For a while we hand wind but it was right on the nose so we were back to motoring. We could have tacked our way up wind but seeing as this was Ella’s last day we decided not to take this longer route.
Sadly, this anchorage turned out to have little appeal apart from it being, by far, the calmest we have had – it feels like we’re on a lake, not the sea.
The boat has recently been going a little slower than she should so I pulled the hookah out and went below to scrape the barnacles from the props and the undersides. Each time I go below I get less impressed by the paint job performed by Grenada Marine. Whole chunks have come off now which is very disappointing. The props were covered in about a millimeter of small barnacle which certainly affected performance. Not as bad as the growth back in Cartagena but I’m sure the smooth flow of water over the surface was being disrupted.
I spent a little while checking up on the anchorage in Punterenhas. I should have done this before as I learned the only safe place to leave the boat for any time was tucked up behind the spit at the yacht club which is only accessible at high tide. We could have just got Ella and John ashore in time but we would not have been able to leave in time tomorrow. We threw a few alternate ideas around and eventually settled on the idea of dropping them off at the ferry terminal around the corner. Because our various guides disagreed on the times of the ferrys, John and I dinghied over to get a timetable. We got a little wet in the chop around the corner so our final plan is to bring Dignity around the corner to the terminal and dinghy over the last bit. They’ll have time for breakfast ashore and have the day to themselves which turns out good.
The only other event from yesterday was seeing another sailboat, Happy Hour, who came along side to warn us of the prevalence of theft in the area. We made doubly sure to bring all loose articles inside and to chain the dinghy to the boat. We also left the VHF on an agreed channel in case one boat got into trouble. I also laid out bright dive lights, the fog horn and flares just in case we were boarded. We could use these to disorientate any boarders in advance of taking physical action. In the end this was all unnecessary.
So – this morning we’ll drop off Ella and John before heading down to Bahia Leona which we’ll check out as a possible stop with Ben and Jess. The tide thing at Punterenhas creates restrictions on their stay too. The yacht club is the only place to leave the boat when we go inland. I had hoped to arrive early in the morning but we’ll have to arrive mid afternoon and stay the night. We wanted at least one day in a place where we could swim/snorkel so we’re hoping Bahia Leone is it. It’s worth checking out in advance given that we can. If we don’t get internet there we know we can around the corner in Bahia Herradura which we’ll move to tomorrow morning. We can then sort out all car hires, accomodation, etc. for our planned land trip.
