We woke up feeling a little bit better. Slack tide was around 10 am so we headed over to the aquarium with Atlas and Salty. It was beautiful as always (this is actually the third time we’ve gone) but it’s worth it every time. This time since we were there right at slack Jesse and I were able to swim the whole way around the little island. It had coral on all sides and lots of fish of all types. We even spotted a sea turtle just hanging out on the reef.

Part of the reason that the aquarium is so impressive is that the fish get fed and so are really friendly. Salty brought some cereal for the kids to feed to the fist and got a great video of Aria when it was her turn.

After marveling at the sea life we decided to head over and look for the nearby sunken plane. I wasn't expecting much but it turned out to be well worth the effort. It was a little propeller plane and diving down to peek in the doors was really quite cool.

We said goodbye to Salty as they were headed back to Florida. Then it was time to figure out where we were going next. Our original plan was to head North up into the Land Sea Park but really strong Westerlies were in the forecast and there isn’t really any good protection from that direction up there. In the end we decided to head to Pipe Cay with Atlas. It was a little frustrating since it meant back tracking south but was worth it to spend some more time with out friends and to be somewhere comfortable for the blow.

The Pipe Cay anchorage was a neat spot. It has a basin with 15-20 feet of water surrounded by sandbars with just a narrow deep opening to get into it. It was quiet when we arrived with only two other boats in the anchorage. So we dropped the hook in 15 feet of water for the first time in a long time. After our grounding it was really nice to know that we had so much water under our keel.

Our Aria had made brownies to share and of course the girls wanted to hang out. Boat kids tend to be very eager to maximize their time with other kids when they have the chance. So, we headed over to Atlas for some pre dinner brownies. It’s amazing how much of a treat things like fresh baked brownies become when you’ve been on the boat for a while without a lot of access to goodies.

After a couple of busy and stressful days we were wiped and headed back to our boat to watch a movie and relax while the weather was still nice and calm.