Saturday, May 4th, 2002
Snorkeling off the dinghy and a book about Force Five
Saint Maarten, Netherlands Antilles

Today we took our dinghy out on the ocean to do a little snorkeling. It was pretty neat. I can't get over how the blue water is. We went out near Sunterra (the time-share Amie works for at their headquarters in Florida), but it was windy and we didn't see much in the way of fish. On the way home we stopped by Lady C (formerly referred to as the Floating Bar) on the way home for dollar Caribs since we're trying to stick to happy hour prices. Suzy, the bartender there seems to know us now as she had greeted us with our "usual." She gave us the 411 on fish on the island. Though we keep hearing that people don't eat fresh fish here, I guess Curt and I just don't want to believe it. She told us that there's one fish market, but everyone is so afraid of this disease the reef fish often carry, not many people actually try it. So for now, I guess we keep eating chicken and beef flown in from the U.S. Seems totally bizarre to me.

We only had enough money for two beers each so headed out early. As we got up to leave, a man caught up with us to ask if we're the couple that bought Force Five. It turns out the man is Gary, a close friend of Sean's that he had mentioned has done quite a bit of racing and cruising on our boat (I actually recognized him from our earlier visits to Lady C- he looks just like the pirate in the Captain Morgan ads, with his long hair and moustache). He wanted to introduce himself and congratulate us. He told us how much he's enjoyed our boat and told us about a book Martin, Force Five's first owner, had written about our her. Curt and I are both delighted! So Gary tells us he may come by tomorrow morning when Sean helps Curt tune our engine to deliver the book.

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