BRIGANTINE BAY BITS

Well, now that more than half of the year has passed and, as of thiswriting,not a single hurricane warning almost halfway through that season, I can report to you that the Brigantine Bay community is enjoying a peaceful, if not a prosperous period with the tourist visitor numbers gradually increasingafter the Floyd shut down. the Lord is cooperating wonderfully by providing us with the kind of weather needed to knit together the lush green blanket and sparkling array of colourful flowers we found devastated during a twenty-four hour period almost two years ago. Has anyone else noticed the appearance of what seems to be some different species of plant life which were not present before Floyd? And how about the bird population! Once again they are at the window tapping on the glass and wagging a wing tip at me to quit what I'm doing and fill up their feeder when I let it get empty. Of course, it's never their fault when the food's all gone in one day. I'm to blame!

We've had a great mix of guests with June being one of our best months. At one time we had exactly eight couples in the four rental villas, four from Germany and four from the Fort Lauderdale area along with two boats They did one of the many billfish tournaments here in Treasure Cay and tagged and released at least two blue marlins I'm aware of. The Germans spoke very little English and the Floridians spoke no German but during holiday time that doesn't seem to matter nor interfere with the mutual beer drinking or water activities. After all my years flying back and forth to Germany, I did remember to remind the Americans that in Germany, a joke is no laughing matter! (sorry!). Our Coast Guard pilot son, Chris, made several runs over from Miami in his Falcon jet to check on emergency calls, etc. One was during the

July Fourth Regatta, which was a false emergency beacon signal which could not be resolved by phone calls in the US. He had a TV news reporter on board working on a story about their missions and duties which we can be looking for. He then came over on his off days to join

Skylark, owned by Al and Angel Hauch and permanently docked at one of our slips, was struck by lightning during the race with smoke coming from the top of the mast and some loss of electronic equipment. No injuries, thank God, but not a pleasant way to end a regatta! We miss our dear neighbours Capt Bobby and Louise Albury who lived next to us and were like family to us and our children. The children will also miss their warm friendship during a reunion here starting the week of August fourth. There will be two grandpas, three grandmas (our #1 Patti has a grandson), four Roach siblings, 6 1/2 grandchildren, one great grandson plus at least one of the three Boston terriers born here a few years ago. I'll have a full story about that event with a list of names of the survivors, plus pictures!