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Diane's DiaryNovember 10 Monday We have zero wind, mosquitoes and flies so we are not happy campers. We finally got back to sleep around 5am and slept until 8am. However, the wind had switched to South-South West so our stern was facing the reef. This is not good! We were both watching the boat but both felt uneasy. I was baking bread and biscuits for breakfast. Larry pulled in about 20 feet of scope so we were not as close to the reef. But than the wind picked up a little so if we had not shortened scope we would have been on the reef! Our stern was still too close to the reef so we decided to move. We tried to re-anchor twice before we finally got settled. It's definitely too deep out here and the only place to anchor is near the reefs. I definitely liked Barlovento better! Anyway, we finally re-anchored in about 30 feet of water so we could be far enough away from the reef. We both still felt uneasy with the wind from the SW so just sat in the cockpit for a while to make sure we were safe. We were not rolling at all but if we had been anchored near the islands we would have been rolling like crazy. One of our conchs we had overboard in a bucket, got away last night. I will just have to replace him! We went snorkeling again back to the same reef around 11:30am. I tried a new bread-making recipe from my favorite cookbook but it did not come out good. I suspect it is due to the yeast as it is almost 2 years old! The bread did not rise well at all. Anyway, we snorkeled till around 1:45pm came back and had lunch. We have almost zero wind so it's extremely hot out. I tied to lie down to sleep as I didn't sleep well last night but did not get to sleep. I made bread pudding but was not too happy with the recipe. The wind finally shifted back to the east around 4pm so we both felt much better. However, it is still very light- less than 5 knots! November 11 Tuesday At 2:30am the sound of thunder and flashes of lightning to the north of us woke me up. The sky was extremely black with lots of thunder and lightening. I watched it for a few minutes and than went back to bed as the storm looked like it was going to pass north of us. At 3:30 am I was woken up when the wind decreased to zero and the wind shifted from South to East. We had extremely dark clouds with thunder and lightening coming towards us so we knew we were going to get hit. Larry took down some of the canvas and tied an extra line to the dinghy in case the wind picked up. We stayed in the cockpit watching the storm and its associated rain and lightning directly overhead. Larry stayed in the cockpit to make sure we were OK but I went down below, as I was extremely tired. The storm lasted till around 5:30am. Both of us never got back to sleep. The storm was extremely scary with all the lightening surrounding us but thankfully we did not get a lot of wind. We decided to go back and anchor near the little islands. It was somewhat overcast and cloudy but we still had good enough visibility to see the reefs. We left about 11am. There were 4 other boats around but the closest was about 100 yards away. We had to anchor twice before we could get the anchor to hold. The Guardia stopped by all 4 other boats but only came closer to us to ask if we were OK. They even boarded one of the other boats for about 20 minutes. The wind is from the SE and we are really rocking and rolling. It's a very uncomfortable motion. We went to shore at Round Island about 4pm to take a walk and open up the conch. The waves were crashing on the beach so it was not a good dinghy-landing zone. Plus, the shoreline was all rock. This is definitely not my favorite place and I would just as soon leave for Bonaire. But, Larry is happy and is not ready to leave here yet. November 12 Wednesday We had another bad storm last night at 3:30am when I was woken up by lightning. We had winds from the SW-W gusting to about 35 knots. Thank God the storm was not the same intensity as the last big one. The really high winds lasted about 1.5 hours but than a very bad swell came in. We were rolling about 35 degrees with 3-4 foot waves coming in about every 5 seconds. To say we were not very comfortable would be putting it mildly! We had very heavy rain also. We were both in the cockpit and had the engine running as the boat was on a lee shore. If the anchor dragged we would be on the shore in seconds. Larry had to check the anchor when we heard a big bang from it. However, it was just the snubbing line that had stretched until it reached the chain and caused the chain to jerk. We had thunder and lightning all around us. It was very scary, as we could have been hit by it. We were very lucky the storm was very close to us but not directly overhead like last time. I went down below around 5am as I was really cold and shivering but Larry stayed in the cockpit. The major wind had stopped by this time but not the rolling. The boat was rolling so much I almost fell out of the berth! Needless to say with all this rolling, I couldn't sleep. Neither one of us got back to sleep and we were very tired the rest of the day from the lack of sleep and rolling. We had a SW wind the entire day so the boat was really rolling. So, we just lay around reading the entire day. I was too tired to cook so I gave Larry leftovers and I had a can of Brinkman Farms beef and noodles. Finally, around 4am the wind finally switched back to the east. We are too tired to do the chores necessary to leave here - take down the awning and get the dinghy up on deck. The boat was even rolling too much to clean my conch. I finished another book- J. Kellerman's Devil Waltz. We certainly are getting to read a lot out here! We are going to go to bed early tonight, as I am sure we will have more storms during the night! November 13 Thursday- My Birthday! Happy Birthday Diane! Well, I was right - we had more thunderstorms in the middle of the night. What a birthday present- I could really have done without this! This is getting ridiculous! Seems like it's every evening! Anyway, the thunder and lightning woke us up about 2:45am. The winds were up to around 25 knots though the storm was not as violent as the others. The 25-knot winds did not last for long either. We also did not have the storms directly overhead either. We had some heavy rain but were able to get back to bed around 4:30am. We were woken up again around 6:30am with more thunderstorms from the SE. Some birthday present huh! Larry gave me a homemade card but since there are no stores out here, I didn't get a present. He did make me bacon and eggs for breakfast, which is a first. He has not cooked in years! So that was very nice and I really appreciated it! It was so nice to have someone cook for me for a change! Especially since he did the dishes too! I made conch steak for lunch and it was very good. Sv Halliday Girl, Skyus, and Twelfth Night came into the anchorage. They said to come to Skyus tonight for a few drinks. They said to invite Twelfth Nite also but they said they were too tired and were going to leave for Curacao in the early AM. We took a dinghy ride around the island and took showers on the beach. We went over to Skyus around 5:30. Larry didn't want to go as we were both tired but it was my birthday and I was ready to party. Vicki from Halliday Girl baked me a cake! It was really very nice of her and I really appreciated it. I guess I was feeling a little depressed over not celebrating my birthday until they came into the anchorage and threw me such a nice birthday party. We had a really nice time and they both gave me birthday gifts. Halliday Girl gave me a bottle of sun dried tomato and basil olive oil, which smells terrific! Skyus gave me a beautiful hand embroidered towel. What a nice thing to do! Thanks ladies - you really made my day! November 14 Friday Well, it was a miracle - we did NOT have any thunderstorms last night! We finally both got a good night's sleep. We went to bed at 8:30pm and slept until 7am! We both feel much better now. I started to do some laundry then Vicki asked me to come over to do a book exchange as they were going to go out onto the reef. So, I did and got a few new books. I finished the laundry around 12 and relaxed for a while before I made conch steak for lunch. It was 2pm by the time I finished all the lunch dished. Larry had wanted to go snorkeling but it was too late in the day to go. I just wanted to leave to go to Bonaire tomorrow, as I am ready for civilization, so we took down the awning. I made my lomito and we had the champagne for my birthday. So, we will stay here another day tomorrow as Larry wants to do some more snorkeling but I would rather just go. I don't like Sotavento nearly as much as Barlovento. We are definitely very low on water- only 1/4 in the port tank and 3/4 in starboard. November 15 Saturday I worked on my logs for about 1.5 hours this morning. We went snorkeling to the small island near here after that. The snorkeling was just OK and the water a little murky. We have definitely had better snorkeling than this. I did not think it was worth it and wish we had just left for Bonaire. I did get a large conch though - the largest one I have gotten so far. We went back to the boat, had lunch, I made some bread and we went back to the beach at 2pm to clean the conch and take showers. We got the dinghy up on deck and the bottom was a mess. We had left it in the water a few nights while we were having all those storms as Larry didn't want to raise the dinghy then as it could have been dangerous. Anyway, we scrubbed the bottom of the dinghy and got it cleaned off. Larry lost a paddle overboard while washing off some of the gear. By the time he finally got in the water it was long gone. I made a sun dried tomato beef burgundy dinner and bread for dinner. I made enough for 2 meals so we will have dinner tomorrow and I won't have to cook. We are finally leaving for Bonaire tomorrow! Yea! We'll leave at 6am. November 16 Sunday We were up at 5am and left the anchorage with just the jib up around 6am. We were going dead downwind again so didn't want to use the mainsail as I didn't want to jibe it. The boat was rolling but not too badly. I did take the Sturgeon but don't think I really needed it. I had no problem with seasickness at all. We ran the engine for about 2 hours to charge the battery and than sailed under the jib alone for the rest of the way. We had called HonaLee and told them we were coming so they would save a mooring for us. We were very lucky they did this as there was only 1 other outside mooring left and it was right near a big powerboat. That would not have been good as he swings differently than us. The inner moorings are too close to shore with our 7' draft. Also, we did not want a mooring close to the bar as the loud music, especially on weekends, would keep us up. We arrived about 3pm and HonaLee helped us get onto our mooring. We invited them onboard for a drink. They invited us to go into town for a bar-b-queue dinner in town but we were tired and just wanted to stay on the boat. We had a hard time sleeping at night, as we were not used to the sounds of civilization- dogs barking, roosters crowing, cars, etc. Welcome back to civilization! I didn't get good nights sleep from this entire racket! I think I really enjoyed the peace and quiet of the Aves and Roques. We didn't take the dinghy down but just stayed on board and relaxed the rest of the day. |