Sept. 6. Punta de Escarceo

Red sky in the morning, sailor takes warning. Red sky at night, sailors delight..... and once more it proves to be true. We left before the sun came up and watched the most spectacular sunrise with the shadows of the mountains reflecting in the red clouds. Red sky in the morning, sailor take warning. It was flat calm as we rounded the corner of the island and started to head towards Puerto La Cruz. Around the corner pods of dolphins greeted us and flocks of Pelicans were sitting in the water watching the dolphins herding up some fish. The water was as smooth as a mirror and a cloud cover hovered over us. We had a total of 50 miles to go, the wind was right on the nose and we were motoring with 5 knots through the calm water. About 15 miles down the road the wind started to pick up, the prognoses called for 5 to 10 knots of wind, so no problem. A further couple of minutes later the wind picked up some more and the water turned a bit choppy. Amazing how fast a flat sea can turn into the nastiest churning water. Within minutes we had 5 foot wind chops and we started to pound into them slowing us down to 1.2 knots. It got even worse, so both Paradise and Welsh Rover changed direction and headed to Punta de Escarceo. We're anchored snug but the wind is still howling. We had winds up to 29 knots. We are not sure either how safe this anchorage is, so we're planning to abandon it around midnight and head for Puerto La Cruz. Doug and Lisa on Highland Light we met in New Bern are in Puerto La Cruz and are leaving tomorrow for San Blas, I guess it was not meant to be to see them, what a bummer. In the mean time we're sucking on a tasty Bloody Mary and are waiting for the wind to calm down.