27 October 2009 Arriving in Los Roques

We'd made good time and hove to outside the southern entrance of Boca de Sebastapol to wait for a shower to pass and the sun to come out. We have Raymarine electronic chart to cover the island. However, there is a big warning with both the paper and electronic charts combined with using GPS to find where you are. This area was first and last surveyed in 1870 using celestial navigation and the lat and long co-ordinates are off by approximately 200m. Meaning we had to use eyeball navigation to read the different shades of water, ie me standing as tall as possible on the bow clutching the pilot book with sketch map of suggested safe path and acting as the advance warning for the helmsman. A dutch boat that had travelled 2 hours ahead and entered the channel just after 7am. They radioed back to say they were aground. Tired after the night passage and without good light they'd misjudged where to turn. In the end the coast guard came from El Gran Roque and pulled them off.
Our eyeball navigator did her job well and we anchored safely behind the reef and a small mangrove island. It's superb here. A vista that stretches to the horizon. The sea a patchwork of colours; turquoise over shallow sand, midnight blue over the deep water, white where the waves break over the reef and tending to brown over rock and coral. Our travel companions, Gary and Jackie on Inspiration Lady, are anchored alongside and there's no-one else here apart from some pelicans. We snorkelled along the mangroves and saw lots of juvenilles in the nursery of tree roots, a menacing barracuda hanging out and piles of huge conch shells dumped by the local fishermen.
Late in the afternoon an Italian flagged boat approached wanting to anchor behind the mangroves too. David's attention was caught by the blonde and naked woman on the bow. Nude anchoring – a new spectaor sport. Being Italian the procedure couldn't be undertaken without loud expostulations, raised voices and much waving of arms. I think the woman and the (also naked & blonde) captain (I happened to have the binoculars out watching the pelicans when he glided into view....) were congratulating each other on another perfect anchoring. Or not. Both had perfect tans and fine toned bodies which they flexed and exhibited, him manly press ups and her buttock firming leg raises. Either that or she was tanning the parts that don't see much sunlight :)