It happens from time to time. We get a day with absolutely chores to do. Not that we don’t have any jobs or projects to do. We’re just not doing any and enjoying our brief stay in Los Testigos.
Last night we barbecued two huge racks of ribs we picked up in Grenada on our last day there. It was a real pig out that we totally enjoyed. We went to bed reasonably early due to the previous nights overnighter. We both slept long and well.
In the morning we listened into the short wave weather and signed in on the coconut telegraph for the first time in quite some time. Straight after this we dinghied ashore. We hauled the dinghy up onto the sand and locked it to a tree.
We soon found the track we were looking for which eventually took us all the way to the top of the 820ft hill where there was a solar powered lighthouse. The last part of the hike required us to climb some vines up the side of the final rock to reach the top. The views were really worth it. From where the lighthouse was perched we could see a slightly higher point not far away. We made our way there and took more pictures before descending all the way down.
A local helped us get our dinghy back into the water. We do feel as though we’ve shifted into a different world. The beaches, flora and fauna look much the same but the people are radically different. We’ve been used to English/French/Dutch colony islands with their descendants from slave and master. Now the locals are distinctly Spanish in ancestry. The boats are different too. The smaller boats are similar but with more upturned bows. They also have what looks more like house/party boats which we’ve not seen before.
Back on Dignity we electric motored just over a mile up the coast to Playa Real. The heavens opened on us as we arrived so we didn’t take much time picking our spot. We had the place to ourselves but we just dropped the hook as soon as we could and waited the deluge out. I took the dinghy out to take depth soundings and pick a better place to anchor. In the end we shifted up the bay a little so we could easily snorkel over to the nearby reef straight from the boat.
After lunch Helen read while I tried to catch some of the small fish beneath the boat. I caught 8 to 10 of them doubling my Caribbean haul (in terms of numbers) in one go. All I used was a nice sharp hook and some bread one a line that once got tangled on the anchor chain. The first fish got away. The second became bait for the rest of them. Most of the time the fish would go into a frenzy around the bait. I would tug and catch them just about anywhere but in the mouth. The hook was my smallest but too small for these fish. The rest of the catch was bagged and put in the fridge to be used as bait later on.
Later in the afternoon Helen and I took to the water to snorkel the reef. We both spotted spotted eels amongst the usual reef denizens. Before returning to the boat we walked the beach. Where we are is a thin spit of beach and a straight between the east and west sides of the island. The strait separates the island into two. From the boat we can see the waves crashing on the east side while we remain in the calm on the west. On our walk we were able to see the east side up close.
Right now we’re again just relaxing on the boat. Soon we’ll prep for tomorrows sail. We expect to up anchor around 3am. Next stop Margarita.
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