we slept in this morning and after watching some of the Men's Final Tennis Match at Wimbledon over breakfast we got ready for church ... they had lots of visitors from the USA and we were warmly greeted and wished Happy Independence Day during the service ...

it has been slightly overcast today so we elected to stay on the boat ( catching up on the log, going thru the mail, etc.) and watched all the new boats arrive for the festivities set to take place at SCYC this evening until the marina was full once again  ...

later we had a drink on the boat when Rita Kay and Clay arrived and then we all went up for the pig roast and roasted turkey buffet at the Yacht Club ... tonight was open seating with tables also set up on the dock and over 150 people were served buffet-style ... they even had cranberry sauce on the tables to accompany the roast turkey with dressing and mashed potatoes and gravy! ...

at 9:30 PM they set off a great fireworks display on the beach that lasted over a three-quarters of an hour .. we watched from the top of Dee Light while Marv shared some of his "ice cream stash" with us in celebration of the holiday ...  even Autumn tolerated all the racket reasonably well and eventually stopped shaking by the end of the display ...  

we were finally able to finish emailing all the photos from last week to Lars so he could put them on a CD for the group - took longer than usual to allow for the slow internet connection here along with the occasional power outages on the dock ... 

the dive boat AquaCat arrived on the dock this afternoon ... they sail out of Hurricane Hole Marina on Paradise Island (Nassau) and stay out for a week at a time with a maximum of 26 divers aboard ... while chatting with a couple at the bar who are on the boat they told us they do a great job - comfortable, clean accommodations, great food and they even rinse all the divers off with a warm water shower as they come out of the sea after their dives  ...

Alan provided us with more conch and when we saw the shells decided that they were just too pretty to pass up so after cleaning them up a bit we will stow those on board Dee Light with the others we have ...

at cocktail time we took Autumn up to pool where we had a drink around the patio and then to the bar for bite to eat ...    

during the day we are enjoyed some downtime on Dee Light and have made reservations to have dinner tonight at Royal Plantation Resort on Fowl Cay to celebrate Carol's Birthday

we decided to take our dinghy over and had another wonderful dinner (the chef's selection this evening was Crab Legs and Cornish Game Hens ) ... neither one is particularly one of Carol's favorites but the preparation and presentation was superb! - the hens were butter-flied and deboned with a wonderful sauce and the crab legs were already split open ... after dinner Marv had a beautiful birthday cake delivered to the table which we shared over coffee with our host and hostess Yves and Marta Verhoustraete while they shared many tales of their life aboard the S/V Breakaway since leaving Belgium many years ago ... love my Birthday month !!!

in the morning we finished cleaning and stowing away the majority of conch shells that have been cluttering up the cockpit of Dee Light ... the weather remains overcast with an occasional shower which has kept the temps comfortable for these chores ... later in the day Rita-Kay stopped by and the girls spent some time working on a couple of "shell projects" and enjoying some girl talk before we all headed up to the pool ...

after cleaning up and changing we planned to have dinner at the yacht club with Clay and Rita-Kay to celebrate Carol's birthday ... after dinner Carol slipped back to Dee Light in order to give her sister a call and noticed the Huge BLACK cloud bank that was rapidly approaching the marina so after finishing her call she went to get the others out of the bar ... we no sooner got back to the boat when the rain storm blew thru ... fortunately it didn't last long - by the time we finished a piece of birthday cake it had passed over us with only a light rain remaining the rest of the evening  ... 

we launched the dinghy this morning just in time to get caught in a passing downpour .. by the time we got the dinghy tied up it was over as quickly as it started ... however as the weather continued to look a little unsettled so we decided to stay put on the boat today ...

... we walked up for Happy Hour at the "Marina Lounge" aka the dock picnic table and met several of the boaters who are staying in the marina including our dock neighbors Tom and Mimi on President from Daphne, AL and the crew on Nauti-Boys (a one reel nice girl) - a nice young couple from Tampa traveling with their 2 young sons ... Autumn also got lots of doggie treats from her favorite shopping spot (Pet Supermarket) brought in by the guests aboard the PartyGirl tender who stopped by to swim with the sharks

by early evening all the rain showers disappeared and the sun came out again ... there was a cool breeze after the rains so we decided to have our dinner on the bow of Dee Light this evening while watching the sun set on yet another beautiful day at Compass Cay ...  

we took the dinghy out and headed south ... we wanted to further explore the areas around Little Hattie Cay and Pipe Cay ... but the wind had really picked up today and we were on a falling tide which made for slow going ... we found a couple of nice shells on the flats but then decided to head back in ... after unloading the dinghy we walked over to the other side of the island ... because of the wind the surf was really rolling in and we walked the crescent beach from one end to the other while enjoying a comfortable breeze ...

Captain Bruce and Sheila on the S/V Bahama Star are in port for a few days ... he makes a fantastic split pea and ham soup so we all decided tonight it was time for a pot-luck dinner ... for the first time they have no charter guests aboard and Bruce and Sheila are enjoying some rare "down time" (in addition to helping with some repair jobs around the marina) ..  also their first mate had planned an elaborate treasure hunt for his girlfriend ... the "treasure" turned out to be a diamond engagement ring with him asking her for her hand in marriage - it was so romantic!!!  ... he planted all the clues in little glass bottles at various spots in the Park at Warderick Wells and the treasure chest (with ring) and proposal ended up to be on the beach at Pirate's Lair ... they are a darling couple!

winds have been are even higher the last couple of days so we have decided to stay in the marina ... we are really enjoying our down-time with no particular schedule to keep ... have finally finished Libby Brown's book "Making Waves" which chronicles their development and sale of the furniture manufacturing company This End Up and their subsequent development of Fowl Cay Resort (which has a bit of a bittersweet ending) ...

after a long walk on the beach again we returned to the marina where Eric from Bahama Star  was preparing a big batch of awesome chicken on the grill ... as this was their last evening at Compass before leaving in the morning we all contributed to another pot-luck on the dock  ... after "partying on the dock" the previous 2 evenings we had a quiet dinner Friday evening on our bow once again ...     

just another lazy day at Compass Cay ... we spent the afternoon watching all the kids (and their parents) come into the marina to swim with Tucker's Sharks ... while Cleo was grilling all the burgers and manning the VHF radio we watched the store for her until finally we could no longer resist and had Cleo grill a big juicy cheeseburger for us to enjoy too! ...

one the boats visiting was a "go fast" from Georgetown ... we figured it must be at least a 2 hour ride on that boat and they had 32 adults and children aboard! ... on Sunday the marina was especially quiet with the large north dock remaining empty until late in the day when one large boat arrived ... the winds remain steady at about 20+ knots which is keeping the smaller dinghies and fishing boats in port over the weekend ... but on the plus side it has been keeping the temps very comfortable so that we have been enjoying dinner on the bow every evening ...    

the winds are still blowing at a fairly brisk clip and we are keeping an eye on Invest 97L ..a tropical wave presently just north of Puerto Rico moving WNW  ... all the boaters we have been in contact with are pretty much staying put with a couple in Bimini, others in Nassau and even one in Hope Town ...

the weather hasn't hampered our enjoying our time here at Compass and we took to the dinghy to another lovely beach we had not previously visited ... behind the beach area is a beautiful creek which flows through the interior of the island ... it looked to be a great area to explore by kayak ...

we enjoyed docktails with a group of boaters from the Homestead area and realized we had met up with them last year during our stay at Compass ... we brought up a wheel of pastry-wrapped Brie we still had in the freezer and one of the other boats contributed a great platter of bruchetta  to the gathering ... Autumn also enjoys the daily migration to the Marina Lounge especially with the breeze blowing in her face as she lays on the dock listening to the evening "fish tales" ...