One of the nice activities at the marina is happy hour at 5:00. Anyone who wishes can meet at the picnic tables at the end of the dock and share happy hour goodies with anyone else that shows up. It is a good way to meet people and find out other boats cruising experiences and plans. Also it is a good way to pick up information on what is happening around the island. We also learned a new (to us - although apparently it is the rage with the land cruiser set) ring toss game. It is like horseshoes only you use two wooden boxes with a string separating them by a fixed distance and 4 large washers. The object is to pitch the washers into the box. The inside of the box is marked with different score values. The first to 21 wins. Karen and I were taken out in the early rounds of the competition by another Canadian couple that have a campground in Nova Scotia - I think they had previous experience. The boxes are quite big so I do not know how they would fit on a boat, but it is a fun game.

On Tuesday, we were invited on a car trip to West End. West End is, you guessed it, on the most western part of the island, about 35 miles from Lucaya. Friends on another boat were actually going and mentioned the names of the couple that were taking them. It turns out that Tom actually sold us our first boat so after a little discussion, we were invited as well. The couple has a condo on the island and spends the winters here. We had a great trip out to West End and were given a rundown on the island history along the way. We stopped at an unmarked bakery (the sign was taken down last year) to order lobster along the way. Where else would you order lobster but at a bakery but it had the best prices on the island. We would pick up the lobster on the way back. Along the way, there were piles of conch shells along the side of the road. These were going to be used for a walkway in the future. It was amazing how many conch shells there were. We had a wonderful time exploring West End and having lunch at the restaurant. The marina complex has been fixed up and the area looked like a good stopover/entry spot.

We were told of a good hardware store on the other side of Freeport. So after a bus trip downtown and a transfer to another bus, we reached the store. To our surprise, we walked into a fully stocked Ace hardware store and Radio Shack. The store had more supplies than stores we went to in Florida with reasonable prices - so much for not being able to get anything on the Islands. On our bus trip to downtown, we passed a funeral procession. The procession went on for blocks with groups of school children, in their uniforms, from different schools, bands, and Chefs in full dress standing on the roadside and crowds of people. The bus driver said a much-loved teacher had suddenly passed away. Over her career, she had touched the lives of many of the Bahamians, had set up a Chef school for the islanders and had been active in many island causes. The whole town was talking about her and it was wonderful to see the tribute that was paid to her.

We spent a day on the dinghy surveying the local water and reef for depths. We were trying to tell the depth based on the colour of the water using our dinghy anchor to measure the depth. After awhile, we were able to make out different depths based on the water colour. This made traveling by dinghy easier, as the water is so clear, the water looks really shallow when in fact it is over seven feet deep.