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Diane's Diary6/22 Friday Today we went snorkeling on the inner reef at 11. We found a new spot to snorkel in that we really like. There are no moorings out there- actually there were- the ball is just gone. So, you have to have a dinghy anchor. The good thing is the charters don't have dinghy anchors so they don't come to this spot. We saw a black tip reef shark & stingray. Fantastic! Lots of great coral & alleys to swim into. I like this much better than the outer reef as there is less current. Plus, it's better for the underwater camera. I organized another cruiser potluck on the beach from 4-7. We all had a good time. 6/23 Saturday We went snorkeling on the inner reef in our new "Spot" from 11-1. I was tired from all that snorkeling when we got back. We had lunch & I finished my "Diana" book. I just had to see how it ended- she died( !!!). Larry took the dinghy over to the beach to get some pictures with the digital camera while I read my book. We had Kristali over for cocktails & drinks. Their 15year old son Michael was thrilled to watch a movie as their VCR was broken. We all had a good time. 6/24 Sunday We had bacon & eggs for breakfast. We went snorkeling out on our new dinghy spot with Kristali. However, we had only been snorkeling about an hour when a squall looked like it was approaching so we headed back to the boat. Larry wanted to go back in the afternoon so we took Michael from Kristali with us. The light is definitely better in the morning for taking pictures. I made some more bread later in the afternoon. We watched another video at night. We have been getting so much electric out here between the wind & sun we can use a lot of electric. It's nice to be able to do that! Usually we are so careful with how much we consume. 6/25 Monday Another Tropical wave came in last night with winds of about 20-25. It was too windy to go snorkeling so we stayed on the boat all day. A noticed some of our cans in the can locker had rust on them. This must have been when the windlass was leaking. The leak has been repaired but I really had to get to all the cans. I emptied the entire locker & found about 40 cans that had gotten salt water on them & were starting to rust. Larry & I washed all the rusty cans & tried to get as much rust off as possible. We had to peel the labels off & label each can. What a lot of work - it took hours. I borrowed a hairdryer from Kristali & defrosted the freezer. I last did it in Bequia a few weeks ago. Hope this doesn't mean I'm going to have to continue to defrost it this frequently. It's a lot of work. I also made bread - I'm getting pretty good at it except I'm running out of white flour. I also used the last of the prosciutto & made penne ala vodka. Larry cleaned the boat bottom. It was disgusting. We just cleaned the waterline a few days ago also. The bottom of the keel was full of growth as the paint had been scrapped away. Oh well, we're going to paint the bottom in Venezuela or Trinidad. It's been almost a year since we put Destiny in the water. Needless to say, with all this work, we were exhausted when we were finished. We watched a James Bond video this evening. 6/26 Tuesday It's still blowing 20-25 knots with higher gusts up to 30 knots so we decided not to go anywhere. The winds are not from the tropical wave but just from an increased pressure gradient. It looks like another Tropical wave is due to come in here within the next day or so. I am definitely ready to move on - looks like we're not going to get any more snorkeling in for a few days because the wind is too strong to snorkel. We are going to try & get to Union Island tomorrow to clear out. Today I was on the PC a good part of the day updating my logs & doing email. It's been cloudy & the wind has been gusty the entire day. 6/27 Wednesday Another Tropical wave passed by last night. This one wasn't supposed to come till Thursday or Friday but had speeded up. They often speed up as they get closer to the island chain. Around 3pm last night we started to get gusts high gusts. We found out later from another cruiser that the gusts reached up to 58 knots. Good thing Larry shut off the wind generator. It doesn't give us any amps at that speed. Also, it could ruin the wind generator at that high speed. We were very safe in the anchorage. The holding is very good here. Ever since we dragged in Anse Mitan, Martinque we check our anchor by diving on it every time we anchor. Also, with the reef protecting us we have had very little wave action in the anchorage. We actually worry more about the charter boats as we know they do not know how to anchor. Anyway, since it's still blowing out & it's cloudy, it's not a good day for snorkeling. So, we stayed on the boat again today for the third day in a row. We are both starting to get "cabin" fever. Now I know what the people in Alaska must feel like over the long dark winter. We had really enjoyed our Alaska trip during the summer but I don't think I would like the winters! I spent the morning reading old SSCA bulletins. After lunch, I spent the day checking our credit card statements to ensure we were changed the correct amount & were not changed for something we had not purchased. All was well. I also balanced our checkbook & that took me a few hours, as it hadn't been balanced since December! Fortunately, between Dad & I we haven't written to many checks on the account so it wasn't too bad. 6/28 Thursday Well, we finally dragged ourselves away from the Tobago Cays today. We were here for 2 weeks. We didn't want to leave but the weather doesn't look like it will improve soon & since it's too windy & cloudy to go snorkeling there is nothing to do. We probably would have stayed if we could have snorkeled some more. We left the Tobago Cays around 10am taking the southern passage to Union Island. Although this passage cuts through reefs, I had already been here before & felt comfortable I knew where the reefs were. Even though it was cloudy, we could still see the reefs. We arrived at Union around 11. We only went to Union to clear out. Since we had heard the anchoring was poor here & we would only be there for 2 hours, we picked up a mooring for 10 EC- about $4USD. Larry wanted to stay with the boat as we were anchored near a boat that had gone up on the reef. With the wind blowing from the east we were fine but if it had shifted, we would have gone right into the boat. I paid a boat boy $5EC about 2 USD roundtrip to take me to shore. It was not worth to put the engine in the dinghy for such a short time. I went to customs & immigration, bought some bread, bought some fruits & vegetables, went to the supermarket, went to the bank, got some rotis for lunch (the worse ones we had yet - they had the bones in them) & was back at the boat by 1pm. We ate lunch & then motored over to Chatham Bay where all the other cruisers are. We did not feel safe in the anchorage in Clifton there was too many reefs around & the holding was not good. We left Clifton around 1:30 & motored over to Chatham Bay arriving around 2:15. We had heard there were manta rays in the water here so that's the reason we came over here in the first place. So, we went snorkeling with S/V Kristali but we didn't see any rays in the water. The water was not as clear as the Tobago Cays & the snorkeling wasn't nearly as good. However, we did have a cocktails only party on the beach around 4:30 with a bunch of other cruisers. We all had a great time. |