nikki and I were treated to perhaps the most beautiful day yet. Warm, sunny, and we stopped on the way to do some snorkeling at N25° 07.45' W80° 17.80'. Two really cool things at this place: lots of fish, including a barracuda that must have been 5 feet long, and getting bigger everytime we talk about it, and really neat coral, more than I saw in the Caribbean at St. Maartin or the BVI's. So I quickly acknowledge I haven't done much of this, but wow, this was truly beautiful. The second thing we saw was something you have probably seen pictures of in the Florida tourist promotions. It was 9 foot tall statue of Jesus (called Christ of the Deep) in about 20 feet of water, with outstretched arms. Really something to see, with the sun shining through the wavelets overhead. We knew it was there but hadn't found it and were ready to give up and all of a sudden there it was - very cool. We did not have an underwater camera, so I've attached a photo I got from the internet.

I did not write about where we stayed last night. It was a nice place called Angelfish Creek N25° 20.159' W80° 16.276'. This was a great anchorage and we heard/saw something huge jump and move around in the water next to us, but could not figure out what it was. We did not know if it was an alligator or dolphin, or what it was, but decided not to go swimming after that. Then as we were heading out at 0630 today, I saw a sting ray jump out of the water twice. I was blown away. I did not know these things did this, but it did. I don't know if he was chasing something, or being chased, but there he was and something like 3 feet across. Nikki also notice something drifting by underwater when it was dark out and they looked like a bunch of little light bulbs. We think they were jellyfish. We saw a bunch at another place during the day earlier, and I think I saw a documentary about these things glowing in the dark I might have just made that up in my mind, but I don't think so, and Nikki said, "So what if you did, it's still a good story!" I'm going with that. A bunch of firsts ... Anyway, I did some work on adjusting the stays and shrouds after picking up a tensioning tool, and think I got the mast tuned closer to where it needs to be. We had been guessing after putting up the mast in NC.

The cold front moving into and across Florida today will get to us tonight. We are in a good anchorage with two anchors set and should be in good shape. We heard about the big power outage today and were unaffected. It's good to be "off the grid" and totally unaffected by what the landlubbers have to deal with in times like this! OK, I am being a smart ass ... :-)

Time to get a shower in.