2 nm over to The Swimming Pool

We took our leisurely 10am leave of Miriadiadup, Western Holandes, following my net control broadcast, and snaked our way through coral reefs to the Swimming Pool/BBQ Island anchorage in the East Holandes, joining about a dozen sailboats there. Our only incident along the way was losing the chartplotter when its breaker went kaput, neccessitating a quick hookup to another breaker until we were safely at anchor. Once at anchor, I put in a new breaker, and all was fixed. I then dove the anchor and snorkeled around the boat for a quick look-see.

BBQ is a marvelous, little, uninhabited island, resembling a golfcourse green in the middle with its short, soft grass. A perennial favorite with the cruising crowd, it has some log benches and tables, with a couple of firepits, on its southside beach. Miles of coral reefs on the north stretch from west to east, affording fine protection.

The next day, Nov 13, being the Full Moon Night, we all radioed each other to join on the beach at 5pm for a Howl-at-the-Moon Party. These happy hours are always great meet-and-greets, as the crowd is always changing, thus there are always new folks to meet. Everyone packs up their mini-coolers with their libations, and a cloth is spread for everyone's shared group snacks: popcorn, chips & salsa, crackers, cheese, salami, olives, and the like. Naturally, I brought my guitar and everyone seemed to enjoy the tunes, as 15 or so folks chatted and ate, ultimately hounddog howling at the moon when she rose about 7pm. It now was "cruisers' midnight", so back home to our vessels we went.

The following day was pretty quiet, working on webpages and other internet stuff. Banedup, a more jungley-looking island just south, had lovely coral visible below the dinghy in peaceful, crystal waters.

Much later that evening, relaxing on RHAPSODY in the sunset with our cocktails, we got a little goofy and created an imaginary cruiser radio check-in, based on recurrent themes of network protocols, confusing-sounding names, poor reception, and local Kuna Yala island names, with a dose of Firesign Theatre thrown in:

"This is SailingVessel "EPINEPHANY", Franklinton and Persephone on board with boat spot "Grot", anchored at Boopboopadup, just off of Bebopaloopadup. We're experiencing glittered sparkle spurs with a slight chance of countertrends and white brighty fluffies at 6 beer intervals. We have traffic for "THE SANTA MONICA FREEWAY" and "TOY BOAT"."

We laughed and laughed like little kids. As you might have guessed, the cruising life brings you back to the basics of improvising your own entertainment. We spent 4 nights overall at anchor in the Swimming Pool.