We survived Los Roques and loved it 1-14 April

Wednesday 30 March-31 March

Wednesday we set off around 7am and headed out into perfect weather and wind conditions. The wind was in mid teens and right behind us, so we finally got Baby (spice) spinnaker out. After an hour or so of all going well we suddenly hit squalls. The first one got us and wrapped Baby around the jib, which took a bit to untangle. It was a good lesson in relatively calm waters, it meant we kept the lines much tighter from there on and kept a beady eye out for squalls the rest of the day. By mid afternoon we took her down and sailed with Sporty (big code sail). We finally reefed in and put the jib up for the night and it was a very easy passage without seeing a single boat.

Thursday we got hit by lots of rain, the wind moved slightly and we sailed with Sporty most of the day, we were very happy to be averaging 10 knots of speed. If only we had had these Trade winds for the Atlantic crossing. We saw a couple of tankers and had another very easy overnight passage.

Leaving Isles des Saintes with loads of Sargasso weed

Leaving Guadeloupe waters

Baby Spice (110 square meters) flying!

Pouring rain

Sunrise, nearly there

Friday 1 April

By the time I got up from my shift at 8:30am we could see the islands of Los Roques. There is only one little town which is on the only island that isn’t flat, earning the name Gran Roque. The harbour area was full of local boats and a couple of yachts which were both Venezuelan. We hadn’t been anchored long when the medical guys came on board to check out our PCR tests and vaccinations. Rowan offered them a coke, juice, tea, coffee or flippantly a rum. They both immediately opted for the rum! Loads of laborious form filling and we were approved.

Land at last, the rocky landscape of Los Roques

Clouds reflecting the water colour

This photo is to remind us of the clouds reflecting the colour of the aquamarine sea

The water colour is gobsmacking, 350 islands in this Venezuelan archipelago

Los Roques airport

We headed into town to meet Alessandro, Rowan had found great reviews for him, to help with getting through the immigration process. We were very glad of his help, as we landed up going to 4 different departments, in little back rooms, at opposite ends of town, each laboriously writing down the same info. The last two departments were at the very busy tiny airport, bringing in local tourists. We parted with over US$400 at those two departments but that means we have no more costs apparently and are free to roam all the islands.

It’s a lot hotter here, we went and cooled off at a Posada (guest house/restaurant) where we had the most delicious iced passion fruit juice and very scrummy ceviche. It is a very quaint town without a single car, all buildings have to be single story. Some lovely old buildings which are guest houses, no big hotels, reminding us of the old days in Greece. It’s very picturesque with lots of colourfully painted buildings with shady vegetation lining the streets.

We went back to PolePole for a rest, two days of shifts is quite tiring! We swam where we were anchored in gorgeous aquamarine water. In the evening we took Alessandro and his Italian wife out for dinner. They left Los Roques 5 years ago, moved to the Dominican Republic for 3 years and then moved back to Italy for two years of lockdown. The kids obviously did not enjoy Italy and they’ve all just returned, the kids (17 and 15) are going to home school here. The mother bizarrely is returning to Italy for 6 months over the summer leaving the kids with Alessandro. We thought this place was going to be very poor, but they all seem very middle class and relatively well off. We gave Alessandro a goody bag of wine, rum and salami……. He doesn’t drink and is laden with his own Italian salami!!!

In the evening the streets were a blast of noises from generators, the electricity station burnt down last week! We had a wonderful candle lit dinner on the beach and ate more delicious ceviche and tuna. Alessandro assured us we were safe as houses on the boat, he had given the coast guards the rum we gave him, so we will be well looked after. We went to bed with the big sliding doors wide open, feeling very safe and happy to be here. Things were nearly derailed when Alessandro hinted at being an antivaxxer, which is a definite way to rile Rowan. Luckily we moved swiftly on!

View from our anchorage

Quaint shady, colourful streets of Los Roques

Our restaurant next to the church on the beach

Sun setting behind PolePole

Saturday 2 April

We went in to town mid morning to meet Alessandro and to go and pay the restaurant with a different US$100 bill, we have one with loads of scratches, or pen lines and nobody wants it! Two departments at immigration rejected it, plus the first posada and the supermarket. These guys are on the ball, or maybe these $100 notes are a rarity. The only currency is US dollars, the bolivar has imploded. We thought it was going to be a little cheaper, but it is expensive, everything on the menu is US $15. It’s understandable as everything comes in by boat. It is about 90 miles to the mainland. I think this must be a fairly high end Venezuelan tourist destination as everyone looked like they had money.

We sat down with Alessandro and he gave us an itinerary of what we should see and do in the two weeks. We met our first other foreign yachties, they had dinghied over from another island. They were a younger French couple, keen kite surfers, who came on an organised trip a couple of years ago and are now visiting on their own boat. We did a bit of fresh fruit and veg provisioning as we will have no shops out at the islands.

The church

Colourful buildings of Los Roques

Conch sculpture in the town square

The wind is a bit stronger for a few days so we decided to play it safe and go to an easy anchorage with a lovely beach to settle in. We arrived early afternoon at the island Crasqui, it is popular with locals, there were 4 big fishing cruising boats and a yacht on this endless white beach. We had a lovely long walk along the beach, passing some very elaborate picnics under sun shelter tents. We came across two fishing settlements, one looked like it had a restaurant but did not look like it had been open in a while.

The bird and fish life is spectacular with Pellies diving into the shallow waters like Kamikaze pilots all around us. A few kite surfers arrived in the late afternoon, and whizzed around us. There were three other boats who stayed overnight. Amazingly we still felt exhausted so had an early night.

Gorgeous Crasqui beach

Coral piles

Sunday 3 April

I think I may have had too much ceviche! I was a little fragile and skipped breakfast. The wind was blowing hard, not too surprising on these flat islands, with nothing to impede them all the way across the Atlantic.

We pumped up our new paddle board for the first time and took it to the beach. The new board is much wider, and at least we can now stand up on it unlike our last one which neither of us managed more than a couple of seconds on, ie this one is extra wide! Rowan managed well going back and forth along the shore. I set off with the wind behind me and never managed to get the strength to turn the board in the wind. So I just kept going and nearly got back to PolePole when Rowan came and rescued me. We didn’t last too long, too much wind for me.

Later we took JeldiJeldi around the corner from where we had walked to yesterday. We had been stopped by very spikey thorns in the sand, very unfair. We discovered more fishing homesteads here, this place was more like a village, even had a few street lights. It all looked pretty quiet with just a few people about. As we were walking along a young lad had caught a small octopus which was rather sad. Rowan and I have stopped eating octopus even though we love it, we are just so taken with them and so seldom see them.

We walked along a gorgeous beach all the way around to the windward side, where one felt the force of the wind. So funny a whole lot of sea birds were just standing facing the wind on top of a huge pile of conch shells, it seemed such an effort for them to keep still, we wondered why they did it.

The day trippers left in the evening and we shared the beach with just one other Venezuelan motor boat. Ugh I know I’m boring about the sunsets, but they are so spectacular!

Rowan paddle boarding

Conch mountains

Birds facing the wind!

Monday 4 April

Time to move to the far eastern side of the archipelago and then we will make our way back to Gran Roque before doing the western islands. The winds are still strong, in the 20’s. Once we got to the windward side of Crasqui, the waves were big and choppy and we bounced dramatically for the next twenty minutes before getting behind the huge reef running the whole way along the eastern side of the archipelago.

We soon spotted 13 colourful windsurfers along the reef. They were all going in the same direction and then seemed to come towards us and crossed behind us. It must be a group as they were going miles and had 3 boats following them. They landed up going far into the centre area of the archipelago which is way too shallow for sailing.

No sooner had we lost the kite surfers when we were joined by hundreds of Brown Boobies, they must enjoy our wake. They kept up with us for ages.

Alessandro had advised us to go behind the only small clump of mangrove trees to give us some protection. Again there was just one other local motor boat there. The water colour is mind blowing. We anchored successfully in good sand so had a good hold. We had a snorkel around and were delighted to see hundreds of live conch everywhere, looking just like a garden snail infestation. We have seen so many monumental piles of their shell and so few alive, that this was so heartening. It really is remote here so the sea life obviously has a chance to survive and the whole place is a Reserve so industrial style fishing is banned. We saw so many fish in the mangrove roots which we were amazed to see the roots were not anchored into the sea sand, but just dangled in the water. The fish were clearly hiding from a very relentless fishing pelican.

Birds and kite surfers

The dark blue channels we had to stick to in between the coral

Our sheltered anchorage behind the mangrove trees

Tuesday 5 April

With our morning cup of tea at 6:30 am we discovered the other boat had slipped away and we have as far as we can see in all directions to ourselves. Happily sharing it with our manic fisherman, the unstoppable pelican.

Mega laundry session today as we had mistakenly left our back window in our bedroom open yesterday. In our bumpy crossing the splash from the waves had come right over the top of the boat and poured onto our bed which we only discovered when we went to bed. All our pillows and bedding drenched in salty water!

Loads of chores completed by both of us and by 1pm we were off to find a good snorkelling spot in JeldiJeldi. It was spectacular. Amazing coral and huge fish, the biggest parrot fish and barracuda we have ever seen. We had a turtle come right up to us, we remained absolutely still which in this crystal water in sunlight was magical. She shot off when we moved to watch her go behind us. Clearly we should have kept still longer. We snorkelled at two different spots, one near the only narrow entrance through the reef to the outside of the archipelago, it looked pretty hairy to me and not something we are going to do! We saw fish we haven’t seen before, soo colourful it’s hard to believe what nature intended. Sadly Rowan didn’t have the GoPro charged so we will have to take photos tomorrow.

Sunrise

Off snorkelling

Looking back to PolePole

The water colour is incredible

Wednesday 6 April

We decided to stay put here at our little mangrove clump. It’s very peaceful, the only downside is the amount of salt on the air. I noticed my tissue next to my bed had a big blue patch, then realised that my iPhone charger was so so corroded it had turned blue. You can feel the air is heavy with salt, my hair never dries properly after snorkelling. There are quite big waves breaking on the other side of the reef, which must spray a lot of salt about too.

In the morning we went south again for a snorkel, it didn’t disappoint we saw so many fish and such a good size. Todays high light was a ray, a group of 11 squid, I just love them as their snouts are like baby elephant trunks, they seem all out of control! They were all dark with light blue spots and one was completely white, an albino we wondered? We came across a wreck under the water, it didn’t look like a boat, but some kind of old engine with a belt. The coral was enjoying attaching to it and plenty of little holes for the fish to hide in.

In the afternoon Rowan went out with his new nemo, his electric scuba tank. He had a great time. In the morning he discovered his GoPro camera wasn’t working, luckily it just seemed to be an issue with the battery and when he swapped it, it started working, so he has lovely videos. It’s so sad his drone drowned as this would be the perfect spot.

In the afternoon I blitzed the kitchen, I found all our straw baskets have little mites in them. I think they come in with the fruit and in this heat, the basket ware is paradise. I’ve decided I’m taking it all back home. It looks lovely but not worth the effort. I have nothing to kill them with, soap and hot water with bleach doesn’t seem to budge them. I’ve ended up soaking the baskets in citronella oil and put them in huge ziplocks where I hope they will cease the will to live!

While Rowan was out with his Snuba gear, a big boat with men came with a smaller boat, they stopped nearby with a bit of coming and going. Not sure what they were doing but I was very pleased they left and that they weren’t pirates! Alessandro assured us we were 100% safe and I do believe him.

Thursday 7 April

After breakfast we moved halfway up the eastern side of the reef to an area called called Boca del Medio, I assume halfway up. Alessandro promised us spectacular snorkelling here and inside the pools created by the reef. Nobody was at the anchorage, idyllic having this place to ourselves. Good light is definitely required to get here dodging between the coral outcrops. Not too far from our anchorage is a huge tanker wreck on the reef. This area is just teeming with sea birds, the boobies escorted us here and swooped all around us. In fact I thought a brown Boobie was going to nip Rowan’s bum when he went to check on the anchor.

We were just settling in when suddenly we spotted a huge amount of kite surfers approaching us from the left, quite a spectacle, 21 bright kites. They sped right past us, one guy so close maybe 20 meters away, waved to us which is pretty nonchalant. They continued past the wreck and then headed for the direction of Gran Roques. They had 3 support boats and were covering a lot of miles, so much nicer than repeatedly going up and down the same stretch. It is obviously a top spot for kite surfing, there were a few sophisticated set ups in Gran Roques town.

We went and snorkelled in the big pool near where we anchored. It is spectacular sea colours again, the coral and fish did not disappoint. The fish are so brightly coloured, it must help having bright sunshine and white sand. It is my ideal snorkelling, little current no waves and crystal clear visibility. We saw a turtle, ray and the biggest trigger fish. Huge bulbous colourful brain coral was just teeming with fish all colours and sizes.

We discovered another catamaran had parked near us while we were snorkelling, we went and said hello, they appeared to be local. We were definitely not understanding each other very well.

We had another snorkel in the afternoon and went to a different area which was equally good. We saw an even bigger barracuda than yesterday! Got Back to PolePole and discovered the other Cat had gone. We have the place to ourselves, with a spectacular sunset enhanced by a never ending stream of birds heading home to roost. Endless wonderful V formations in the twilight. A very magical spot.

The dark blue pool inside the light water where all the magnificent coral is

Rowan checking the anchor being followed by a Brown Boobie

Beautiful colourful coral

Birds heading home at sunset in V formation

Friday 8 April

A day of snorkelling. It was pretty cloudy in the morning, but it was still great snorkelling. We went and explored near a huge wrecked tanker, which obviously never made the small entrance on the reef here. It was a big drop off into deeper water, like Rowan says I’m getting a lot braver. So much easier in these great conditions - no current or waves. We saw so many fish and wonderful coral, huge mounds of enormous bulbous brain coral. Highlights were seeing a ray, turtle, huge green parrot fish, and a black grouper we haven’t seen before

We had the place all to ourselves again. On a sand spit in the far distance we had spotted a boat and people sitting on the small beach all day. On our way back from our afternoon snorkel, Rowan thought we should go and check they were ok and say hello, as we got closer we realised they were fisherman cleaning a mega pile of conch. Rather sad, so we turned around quickly, as they looked pretty shifty, and we didn’t want to antagonise them.

Tanker wreck

Saturday 9 April

We decided to have a last snorkel in our favourite spots, one in the big pool and the other just near PolePole. There had been talk of Alessandro joining us mid morning, but we saw no sign of him and our signal was terrible, so we decided to move on. Our plan was to only go about a mile away but it was a huge circuitous route to get there through the coral outcrops. It took a couple attempts at anchoring but didn’t get the best hold. We had a quick snorkel around some lovely bits of coral and then moved on again.

We attempted to anchor a couple of times with no luck. One was just in front of a gorgeous island, but the drop off made it difficult to get a good hold. We resorted to the Doyle handbooks again and picked an island called Fransqui to go to. The book said it was popular with Locals, which turned out to be absolutely true. I counted 15 enormous sleek fishing boats. There were dinghies buzzing in all directions, I was nervous when Rowan swam to check on the anchor.

All good so we headed to the beach which was pretty crowded. The Posadas in town send their guests to the beach with enormous cooler bags for a picnic on the beach. They bring all the trimmings, huge tipi looking tents for shade, and table and chairs. There was one bar on the beach, we managed to buy a beer before they closed up at about 7pm. We tried following a path around the island but only got to a dried out salty looking water pan. There are vicious spiky thorns lurking in the sea grass on the Sandy shoreline, which doesn’t encourage one to go exploring bare foot. It was back to PolePole for a delicious Chicken salad.

Navigating our way through the shallow light patches, the light reflects on the clouds

The beautiful little island we sadly couldn't find enough sand to anchor in

All the local boats

Sunset over Gran Roques

Sunday 10 April

After all the glorious remote nights it seemed a bit noisy and crowded. So we decided to go back to Gran Roques to do our early checkout. We planned to meet Alessandro and family for lunch and although he had told us we needed to wait until Monday to checkout, we decided to give it a go before lunch. Judging by the huge amount of planes flying in and out we thought the immigration office at the airport would be open and it was. Obligingly the officer stamped our passports out for Wednesday, although it did take him a second attempt to get the right date.

We met Alessandro at the trendy kitesurfing restaurant for lunch. His kids were absolutely delightful, we thought they might be a bit disgruntled leaving Italy to come here to be home schooled, but they were thrilled. The daughter is 15, and is a bookworm, she reads a couple of books a day. Her brother is 12 and is the spitting image of Alessandro. They both spoke perfect English, they all lived in the Dominican Republic for a few years, the kids went to a small international school there and loved it. Clearly going to an Italian school afterwards was a major let down. After two years of pandemic remote style schooling in Italy, they are both very happy to be back in Gran Roques and finishing their schooling online. The daughter remembered her online lessons at her international school, so she looked up the crowd and has signed them up with the same crowd. It turns out to be the Kahn Academy which Elon Musk donated millions to, in order to keep it free for pupils. They are thrilled as they are some of the academy’s first pupils, and have been welcomed back effusively. It sounds really quite amazing. Their sports activity will be kite surfing at the kite surfing school.

We also discovered that the big groups of kite surfers we have seen are on a kite surfing safari! They just surf from island to island, stopping for drinks, picnics and restaurants along the way. Sounds quite amazing.

We said our goodbyes after lunch and went for a great walk up to the cross and lighthouse, with great panoramic views, the windward side was dramatic rock cliff faces down into crystal clear water. On our way back we passed the coast guard and decided to give it a go to see if it was open to sign the boat out. Luckily enough it was and we got cleared out for Wednesday. We plan to visit the western side of the archipelago and continue on to Bonaire on Friday. We are all set, all we need now is an antigen or PCR test. We visited the pharmacy, impressed it was open on a Sunday, they said we could only get it done tomorrow.

We went back to PolePole to finish our Sunday papers. Around 7pm we headed back into town to the restaurant we went to with Alessandro and his wife when we arrived. There had been no electricity as the power plant had burnt down and everyone was using generators. This meant the restaurant wasn’t serving Alessandro’s favourite Creme caramel pudding. Now the power is back, he invited us to go and have the pudding we missed out on. It is a lovely spot to watch the light go down and was a very good pudding. The only thing that marred the evening was listening to both Alessandro and his wife’s anti vaccine views! Nothing riles Rowan up more than bonkers conspiracy theories and their proof that they know better.

Heading back to Gran Roques

View from the top of the Gran Roque

View back to Fransqui where we were anchored last night

It really is rocky and wild on the windward side

Gran Roque from the top of the rock, looking back down to PolePole, second from right

The old lighthouse

Most of the island is uninhabited

The salt pan

Street sign

Lovely shady streets

Sunset pudding at the restaurant

Monday 11 April

We had breakfast and jumped into JeldiJeldi to go into town to get our test done. We discovered that a yacht had just arrived next to us with the quarantine flag up. As it was our first foreign boat, we could see its French flag, we went and said hello. Luckily they spoke English. They had also come from Guadeloupe, and were also a little nervous about how safe it is. We put their minds at rest, we haven’t sensed any criminal element. Alessandro assured us we would be fine and I think he is correct. We passed on our favourite snorkelling spots and wished them luck checking in. They have a French lady who works here and is helping them.

We then met Alessandro at the Ambulatory (medical centre), he proudly announced it was all sorted we could get a PCR straight away and they didn’t need a nasal swab, they could just give us a negative certificate for $40!! So simple, no waiting 24 hours for a result! The doc came out to see us and 5 minutes later we were sorted. Venezuela has no vaccines from the west, they just have the Chinese vaccine which they don’t see much point in having. They seem to think they’ve weathered covid and now everyone has had it and is immune, they can move on. All a bit dubious but we were not complaining!

JeldiJeldi hauled up the beach for our last visit to Gran Roque

Patient fisherman!

We said our final goodbye to Alessandro and set off to Isla Augustine for lunch at his friend’s restaurant, the only one operating out on the western islands. We came through some amazing aquamarine waters and found the restaurant. We were the only boat and anchored quite far out because of the coral and the direction of the wind. We got a good hold in sand and dinghied to the very quaint rustic restaurant. Literally the only place on the island. It is on an amazing white beach which has been swept and groomed beautifully. The owner seems to have mainly used salvaged goods and conch shells for all the decor and furniture. They had old boats full of huge salt crystals, it looks very effective being so white. Alessandro had booked us in and ordered us the set menu. We were obviously too early, We got a message that they would serve us at 1:30pm. So we had a little wait and wondered over to the other side of the island to another gorgeous white beach on the windward side. On the way we passed a dried pan where they must be harvesting the salt. Every path was lined with conch shells, they’re used everywhere, it is unbelievable how many there are. Thank goodness we have seen so many conch alive here. Actually when we went for our walk yesterday we looked up at the steep hills to see the direction we should take and I said I hope those aren’t conch shells lining the route all the way to the top. I hoped they were white stones but sure enough the whole path was lined with conch on either side. My phone said we walked 5 Kms, mainly lined with conch. I suppose the thing is the shells just don’t deteriorate in this harsh sea salty environment.

When we got back there was another table of guests, a big local family, with loads of kids, the place was transformed to a hive of activity. We finally got served our food which started with lobster. We tried to order a beer but they had no drinks, there is definitely no electricity here and getting bottled water was out of the question too! We just got a glass of water from a container. Lobster was followed by a fish each, crispy roasted in salt. It was delicious and better than the lobster. All finished with conch ceviche which was absolutely the best course. A delicious chilli, lime, passion fruit sauce. However disappointing for me as I have decided to give up eating lobster and conch. I feel both are hugely overrated and I feel desperately sorry for these creatures as I think in most of the Caribbean they are being wiped out. Oh well, I couldn’t do anything about it today and at least I will not actively order it.

The other amusing thing was watching the restaurant dog fishing. He looked beagle-ish and stood on his back legs in the water looking sharply down his nose barking and whining the entire time, going round and round in circles. We don’t think he could see any fish as he stirred up so much sand but he definitely could sense them. He would do the odd snatch at the water and then yowl like crazy. It was extremely funny to watch.

Eyeballing our way through the darker water

The restaurant

Rowan's 3 ladies!

Salt and shell landscaping

The kitchen

Conch civiche

Our walk to the windward side of the island

Building a house over a shack, with paths lines with conch

The kitchen

Mad fishing dog!

Salvaged canoe full of salt

After lunch we headed off to an island further west. All eyeball navigation watching out for coral which was a bit nerve wracking at times when the charts would suddenly be rather misleading about the depth. We passed Crasqui where we had spent our first couple of nights, we were gobsmacked to count 26 local big boats, it’s Easter holidays and the place is heaving!

We continued to an island called Sasqui, not a boat around and we have this idyllic anchorage to ourselves. It may be too shallow for the big local boats thankfully. I saw 3 turtles coming in and the bird life was buzzing. The island has some lovely big trees on it. We look forward to exploring tomorrow. Rowan spent another hour doing a great job of scraping PolePole’s bottom.

We needed no supper tonight, just glugging loads of water after our very salty lunch.

Sasqui all to ourselves

Tuesday 12 April

A very peaceful night, just enough sea breeze coming through the cabin windows to make it comfortable. It is much hotter here than the rest of the Caribbean. We are sleeping with the boat’s sliding doors wide open most nights.

After breakfast we went exploring in JeldiJeldi, we had a very bumpy trip over to a mangrove lagoon. The trees were really big all the way around the inlet. Loads of bird life but pretty murky water. We had a snorkel in gorgeous looking water, but bizarrely the water wasn’t that clear, it had that opaque look, and that always seems to mean jelly fish! They give me the heebie jeebies! Otherwise there was some interesting coral, some big fan coral and quite a few fish, but nothing like at the eastern reef.

The mangrove lagoon with big trees but murky water

Midday we headed about 5 miles further west to an island called Calerneros, a smallish anchorage between two little islands with a pretty narrow entrance. There was a local boat in there already, but they seemed to be having engine issues and soon left.

We went and had a snorkel at the inlet on the windward side of the island it was an interesting deep inlet with a huge solid coral wall, but sadly it was mainly dead. We hadn’t gone far when we swum into clouds of jelly fish so I jumped out. Rowan went a bit further but it didn’t improve which was disappointing.

We sat out the heat of the afternoon, a local old style fishing boat came and anchored next door. There have been a few boats coming and going, there is a little fishing village nearby on the next island.

It was a noisy evening next to the fisherman, about 6 men. They had a small boat that came and went all evening. They were just too far for us to really work out what they were doing. I never actually saw any fish, maybe they were just laying nets, but hopefully not as this area should all be protected in the marine reserve.

Calerneros anchorage

The fishing village in the distance

Our disgust at finding our famous Venezuelan mozzarella was mortadela, made from economy chicken!

The local fishing boat arrived in the evening

Wednesday April 13

Our fishing boat neighbours gave us an effusive wave as we left this morning. We were amazed to wake up this morning and find we had not been disturbed by them last night. When we went to bed their little tender boats were coming and going with their noisy engines. We can only assume they were night fishing, maybe for conch, but we never saw any sign of the fish or conch shells. Rowan’s mind ran wild thinking that they may be drug running!

Waving goodbye to the fishermen

We headed for our next island Cayo de Agua, so called because it has lots of fresh water a few feet down. We went to the first anchorage and found two local picnic boats already there. It was a slightly tricky anchorage into a mixture of old broken coral and sand, plus a big swell. I haven’t seen PolePole rock so much. We headed to the beach for a quick explore, aiming for the palm trees to see all the pits dug for fresh water. There is a nasty sharp creeping beach grass that has awful thorns, barbs on every angle, you try and get them off and they stick into your fingers, very annoying! We found one pit with a plastic drum and fresh water in it, all being guarded by a very alert crab with big nippers. We did not feel inclined to taste the water. It is an amazing white beach with a gorgeous sand spit joining the two islands. By the time we got back there were at least 10 picnic boats, with hordes of people. We are noticing more and more artificially over inflated woman’s backsides. I guess we are not that far from Brazil, the home of bottom sculpting. Everyone doing selfies and Instagram poses.

The plastic pot with the fresh water, look carefully for the crab.

The sand spit

We headed back to PolePole and opted for the quieter anchorage right in the middle the ring of little islands. We had to weave our way through the coral, luckily it was good midday sunlight. We finally got to a wonderful sandy patch, in stunning coloured water, we were pleased when the anchor sunk in beautifully. We still had a bit of rocking but nothing like our first stop. Blissfully we had the entire place to ourselves, not a boat to be seen as they were all on the other side of the sand dunes.

Late afternoon we dinghied to the beach for a walk. We couldn’t go that far between the thorns and coral, and walls of old conch shells that are too spiky to attempt to walk over. There are hundreds of sea birds, we came across a single Boobie nesting with an enormous white fluffy chick. She was very worried about us but did not leave her chick as we tried to keep as much distance as possible. Loads of other Boobies came and squawked over us, we wondered if she’d called for their help.

After a couple of shorter walks we headed back and just enjoyed the peace and quiet in this beautiful spot.

We finally find our ideal anchorage with not a soul in sight

Boobie with a chick

Thursday April 14

The pink route is our travels around the Los Roques archipelago

We set off straight after our first cup of tea. The wind was blowing which was great even if it was not quite in the right direction, so we did some big tacks. Our plan was to overnight at the western most Venezuelan island, we were making such good time that we were going to be there before lunch. Averaging 10 knots we decided to go all the way to Bonaire.

Our pink route from Los Roques to Bonaire with a big tack

We spotted Bonaire at about 4pm and we were relieved to work out that we would get there before dark, which is 7pm at the moment. As we hit the eastern tip of the island making our way up to Kralendjik, the main town, the wind picked up and was blowing 30 knots as we got near. There is no anchoring allowed around the island, you have to pick up designated buoys. Luckily Rowan had contacted Pete and Libby who met us in their dinghy to get us onto the mooring ball, they are moorings with two separate lines that were quite a challenge. Thank goodness it all went to plan. We dinghied into the marina and had a mediocre meal there, but happy to flop into bed with a full tummy.