Christmas & Coco Banderos

Scott-Free’s blog
Steve & Chris
Thu 27 Dec 2012 19:37
09:30.757N 78:36.985W
 
Thursday 27th December 2012
 
Distance run: 5 nmiles
 
It's been a good Christmas...
 
The Kuna guy who t-boned our boat in Green Island turned up on Christmas Eve afternoon to pay us the rest of the repair money he'd agreed to, and was full of apologies.  We were heartened by and respected his sense of responsibility and honesty, and we parted on good terms.  That left us free to move on, but so close to Christmas Day we decided to stay put until Boxing Day. 
 
On Christmas Day we spent the morning snorkelling on the reef in the hope of finding a lobster for starters later, but had no luck.  There is a surprising lack of underwater wildlife, and we wonder if they have been fished out.  In the afternoon we joined Rod & Mary on Sheer Tenacity for Christmas dinner of steak and salad.  We took a couple of bottles of bubbly with us, together with home-made mince pies, and although we had dressed smartly for the occasion, the first thing we did was nip back to S-F for our swimming cossies and go for a dip as it was so hot!  Not quite a traditional Christmas Day activity for those of us from northern climes.  Christmas dinner was excellent, and we ate way too much which definitely is in keeping with tradition!  We also had a drink or two, which made getting back to S-F interesting, but we had no problem finding her in the dark as she was sporting her newly-acquired Christmas fairy lights and could be seen twinkling and flashing for miles!  I must be mellowing in my old age, as we now have a Christmas tree (6 inches high), a bauble (which clearly states "don't do Christmas"), a rocking Rudolph and Santa card, and now a set of fairy lights.  Oh, and I nearly forgot my Santa Headband and Steve's Rudolph antlers and flashing red nose! 
 
              
Rod cooking the steaks on the barbie on ST.                        Scott-Free sporting her new Christmas fairy lights.
 
On Boxing Day, not too early, we finally lifted the anchor and motored a whole 5 nmiles to the Coco Banderos Cays.  This is a group of small, mostly uninhabited sand and palm tree islands protected by a four-mile long outer reef barrier.  We are anchored just off one of the islands.  Because we are now just inside the outer reef, the sea is not quite as flat, but it has so far been very comfortable and the surroundings are wonderful.  We spent the rest of Boxing Day swimming, snorkelling and chilling out.
 
We are anchored just off this island.
 
Steve planned to snorkel on the inside of the outer reef this morning, but the wind picked up and it was a bit rough out there, so he and Rod went to one of the inner reefs instead.  He saw barracuda and grouper, but didn't get close enough to catch anything.  If it calms a bit this afternoon, he may go out again.  Fresh fish for supper sounds quite attractive right now as we haven't caught anything in a while.  The last bite we had was so big it broke the fishing line, nearly taking the rod with it, and making off with our best pink lure.  It amuses me to think of a huge fish somewhere sporting pretty pink rubber tassles...