El Oculto

Poor Heidi had a very long and tiring trip but the champagne I brought along for the ride home from the airport gave her some new energy as we talked way into the night. The following day I took her shopping in the dinghy, which was definitely a new thing for her and in the afternoon we relaxed in the pool. It's really great to have her here, we went to school together about 30 years ago, long time and it's amazing, she hasn't changed, she's still the same I knew from school. I had a chance to show
her around the local market as we provisioned for our sail. Yesterday we had a nice sail for about 2 hours as we left the harbor. As soon as we got in the lee of the islands the engine needed to help again and as always passed the islands we got to see dolphins, although not as many as we usually see. We arrived just on time to anchor and put the sun awning up before it started to rain. It was a heavy down poor due to a wave passing. We are the only boat in El Oculto and I don't think many will anchor
around this area anymore. One week ago Chill and I'Lean headed out for Isla Tortuga with a stop at Isla Boracha, 6 miles out of Puerto La Cruz. Lots of cruisers stop first at one of the islands and leave in the middle of the night to reach Isla Tortuga at day time. This is a very sad thing that happened, they were sitting on one of the boats planning their night escape when a local fishing boat approached and asked for water. They handed them some water, one guy took it set it down in the boat took
a gun out and shot Ken twice in the heart. Steve managed to get his shotgun out and saved the rest of the crew. The whole cruising community here is in mourning as we all know that this could happen to any of us. So here we are sitting alone in El Oculto but we feel that this incident will keep this area quite for a while.
Heidi is having a great time and is learning that boating is not just getting a tan, it's getting boat bites as we call them, she has bruises everywhere, poor thing. Today we'll take her snorkeling, the water right now is crystal clear we can even see the bottom under the boat (25 feet) which usually is not possible here. Another tropical weather system is headed this way, hope fully the last one this season as hurricane season ends end of this month. So this is a good place to be for bad weather,
besides we will not be bored, there is plenty here to do, bottom cleaning for one.