|
Home Port Our Logs The Crew Calendar Favorite Links The Boat Photo Album Route and Charts Miscellaneous Stuff |
Diane's DiaryJanuary 1, 2004 New Year's Day! We had such a late night last night we decided to take it somewhat easier today. A bad squall with about 25 knots of wind and lots of rain came through last night after we had gone to bed. I got out of bed to ensure everything was all right. Larry didn't hear it at all as he slept through the whole thing. It also rained one other time so I was up and down closing all the hatches. So, I didn't get great night's sleep. I didn't even get out of bed until 9:30 this morning, which is very late for me. I made stuffed French toast, this morning, which came out excellent. We were both tired so decided to dive right near our boat off of S/V Skyus as they said there was a frogfish and seahorse beneath there boat. We did find the frogfish but not the seahorse. It was exciting to see but I wish we had seen the seahorse also. Skyus pointed it out to us as we were leaving the dive site but Larry didn't have any more air left so we had to surface. We will look for it another time know that we know where it is. January 2 Friday 2004 We went into town at 9am so Larry could use the Internet. He was on the Internet till 11am. We had time left on the Internet card we had so decided to use it all up- no sense letting it go to waste as we have already paid for the time. We also went to the Carib Inn to find out how we should store our equipment since we won't be using it for a few months. We got back to the boat around 12:30 and went diving in the afternoon. We are going to head back to PLC as soon as we get a good weather window to leave. January 3 Saturday I was up at 7am and started making some Mexican lasagna for dinner. We want to fit in 2 dives today if possible as we are going to try and leave on Monday if the weather still cooperates. We left the boat at 10:30 and picked up our dive tanks. We went to Small Wall, which is definitely one of our favorite spots- it's close and is a good dive site. However, the wind was really blowing so it made the end of the dive uncomfortable as we were fighting lots of surge. It was overcast, windy and we had a little rain so I was cold at the end of the dive. I was so cold I even made soup for lunch- now that is a first! I also made grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch. We filled our dive tanks after the first dive, had lunch and at 2:30 went diving right near S/V Skyus again to see if we could find the seahorse and frogfish again. We found both and it was very exciting getting a good close up view of the seahorse. I was the one that found it and it definitely was not easy to spot. We were really happy to see them both. We got back to the boat around 5pm and had a nice Mexican lasagna dinner. I was really glad I already had dinner prepared, as I was tired from all that diving! January 4 Sunday We had a really bad nights sleep last night as it rained about 10 different times during the night. So, that meant getting up and opening and closing the hatches 10 times. Not a fun night at all! I made bacon and eggs for breakfast. We went to Skyus around 10am and they told us about Chichiriviche since they had just been there. We came back to the boat and started to get the boat ready to transit again. This means putting away everything that we took out. We took down the awning in the late afternoon after the wind died down. It is definitely a lot hotter on the boat without the awning up. You don't realize how much it helps until you take it down. Anyway, we dove in the afternoon. Looks like we won't leave Monday after all as the winds are still up some so we will wait a few days. I worked on our expenses at night. January 5 Monday The wind is East 20-25 knots with 7-9 foot seas so we are going to wait a few days before we leave. I made some scones for breakfast and they came out excellent. We went into town at 9:30am to use up the rest of out Internet time. I called Dad and Aunt Mary with the rest of the phone card I had. We went to Wanna Dive's retail store in town to look at some dive computers. Their prices are almost $85 higher than we can get from the Internet so we will wait to get them until we go home. We got back to the boat around noon, had lunch and went diving near SV Skyus in the afternoon. We saw a frogfish- yellow one and a seahorse- very exciting! We got back to the boat around 4:15 and I made the pizza crust right away so we could have pizza for dinner. I worked on my logs at night. January 6 Tuesday It rained off and on again last night so we were up opening and closing all the hatches again. The weather report still has not improved much so hopefully we'll just leave within the next night or so. We want to leave at night so we arrive during daylight. I made red kidney beans in the pressure cooker and made some chili for the trip so we have a meal already prepared. At 10:30am, we went overboard to clean the hull. The water is filthy in PLC so e will not clean it at all than. We finished at 12 and were exhausted from all that work. We had lunch and rested. At 1:30pm, we went to dive Something Special- our last dive before we leave Bonaire! It certainly was a great dive as we saw an octopus; a huge flounder and Larry found another frogfish. No one even knew it was there- he just found it. It was a green frogfish in some purple tube sponges and was definitely difficult to see. We also finished using our underwater camera. We paid our bill with the dive shop and hurried home to listen to the weather at 4:30pm. But unfortunately there was no weather today! Just when we needed it most too! I made some brownies but mistook some salt for sugar so had the throw the whole bunch out, as it was horrible! January 7 Wednesday and January 8 Thursday I got really bad nights sleep last night and was up late. Could it be that caffeine is really affecting me and keeping me awake? We went to the Internet café to use up our time, cleared out with customs, and went to the supermarket to get a few things. They had no sugar left in the store and most other supplies were severely depleted also. But I wanted to get just a few things so we could make it back to PLC as there are no supermarkets back along the way. The rest of the day was spent preparing to leave. I like Bonaire a lot except for the prices- VE is SO much cheaper it's ridiculous. However, you also get a safe feeling here in Bonaire that you definitely don't get in Venezuela. However, all things considered, I think I like VE better. The people in VE are much nicer than Bonaire- maybe because they don't get as many tourists here. However, the diving in Bonaire sure can't be beat. We went to pay our marina bill and get rid of the garbage. We got the dinghy up on deck and generally got everything ready to leave tonight. We finally left the mooring about 8:40pm. The first hour we were in the lee of Bonaire so it was a very easy sail. We were motor sailing so we could charge the batteries, as they were pretty low. We had an East wind 15-18 knots with about 5-7 foot seas. We were on a beam reach and the boat was really rocking and rolling. I definitely got seasick. The wind subsided as we pulled further away from Bonaire and I started to feel better. We arrived at Chichriviche around 10am. Larry wanted to go into the Golfo de Cuare but we couldn't read the water since it was so dirty and the sun was in our face. We went aground numerous times and the last time was the worse. We had to get the dinghy down and pull the boat over on its side to get out. I really didn't think we would get out of there. But thankfully, after about an hour we finally got free. I had told Larry that Skyus suggested we not go back in there but he insisted. So, we went to anchor near Cayo Los Muertos, which looked beautiful but was full of people and pirogues zipping by. It really was very noisy and we got a lot of boat wakes. I didn't like it at all but it was better than getting stuck in the mud again. We took it easy the rest of the day. I tried to sleep but couldn't with all the noise going on. It is nice to be back in VE again. Fortunately, they all left by 6pm and there was only one other cruising boat here so we had a nice peaceful anchorage to ourselves. We had chili for dinner and were in bed by 8pm as we were totally exhausted by than. Some rain woke us up at 5am but we slept until 8am when we spoke with Mima via SSB. They are planning on leaving PLC shortly and we will probably miss each other. Normally, I would be upset about this but I know we will see them in the spring so I wasn't to upset. We would have liked them to be there on our return but we understood they had a good weather window and wanted to leave. |