10/08/07 Laguna Grande again

Ed got sick before I did, he thinks we got it on the ferry as there was a guy behind us in line, coughing and sneezing and spreading his germs. Early in the morning instead of lifting anchor, Sid ordered us all to go back to bed, it was his turn to be sick. Three out of four calls for a day of rest. The 6 or 7 other boats in the anchorage must have heard us on the radio as they lifted anchor and left us alone like we had the plaque. Neither one of us felt good but we tried to go ashore later in the
afternoon after Linda, the only one feeling good, was done baking. That got spoiled by huge thunderclouds rolling in and heaven's water faucet opened up, so the whole day was spent on the boat. The wind usually comes out of the east but after the rain had passed we were pointing west and thunderclouds were still towering in that direction. A couple of hours later a soft swell came rolling into the anchorage. By sundown the soft swell increased to a good size roll and by 8 pm it was pretty uncomfortable
and waves of 4 feet surged through the anchorage tossing us around and as waves started to break behind us we pulled anchor as we were sitting in only 10 feet of water which by the bobbing now was reduced to 8 feet. We decided to drop anchor in deeper water and started inching out of the shallow anchorage. We did the Caribbean two step, two forward and one back and barley moved through the water as each time slamming in to the waves they would bring us to an almost dead stop. So decision was made
to keep going 8 miles to the backside of Isla Cubagua, Dreamtime in hot pursuit. I was thinking about what our friends in general say or ask about cruising and two came to my mind: "What do you do out there?" and "You have such a romantic life!" I smirked about these two thinking: "Oh, yes it's sooooooooo romantic doing a midnight cruise with a firework show all around us!" Bobbing up and down and the bow digging in and under the water for 4 hours and thunderstorms all around us. So what do we do
out here, that really is a very good question LOL. About three miles before the island as we were getting into the lee, the seas lightened up and at one o'clock warmed by a hot cup of tea we hit the sack in a calm anchorage.
A soft clank, clank, clank, clank brought me out of my deep sleep and a smile came to my face as my nostrils filled with the pleasant smell of fresh brewed coffee. I'm sooooooo spoiled, Sid wakes me up with a fresh cup of coffee every morning and the clank, clank I hear is him clanking the spoon onto the cup to announce it was time for coffee, usually it's 8 bells, no matter what time it is. Five minutes later we pulled anchor and headed our way towards Laguna Grande. Last time we left Isla Cubagua
with Welsh Rover a beautiful red sunset greeted us and as the riddle states "red sky in the morning, sailor takes warning" we got some nasty weather. Well.......... this morning the sky was a bit read too, not us much and we had a breeze already so I hope we'll be having a good day. After I finished writing this I made us some breakfast, well if you call cornflakes with milk that and had just about time for one bite when BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ the fishing lure hissed, announcing we had dinner on the
hook. Sid reeled an about 10 pound nice Dorado in but as he lifted dinner out of the water, dinner disappeared and all there was to see was a lonely lure dangling off the pool and our long faces with disappointment. But that didn't encourage us and we dropped the lure back into the water. I tell you I'd rather be fishing on a powerboat then on a sailboat. A sailboat has too many obstructions, before we can reel the fish in we have to pull the jib in, then fold the bimini back and them comes the fish,
not an easy thing, but still rewarding if we land a nice fish, not today.
We had to motor the whole entire trip with a very light breeze blowing. About 8 miles before Laguna Grande the wind died completely and it turned into a sauna, very uncomfortably hot. But then our minds got distracted as the water started to get busy around us as dolphins jumped out of the water and towards us. We had them for at least an hour around us and we watched as they playfully swam as close to the hull of Paradise and then did a circle and repeated the whole thing. We even could hear them
talk to each other. They followed us all the way to the entrance of Laguna Grande.
Just as we reached the entrance the normal breeze started to blow and we were glad to have missed the swells that would follow. We headed into the very calm bay and dropped the anchor in the anchorage of our first visit. Earlier we had noticed a huge thundercloud inching it's way across the bay and just as the anchor hooked up the rain started. It was a good hour and a half of heavy rain, the boat got a good wash and we filled up two five gallon buckets of water. Laguna Grande is a desert area, not
much grows here but it was fascinating to watch all the rivers of muddy clay colored water rush down the hill and into the bay. In now time the boat was surrounded with this clay colored mud. We also watched some twenty little birds taking a bath in the rain while flying, they sure had a great time. The rain washed everything clean and after the last drop of rain fell it was so quite you could here a pin drop. It took a few minutes and then the birds started chirping. Are we in and on Paradise or
what.