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Diane's DiaryOctober 10 Friday We went to sleep at 8pm last night as we both hadn't slept much from the night before. We were woken up by a sudden increase in wind around 5am. Thankfully, Larry got the wind scoop down just before it really started to rain out. There was lots of rain, thunder and lightening. The storm lasted for an hour till around 6am. We finally got back to bed and slept until 8am. The sky was still black with lots of thunderstorms still around although not immediately over us. The wind was also up so we decided to just stay put until it was all over. I marinated some pork for dinner and did some cleaning. We finally got to leave around 9:45am for Gran Roque. The seas were still up some but thankfully we just had a short trip so it wasn't too bad and were safely anchored by 11:40am. I gathered the shopping bags, some money, (something we haven't used in awhile!) and the garbage and we were off. I was afraid the stores would close for lunch at 12 and would be closed the normal 2-hour siesta so wanted to arrive at the store before noon, as that is when they usually close for lunch. Larry dropped me off and took the dinghy to get rid of the garbage. The stores were just putting their stuff into the shelves as they had just gotten their delivery. So, since they were just stocking the shelves it took me a while to shop as they were stocking while I was buying! There are only 2 "stores" in Gran Roque and both get their food from different boats that come from the mainland once a week on Fridays. One boat came in that day and so that store had food but the other did not. The other's boat had engine trouble and had not arrived yet. I got back to the boat around 1pm. The stores don't have that much but just enough like onions, carrots, some cheese, eggs and bread. The stores certainly do not have enough for a major provisioning but just enough food for minor stock up. We know we're going to be out in the Aves for at least a month so we need all the fresh produce we can get now. Anyway, while I was waiting on the pier for Larry to pick me up in the dinghy, I saw they had 2liter bottles of diet coke! They did not have this the last time we were here! Since our coke supply is dwindling and we heard soda is very expensive in Bonaire - $3USD per bottle, I decided to get some more here. The price here was .80USD per bottle vs. .54 in PLC so it wasn't too bad. The guy told me to come back to the store around 2pm and I could get some more. So, we went back to the boat, had lunch, got dinghy gas and I went back to the store around 2 to get the soda. I bought 30 bottles- hope this all lasts us till we get back to PLC as I am not going to buy it in Bonaire at $3USD per bottle! We left Gran Roque under motor sail around 3:10pm- tired and sweaty but glad to be underway. We were too tired to sail and since the wind was light, Larry wanted to make sure we got to Crasqui while we still had good light. We arrived with the anchor down, around 4:40pm and sat and had a drink. Later, we went to shore for a long walk and swim. I'm glad we came back to Crasqui tonight- Gran Roque is OK for a few hours but than it's good to just get the heck out of there! The anchorage is exposed, rolly, and to many local boats zooming by. I definitely like Crasqui and would recommend it to any boater. October 11 Saturday We left Crasqui motor-sailing at 9:30am. We motored for about an hour to charge the batteries and to get through the cut between Sarqui and Espenqui. We turned off the iron jenny (the motor for you non-sailors) and sailed the rest of the way under jib only back to Cayo de Agua. As we looked through the binoculars we could see there were no other boats in the anchorage - good! However, upon making our approach, an old dilapidated catamaran coming in from Las Aves fell in behind us, decided we were going to slow and cut right across our bow! He then anchored in the exact spot we wanted to anchor in! Since we didn't want to anchor to close we had to pick another spot so we went closer to shore. We arrived with the anchor down around 2pm. Another boat that obviously knew the catamaran, came in also and anchored near them. The wind was light again and it was hot so we just went skinny dipping around the boat. In the middle of the night (why do things always happen in the middle of the night?), the wind picked up a lot and we were really rocking and rolling. From that point on, we really did NOT get a good night's sleep as the boat was really rocking. We also were watching to see if we were dragging. October 12 Sunday The wind calmed down some but we decided to go snorkeling this afternoon- maybe the wind will decrease some more by then. I made some cheese omelets, defrosted the freezer, put the vegetables into the "green" long life shelf bags, and cleaned the bathroom. We went snorkeling around 2pm while the wind was still blowing, the snorkeling was still good even with the wind. We spent the rest of the afternoon reading. I am reading another David Poyer book Steph gave me but it's not nearly as good as his other ones. October 13 Monday- our Wedding Anniversary! Happy Anniversary! Today is our 18th! Usually we go to a nice restaurant for dinner but since there's no place to go to around here, I guess we'll just have a nice dinner on the boat - we have no choice about that! We had lomito and a nice bottle of champagne I had bought in Margarita for dinner. Anyway, we have lots of wind today - it's blowing to about 20 knots. I wish we had gone to Las Aves today, as we would have had a very fast passage. But it turns out it was good we didn't leave as I was sick with some cramps this morning so just laid around reading until 11am. I hand washed the laundry and it took almost an hour to do. Larry put the clothesline up for me. We tried to hang up the clothes but they were really blowing around - especially the sheet! Larry had to hold the sheet till it dried a little as we were afraid it would blow away the wind was blowing so hard! We dried the rest of it inside the boat. I was exhausted when I finished all this work! We went snorkeling in the afternoon and saw a stingray chasing a huge school of very small fish. It was just excellent and what a wonderful Anniversary gift! The wind died in the afternoon and we are getting almost no wind now. We took off the dinghy engine, took down the canvas and got ready to leave in the morning. We decided that since the wind was going to be light out and we were going downwind, we would tow the dinghy. This is the first time we have ever towed it in an exposed sea. We did tow it around Gran Roque but it's protected from the seas by all the reefs. October 14 Tuesday We left around 7am, as we wanted to wait until we felt the sun was high enough in the sky to see the reefs to exit. The light was marginal at 7am but enough so we could see to exit the anchorage. We motor-sailed until 10:30am to charge the batteries. The wind was due east 10-15 knots later increasing to 18. The seas were about 3-4 feet with an occasional 5-foot however; they were from 2 different directions so it was making me seasick. I didn't actually get sick but I didn't feel so great either. Things got much better for my seasickness after we shut the engine down and sailed under jib alone. We arrived around 12:30pm but it took us about an hour to negotiate the reefs and get into the anchorage. We saw 2 boats leaving so we took their spot and it was just gorgeous- we were the only ones in the anchorage UNTIL less than 1 hour later when a small engineless trimaran anchored very close to us! We were upset as with all this space around they chose to anchor near us! Anyway, there was nothing we could do, as we did not want to leave. Since they had no engine we suspected they did not have a water maker either so did not think they would stay very long. Around 4pm, we put the engine back on the dinghy and took it over to see the birds in our anchorage. There were hundreds of them all chatting away and it was wonderful! However, it was windless and very buggy near the mangrove so we didn't stay very long- we'll come back another day! I had one package of fresh ravioli left and we had that for dinner, as I was too tired to cook. The wind was blowing just the perfect amount - not too much or too little. We were able to fill up the water tanks and even had enough electric to watch a movie! Now that is big time! We only watched part of the movie, as we were both tired since we didn't sleep well last night. We went to bed early. October 15 Wednesday The left side of the sink is clogged. I stupidly poured citronella candle wax down the drain and it clogged the drain. Larry had to take the sink apart and when he did a nut on the drain broke. So, we can't use that side of the sink right now, which isn't very good. He worked on it all morning. He was pretty mad at me about the whole thing. Oh well, it was just an accident. The wind decreased again. We went for a walk on the island in the afternoon. It was a really nice hike but very hot since there was no wind. There were sand flies on the island that we didn't know about so we got bitten up on our ankles. We watched a really nice lightening show from our boat at night that was thankfully far away from us. It was really beautiful. October 16 Thursday I did some emails in the morning and we went snorkeling at 11am. We try to go between 10-11am in the morning and then from 2-3 in the afternoon as the sun is high during those times to give good light to the reefs. Anyway, I found another conch. Larry opened it up and I skinned it. I then prepared it for conch fritters. While I prepared the conch, Larry went snorkeling to the nearby reefs. He also cleaned the waterline and I scrubbed the green algae off it. We had the conch fritters as an appetizer and than burgers for dinner. It doesn't get much better than this! We had no wind again today so had to run the engine for an hour to charge the batteries. I never thought we would have had to run the engine so much out here - we had always heard there was too much wind out here but that hasn't been the case at all. |