February 2, 2010.

Yesterday my back was feeling a bit better so we decided to head out for some hunting. We ended up taking another pair of lobsters and a 5 pound White Margate. While we were cleaning the fish and lobster we were beset by several large rays that came to snack on our cleaning scraps.

This morning we attempted to go out hunting again and it soon became a comedy of errors. We took the dinghy 2 miles north to the cut between Raccoon and Buena Vista Cays. As soon as we arrived we realized that I forgot to grab my weight belt. Crap. I usually wear a weight belt with 12 pounds of lead on it to counteract the buoyancy of my wetsuit. Without the belt I have to expend an enormous amount of energy to get to the bottom thus seriously limiting the amount of time I can spend at the bottom.

In an effort to make something out of nothing I spent 20 minutes diving a series of ledges that we knew were in the area. After spending 20 fruitless minutes I surfaced and found that Christy was in the dinghy and unable to get it started. Shit. The current was taking her out the cut and she dropped the anchor while I put it in gear and swam hard to get to her.

Once aboard the dink I got the engine started while she retrieved the hook. The dinghy didn’t want to run at low RPM’s so we blasted back down to the Veranda. We were back within an hour after leaving but decided to call it a day. Some days, you’re just not supposed to be out on the water.

I changed the plugs and cleaned the fuel filter on the dinghies engine which resolved the problem. As we ate lunch we heard that our friends on Far Niente were a few miles away and headed to our anchorage. It was great to see them again and they even brought us vegetables. We love those guys.

At beach cocktails in the evening we had a great time with the crews of 8 boats that all joined us in the anchorage today.