Leaf Cay, Bahamas
23.47.081N
76.07.748W

You would have thought someone fired a shot to start a race, everyone cleared out of here so fast this morning. The big end is in Georgetown. Apparently, it is the goal for those who have no intention of going any further and the "terminus" for those who become faint of heart with the possibilities that lie ahead. We wanted to stick around until 9am to find out if we could get a tour of the Caribbean Marine Research Center; as it turned out, they are closed for the holidays.

The Canadian boats and everyone else (6 boats total) cleared out by 8am and Doc-No-More followed suit when they found out the Center was closed. As you can see, Dale and I decided to stay on. It's Monday and (you know the drill) it's field day on the Palace! We had already started little cleaning projects just waiting for 9am to roll around. Dale wiped down the back arch and I cleaned the lifelines. Once we had the anchorage to ourselves, we decided to go full tilt.

First, we put things into perspective; while the sun was still high, we started by snorkeling a reef we had seen yesterday when we were looking for the salt flats. The reef was wonderful! Each one seems to be better than the last with the variety of corals and fish. We found a large space covered with staghorn fern. Although not all of it was living, it was a web of coral that was used as a nursery for the fish. I loved it! There was one type of coral I found that was a brilliant purple like the fans you sometimes see washed up on shore but this was a type of sea plume. I thought it was beautiful. You could clearly see the various research projects in place as there were color coded tags here and there. I could have stayed all day but it is Monday; and the laundry was waiting.

After our work was done, we went back out at the end of the day and searched among the flotsam and jetsam for treasures. I found 4 little football shaped floats, Dale found a big float plus a new bread crate to put my treasures into (I guess my little collection is starting to get in the way).

Tomorrow, bright and early, we're off to Georgetown; this time for sure.