Los Roques & Los Aves

            After leaving Puerto La Cruz and spending a few days in the idyllic island of Tortuga, the Coileys and Double waters headed west to the famous Los Roques islands. With rather rough weather and seasickness apparent, we decided to head for the Northern entrance that would take us round the leeward side of the islands. We anchored in the lagoon at Fransiscquis in abut 11 metres, with perfect calm water and white sand beaches.

            The long beaches to the south just begged for a visit and we obliged- Grum, Jack and Jed took the dingy ashore for swimming and bamboo-cane pirate sword fights…

            Next day George, Jack and Jed set out in the dingy in search of snorkelling spots whilst Mum and Dad had a drink with Tim and Pauline on Nanou. We found an incredible underwater coral wall with caves and tunnels that were teeming with fish and other creatures. The water was crystal clear and about 5 metres deep - Perfect!

            Of course, on the 18^th came jacks birthday- celebrations, pancakes loaded with syrup, chocolate cake made purely to make your sides burst and an assortment of presents including a diver’s watch with a depth gauge.

            A morning dingy trip took us out past the islands to the north where we found another reef for snorkelling and a small kite-surfing school…

 That evening, while Mum stayed aboard to prepare dinner, the rest of us headed over to the island for our first kite surfing lesson. We learnt how to fly the kites and tested out a few tricks- figures of eights and flips. The next day we went out with the full sized kites and tried body dragging, where you let the kite drag you through the water.

            After five days in Los Roques, we headed off on a 6 hour sail to Los Aves, arriving in the early afternoon with a big barracuda trailing behind us on the fishing line. The shoreline of our first anchorage was a mass of mangrove trees, palms and birds- Pelicans, gannets and frigate birds took up all the space on every tree in sight. A trip ashore revealed giant land crabs and lizards and also hundreds of tiny gannet chicks that looked like balls of cotton wool. Our second anchorage was just off a tiny island that was littered with mountains of dead coral and conch shells. The weather was pretty rough and we had a huge squall just as we were arriving. The small beach offered fort building and games while the anchorage was a brilliant free-diving spot- about 8 metres.

            After dad’s birthday, which included snorkelling trips and a brand-new type of homemade sweet - strawberry coral -, we set off into the ocean, heading for the ABCs…