|
Home Port Our Logs The Crew Calendar Favorite Links The Boat Photo Album Route and Charts Miscellaneous Stuff |
Diane's DiarySeptember 17 Friday The wind has been up all night and it blew very hard all day with a SE wind about 15-18 steady with gusts over 20. We were very secure here but I was tired and we didn't feel like going to Gran Roque to get fuel in all this wind. We asked a local boat we recognized from PLC if the fuel boat would be there tomorrow and he said he thought it would. So, we just spent a day doing lots of things. I defrosted the freezer again, made raisin scones for breakfast, taco salad for lunch, chili, cucumber soup, marinated some lomito, and soaked some beans for the chili. We had lunch and by the time I cleaned up, it was 2pm and I decided to do some emails and my logs. I am completely caught up in my logs now and don't want to fall too behind this time. The local guy said the wind would probably calm down in the afternoon and sure enough, around 3pm it decreased nicely to around 10. I'm still tired to leave so we'll just go tomorrow. Hopefully, we'll get a nice walk on the beach a little later in the day when the sun isn't so strong. Guess we'll go to Gran Roque tomorrow to get fuel. We took a nice walk on the beach in the pm, a dinghy ride into the lagoon and a nice swim at the beach- wonderful! We go late in the late when the sun isn't so strong and most of the tourists have left. September 18 Saturday We left the anchorage at 9:45am this morning. We could have left earlier but we were busy listening to the various nets and had to stow everything away again. Also, we wanted the sun up high enough so we could see the reefs. Anyway, we just motored over there since the wind was blowing again out of the SE around 15-20 and it was only about 2 miles away. It took us only 45 minutes to get there and get the anchor down. Thank goodness the fuel barge was still there. Larry put the small 2.5 gallons of dinghy fuel into the gas tank while we were in Gran Roque - we had forgotten to do this earlier. Thank goodness we had already done the diesel while in the other anchorage- the boat was rolling and bucking so much it would have been difficult to do here. We brought the fuel jugs to the barge and asked how long it would take to fill- with all this rocking and rolling, we did not want to hang on waiting for it. Then, Larry drove me to shore so I could do some shopping. He wanted to stay with the boat as it was really rocking and we wanted to make sure it didn't drag. All the dinghy rides we did today were hairy ones and we both got soaked. Good thing we both had our bathing suits on. Anyway, I didn't buy much as there was very little to buy and the prices were up a lot higher than last year. I had to pay $1.25 for a 2-ltr bottle of diet coke compared to .75 in PLC. But I bought 12 bottles anyway. I also got 2 avocados, bread, 2 dozen eggs, 30 limes and 6 apples for about $29 so things were pretty expensive. Oh well, we won't be going to a supermarket till we reach Bonaire and there things are even more expensive so we'll try not to buy too much. We returned to get our jerry jugs - total cost to fill the 4 jerry jugs (about 7.3 gal or so each) and 2.5 gallons of gas was 30,000B or $12.50- not as cheap as last year but certainly a lot cheaper than $2 for diesel and $4 for gas like in Bonaire. Anyway, with the boat bucking so, it was difficult to get the food and jerry jugs on board but we managed. We wanted to get out of there as soon as possible since the anchorage was so uncomfortable. We left around 12:15 and headed straight for Crasqui about 6 miles away under jib only. It was a rocky passage but not too bad. I have nicknamed this Clem's beach, as it's a beautiful white sand beach that seems to go on forever. It's perfect for our friends on Mima dog- Clem. We got there around 1:30, put up all the canvas again and had lunch. After lunch we put all the covers back on the jerry jugs and washed out all the shopping bags since they were full of salt water. By this time we were both exhausted and it was close to 3pm. I wanted to go walk on the beach but we were both just too tired. I took a swim and checked on the anchor. Not great as it caught some coral but Larry said it was OK. Anyway, we have so much wind we are able to run the water maker until the tanks are full so this is what we are doing. It's nice to have so much electric to run the watermaker at full blast. We are trying to keep the tanks as full as possible as who knows when the wind will stop and we'll have to run the engine again just to charge the batteries let alone run the watermaker! September 19 Sunday Lazy day- we are both tired. We still need to clean the hull as the water line is very bad but it's blowing out too hard and it's dangerous to do right now. So far the wind has been decreasing around 3pm every day and if this holds true, we'll get to do it this afternoon. We both read and I updated my logs. I am trying to keep more up to date this time instead of falling behind- it's difficult to keep up then. Only 2 other powerboats in the anchorage so it's very quiet and we are enjoying the peace and quiet. At 3:30pm, we went for a nice long walk on the beach- this is definitely one of the best beaches here in VE! We swam, took "showers" on the beach, and got back to the boat around 5:30pm - in time for cocktail hour! I am reading the David Poyer book "The Med" Steph gave us- it was the one book in his Dan Lensen series that we had not read. We had tried to get it while at home, but were unable to since the book was out of print. I think it's up to his usual terrific standards and am enjoying it. September 20 Monday It's just beautiful here so we have decided to stay another day and clean the water line and boat bottom. The growth is unbelievable and we need to do a bottom job soon. Larry doesn't want to drag the dive gear out so we'll have to do the whole thing without it. We needed to run the watermaker though- we think if we can run it 2-3 hours a day we can keep up with our water consumption and keep the tanks full. That's also providing we get enough wind and sun, Anyway, in 24 hours we got nearly 130amp hours in and that's almost as good as the 150 hours we got in the Tobago Cays a few years ago. If we can keep this up, it will be great. We may even get to watch TV at this rate! Anyway, we ran the watermaker for a few hours to fill the tanks but wanted to have someone onboard to hear it- twice Larry has had to tighten the gear set and both times I was the one who heard something wrong. So, Larry cleaned the hull and I stayed onboard reading my David Poyer book- The Med. Larry came back aboard before 12 and I was able to turn the watermaker off around 11:30. Larry didn't complete the water line since it was really bad so we both went in the water around 2 and worked on it for 1.5 hours. We got most of it cleaned except the keel, which really needs to be done with the dive tanks. The keel is 7 feet deep and it's very tiring just getting down that far let alone try to clean the keel. Anyway, I made shrimp with pasta, sun dried tomatoes, squash and artichokes for dinner- delicious! If we don't get to trading with any fisherman we'll be eating lots of pasta that's for sure as Bonaire is to expensive to buy meat - though chop meat and chicken cutlets weren't too outrageous. Anyway, we were both so tired from cleaning the boat bottom that we didn't even feel like taking a walk on the beach. September 21 Tuesday The wind has decreased to around 10 knots today and will be this way until Sunday at least. We have a number of hurricanes in the Atlantic and north of here - Jeanne, Karl and Lisa and another storm at 11N 34W that they are watching but hasn't turned into a named storm - yet! Anyway, these hurricanes must be taking the wind from the southern Caribbean as we're in for another period of light wind- at least until Sunday as it stands right now. Plus, the wind is more from the SE, which is very unusual- it usually comes from the East. Anyway we went over to Sarqui today. Larry got his finger caught in the windlass but thankfully he was OK so we just wound up motoring over here. We also had to run the watermaker and charge the batteries. It took 3 hours to fill the tanks. We arrived at Sarqui with the anchor down shortly before 11am with the anchorage all to ourselves. Hope it stays this way as we can go skinny dipping- I'll only do it if no other boaters are around. I was at the end of the David Poyer book and wanted to finish it so I did. We left to go snorkeling at 2:15pm and the snorkeling was pretty good. We went in the cut in between the 2 islands and luckily it wasn't too rough and we had a good time. After, we took "showers" on the beach. I definitely use a lot less water if I can take a "shower" that way. Than I just rinse off with fresh water when we get back to the boat. When we got back, there was now 3 other boats in the anchorage (2 came in while we were still there) and one we recognized- Skylark- Cliff and Orma. We went to say hello. We got back to the boat around 4:45pm- just in time for Happy Hour! The boat is rolling slightly as we seem to be getting a NE swell- the waves are really crashing up on the reef and are several feet high. September 22 Wednesday I was up before 7am and listened to the BBC and the weather. Haiti has gotten hit very badly with TS Jeanne - they definitely did not need this after all the problems that country has had. There are still lots of problems in Grenada from Hurricane Ivan as I am sure there will be for a long time. Anyway, I made some chicken piccata and some marinade for meat. Also, I made some nice French toast for breakfast - we hadn't had that in a long time. Skylark stopped by- did we want to play bocce ball? No, as we were running the watermaker and I was cooking. But we did go snorkeling with them in the afternoon- unfortunately; there was a NE swell running so the snorkeling was a little rough and murky. We are rolling a bit in here from the hurricanes north of us and this is supposed to last until the weekend. We'll go to Cayo de Agua and if it's bad we'll just come back to Carenero. We couldn't even get the dinghy up on the beach well to take showers afterwards so we just came back to the boat. Skylark will come over later for drinks. They stayed till 8pm and we all had a good time talking. Its amazing how cheap entertainment is out here - just talking is good for most of us! Nothing fancy either- just some appetizers. At home, everyone wants to meet in expensive restaurants to talk- they don't want to have any one over and bother to do any cooking. September 23 Thursday The NE swells from 2 different hurricanes are surely making an impact here in Sarqui - the swells are crashing over the reefs outside the anchorage. They are noisy too! We're rolling from all of this and the snubber for the anchor was really making lots of noise so we didn't get a good night's sleep. I was up at 7am and listened to the BBC. Things in Grenada don't sound great and I'm sure it's going to be that way for a long time. Grenada does not have a lot of money and is one of the poorer islands in the Caribbean - there's not much work and people are very poor. Lots of looting has gone on which is a shame. We were both hungry since we had a light dinner last night so I made some corn muffins from a mix I brought back from the US. We started the watermaker at 9:45am and it ran till it was full at 12:30. So now we know we need to run the water maker almost 3 hours per day to keep up with our water need. The water maker is only getting in 4 gallons an hour- not the 8 gallons an hour the manufacturer promised! I would never buy anything else from Village Marine again! Anyway, the anchorage is getting a big surge into it and is just not comfortable anymore. We left at 10:10am with just the jib up and sailed to Cayo De Agua. On the way we passed Carenero, and there was 2 boats anchored there - including a big motorboat. It looked very calm and peaceful with no waves at all. I would have stopped but Larry wanted to go snorkel at Cayo de Agua so off we went. We were doing 4.4 knots with just the jib out although we were rolling a bit. Not too bad though - we have definitely been in a lot worse. We arrived with the anchor down about 1:30pm. We are getting a NE swell in here that's really crashing over the reefs. I think snorkeling would just be too dangerous. Also the wind is blowing from the E-SE about 15 knots so we're getting plenty of electric. We had lunch and after I decided to do some laundry. Might as well get all the laundry done while we have plenty of electric to run the watermaker full blast. I topped off all the water containers and made some ice tea, crystal light etc. It's nice to have so much electric but I wish the swell would calm down so we could do some snorkeling. |