Chaser 2 - Picture perfect Blanquilla at 11.50.40N 64.38.82W

Picture perfect Blanquilla at 11.50.40N 64.38.82W

Chaser 2

Yvonne Chapman

Tue 28 Aug 2007 01:42

If you have Google earth you may see this tiny island of Blanquilla at 11.50.40N 64.38.82W otherwise few maps would show this beautiful island that's 3 miles by 4 miles and only 50 feet high at its highest. There are a few inhabitants, fishermen and their families and a coast guard station, they live in half a dozen houses on the southern shores.

We called the coastguard as we approached and let him know ours and Waylanders intentions, we decided to anchor on the west coast because there was a bit of a swell on the south side.

We had left Juan Griego at 05.30hrs that morning to arrive in this beautiful island of Blanquilla at around 14.30hrs, we had decided to wait for the seas to settle after Hurricane Dean passed by 240 miles to the north of Margarita. The seas certainly calmed as did the wind, so we had to use the iron sail again!! We caught a couple of nice Dorado on the way across so we anchored near Waylander in order for them to have a short trip over to Chaser for dinner. We had intentions of moving off to another anchorage in a day or so, so anchoring close was not a problem but this beach and the waters are absolutely stunning we decided to stay put.

The coastguard called pass the following day to check our papers and to check if we had any beer or cigarettes aboard, not because we are not allowed to have them, because they would kinda like some. We obliged with a six pack of coldies and a packet of American ciggies. They were all very polite, no problems, no guns no shirts either, maybe they weren't coastguards!

We were due in Puerto de la Cruz on the 24th August but we couldn't leave so quickly, we phoned the marina in PLC and made our excuses. We haven't done much here, there is much to do apart from enjoy the ambience, the sea, the sunsets, how we suffer. We have been walking and swimming every day, fishing to, even put the crab pot out and caught a couple of fish. Chris and Tony did the same so we pooled our catch and made a good fish dinner with cous cous, bakes, and a cold bottle of wine.

Words can't describe the colours and beauty of this desolate island, so take a look at the photos and you'll see what I mean, this is by far the best waters we've been to during our travels, better even than Tobago Keys partly because there were far fewer boats and no charter boats. Selfishly it would have been nice to have the beach to ourselves, we did much of the time but two or three other boats were in the anchorage, and 3 or 4 more have since moved in, there is plenty of space but still they have to park up right next to you, not just us, but some nationalities more than others seem to want to be alongside. We watched a couple of newcomers enter and anchor so close to another boat that they ended up having to up anchor and move away.

As you can see we both had to take our each others pictures before picnicking on the beach watching the sun go down. Wow!

We don't have any WiFi here, so by the time anyone reads this, we-ll have moved on, next stop apart from an overnighter in Robledal, Margarita, is Cumana, Venezuela, then on to PLC.

These pictures were sent with Picasa, from Google.
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