Day 247, Monday, February 24

Day 247, Monday, February 24

The day starts with a run for Dawson, joined by Guiomme, and French studies for Julie.  Today Slow Waltz is continuing south so we will bid them a final good-bye.  First they are interested in going for a snorkel so by 8:45 we are snorkelling on a nearby reef.  There are fish to see and some coral but it is nothing like the snorkelling we have done in the Exumas.  A storm of some sort must have come through and damaged the coral.  We try later at another site and it is even worse.   This is unfortunate as Conception Island is supposed to have excellent snorkelling.  They do have lots of accessible reefs but they all seem somewhat dead.  We bid our good-byes, which is very sad, in part because we will not see Gwen and Guiomme for a long time but also because it represents that we are “turn arounders”.  This affirms that we are not going any further or else we would have gone with them.  It is a landmark recognition of an unspoken decision.  We know we had decided to go back to work, and talked about where to put the boat in storage, but this cements the decision to head north.

Slow Waltz leaving us for the last time

We have the rest of the afternoon ahead of us with no plans so Julie sets up the hammock chair and reads for a couple hours  We then spend the rest of the afternoon looking for another spot to snorkel, going for a bit of a hike and then pop over to visit Harmonium.  Harmonium is an ABYC boat which is Ashbridges Yacht club which is the club we had joined as associate members while in Toronto.  We are welcomed aboard and have lots to chat about.  They lived in Leslieville which is a couple miles from the Beaches where we lived.  After about a 30 minute visit Julie asks Christi if she had taken the Extended cruising course through Power Squadron and it turns out her and Phil and us were in the same class for 10 Tuesday nights the spring of 2012.  We thought they looked familiar.  Again what a small world.  While at Harmonium, Haven (Al and Brenda) called and suggested we come over for a sundowner, so after a quick shower on our boat we head over with drinks in hand and an appetizer.  Another couple from Milleexcursions also joined in and brought some cervichi made from the fresh Mahi Mahi they had caught on their crossing.  We can only stay for an hour as we have social plans for the evening on Serena with Barry and Wilma.  Of course we are longer and get back to our boat 20 minutes before we are to get to the next social.  Quickly we fry up the sausages planned for dinner last night, and head out with another snack and something to drink.  Typical to boating you bring what you want as we are a long way from any supplies and it is understood you don’t want to drain others of their inventory.  We are not sure where their boat is and it is dark.  We know the general direction in the anchorage so it is quite funny as we go boat to boat calling out Serena.  Barry hears us and hails us over.

We have a lovely evening of euchre and Mexican train which is dominoes.  Our heads start bobbing at 10:00 as we have had lots of sun today.

Cheers

Julie and Dawson