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Diane's DiarySeptember 18 Thursday We took the dinghy out of the water today, took the engine off and cleaned the dinghy. It took us several hours to do. We did a whole bunch of other things to get ready to leave. It's just amazing how long it takes to get ready to leave- the boat just does not want to leave the docks! At 5pm, Suzi and David came over to see the varnish and have a few drinks. We didn't even have time to take a shower or swim. We all went to dinner at the restaurant. It was really great seeing them again, catching up with them, and we enjoyed their company. We had not seen them since last December in Trinidad when they headed up to the USVI for the winter. September 19 Friday Almost set to leave- although we still have a few things left. We had hoped to be gone by now but things just take so much longer to do in this heat. Since I already had the laundry done, I am just hand washing the few things we wear every day until we leave. I won't have access to a washer until we get back here and our water supply will be limited to do laundry. Another cruiser told me she got 2 small loads of laundry done in Bonaire and it was $70US! Ouch! She said the clothes probably weren't even worth that much! Anyway, I went by cab to Plaza Mayor with Suzi and David to show them around and do the last of my shopping - getting all the fresh produce and food. Larry took the awning down and cleaned it. When I got back, I cleaned and defrosted the refrigerator. A found a bottle of fabric softener had leaked in one of the closets as it had gotten a hole in it. What a mess! Thank goodness I saw it while we still were at the dock and had access to lots of fresh water as it took me a long time using lots of water to clean it up. We went out to dinner with Mima and Ariyl to the restaurant in the marina. I will be cooking myself for the next 3 months so it's a treat to eat out now. Restaurants are supposed to be pretty expensive in Bonaire so don't think we'll be eating out much. We should be ready to leave within the next few days! Can't wait to get out of here! Although we will miss Mima and wish we had more time to spend with Ariyl. September 20 Saturday Well, looks like we will leave tomorrow- finally! I had washed some more laundry in the AM. Sv Side by Side came into the marina today. They just came back from doing the exact trip we want to do so we were anxious to speak with them and let us know about everything. I did some last minute stuff like vacuuming and cleaning the head and the boat. I wanted everything cleaned while we still have access to plenty of fresh water. We definitely cannot spare the water we have to wash down the boat or any of that. We have decided to go straight through to Los Roques- about a 24-hour sail. We have already been to La Tortuga and didn't want to waste any more time there when we want to spend it in the other islands. Besides, I didn't care for Tortuga that much- I definitely prefer Blanquilla. Also, we want to get a good night sleep with the AC so if we go to Tortuga we need to leave no later than 6am in order to arrive in daylight. So, that would probably mean taking the AC out the night before and sleeping with out it. We didn't want to do that as it's really super hot here at night- not any air at all and lots of mosquitoes. So, we decided to just head straight for Los Roques which will let us leave early in the morning; we can get a good night's sleep, and still take the AC down in the morning. I started taking the Sturgeon today and it made me very sleepy so I took a 2-hour nap this afternoon. We saw Tony from Side by Side about 4:45 to 6:15 to give us a head's up about the trip. It's always good to hear from someone who recently did the trip as things definitely change. For example, the fee to go to Los Roques is about $120USD, which is a lot of money, and we don't really want to pay it. Most cruisers don't either and everyone wants to know if others had to pay it. He said no one stopped them so they didn't have to pay. It's not that we object to paying a nominal fee, it's that $120 is way out of line. Some cruisers avoid the area totally as they don't want to risk getting caught. I made chicken Parmesan for dinner with enough leftovers to take on our trip. After dinner, we went up to Mima's apartment for some goodbye drinks. We're finally going to leave in the AM! We will really miss Mima but hope they will be here when we get back. September 21 Sunday We were up at 6am doing all sorts of last minute things- taking down the AC, filling the water tanks, giving the boat a quick wash down, taking out the garbage, getting out the harnesses, putting on the jack lines, making sure the dinghy is secured, and taking last good long showers. (This will definitely be a luxury until we get back here- from now on its military showers- that means as short as possible and no running the water in between) We were exhausted just getting all these things done and we hadn't even left the docks yet! I got the Sunday paper and 2 loaves of fresh baguettes that will last until tomorrow. We were ready to leave at 9am- Steph and Tom came to the dock to say goodbye. I started the engine and something was definitely wrong with the engine, as it didn't sound right. I immediately called Larry. He looked at it and it was just the alternator that was loose. Thank goodness that's all it was! So, after a 40-minute delay, we were finally off! Hard to believe after we being stuck here for 3 months! There was very little wind so we knew we would have to motor for a while. Larry had forgotten to put the reefing lines into the mainsail after I cleaned it so we had to do that. Then the autopilot didn't work. We really need this and depend quite heavily on our third crewmember that usually works so great. This was only the second time we had trouble with it in almost 3 years so hopefully Larry can fix it. Larry took all the wine out of a locker where the autopilot is and cleaned all the connections and it worked! In the meantime, I just steered the boat. We had to motor until 4:30pm when we finally had enough wind to sail. We could have sailed prior to this but would have gone very slowly and knew we wanted to get to Los Roques between 9-12 in the morning when the sun is best to see the reefs when entering. We sailed from 4:30-11:30pm in a very beautiful sail. Even though the wind was only 10 knots the current helped us along. Anyway, on Larry's watch, the autopilot suddenly stopped working again. Oh, boy, that meant hand steering the rest of the way. No big deal some of you are saying at home but actually it is. The person steering cannot leave the helm even for a moment. That means you can't go to the bathroom, get something to drink, or take your eyes off the compass, as you will get off course. For a few hour sail it's no big deal but for us on passage only 1 person is on watch at night while the other sleeps so it is a big deal. But we had no other choice so we hand steered the rest of the night. This was a lot more tiring for both of us. Plus, the boat was rolling some since there was such little wind. Thankfully, the seas were so low; I didn't get seasick at all. It actually got very hot on the boat without the cooling effects of the wind. We had an easy time going through the southern entrance to Los Roques although it is very hard to see the cut until you are almost on top of it. I was a little nervous about it but we managed just fine. If the seas were rough, this entrance would be very difficult to do. Also, you need a sunny day when entering the cut in order to read the water. If the money you pay to the Park would guarantee that there would be channel markers around the park, it would make many cruisers feel better about paying the fees. Unfortunately, we don't see where the parks fees are going to so don't want to pay that much. Anyway, we were going to sail all the way up to Gran Roque but we were both tired from the long trip and hand steering, so we just decided to anchor behind the little island that was there when you first come in the entrance. I was glad we stopped as we were both very tired from the 27-hour passage and needed to rest. We put the sail cover on, put up some canvas to shade the cockpit and I took a nap from 3-5 pm. I woke up feeling much better and we just relaxed on the boat the rest of the day. We had the leftover chicken cutlet Parmesan and spaghetti for dinner. I always try to have food already prepared after a passage as I am usually to tired to cook. This has always worked out really well for me. I did marinate some pork in the new Emeril's marinade I bought while in the US. Larry was so exhausted he went to bed at 8 but I read until 9 than went to bed. There were 4 other boats in the anchorage with us. All in all, we had a very easy safe passage and I'm glad we made a straight run from PLC. September 23 Tuesday I gotten woken up from a really sound sleep when a large loud powerboat when zooming out of the anchorage. The loud noise woke me with a start and I couldn't get back to sleep even though I was very tired. We left the anchorage at 10:15am, as we wanted to have good light to see the reefs. We sailed up to Francisquis cay and had a beautiful sail with just the jib up. It was a gorgeous sail - absolutely no seas as we were protected behind the reef. One of the best sails we ever did as we had the wonderful reefs to port. As long as you have the right sun and do this trip in the AM it's fine as you can clearly see the reefs. We motored about ½ hour to charge the battery and than sailed. Anyway, we arrived about 1pm and then had lunch. We were both still tired from the trip so decided to launch the dinghy tomorrow and just take it easy today. Larry whipped the ends of the mooring lines. He also changed the blocks for the jib furling line as the new line was too wide for the blocks, and it was hard to take out and furl the jib. I took a nap from 2-3:15pm than made lots of chicken piccata so we could have for a few days. I finished about 5pm - just in time for happy hour! So, we relaxed, had drinks, dinner and went to bed at 9pm. September 24 Wednesday We woke up around 7am and listed to the various weather and security nets on the SSB. We don't pick up the nets well while we are in a marina but are very conscious about them while we are out at anchor. We are very aware that weather can change quickly out here and it's still hurricane season so we try to listen to the weather every day. Of course, since Larry is a ham operator now he can download weather via the SSB so this makes it easier also. Anyway, I made some of my famous homemade biscuits that Larry likes so much for breakfast. At 9am, after we had breakfast and listened to all the nets, we started taking down the dinghy. It took us about an hour to get everything all sorted out. We stopped at sv Reflections with David and Juliet - we knew them slightly in PLC. They invited us to come for drinks at 5:30pm so we said we would. We took a dinghy ride around the harbor and did some hiking around. It was very pretty but unfortunately since it's one of the closest islands to the main island of Gran Roque, they bring the weekend charter people here. So, it's very crowded with little boats zooming back and forth and lots of people. This really spoiled it for me, as it wasn't tranquil at all. In the afternoon, I worked on catching up with our finances in our Excel spreadsheet as I was months behind. I always save this work until we get out at anchor where it's peaceful to work on it. Besides, we really don't want to know how much money we are spending anyway! Anyway, we went to Reflections for drinks and had such a great time with them we stayed till 10:30 and didn't even realize it was so late! I was bombed from all those drinks- Dave makes the drinks a little too strong for me. Great folks and we enjoyed their company. They told us the fresh fruit and vegetables, and fuel boats come to Gran Roque every Friday only so that's the day to stock up as everything is the freshest and they have supplies. We used a lot of fuel coming up here since we had to motor - about 15 gallons so I would like to replace it here if possible. We have heard fuel is $4 gallon in Bonaire so it's a heck of a lot cheaper here. We only carry 76 gallons in our fuel tanks and about another 30 in our jerry jugs. But that's not enough fuel to get us all the way back to PLC as we know we will have to motor almost the entire trip back. We can get fuel easily in Marina Caraballeda on the coast of Venezuela but all other spots are a lot harder. So, I would just feel better filling up with dinghy gas and diesel now. So, we will try to go to Gran Roque on Friday to get these things. We probably won't come back here from Cayo de Agua, as it's about 15 miles due east into the wind and current. After that we will have to make good with our food supply until we get to Bonaire. Whatever we don't have we won't be able to get, so we'll just have to do without it. So, looks like we'll just go to Nordisqui tomorrow and than head for Gran Roque on Friday. |