Day 175, Saturday, December 14th

Day 175 Saturday Dec 14th, a neat snorkeling day

We once more are awoken to the wake of the Marsh Harbour ferry fleet as they pass through the harbour.  Nothing big planned for the day so it starts off slow with a coffee.

At 10 we head into town to do some more grocery shopped again in preparation for Ross and Blake's arrival.  Enroute to the store we stop at the Saturday Market hoping to get some fresh vegatables.  Unfortuately the fellow from the produce farm could not get his truck started so came via car with no fresh veggies, only some hot sauce.  We did have an interesting conversation with him about solar power as he was selling two panels.  In addition to his farm he sells and installs solar panels.  He has been in the game for 10 years having first started with wind generators and then moved over to solar.  He got out of the wind generators as they have too many moving parts that are effected by the salt air and when you add in the logestics of getting spares to the island it did not work out.

Julie getting ready to snorkel Mermaid Reef

After our groery tour we head back to the boat to store our new supplies and then head out to mermaid reef to do some snokeling.  We had tried this once before but have decided we missed the reef the first time as everyone we talk to say how wonderful it was.  It is about a 10 minute dinghy ride over.  We tie up to the same mooring ball we did last time.  However, this time we swim towards the beach, as we had been instructed.  Within 2 minutes we are on the reef and swarmed by 100 fish all different types.  It is like they come over to be fed, I did not think fish were smart enough to put humans and food together but they are definitely looking to eat.  With the swarm following we do 2 loops of the reef, it is very impressive.  The reef is protected so the fish are quite tame and there are a number of spiny lobsters to be seen.  We also notice that portions of the reef are man made, with some of the building blocks being round balls about 3 feet in diameter.  On some there are name plates over holes which has being cast in the balls.  Our guess is that it is a place when you can have your ashes inturned.

View of beach from Mermaid Reef

From the reef we motor back to the boat, Julie blogs for awhile and then we head back to Snappus to post.  We catch happy hour for a cheap drink, post, and we are back to the boat.  Dinner, coffee and a quick game and off to bed we go.

Cheers
Dawson and Julie