21 36.9N 081 34.7W
Around the world with the Aqualunies
Jonathan & Gabrielle Lyne
Sat 20 Apr 2019 03:02
We entered through the reef following a comparatively new dredged channel, at one point with just a meter under the keel into the marina which in the guide book for yachties downloaded on to our computer says it is equipped for super yachts!!! the pontoons are very short and we just about touched bottom at one point.
It would have been good if they had T berths at the end of the pontoons for longer vessels but they didn’t. We tried to squeeze into a long area between two pontoons but the wind sheer was too strong and we just could not get along side. We went just off the pontoons to drop anchor, the officials who were desperate for us to go alongside watched us drop anchor and start to settle and then said we could not anchor there!!! That we had to go out to anchor off the beach. So off we set back down the dredged channel and anchored inside a sand spit in just enough water, this afternoon we had 0.6 under our keel…..At least it is sheltered from the strong southerlies that have blown up I would not have like to have anchored off the beach at all.
We then took the dingy back to the marina to check in with Customs, Garda and marine manager. Piri is the marine manager and lovely, he used to be the chief translator for Fedro Castro.
19th APRIL (GOOD FRIDAY)
We took the dingy over to the sand spit, beautiful white soft sand, and walked the 7 kilometre beach, quite hard going in deep soft sand. There are day sun loungers and a lunchtime only restaurant on the beach. Grilled prawns for lunch. Back to the yacht to relax. Jonathan went to the marina to ask Piri if we could organise a Diver to clean the bottom of the boat and prop as I think we have quite a bit of weed on our bow thrusters. It is cheaper for us to go into the marina and have it done so we are doing that tomorrow and hope the wind has died down a bit.