We had to get a lot in today because tomorrow Rick and Tracy are leaving us. We were up early. We took care of the morning chores; listening to the weather on SSB, taking Fuzzy to the beach, eating breakfast, doing dishes and straightening out the boat. Then we set off to see this side of the harbor. We landed the dinghy on Hamburger Beach and took the trail up to the monument. I took a photo of Earendil down below in the anchorage and one of Stocking Island, which Rick and Trace said reminds them of Hawaii. Those are in the gallery.

We walked on down to the beach on the ocean side. There are pretty big waves there after two days and two nights of steady wind. I was helping Tracy look for shells when I found a "lucky hamburger bean". There is a local plant that produces a large, hard, black bean, the shape of a rounded lima bean, but an inch or two across. The other day in a gift store in Georgetown the saleslady told Tracy and I that these beans were considered lucky. Especially lucky are beans of the "hamburger" variation where the dark bean has two light lines running around the circumference with a black area between, so it looks like a hamburger in a bun. She said only about one in a hundred of the beans had this variation. They were selling small ones for $5 in the store. I found one about twice the size of the little ones in the store. I tried to give it to Tracy as a souvenir, but since they are supposed to insure that the boat they are on will never sink she insisted that I keep it. I tied it into the red ribbon that is still around the case holding my statue of Kun Iam, the Buddhist goddess of mercy who is a sort of patron saint for sailors in the Far East.

While Bud and I fixed lunch, Rick called the water taxi to arrange to get to Georgetown tomorrow. We could never get them and all of their luggage across the harbor in the dinghy without getting wet. He tried hailing the water taxi on VHF 12 and 14 but no one answered. Rick called the cruiser net on VHF 68 and asked for advice on contacting the water taxi. He was told to try Elvis on channel 16. Elvis answered and then had Rick switch to channel 12. He assured Rick he could be to the boat by 10 AM; in fact he could be there at 5 minutes before 10, if we could be ready.

After lunch we left Fuzzy aboard and took the dinghy south about a half mile to Volleyball beach. The photo is Bud, Rick and Tracy with their beers in chairs in front of the Chat and Chill Restaurant. We noticed a boat for sale notice on a bulletin board. It was a CSY 37 and the price was reasonable. Rick and Tracy were curious so asked around. We found someone who knew about it. It was anchored just a bit further down and the people were supposed to be aboard so we dinghied on down there. The people on the boat, an English couple from Ottawa, were very nice and let Rick, Tracy and I tour the boat. Bud elected to stay in the dinghy and hold it in place. The CSY is a very well built boat, but not pretty. I don't think Rick and Tracy are likely to buy that boat.

Bud made conch stew for our last meal together using the one conch Jon and Arline caught for us and the two conchs Rick bought on Staniel Cay. He followed a recipe Arline copied for him from another cruiser's book called simply The Conch Book. It was excellent. Bud said it wasn't as good as the conch stew we had last year from the church sale at Great Harbour, but I'm not sure. It was certainly good, among the best conch I've ever eaten.

Bud refused to play any more cards tonight since he and Tracy won the Euchre tournament and he didn't want to spoil their record. We finished the brownies and talked and laughed until we all decided we'd better get to bed or they'd never be up in time to pack and take showers and be ready for Elvis at 9:55. I can't believe it's already the end of their trip, Bud and I truly hate to see them leave, we've had a wonderful time.