Up before any one else today.  ‘Nature’ channel is in full swing as the pelicans catch breakfast.  Watched 3 fishermen drift along the bay, using a hand-thrown net to catch bait fish – the pelicans don’t seem to care at all.

Around 09:00, Mum and I took the dinghy over to where the birds were fishing, dropped anchor and fit our snorkeling gear.  Dropped into the sea, and not a fish in sight, just sand, rock and weed.  Headed inshore, and suddenly we were surrounded by thousands of fish, all about 2 inches long.  Then came across a moray eel, and backpedaled (well, I did) – I don’t like morays.  Given enough room, they’re as safe as any other wild animal (aka, you really don’t know what they’ll do).  In truth, they look more menacing than they are due to the fact they breath with their mouth open, fangs out.

We proceeded to swim west along the shore, heading for Rapid Point and open sea; the school of fish showed no sign of diminishing, with the count now into the hundreds of thousands (and I may exaggerate, but there were fish everywhere.  A few more morays showed up from their bolt holes, and a booby apparently missed my head by 6 inches.

The scenery below us changed very rapidly.  From weedy rocks to masssive coral-covered boulders (at a guess, 5+ tons); fan coral, brain coral, finger coral, elkhorn coral, basket sponges and more.  Gone was the green murk, replaced by clear water and brilliant hues of red, yellow and blue – and that’s just the coral.

Snorkled around the point, and noticed a rock with about 15 boobies on it, all preening themselves.

Tallied up the denizens of the sea that we saw, and the list is decent:

• Cobblers (black and red) and urchins
• Wrasse – Clown, Bluehead, Yellowhead and Slippery Dick
• Trumpetfish, Sanddiver, Squirrelfish, Blackbar Soldierfish
• Flamefish, Fairy Basslet, Grunts, Yellow Goatfish
• Cherub fish, Stoplight Parrotfish, Hamlets, Sergeant Major

A few more that I couldn’t identify – not parrotfish, but not sure what they were.

Swam back to the dinghy, taking time out to see how close a pelican would let me get (about 8 feet), clambered back aboard and picked up Dad to show him the coral growth and fish.  Avoided the morays.

Back to the yacht, and we decided to head for Petit St. Vincent (PSV).  So, the outboard engine had to be lifted off of the dinghy, and on to the stern of ‘Lady Di’.  I’ve done this kind of thing many, many times in my life, without (many) incidents (though Mum tells the tale of a friend dropping an outboard from 6 feet up on top of me, and that she didn’t know I knew that many swear words).  This time around, however, the handle grip that I was using on the top-rear of the engine decided to part ways with the outboard and ~30 pounds of metal accelerated towards my leg and foot.  Somehow managed to dodge the worst of it, coming away with a bruise on my knee and a scrape/gouge on my leg.  A quick pause to go ‘owww’ and the outboard was clamped on its perch.

We motored across to PSV, observing ‘Isle de Ronde’ in the far south.  No sail this time, as we were dead into the wind.  Gave a wide berth to ‘Mopion’ and ‘Pinese’, and dropped anchor off of PSV in about 10 feet of water; much easier to do when the windlass works.

With nothing to be fixed, Dad and I turned our attention to whipping some rope ends – it’s quite relaxing.

Went to bed early; didn’t feel right, suspect lack of water intake combined with lots of activity and sun.

Dinner was a strange take on carbonara made with bacon, honey cure ham, pasta and Philadelphia cream cheese.