Day 168, Saturday December 7th, still Hopetown

Day 168, Saturday December 7^th

Today we aren’t sure what to do.  We start with some coconut husking, as we are getting an inventory of coconuts to husk and crack.  It is quite a bit of work and a local; Alex stops by to give us a hand.  Dawson does most of the work and it takes about an hour to get the 3 of the nuts husked, milk collected, and nuts broken to access the meat.  We then decide to go snorkelling on the Atlantic side as the wind is not too strong.

Poolside at the resort we get to use

View from our anchorage

The snorkelling is excellent.  We only have to go about 50 feet out and the depth is about 25 feet with coral and fishes rising up within 2 or 3 feet of the ocean surface.   We see about 25 different types of fish, some big and some around 15 pounds.  There are also lots of caves but we look inside but don’t want to stick our hands in at all.  Julie wears gloves and we both wear wet suits to protect us from the coral if we get tossed around.  The surface water swells and we are often moved at the mercy of the water.  The tide is going out so we are always checking that we are not being pulled out deeper.  (The rip tides aren’t bad here, the shallow banks you need to be careful).  We keep a sharp look out for sharks.  There are sharks around, but the shark attacks are usually on spear fisher people that don’t get their victims out of the water immediately.   Just after finishing our snorkel we met up with Julian from Cool Running .  We walk down the beach to the Reef Bar, site of last night’s music. Julian goes for a snorkel and we keep watch, no need for him to be sucked out to sea without anybody watching.

After snorkelling we head back to the boat for dinner, and then off to the evenings music show at the Edge.   The Edge is a waterfront restaurant so we are able to dinghy over and step right onto the entertainment floor.  Parking is very easy and close.  The music is once again good.  Some of the artists we saw the night before so a bit of a repeat but still enjoyable. 

Cheers

Julie and Dawson