La Blanquilla to Los Roques

Wednesday 20th August
We had some thunder and lightening in the early hours, followed by heavy rain, it continued to rain until mid morning when we decided to go snorkeling. We had only been out a few minutes when we spotted the National Guard approaching the boats, so we swam back to Daisy to wait for them. they visited the two new boats that had arrived in the night, then waved to us as they passed, but didn't stop to come aboard. After lunch we were approached by a fishing vessel, we traded a bag of Starbucks coffee for 3 beautiful freshly caught red snapper, the fishermen wanted cigarettes, but as none of us smoke the coffee had to do, but they seemed happy with the exchange. We were kept very busy for the rest of the afternoon getting the boat ready for the next leg of our trip to Los Roques which we estimated would take about 15 hours.
Unfortunately one of the davits broke while Danni was bringing the dinghy up and Bob had to spend a couple of hours fixing it, Andy and Roger came over for a drink at sunset, and Roger helped Bob with the repair. As we watched the sunset, we saw the "green flash" it's only the second time I have seen it, but it was quite clear, dispelling all the myths that it doesn't exist. After a quick dinner we finally weighed anchor at 9pm, much later than we had hoped to leave, and there was no moon so we motored slowly out of the bay in total darkness...
Bob took the 9pm to midnight watch, while Danni attempted to sleep on deck, then Danni took the midnight to 3am watch, when she woke me to take watch until 6am. The seas were very calm, and there was no wind. Lightening storms flashed constantly behind and to starboard of us, I was a little nervous, but fortunately they didn't come close. The moon had finally risen so we had good visibility at last. The lightening continued all through the night and at sunrise the skies were heavy with cloud and the thunder continued to rumble all around us. I went back to bed at 6am and Bob took the watch.