Twenty-Seven Fish in Thirteen Hours

Blanquilla, Venezuela

Another nighttime departure from Los Testigos and we were off to Blanquilla, a small, low-lying island about 90 miles away. This was supposed to be another great fishing area so at dawn we put the fishing pole out, only to discover that we already had a large catch. Sometime during the night, 25 flying fish had landed on our deck. We were excited because love flying fish sandwiches, but unfortunately they were all too small for eating. Luckily we would not go hungry, in addition to the flying fish as we also caught a Black Fin Tuna and a Mahi Mahi (with the pole) before making landfall.

Blanquilla has just one small settlement with fishermen and a small garrison of the National Guard, along with beautiful beaches, crystal clear water and great snorkeling. The island is dry and only 50-feet high, not your typical lush tropical island. There are only four anchorages here and we tested out three of them, settling on Playa Yaque.

While we were not the only boat in the area, we did have one anchorage all to ourselves with a palm tree, white sand beach view.

We decided to take a walk on the island and visit the settlement. Although very dry, it was also beautiful with large cactus plants that looked like sculptures.

Our cruiser’s guide warned that sturdy shoes were required to protect against the thousands of small flowering cactuses that cover the ground. What the guide didn’t say was that leather pants would also be prudent as the cactuses are jumpers. They would just come out of nowhere and attached their sticky thorns into ankles and knees. After a few cactus encounters, we decided to keep the hike short and skip the settlement visit.

We explored other parts of the island by dinghy, swam and caught up on our reading. Our only encounters with the locals were when fishermen came by, smiled, waved and anchored their dinghy behind us while they went out for the day. We still aren’t sure if they left it there for us to protect, or simply because they could find it again more easily with Berkeley East as a land mark.