It was blowing hard yesterday morning and we didn’t want to go somewhere uncomfortable so thought we’d try to have fun in Cayo Cuervo. The wind was from the North and it looked like we could anchor in the South of the lagoon, dinghy across to the South Island, and walk across it to a, hopefully, nice beach with good snorkelling. We tried this, Colin went up the mast and we found a nice anchoring spot, however when he and Graham went for a scout at the island the vegetation was too thick to get through, Colin and I then had a look at another spot but the far side of the island had no beach, just mangroves down to the water. Of course, by now it was mid morning, so we had left it too late to try to play elsewhere so were thinking about returning to our previous spot but whilst backtracking thought we’d see how feasible it would be to anchor close to the beach at the entrance to the lagoon.
This involved going between ‘stakes’ marked on the chart and the beach but with care we found a nice spot and prepared for a beach barbecue. Some rowed, some swam ashore and we gathered firewood, lit a fire, bummed about, swam, snorkelled without visibility, and after the fire had died down put on some potatoes in the embers. It was jolly hot and bright in the sun with white sand. I rested a bit under the upturned dinghy. When the potatoes were done, we fished them out, put a grill on the fire and cooked sausages and fish. We had gone for a minimalist barbecue so there were no utensils, plates, or anything actually other than fish, sausages and potatoes in foil, however, once the fish and mergez sausages were cooked we all tucked in with our fingers and it was really delicious.
We lounged about a bit more after lunch and then Iggy the iguana came to visit, a biggish lizard about 2 and a half feet long and not shy or fearty. The lines on the beach we’d noticed were created by his tail as he walked about. By mid afternoon after a couple more swims we started returning to the boat and then swam to the stakes to investigate and it turned out that it was a wreck, and very good snorkelling with lots of fish, coral and so on. We’ll try and do a community edit of Navionics as it’s marked on all the charts as stakes so most people won’t look at it.
Back aboard, I repaired a broken oar from the boat which hadn’t lasted the morning’s row, received an email from Martin confirming receipt of all emails and with the full lyrics to ‘Ernie’ which was duly read out, not particularly well by myself to much amusement and after a really good Chilli dinner (thanks Jennifer) we had music, singing and dancing on the aft deck. This may have been due to starting the evening with some pineapple juice and rum from a 3 litre bag I’d bought in St Martin, which turned out to be white rum and not of the quality we’d become used to but effective never the less.
We think we may try to make Chiquito Cayo this evening but it’s a fair way, and people will need to start appearing soon.
Slainte Jock and all.
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