Cayo Herraduro,

LaTortuga,
Venezuela
10.59.596N
65.22.790W

Today we are again in awe of the beauty and tranquility of this anchorage. I sat in the cockpit all day either reading or gazing at the blue green colors of the water, the incredibly blue sky or blinding white beaches.

It was Gerry & Nicky’s turn to dink around the periphery, exploring what little is here and enjoying what is not. When they returned, we discussed how we would exit the bay after dark and make our way to Los Roques.

When the time came at 8 pm, we lifted our anchors and slowly crept out. Dale was on the bow with a megawatt flashlight and lit up the few boats that had found there way into the anchorage during the day. There was no moon and we had decided earlier in the day to remove our solar lights along the sides to help us maintain our night vision.

We set our heading and made a respectable 7-8 kts for a couple of hours. Then the wind shifted to aft of our beam and although we still had the 15-18 kts predicted, the sensation was that we were barely moving when in actuality, we maintained a 6 kts average throughout the night.

Cayo Herraduro,
LaTortuga,
Venezuela
10.59.596N
65.22.790W

Last night was another of those where you wish you had seat belts installed in your bed; and we weren’t even under way. So this morning it was unanimous that we’d move to another anchorage. We didn’t even dink around the anchorage to look at the air field or surrounding beach.

Instead, we lifted our anchors and moved 11 miles down the main island of Tortuga to a smaller one called Cayo Herraduro or Horseshoe Cay. Once we were behind the protective reefs, it was like finding a bit of heaven. One other boat was anchored behind the little island with its own lighthouse.

We cautiously made our way into the center of the shallow water and dropped our anchors in 9’ of water. The water was a beautiful turquoise color. As soon as we could, we jumped in to check out the local life. There were red star fish, tube worms, sea cucumbers, a snake, various small fish and one irate little worm attacking our anchor. We were rather disappointed that the water was still murky but the calm waters and serene view made it one of those special places that we’ll always remember.

After Dale replaced a hinge on our companionway door, we lowered the dink and checked out the island by putt putting the length of it. There were a few fishing shacks that had little Catholic shrines for each one at one end and a faded red and white lighthouse in the middle. We made our way to the opposite end and got out for a walk along the two beaches that came together. The beach that ran along the inside of the cay was composed of a sugary white sand, while the beach on the windward side was a more coarse grain. They came together at the end where we had landed our dinghy. We donned our snorkel gear and headed in again to check out the reefs on the inside.

The coral wasn’t as colorful as we’ve seen in other places and again, we were disappointed in the lack of clarity in the water but there was an abundance of reef fish and 2 particularly large porcupine fish that I chased with a camera for a while. In fact all of the fish seemed to be larger specimens of the reef fish we’ve seen so for.

We had dinner on Orpailleur this evening and we all agreed that we should have skipped Blanquilla and come straight here. There’s something magical about this place and by sundown 2 other boats had made their way into the anchorage to share in the magic. Or get a decent night’s rest.

Photo of shrine from the camera of Orpailleur.

Playa Caldera,
La Tortuga,
Venezuela
10.57.328N
65.13.642W

We got a good night’s sleep and hoisted anchor at 6am bound for La Tortuga. The winds were cranking 20+kts and within minutes of securing the anchor, the engine was cut, the sails were trimmed and we were flying at 7-8 kts. The seas were a kindly 3-4’ with the occasional 6’ thrown in to keep you on your toes, so the 66 miles were going by quickly. By 10am though, the predicted 12-15 kts settled in and we were cruising a respectable 6kts.

Dale started a new book, so I tweaked the sails and autopilot for most of the day. It was a very pleasant sail. Except for Orpailleur, we saw only 3 other boats all day. We heard the Venezuelan Navy hail motor vessels and ask them to identify themselves a few times, but never saw the “warship” they were on.

Throughout the day, however, the winds continued to diminish and by 2pm, the 7-9 kts weren’t going to get us into our anchorage before dark, so we were forced to once again, turn on the engine.

LaTortuga, is another low lying desert island which has miles of white sandy beaches. The eastern most tip has an airstrip with a couple of hangers and a few fishing shacks but that’s it. We chose Playa Caldera to anchor in as it provided a half moon bay and appeared to be sheltered even further by some reefs.

As we approached the entrance to the bay, the shell of a catamaran lay grounded on the beach; we steered an extra wide path to round up into the anchorage. We soon saw our depth meter rise from 50’ to 15’ rather quickly but continued on until we were in about 10’ and tucked up inside away from the swells rounding the point. There were only 2 other boats in the anchorage. Talk about getting away from it all.

We invited Gerry & Nicky over for dinner and as we ate, we were all astounded with the winds picking up again to well over 20 kts. It was howling and the Palace started dancing on her anchor chain. We feel that we are very secure having dropped our anchor in sand and felt its tug when it dug in to snap us around smartly. But when the wind starts whistling and the wind generator sounding like a DC10 winding up, it gets a bit unnerving. I’m sure transferring from the dinghy back to Orpailleur must have been a challenge for Gerry & Nicky but I’m glad that they were able to share dinner with us.

I think we’ll be staying here another day but I wouldn’t mind moving to another bay. Both Dale and Gerry spoke of seeing huge jelly fish in the water which already looks murky from the top and I was looking forward to the exceptional snorkeling I’ve read about.