Friday 13th April

Cayo Herradura
Tortuga

10 59.573 N
65 13.662 W

After our almost sleepless night we all agreed that we needed to stay for at least a day to recover but Lorie suggested that we move anchorages and go about 10 miles further to Cayo Herradura another lagoon which appeared better protected from the prevailing winds, we all agreed and set off at 10.00hrs. I have to add that by now the wind had dropped back down again and was pretty mild compared to the night. We had to first pick our way out through the reef and then we unfurled the jib which turned out to be a total waste of time, it was flapping all over the place and not doing anything to help move us along so it was very quickly furled away again. We motored the 11.4 miles, picked our way very carefully into a very pretty bay where we were the only sail boats and anchored in shallow, clear pale blue, water over sand. The shoreline was spectacular, quite flat, white sandy beach with a few derelict huts on the beach and a red and white stripped lighthouse on the point.
Almost as soon as we were anchored we decided to go for a swim and snorkel around, the water was cool and refreshing, there wasn’t much to see as far as the snorkeling went but it was good to get in and have a swim. I volunteered to cook dinner and set about getting food ready for that night. Dale and Lorie went off in their dink to explore the island. Gerry did a few small jobs around the boat – fixing a hatch support that broke when we opened it, emptying the lazarette and mopping out the water that had gotten into it – he needs to find the point of entry for the water but that will be a job for another day. Dale and Lorie came over for dinner and we ate in the cockpit, watching the sun set and wondering what the poor people were doing – see we do think of you! As the night fell we began discussing our next passage, we were going to be doing an overnight trip to Los Roques and the suggestion was to leave at 20.00hrs. By now it was 19.30hrs and it was pitch black out – not a sign of the moon and you couldn’t see a hand in front of your face – this was about the same time we planned on leaving the following night! Lorie and I were both concerned that with no moonlight getting out around the reef was going to be a nail bitter. We compromised in the end and decided to leave the anchorage late afternoon, anchor a bit further out and then take off as planned, this way we don’t have to do the reef dance in the dark. Dale and Lorie returned to their boat and we cleaned up the dinner debris before going to bed for a long overdue good night sleep.