Today was the big dive day. Rick had scheduled a dive this afternoon and let us know that he would love to dive with Portia and Steve if they were interested. Steve jumped on the opportunity while Portia was conflicted out, having to deal with a number of real estate issues that popped up. She and Steve are in the process of designing and building a new house in Kauai and she is juggling a number of balls to make this happen. A few of these balls needed some TLC today so she was on the phone for the better part of the day.

I ran Steve to the Christiansted boardwalk this afternoon and we then walked up one of the streets to where the dive shop was located. While Steve was discussing the dive with the dive shop, Rick walked in and was all smiles. It was so great to see him again and to introduce him to Steve. I then said my goodbyes and walked over to Fort Christiansted, where the National Park Service has an office. I needed to confirm our permit with them that allows us to anchor at Buck Island and to be sure we would be allowed to anchor there overnight. We hope to do so this coming Tuesday before we sail back to St Thomas so Portia and Steve can catch their flight home on Thursday. After a brief discussion with the park ranger, we discovered that they had misplaced the permit application we filed with them about 10 days ago. However, later on today I did receive an email saying that we can go ahead and anchor there. Whew!

Around 1630 we spied Steve and Rick's dive boat returning to Christiansted so the two ladies and I hopped in the dinghy and followed the dive boat to its dock along the boardwalk. We tied up and joined up with Rick and Steve for happy hour at one of the bars that dot the boardwalk. It was great to hear about the wonderful dives Steve and Rick had. They did two dives off the fringing reef just to the north of us, seeing lots of turtles, fish and even a lobster. They also spied three Lionfish which where speared. Lionfish are a significant nuisance since they are an invading species that are not native to the Caribbean. As it turns out, they are out competing the various fish which are native to the Caribbean and are having a significant impact on the Caribbean's fishing resources. There is a bounty on Lionfish and even though there are restrictions on fishing and spearing other fish, it is open season for Lionfish. You can learn more about the Lionfish by going to the National Geographic website at: http://voices.nationalgeographic.com/2013/07/19/top-5-myths-about-lionfish/.

After our drinks and saying goodbye to Rick, we walked over Galangal, the Thai restaurant that Rick and Bret had introduced us to a couple of weeks ago. We were anxious to share this very special epicurean experience with Portia and Steve.

Our dining experience was a pure delight as we thoroughly enjoyed our mussels in a unique peanut sauce, the fried calamari, lamb chops, a chicken breast and short ribs, all infused with Thai and oriental herbs and spices. To top it off, Rick had called the restaurant and ordered a bottle of his favorite wine, a juvenile Zinfandel from the Turley Vineyards in Napa Valley, for our table. How generous was that! We will be seeing Rick and Bret on Sunday when we will be sharing a table with them at the Blue Water Terrace for dinner.

After our wonderful meal we somehow made our way back to our dinghy and then Leu Cat with our tummies being very happy.