25 05.54, 077 13.88

Slept well until about 5:00 this morning when we awoke to the boat rocking uncomfortably. The wind was now coming from the northeast which was not in any forecast we had heard. We found out later when we listened to Chris Parker's weather that there had been some pretty bad squalls up at Chub and Frazier Hog Cays in the Berrys, which is about 40 miles northwest of us, also not in any forecast. Guess the storms kicked up the Tongue of the Ocean between here and there and we were getting a pretty good surge in addition to the northeast winds which helped to push them in. Since it was before daylight, we couldn't see the outline of the reefs, which made Charlie a bit nervous, since they were now downwind of us. After daylight, we could see that we had anchored, as planned, where we stayed safely over the sand bottom. But, sometimes best laid plans??? We thought about moving, but Chris Parker and the Nassau weather both insisted we were going to have southeast winds, which if they developed as forecast would be great weather for this anchorage. So, either because we were lazy or hopeful we didn't move. Three other boats left fairly early, three others stayed. After breakfast, since the boat was still rolling to much to do anything else, we took our books and went back to bed. I actually fell asleep, but Charlie wasn't so lucky. He's used to getting up at daylight anyway. Charlie cut the wood plugs and sanded down the teak trim he reattached yesterday, then put on two coats of varnish on. It turned out perfectly. He plans to put a couple more coats of varnish on tomorrow. I put water in my snorkel mask and actually found a crack in the corner right next to the lens. Enough to let the water drip. So, it wasn't that I was out of practice snorkeling, or extra facial wrinkles. It was the mask! Whew, that's sort of a relief. Charlie said he had thought of the wrinkle problem yesterday when I was complaining about the mask not sealing, but wasn't about to say anything. So, how DO you seal a snorkel mask if you do get craggy looking? Even if you don't look so good, you ought to be able to enjoy snorkeling without the mask giving you a problem. Well, the boat rolled all day, but gradually got less as the day passed. The wind did clock around to the east-southeast and the seas calmed. The temperature was warm even though we had partly cloudy skies. A couple of other boats joined us today. Including a couple of day snorkel boats. One must have had 50 people on it. They had a rope floating off the back about 50 feet or more with a float out on the end. All but about 6 people were all bunched up around the rope, afraid to venture too far I guess. They here maybe an hour, then took them back to Nassau. Don't know what the cost per person is, but that was a pretty good paying trip. Tonight is warm. Partly cloudy, so its pretty dark except the glow and lights from Nassau. Light breeze and the boat is just gently swaying, finally.