Part III---Los Roques

Cathy and Derek hailed us and asked us to join them for dinner. They are anchored at Sarqui approximately 5nm away so we decide to up anchor.

By 1730hrs. we’re re-anchored in 14.9 feet of water in sand ending a long day catching up to friends. The 130nm took up 19 hours. It’s turned out Cathy and Derek were admitted to Los Roques for only one day at the cost of $60US….no consistency here...

Tues. Aug. 11th
Los Roques is a National Parque made up of small islands and reefs. It’s protected on its East side by a 15 mile reef Bajo de la Cabecera.

There is a really nice reef where we enjoyed snorkelling from the boat.. We saw lots of beautiful coral and sponges. Some coral looked like upside down enormous Portebello mushrooms.

We also hiked a short trail to the windward side of the island. The anchorage is really getting busy---we’ve gone from three boats to nine; which includes one very large cat with a 24 foot runabout which is going full out in the anchorage. Time for us to move on.

Wed. Aug 12th Initially we wanted to check out the anchorage of O. Fernando. It turned out too shallow for us so we turned around and headed for Isla Carenero. The chart definitely is not accurate for this area. After two tries and the water getting way to shallow Idyll Island have caught up to us and using their last years information we followed them in. We’re anchored in 5.6feet under the keel. Our first priority is to jump in the water and cool down. During the evening a storm surrounded us entertaining us with a considerable lightening show.

Thurs Aug. 13.
The winds will increase tonight and tomorrow so we will move to a more protected anchorage. We initially thought we would head back to Sarqui when Isyll Island hailed us and say they’re going to check out the anchorage at Cayo Remanso which is at the SE end of Carenero. They hail us back and say there is lots of room and the entrance is 16 feet deep so we’ll go there.

As we enter this lagoon type bay we have a four foot shoal on our port side, but the visibility is excellent with me on the bow. We anchor wth 27 feet under the keel. This is a very nice bay protected by mangroves to the NE and East side. Snorkelling was pretty good to our West side where there’s a good size reef.

We explored by dinghy

Not bad snorkeling off this reef.

Ending another glorious day with Cathy and Derek

Unfortunately time to continue heading west so we’ll head for either Elbert Cay or Cayo de Agua. We sailed almost the whole 8nm trip….not in a hurry, just enjoying our day.