I checked the chart plotter yesterday and discovered we’ve finally anchored somewhere to the west of our starting point. After nearly a year, for a couple of plan on circumnavigating to the west, this is finally a step in the right direction.
Slowish sort of day today. Some cleaning in the morning (we have to) and some checks on the drive shafts. The latter due to some noticed vibrations while sailing yesterday. This only happened when we were travelling at 7.5-8 knots under sail without the regeneration going. If we turned it on, the vibration stopped. A little troubling so we need to keep an eye on things. No conclusions from today’s mucking around. I did put some more grease into the port seal just to see if that improves things but I won’t know for a while.
We’ve just been for a walk on the beach, across the little isthmus and around the ‘airport’. You need to see the pictures to really understand what it looked like. It is a compressed sand airstrip close to the beach with a number of huts separating the strip from the beach. We understand the airstrip is use by mainlanders who fly their planes over for the weekend. One of the huts is a very quaint looking hotel/restaurant. It comprises a few rooms surrounding and interior sandy courtyard area with seats and decoration. Other huts looked like changing areas and one, perhaps, a bar.
Tomorrow morning we’re moving a few miles down the island to anchor for the day. Around sunset we’ll head for Los Roques. The entrance to the reefs is about 85nm sail away and we want to be sure to enter during daylight. It will be another 15nm or so to the main island. We may make it there tomorrow or stop on the way. There are park fees to pay if one visits properly. Given that this is a maintained park we want to pay the fees as we will receive the benefit of visiting. It is possible, we understand, to sneak around the south to the west end of the park avoiding the fees. It’s academic now as we have the Bolivars to pay for the park fees and nowhere else to spend them.