On Thursday, we left Testigos about 1545 and headed to Isla Blanquilla. This is about a 95 mile run. We had hoped to find another boat to "buddy boat" with - but everyone was going to Margarita.except us. So we headed out and sailed the entire way - at one point hitting 8.8 on the GPS with headsail alone. Michael had rigged a whisker pole up for downwind sailing and it worked well - at least until the wind direction changed. We hit a few squalls - but nothing bad - just a few showers and some increased wind. The seas were the bad news. We had beam seas about 5-7 feet. The boat rolled side to side all night long - sometimes as much as 40 degrees. The boat was a mess when we got in as things had fallen off the shelves. It was also impossible to take a nap - without rolling out of the berth. We know have a project to figure out how best to deal with down wind runs and beam seas.
We arrived to a lovely new island for us. Isla Blanquilla is a flat (only 50 feet high) with very clear water, white sand beaches, and reportedly great snorkeling (we'll judge that for ourselves). We're anchored off of Playa Yaque - in front of a clump of beautiful palm trees - we think date palms. It's been squally all morning with some intense rain showers and wind - so we've been just enjoying some relaxing time. Soon after we were anchored, the local Guardacosta (Coast Guard) came by in their open boat and came on board. Daniel and Gordy were terrific. Daniel's English was quite good (thankfully) though we were good about trying our Spanish as well. They cleared us in - asking for just a few papers and not requiring anything we didn't have (thankfully). They told us to stay as long as we'd like. We believe the dos cervezas offered helped with getting the paperwork done in an efficient manner. Plus we gave them a few "to go" beverages.
We'll look forward to doing some dinghy exploring as well as some underwater adventures. Hope the weather clears.
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