We we have been in Coral Bay since Friday, thinking we would only have a short stop to visit friends, Ken and Sandy, but here we are, planning to stay a 5th night!  You may remember Ken and Sandy are fellow Jeanneau owners whom we met in Nanny Cay. They have been so welcoming to us, introducing us to the local community, many of whom are musicians, sailors, artists or writers as well as showing us a few of their favorite places on the island.  The first photo is of Coral Bay showing moored boats closer in and Timing amongst those at anchor a little further out.  Although the anchorage is open to the East,  the holding is good and the seas haven’t been too lumpy.

On Sunday, after breakfast onboard ‘Caprice’ (their Jeanneau 39), they joined us onboard Timing and we motored around the northern point of Coral Bay over to Hurricane Hole where we picked up one of the Park Service day moorings and had perhaps the most spectacular and easy snorkeling experiences to date.  The mangroves protect the bay, which is sandy bottomed and has beautiful clear water, so what with a few rocks here and there, the underwater life was most varied, but particularly interesting right up close to the mangroves where there was all sorts of life on and around the roots, including multi-colored hard and soft corals, molluscs, anemones, sea slugs, starfish, puffa, fish, yellow wrasse, etc.

We also joined them on Monday for an open mike session at Concordia, an Eco-resort that overlooks Salt Pond, which we had passed on our way to Coral Bay from St Thomas.  This time we went in their car and thoroughly enjoyed great blues music (Ken is on the sax)….. and the ambience/views.  It is clearly a favorite amongst the locals with about 10 regulars in the band plus others who show up…

image We still want to try to make it to St Martin but are not prepared to head out until the easterly trade winds abate sufficiently to make a more comfortable passage.  That doesn’t seem likely to happen until mid- next week.  Meanwhile, we are setting up our new IridiumGo satellite communication system and figuring out how to use it to send text messages, get emails and weather reports from PredictWind.  This essentially replaces the SSB that we had on SW.  We are also figuring out what other electronics we need to meet our navigation needs….image