This morning Bud, Fuzzy and I walked over to House Bay to try to get some conch. The tide was in and it was too deep to see them easily. Fuzzy wouldn't sit in the shade and wait for us, so I ended up sitting with him on the edge most of the time. Bud started to find some conch, but only small ones. Finally, I found an old piece of fish trap rope and unraveled the three twisted pieces and tied them to make a line long enough to tie Fuzzy up in the shade so I could go in. That didn't work for long, Fuzzy started to cry as soon as I got out in the water. Bud was coming back anyway. I managed to get my shirt wet (I had it on over my bathing suit) and found about three small conch. We gave up and went back.

After an early lunch we decided to do the fishing, hiking thing again, leaving Fuzzy aboard. Bud took me over to the beach at Middle Pen (where most of the boats anchor). It was 11:30 and we agreed to meet back at the beach at 3 PM. Before I left the beach I took a couple of pictures of the set up there. I'll post one with this entry. It shows the benches, tables and fire pits all made from stuff found washed up along the ocean side. They have a Bocce court and balls made from fishing floats and a "Zamboni" to smooth the sand made from a plastic pallet.

I hiked across the island to the ocean side along the ridge between our anchorage and Middle Pen. I walked the beaches and found a lot more sea beans. I'm going to quit picking them up, I have too many. I then hiked back to the anchorage side through the low center. I saw a lot of goats, but was never able to get a good photo of them. I walked north along that beach and explored the cliffs on the north end. I met three women just coming back to their dinghy from a walk. They insisted I take some of their leftover water as I hadn't come out with any. They said there wasn't a trail up the cliff right there. I found another trail heading for the ocean side and took that. I walked back south along the ocean beach and came back again along the ridge trail. I got back at about a quarter to three. There were several other cruisers on the beach then, and I chatted with three other women until Bud arrived to pick me up.

Bud hadn't been able to get any conch, so he ended up fishing with lures. Barracuda like shiny lures and he had a couple of strikes, but couldn't hook them. He found his triple hook was bending, so he replaced it. He lost one more, but then was able to land one. He was afraid it might be too big to be safe to eat, so towed it through the water to show some Bahamian fishermen who were nearby. They told him that it would be good eating. They said Barracuda caught on the banks around here were okay, but the ones caught out on the ocean side were not. In any case, we're having it for supper.

Once back at the boat we both took showers. Since we've been out here I've been washing my hair in sea water, since it takes a lot of water to rinse first the shampoo and then the conditioner out of my hair. Then I go in the shower and wash the rest of me and use our fresh water to rinse. It saves a lot of water.

This afternoon Ed and Karin on Passages arrived. We dropped over to see them on our way to take Fuzzy to the beach. Dan and Nancy from Maja were there too, so we all had a nice visit. We're going to get together to do something tomorrow.