There may be a little repetition-Mike didn't know I shot a quick entry out yesterday.

Tuesday Jan. 15

I set the alarm this morning for 6:30 to listen to Chris Parker... and then took off to visit Ann and Neville on "Peace" who spend most of their winter here. We met them at the lock in the Dismal Swamp and have seen them a couple of times on our trip south. A couple of days ago while checking the engine I noticed the one of our alternator belts was loose so I got a wrench and tightened it up. Today, it was loose again.... The base of the tension arm was broken. We need a one inch weld and I knew that Neville would know where to send me to get it done. I had tea and toast with them and met one of their friends Brian who is from Traverse City.

Neville's advice was to stop in Marsh Harbor and ask about welders on the Cruisers Net in the morning.

Bye the time I returned, it was time to explore our island so we took off with Bob and Jan from "English Rose" to check out the coves and beaches. As we motored slowly in the dinghy in calm water, there were always star fish in sight...Fish of all shapes and colors moved out of our way as we cruised the coral shoreline.

We had our spear gun and were watching for lobster but they were hidden under rocks. I needed to get in the water to have any chance of seeing one. We beached the dinghies in a cove and I took off with mask, fins, and spear to go fishing. There were tons of fish.... Anne had told me not to shoot Anglefish and the Trigger fish were too spooky to get very close to. The grunts were probably the best targets but the only ones that came close enough ( 2 feet from the end of my spear) we too small. I did not see any lobster but I was not in the right place for them.

I know that most of you have seen photos of the water in the Bahamas, but you would really have to be here to appreciate the different blues. It is impossible photograph.

After our adventure we returned to the boat for lunch . I went over to English Rose with our charts in the afternoon to pick their brains about how we should proceed south. They are probably going to stay in the Abacos most of the winter.

Since my diving stuff was out, it seemed to be about the right time see if our failure to follow Piccaroon last summer out of Cove Island... the hull was fine. Dave, I couldn't even seen any missing paint so you can quit sending people half way around the world (or to Vero Beach where Elysium 6 visited on Dave's behalf) to apologize.

I did however find some living things, and scraped most of them off. The very bottom of the keel has some barnacles that I will have to deal with in the future. The very bottom of the keel did not get much paint last spring in the cradle and it really shows.

Later in the afternoon we weighed anchor and motored 5 miles down to Green Turtle Cay and anchored off New Plymoth. We went ashore and wandered the settlement that looks like a Bahamian village...pastel colored houses, narrow streets, roosters crowing, and kids on skates and bikes. Bob need gasoline so we dinghied to the other end of the island...White Bay where there is a marina and resort. We needed some ice are were directed to the bar where they bagged us up some ice and sold us each a Tipsy Turtle ... the house specialty that tasted a lot like a rum punch.

At dark we returned to Sapphire and grilled a pork loin and had dinner while listening to the Spartans defeat Ohio State.