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Diane's DiaryOctober 17 Friday We still have a light east wind less than 10 knots. I made some stuffed French toast from my favorite cookbook this morning and it was excellent. We will definitely add this to our breakfast list! I also made some crab cakes with some canned crab I had. I updated my logs for a short time before we went snorkeling. Sv Koncerto is coming in this morning - they called us on the SSB to tell us they would be here. We have not seen them since last Christmas in Margarita so it will be nice to catch up with them again. We went snorkeling while we waited for them to come. The other boat anchored right next to us left this morning so we were by ourselves in the anchorage for about an hour until Koncerto came in. Some fisherman came by this morning. They wanted cigarettes but we didn't have any. Instead, we traded a cheap bottle of Pompero rum for 2 red snappers about 3.5lbs each. The fisherman scaled it and cleaned it for us. Good trade we thought - wish they would stop by more often! Anyway, we were out snorkeling when Koncerto came in. They anchored near us but not on top of us like the other boat did. We stopped by their boat on our way back from snorkeling. We invited them over to the boat for drinks tonight. They came over around 4:30pm and stayed till 10:30 and we all had a nice time catching up with each other. The wind increased to about 25 knots while they were here and blew like that the whole night. October 18 Saturday The wind is still gusting to about 25 knots - way too high to go snorkeling so we decided to go for a walk on the island with Anna and Clyff. When the wind is that high, it's not much fun snorkeling as there are too many waves making snorkeling difficult and the water is churned up, decreasing visibility. We left at 10:45am and hiked the island for 3 hours. Larry was in his glory as there were so many birds for him to take pictures of. The birds, mostly boobies, were just fantastic and we saw a lot of babies, mothers sitting on eggs and just tons of birds in general. We all really enjoyed it and it was nice getting off the boat to stretch our legs. We came back and I had to take a nap I so was tired. We decided to eat dinner together so I brought one of the snapper over and made my famous snapper recipe. Anna made coleslaw and rice. We had so much wind today we ran the water maker for 4.5 hours and filled up the tanks! We always try to keep the tanks as full as possible as you never know what may happen. When the wind is strong enough it's better to fill the water tanks when you can as we sometimes go for days without enough wind to run the water maker. We really need to run the water maker every day though to keep the tanks as full as possible. Anyway, we had so much electric we even watched some more TV! It was a Snow White video - I haven't seen that movie in years. We didn't finish it as Larry wanted to do email and we can't have the TV on while he's doing it. October 19 Sunday I made bacon and eggs for breakfast, then cooked another pound of bacon. I had to cook it in 2 batches, as it wouldn't all fit in at one time. I will use the bacon for spaghetti carbonara tonight for dinner. I also made a crust less quiche from a recipe that Shirley from sv The Road gave me. So, I was cooking and cleaning up till about 10:30am. I than copied some recipes from a cookbook from New Zealand that Anna lent me. At 1pm, we went snorkeling out on the reef with Koncerto. The wind was still a bit strong so snorkeling was a bit difficult. The winds were out of the east about 18 knots. We got back around 3pm. I got a conch and so did Cliff so we offered to help show them how to open it up. We went over there and showed them and than came back to Destiny around 5pm for drinks and dinner. We had so much electric we got to finish watching our Snow White video. However, the wind died over night. October 20 Monday The wind is out of the east about 12-15 knots so it has calmed down considerably. We had our crust-less quiche for breakfast and it was excellent. We both worked on computer work in the morning. In the afternoon, we went to burn our garbage on the island as it was cloudy out so a perfect day to do it. We did not get together with Koncerto today. We had so much electric we were able to watch another video tonight. October 21 Tuesday We went snorkeling around 11am and found a really good spot. We even got a lobster but he was dead! There were plenty of fish and really clear water. We went over to Koncerto around 3pm and played this game called "Cash Flow" that was pretty good. I brought over a big bowl of chili for dinner for all of us. Anna made coleslaw. October 22 Wednesday We are going to go out to the barrier reefs tomorrow as the wind is supposed to be light for the next several days. I made bread today, as we are completely out. However, my yeast had expired so Anna helped with suggestions. She said boil the water for a few minutes, let it sit for 10 minutes and use ¼ cup of this water to ¾ cup tap water. It worked and the yeast did rise finally. We worked on cleaning the hull for 2 hours from 10:30- 12:30. It was really bad and we didn't complete it all. I also cleaned the bottom of the dinghy as we are getting growth on it. I baked the bread and it came out OK. We went over to the island again to take a walk and see the birds. Koncerto is leaving tomorrow. Clyff invited us over for a goodbye drink. We went over at 5:30 and stayed 2 hours and then went home and had dinner. We enjoyed their company. October 23 Thursday We left about 9:45 to take Destiny out onto the reef. We wanted to make sure we had good light so we could read the water. The water is really pretty out here - different shades of blue. We got anchored by 11am but decided to go snorkeling after lunch so we could continue running the water maker. I made up a sun dried tomato beef burgundy dish from the Brinkman Farms meat I have so it would be all ready for dinner tonight. Anyway, we had leftover chili and peanut butter and homemade bread for lunch. We went snorkeling at 1:30pm to 2 different spots and had a great time. The snorkeling was really wonderful and we saw lots of fish. We got back around 4pm both tired. I'm glad I had dinner already prepared! Anyway, the wind started to blow so we ran the water maker for another hour. We even got to watch TV since we had so much electric! We seen to be pretty well protected by the reef and were only rocking a slight amount. October 24 Friday The wind increased during the night to about 15-20 from the East. The forecast had called for 10-15. So much for the forecast! Anyway, it was too windy to snorkel this morning so I made a desperation cake recipe I got from another cruiser - very good and very moist. We both enjoyed it. I will definitely be making this recipe again! I also made some biscuits for breakfast. I did some emails and also defrosted the freezer. Koncerto had anchored at one of the small islands here called Isla Oeste yesterday and then left for Aves de Sotavento this morning. The wind decreased a little in the afternoon and we went snorkeling although it still was a little rough. The snorkeling was just marvelous although it was a little difficult. We had so much electric we got to watch another movie. The wind blew about 20 knots all night. We were rocking a little bit but it was tolerable. October 25 Saturday Well, the wind has really died to about 10 knots. We ran the water maker for a little while just to get the tanks filled up. I made bacon and eggs for breakfast. I also made some more bread. I worked on my logs for about an hour this morning while we were running the water maker. At 10:30am, we went snorkeling on "the Wall" as I call it - shallow and then the reef suddenly drops off. Truly wonderful snorkeling and we both enjoyed it. We saw a Fairy Basslet fish we had never seen before. A 4-foot barracuda kept following us around. He actually came pretty close to us but was just being nosy. We came back around 12:30 and had lunch. After lunch, we went snorkeling very close to the beginning of the reef from 2-4pm. We saw more barracuda, a spotted drum, a new species of trunkfish, and a yellow moray eel. I took 2 more conchs but later Larry couldn't get them opened so threw them overboard in frustration. Anyway, we got back to the boat around 4pm, tired but very happy with the snorkeling. The wind is still light so there's not enough electric to watch another movie. I finished another book- "Jack Daws" by Ken Follett. It was pretty good and I enjoyed it. We had the snapper with salsa on it tonight for dinner. October 26 Sunday We still have a light wind about 10 knots. I did some hand laundry and Larry put up the clothesline for me. I did a lot of laundry using about 7-8 gallons of water only. I did all the clothes except for the sheets and towels - those will have to wait till we get back to PLC. It is cloudy and overcast out and looks like it's going to rain. We think this must be part of a Tropical Wave. We went snorkeling from about 1- 4pm in 3 different spots. Larry broke his mask and almost landed on the coral. He lost his snorkel and I had to go find it. He had a headache this afternoon and was not feeling well. It started to rain out (after I got the laundry off the clothesline!) just as we sat down to have dinner. The wind picked up during the rain and stayed blowing about 8-10 knots all night long. Just enough for a nice cooling breeze down below to sleep with! |