We wanted to on Thursday. We staged on Friday...and now it's Saturday, with the weather cooperating...FINALLY. We are over it...the weeks of squalls...the troughs and the waves have all been very trying...REALLY! Anegada here we come!

We've had plenty of time to sike ourselves silly with quotes like this: ..."your approach to such dangerous shores should only be made in daylight and good visibility. You should also be sure to study your charts carefully before you set out and then navigate carefully so you know without mistake exactly where you will arrive." Landfall is another story!

We sailed, which is great news aboard Altair...and when we arrived, excited to get in the water and become one with the undersea wonderworld...got the scare of all scares! We've been so brainwashed to take care upon entering the reefs here that I'm skittish. We timed it to be high noon when we arrive...my captain is on deck with his shade tree hat, his poloroid lenses and his eyes that he's trained over the years to read the water. Now the way points that were chosen with care and triple checked...have us on the right side of the first red channel mark heading smack into the reefs. I can see we are dead center of the markers, Dudley sees and I cannot see the water...the weather is starting to revert to the squally mass we've been accustomed to lately and the second set of red and green channel buoys don't make sense!

As usual, my captain prevails...slow down...gently approach the next red with caution and we eventually saw our way to our anchorage without harm.

We are happy to say that weather held out in our favor just long enough to help us see our way into the channel making a large detour to the west to get around the coral reef off Pomato Point. Between that and Raffling Pt. there's a long sandy beach that we have every intention of exploring. It's almost deserted and is one of the loveliest and wildest you can get to by boat in the Caribbean. Jacques Patuelli's guide says the best anchorage is north of Pomato Point where a nick in the shoals lets you get a bit closer to the beach...NOT...we're going to take a mooring in 6.5' of water...thank you very much!