After two days of rather blustery weather, we awakened to diminishing winds and sunshine. We started our day with the weather report and then the Cruisers’ Net. We decided to try swing dancing at 11, followed by a hike on the art trail and an attempt to find the end of the island. We packed our lunch and headed down to the south end of the island which is part of Moriah Bay park.
There is a pavilion on the next beach around from where Nautilus is moored. It is part of the park and the captain of Fandango was hosting swing dance lessons. There was quite a crowd there, teens and adults. We learned three moves, the left side pass, the right side pass and the sugar scoop. We were supposed to combine these moves any way we wanted. Our instructor showed the moves and then played music on a Bluetooth speaker. We are not ready for prime time but it was fun.
We then ventured to the head of the art trail that goes from the harbor to the ocean side . We had our picnic and then headed up the trail. The art is a mixture of sculptures, painted rocks, and boat signs. Once on the ocean side, we found a nice trail to the end of the island. From there, it is just a small cut to the next island.
The beach and exposed bar were beautiful. We swam and floated in the current. A brother and sister played on the sand bar. We then decided to try and walk the beach all the way back around to our dinghy. We made it. We saw bonefish, conch and live sand dollars on the trip.
We had a drink under a Casaurina tree and then headed back in our dinghy. We saw a tug boat pushing a barge onto the beach. They then drop a ramp for heavy equipment to cross for construction. It is quite the operation.
We got back to the boat in time to make a salad to bring to Halekai for dinner. We dinghied over around sunset. Ann and Greg showed us their boat, a 50 foot Alden. They have a large storage space in the bow and a large galley. David really got excited about their battery bank which they got help with at MYS at Herrington harbor. Ann made a delicious shrimp curry with rice. Greg refers to mishaps as moments where he gained experience. He says he does not want to become more experienced as it can be a bit stressful. He loves fishing and he caught a painted mackerel the same day we took their picture. Ann cooked it the night they arrived here.
It was dark when we headed back to our boat but we were prepared with running lights, and flashlight. We had remembered to turn on our anchor light but so had every other boat in the harbor. We found her fairly easily but some twinkle lights on the stern would be helpful.