We spent the morning repairing the ding on Fat Tuesday to cover the exposed fiber glass. The repair kit hardens in about an hour. We let it sit in the sun for awhile. We also arranged snorkel equipment with Tazan. He will deliver it by paddle-board.
After lunch, we decided to take a take an exploration north on the island back to starfish beach. We would then hike a trail across the island to Powder beach. We dinghied over; I practiced my motoring. We wove through the boats in the monument mooring field. Some beautiful boats there.
We saw one starfish from the dinghy on our way in and were able to find it snorkeling. I need some way to take a picture of it. They are red with beautiful yellow markings. They have a central petal made of five house shaped markings. As we swam along , we found six or seven others. We also saw baracuda and numerous sea cucumbers.
We then found a path to cross to the seaside. There was an interesting palm on the trail where someone had eaten a hole in each leaf. How could this have happened? Answer tomorrow.
The other side was beautiful. We found a natural fountain, some lovely tide pools and a blow hole as well as some lovely tiny shells.
The sand on one of the beaches was more coarse and almost pink from the shell fragments. Powder beach was back to the fine white sand and had a large dune. The water there between two points was too rough for swimming.
We came back via a new trail and ended up on flip flop beach which was lovely and calm. We met a Canadian couple there from the sailing vessel Fortuna. The husband’s name was Bruce. We apologized for our country’s recent behavior. They said we were about the 7th people to do so in the last few days. They were very nice and gave us advice about teak decks, permateak, redoing teak decks in cool weather, and the cpt autopilot. They bought their current boat in Charleston this year. It is a ketch with a pilot house. They also have a boat like ours still in Canada. They also gave some fishing advice. He fishes with a plug of wood with a streamer off of it that goes along the surface. Fish for Mahi under a weed clump, troll through it.
After a beer at Da Beach Bar, we headed back to the boat. We are very excited about the visitors coming tomorrow. Some are starting their journey tonight. Hoping to sail, fish and explore with them. We will definitely want to take them to starfish beach and across the island.
