Sombrero Reef

Day 203, March 1st, 2010
Did you say "Rabbit" this morning?!! For Good Luck!!!

We had a lovely day today. Sharon and Reg joined us aboard Periwinkle. We motored out of Sisters Creek to the ocean side and then to Sombrero Reef, about 3 miles off shore. It was coolish and a little chop. It took a little while but we finally found the mooring buoys at the reef.
The guys didn't feel like it but Sharon and I got our wet suits on and piled all our gear in the dinghy and dinghied over to a mooring buoy closer to the reef. John and I had bought this fancy dinghy ladder back at the St. Petersburg Boat Show and had never tried it out, but it looked good. In the past I have had great difficulty climbing back in the dinghy from deep water.
To say that I look like a beach whale is as close as it gets but in the past I've never made it back in the dinghy without first reaching shallow water! Just don't have the upper body strength I'm sad to say! So I was a little nervous that I would be able to get back in with the ladder but it looked possible! Sharon has another method - she ties a long line from the far side of the dinghy, dangles the line across the dinghy into the water and then climbs up the line! I didn't try it but couldn't see how this would made much difference to me! Anyway, we got the rest of our gear on in the dinghy and jumped overboard. The water was choppy but warm and the visibility wasn't too bad. We saw lots of lovely fish - yellow tailed snapper, angels, parrot fish and barracuda. There was lots of corral too, but the colours were somewhat masked. It was lovely though and we swam up to a pontoon boat on another mooring buoy and chatted with them a bit (from Quebec). After about half an hour it seemed to be getting more choppy, so that we had a little difficulty seeing the dinghy as it was hidden between the swells. So we decided to swim back and try getting back in!!! I was okay - up first time on the ladder, but I must admit I still did the beached whale thing! Then Sharon climbed up her line in the blink of an eye!!! My ladder cost us $100.00!!! I shall be really cross if I try the line and can make it into the dinghy!!!

We got back to Periwinkle feeling very brave and congratulating ourselves on our "Girl Power"!
We made spaghetti for lunch and sat in the cockpit and watched all the dive boats arrive. Lots more people went snorkeling. It was fun.

We sailed back to the harbour going the long way round as it was low tide. Lovely wind and it was really pleasant. Realised as we motored back to the mooring buoy that we hadn't taken any pictures!!! Sorry.

In the evening we went over to Pea Soup and played Mexican Train Dominoes. As usual I lost miserably. John won! I think its time we played Scrabble!!