This morning Bud wanted to replace the zinc on the prop. He'd looked at it yesterday when we both went in the water to wash, and he thought it looked pretty worn. So we got out all of his Scuba gear. It took a bit to find it all. Then his regulator wouldn't work correctly, it was leaking air constantly. He was going to try to do the job using just a snorkel, but I suggested he try my regulator, which he did and it worked. So he swapped regulators and suited up and went in. It didn't take too long to replace the zinc and he didn't lose any screws or the Allen wrenches. He did, however, lose the snorkel he was using. His snorkel had broken so he used one of our spares. It didn't fit tightly in his snorkel clamp and after his dive it was missing. He went out with the gear on and looked around, but couldn't find it.

After lunch we decided to try hiking over to the Atlantic side. Bud wanted to try snorkeling for seafood and there were supposed to be reefs and beaches over there. We loaded up the dinghy with Bud's gear and Fuzzy and headed out. I took Fuzzy in the front pack because it's a pretty long dinghy ride to the dock at Long Island Breeze where we were going to start our walk. Also, Fuzzy doesn't do too well on long walks anymore, so we figured he'd probably need to be carried part of the way. And he did. It was less than a mile across the island here (this is a narrow spot, but at most the island is only four miles wide and almost 80 miles long- hence the name). There is a reasonably tall ridge in the middle, and you can see both the Atlantic and the banks from the top. The Atlantic side was beautiful. We came down on a beach that was about three-quarters of a mile long. Not far out in the water a series of fringing reefs started. On a really calm day you could snorkel all day and never cover the same spot twice. Today there was some wind and enough waves to make it hard to snorkel out past the first line of reefs. Bud went on either side of a huge rock formation that sat just offshore about in the middle of the beach. This rock was as big as a two storey house, and very white. Today's picture is Bud walking down the beach towards the rock with his equipment. I'll post it when I have internet again.

While Bud snorkeled Fuzzy and I sat in the shade and enjoyed the beautiful scenery. At least I enjoyed the scenery, Fuzzy was zonked out in the sand. He was sleeping so soundly that I got up and walked away and he didn't notice. I was afraid to go too far, because he might wake up and be confused. Bud came back with no fish, but he'd seen quite a few. He saw a big grouper that he could have speared, but they are out of season here. He saw some yellow tailed snappers, but thought they were too small. He was looking for lion fish, but didn't see those. They are an invasive species here, and you are encouraged to take them. They have poisonous spines, but if you cut those off they are supposed to be good eating. Anyway, he got no fish so we had left-overs for supper. It was a nice afternoon, though.