Is this the start of the rainy season?

Is this the start of the rainy season?

Friday 17^th and Saturday 18^th  May 2024

On the first night at Sandy Island, it rained overnight.  The second night was dry but rain began about seven this morning.  We wonder if this is the start of the rainy season?  I naively thought that it would be cooler once the rains began.  Ha! Perhaps we are just seeing some enhanced squall activity...

Our plan for the morning was to motor north to a cove called Anse La Roche. The guide-book suggested that there was good snorkeling.  Also, if there were no swell from the north, the anchorage would be suitable for an overnight.  The current conditions have swell coming from the east.  We set off expecting to stay overnight.  When we arrived at the cove, there was only one other boat anchored.  We backed quite hard on the anchor and were pretty convinced it was solid.  That seemed important as there were a lot of rocks some 300 ft behind us!  After watching the GPS trace for quite a while, we set off to snorkel.  Mike heroically rowed the dinghy to the beach.  Without the engine, it’s a lot easier to pull the boat up onto the sand.  We donned the snorkel gear and set off along the north coast of the cove.  Indeed, the snorkeling was good—quite a lot of fish, including clouds of tiny minnows, so dense that the visibility was diminished.  

Returning to Cotinga, we realized that the wind had dropped and the boat was broadside to the waves.  While I was ferreting in the canned goods cupboard for items for lunch, I started to feel distinctly unwell.  We took the decision to leave and return to Sandy Island.  As we were rushing around, trying to get the anchor up while starting the water maker, things went a bit pear-shaped.  We only realized that the auto-pilot was not engaged, once we were struggling to get the genoa flying well.  That was nearly a disaster, as we went closer to the rocks on the edge of the bay that we would have intended!  The wind was quite gusty (8 - 21 knots) and I was still feeling marginal. Thankfully, the strong winds meant that the trip back to Sandy Island was pretty quick. We did manage to snag the mooring on the first attempt, but, weren’t able to pull in enough line to make it easy to thread the second line.  A little forward thrust from the engine was required.  Eventually, we were set.  It’s strange that this open anchorage seems to have less motion than that little bay.  

Gloria      

Sunset from Sandy Island. ("split tone" Black and White). 

The "Dainty Dog" dragged up the beach on Sandy Island. I made a solo trip to shore but the sunset wasn't great. Interestingly, we had one good and two lame sunsets for our three nights moored off Sandy Island . The dinghy and outboard together weigh ~ 130 pounds, but add in the fuel tank and anchor for a total of ~ 160 pounds and it's a struggle to haul it up the beach. Add in my camera gear and thats 260 pounds ... I exaggerate (a bit!).

The beach on the lee side of Sandy Island (15 s exposure, 200 mm lens, tripod)

The only other boat in Anse La Roche. We thought this was way too close to La Roche! We saw a dinghy on the beach and were concerned that nobody was aboard teh catamaran and they were dragging. It turns out there were people on board, they checked their anchor and seemed certain all was well. They too retired back to Sandy Island for teh night.

When we returned from our day trip to Anse La Roche the foil boarders and kite boarders were in action

Foil boarding

Kete boarding