To the northeast is a wrecked ship sitting on the reef, slowly rusting and disintegrating. It's not really a warm and pleasant sight. Another lies to the southeast. To the north we can see the hills of Grand Roque, and to the west we can see the low profile of land and mangroves that fringe the inner reef which is the center piece of the archipelago, though unnavigable and a restricted area.
The reef blocks the waves and swell, but there is nothing to block the trade winds so we have a steady breeze, quite boisterous this afternoon at 18-22kts. This is basically an isolated and desolate place. This morning with just 10kts of wind it was very tranquil, but at 20+ it becomes less pleasant.
We swam out towards the reef and the water was noticeably cooler than in the east Caribbean. Despite the fact that we sailed at least a couple hundred miles south, the water and air are both about 2-3 degrees cooler. OK, the air is still 81 and the water is still 80, but it's definitely cooler. Unfortunately our our swimming navigation was poor and we were not swimming to the closest point of the reef. We started to feel awfully small as the boat became more and more distant so we turned back. We did find a small school of Caribbean reef squid under the boat, same cute little squid we saw last spring in Les Saintes.
I think tomorrow we'll move to the western side of the archipelago and try to find something more protected.
