Cayo Herradura, Isla Tortuga

We were tucked in safely behind the fairly small reef and enjoyed watching waves crash onto the reef with roaring sounds. Around cocktail time we picked up Rob and Debi, Captain Jack stayed on the boat, and went over to the reef sat or stood in waste deep of crystal clear water, watched waves crash onto the reef just feet from us but where we were the water was calm, just beautiful. The tide was on it's way out and on some corals fairly big sea urchins were halve way out of the water and a at some spots parrot fish were rolling on the surface while we sipped on some ice cold cocktails.
The next morning Captain Jack gave the crew off and we ventured over to the mile and mile long beach. It was a bit tricky to get ashore with the occasional shore breakers, but we managed without getting soaked, which was a different story when we went back. We walked a couple of miles along the pristine white sandy beach to an area with a rocky shoreline where the rocks were as flat as a table and canyons were cut out between them. They were only about 4 feet out of the water and it was spectacular when 6 foot waves rolled over them then the water cascading back into the ocean brining the rocks to view again. I could have watched this for hours. I found some good size sea escargots which made a yummy dinner. Sid found foot prints of cats with babies in the sand but never got to see the cats. He also ventured into the shrubs and found some of those bright pink pepper looking berries which grow in a cactus, yummy.
Unfortunately the following day Captain Jack decided it was time to leave for Trinidad and it was sad seeing them hoist anchor and slip out of our view as the sun was getting ready to come up. We truly had the most wonderful time with the Crew on Wind Shear in the last three months. We will miss them and hope their stay in Trinidad is short and sweet so that they can catch up with us again soon.
We pulled anchor a few hours later and motored to Cayo Herradura 3 miles further west and yet another beautiful anchorage. Cayo Herradura is the most favored of the Tortuga anchorages. The island is one mile long of mostly fine white sand. At the north end of the beach is a fishing camp and as we anchored all the pangas left and started laying nets around the island. The water here is of the an incredible turquoise blue color like somebody painted it. The contrast of the light blue water against the white sand and the dark blue ocean water behind it takes your breath away. A nice breeze is blowing keeping us cool. Oh yeah, Pizza tonight, life is good!