Isla Coche 07/23/07

If we had wings our trip would have taken 18 miles as the crow flies, but with our sails it took us 48 miles as we had to head out of the Golfo de Cariaco and around the Araya Peninsula. We got up before the birds started singing ending the most quite night in any anchorage. It was so quite all you could hear was your own breath. The sun was just coming up as we left and since there was not a breath of air, everything reflected in the water like a mirror image it was just beautiful. As soon as we
headed into the Golfo the water was a bit churned up, but we figured out pretty soon that a current was running as the wind wasn't blowing yet. We motored all the way out the Golfo where we bypassed some dozen small fishing boats, all having spent the night out fishing. It was very calm as we headed north along the western side of the Araya Peninsula, but as soon as we turned the corner due East the wind started picking up. As usual it was right on the nose, so Sid pulled the staysail out and into
the wind we plowed. It was pretty comfortable for most of it until the last 14 miles (4 hours), the wind now was blowing with 20 plus knots. It still wasn't bad but now and then a wave would slow us down.
We're tucked in in the north western anchorage of Isla Coche called Saphire Bay in 10 feet of water and are facing a beach that is filled with outdoor restaurants, the beach covered with sunshades, a tourist trap, but the beach after the restaurants end goes for a couple of miles and ends in a small sand spit surrounded by just water, just breathtaking. Isla Coche is an unusual island for dry hills with pastel hues of red, yellow and brown, the only greenery are the palm trees by the restaurants.
I'm sure there are cactus and dry scrub to be found on the island. This island was originally inhabited by Indians and the name in their language meant deer. Coche was colonized in the 16th century by Europeans when the pearls were found in abundance. They also produced salt here which is still produced today. It inhabits 4500 people and the capital San Pedro is a town of mainly fisher folk which is to compare with Mexico in the 40s. We were just going to spend the night here but did not expect such
a cute place so I guess we'll just have to spend extra day or two.