Agua Verde

4/2/2011 Here we are in Agua Verde, we had planned on spending the night in Los Gatos, but our buddy boat, Mangareva was not comfortable with the anchorage, so we decided not to chance it. If we hustled, we could make it to Agua Verde before sunset and be settled in a secure anchorage. It is beautiful here and we are swimming distance to the landmark rock where snorkeling is reported to be great. Looks like the North winds will be back day after tomorrow, so we will probably just sit them out here, it is a large bay with a small village and is quiet with several different options for anchoring and exploring.

This portion of the trip has been much calmer, with day trips to get to different anchorages. The weather still dictates our travels as the trip from Isla San Francisco to Everesto was spent bashing against the waves kicked up by the North wind. It is uncomfortable and really slows us down so that instead of 4-5 knots or better and a 3 hour trip, we are running 2 knots as we ride one wave up, stall and slide down the other side. Took us closer to 5 hours and don’t even want to talk about the fuel economy. I’ve had a call for more pictures, but one of the problems is that the beauty just does not translate to photos. I think if I had a speed boat, I could be in the right place at the right time to get the lighting just right, but with a sailboat, you get what you get. Everesto was so beautiful, a good sized bay with small village where fish buyers come to purchase fish from the pangas, keeping the bay busy with pangas coming and going from early until after dark. We were able to purchase a yellow fin from a fisherman, for 17 pesos, or less than $15 dollars. It was amazing to see him expertly fillet and skin the fish into 4 large pieces. Even though we split the fish with Mark and Gail from Mangareva, and had Bill and Jack from Slow Dance over for a fish dinner, we will be hard pressed to eat it all. And it is DELICIOUS!! In the morning there were sing rays leaping, and flipping that went right by the boat. It looks like they are trying to fly. Even though the water was not clear, they passed so close we could see the ghostly images of the mass of rays underneath the water, gliding by with their underwater wings. I will be sure to stop by here again. Calita Partida just north of Espiritu Santo, was just my favorite stop so far, rays jumping, puffer fish, and sea turtles! Espiritu Santo and Isla Partida are separated by the smallest sliver of an estuary that is navigable by dinghy. Mark and Gail invited us to go snorkeling with them on the other side of the island, and we headed up the estuary. It was pretty shallow at times, but we made it, and had a great time zooming up the coast looking for the perfect spot to snorkel, and just seeing the beauty of the rocks was worth the exciting dinghy ride. Returning after a successful snorkeling trip, we found, although the tide should have been higher, we were required to get out and walk the dinghy as we bottomed out in the soft sand.