A little breeze would be nice!

Warm and windless today.  I don't know if I've ever seen the ocean so still especially here on the southeast side of the island.  The moonrise tonight was really nice, rising out of the ocean as a big orange ball, at times it looked like a jack-o-lantern as clouds passed over portions of it.  I tried to get a picture (I didn't bring my good camera this year) but the first ones didn't turn out.  I played with the settings on Eileens camera for a bit and found this one for hand held twilight pics.  Wish I'd found that sooner.

Went to the bottom of the hill early this morning for a snorkel.  It's a bit of a challenge getting in and out, and quite honestly the snorkelling wasn't very good.  It's in deep water and there wasn't much too see.  After breakfast we headed over to West End and up to Half Moon Bay.  Ran into Ralph and Karen leaving Half Moon to go up and try snorkelling at Sandy Bay.  We'll have to find out how that went.  Half Moon snorkelling was as always.  Good to get in the water, but again nothing too memorable. 
Had lunch at the beach bbq next to Sundowners, 100 lempiras for a chicken leg and thigh, rice, beans, vegetables, and a tortilla.  We've ate there a few times and it's always good.  There were three small local boys playing in the sand nearby and as we got close to finishing, they sat on the other side of the table just sort of smiling at us.  Eileen couldn't finish her plate so she pushed it a bit aside (she had a plate of chow mein).  One of the kids asked if she was done and she said that yes she was full.  He eyed up the plate and she asked if he would like it.  He reached over and took one little bit in his fingers.  Eileen then pushed the plate to him and he started to dig in.  Didn't think they understood much English but when she told him to eat his vegetables, he popped  a couple of carrots in.  The other two boys were waiting for me to finish my chicken.  When I did, they scooped up the bones and cleaned them right off.  We should have spent another 100 lemps and bought another platefull.
Came back to the house for a little bit and then headed down to Smugglers to see what their beach is like on a nice day like this.  Between the bar and the beach, there might have been twenty people around.  Relatively comfortable beach chairs and of course the bar is right there.  The water portion of the beach has rocks both to the right and the left and then another wall that is just below the surface that is maybe 100 feet from shore.  They have a few small buoys out that mark a channel that gets you out through the wall and into deeper water.  I didn't have my flippers but I put on my mask and went out.  It is a great snorkelling spot.  The coral is in great shape, lots of elkhorn and pillar coral.  Not a great variety of fish, but I didn't stay in too long.  I hadn't put any antifog on my mask and was starting to cloud up.  The channel through the wall is pretty narrow and I was worried that I might not find a couple of the corners if I didn't have visibility.

Beach at Smugglers with the rocks on the right.  The channel is right next to them.

Paid for our beer, Eileen got an Ameretto Sour to go, and home we went for showers (actually they have bathrooms there on the beach with showers in them).  Picked up a Brick Oven pizza in West Bay for supper, watched the moon rise, had a rum, wrote a blog.......

Booked for two dives tomorrow and don't know what else.  We'll have to see how nice the day is.