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Diane's DiaryOctober 4 Monday At 4:30am Larry was woken up with some large gust of wind- guess this must still be from the Tropical Wave. He sat up with it for a while just to make sure the boat was OK but we were. I got up also but than went back to sleep. While we were waiting for the sun to rise a little higher so we could clearly see the reef this morning, I made a cucumber soup. I have only 1 cucumber left after this. We had the anchor up around 10:20am and were safely anchored near Avatar by 11:15. They invited us to go snorkeling with them this afternoon at 2pm and we invited them over for drinks and appetizers - they want to come at 6pm as they are getting the boat ready to move tomorrow. We ran the water maker in the morning, the tanks were full, and we had so much electric we watched a movie "White Girls" for around 40 minutes- we would have finished it if we weren't meeting Avatar for snorkeling. The movie was stupid but very funny and we were both enjoying it. We actually had to turn the wind generator off when we went snorkeling, as we were afraid the batteries would get overcharged since we had so much wind! The snorkeling was a bit rough as the wind was around 15 knots. We had actually found this place last year when another boater learned about it from Avatar. So, it was the same spot but we had enjoyed it last year so were glad to be back. The snorkeling was good but the water clarity was definitely not as good as last year. Larry picked up Brenda and George at 6pm for drinks as they had already secured their dinghy for transit for the morning. They stayed until 8:30pm and we had a good time. They have been coming out here for almost 15 years so knew where all the good spots are. They have promised to give us the GPS coordinates of them in the morning. October 5 Tuesday At 3 am lightning woke me up. Were we getting another wind reversal storm like when we were here last year? Larry said he didn't think we were going to get hit with a storm but I thought we were. Guess I was right because in a little while, we got another wind reversal storm. This time we had wind up to 35 knots from the SW. Larry was sitting in the cockpit the entire time to make sure the boat was OK. Our dinghy cover actually got torn a little when the dinghy hit the spare anchor we have having off our port rail. That's the first time that happened. We were really bouncing around quite a lot. Lightening and thunder were all around us - scary! Luckily, I had checked the anchor yesterday so knew we were in good holding. The boat turned to the SW but thankfully we weren't too close to the reef. It lasted until after 5am but the waves continued and the boat was really bucking like a bronco. It was not at all comfortable. Neither one of us got any sleep. Hope we don't have any more of them and that is it! Avatar and us both turned on the VHF radio and put our anchor lights on so we could help each other gage if either of us were dragging. Fortunately, neither of us did! Avatar left about 8:30am in absolutely flat calm seas. Hope they have a good trip back to Trini with low amounts of wind for them but enough here for us to run the water maker without running the engine! Going East against the wind and seas for the 350 miles is not a great trip especially as they are going through the islands and not along the VE coast as we did last year. It is very cloudy out now, with no wind and we are pointed NE! Hope we get some wind and sun, as we need it to run the water maker and charge the batteries! We are both very tired since we've been up since 3am and since it's cloudy, don't know if we'll do any snorkeling today. Hopefully, the sun will come out later! Oh, I forgot to say Avatar speared a White Grunt fish yesterday and since they were leaving, they gave it to us. We'll have it tonight for dinner. I made a cream cheese raisin cake this morning- hope it comes out good. It sure smells good cooking! We saw another boat approaching the islands and called to them on the VHF as we were expecting Dolphin Street to come into the anchorage. Sure enough it was them and they answered. It was an extremely cloudy day and I didn't think they would be able to read the reefs but fortunately they did. They came and joined us near the reefs. Larry and I started to clean all the stainless steel as it's starting to get rusty looking again and is looking bad. Larry cleaned the port side of the cockpit- this side has the wind generator pole and was very bad. Unfortunately, we must have left the 3M stainless steel cleaned back in PLC so we only had the Never Dull to clean it- and the stuff was not as wet as it should have been so maybe the can wasn't closed properly. It works but takes a lot more elbow grease and doesn't work as fast as the 3M stuff. Anyway, I cleaned and waxed the bow and it really looks terrific. Larry's part came out looking like a new boat again. We still have more to do but that's for another day! Anyway, Dolphin Street has a problem with their cooking gas so they can't use the stove at all. Since they have 2 kids on board who want to eat this is difficult! So, I invited them to come cook their food on our boat. They came over around 5:30 and used the stove while I put our dinner in the oven. I would have had them for dinner but was just too tired to have company. We were both extremely tired so I invited them over tomorrow night for dinner. We were actually so tired since we didn't get a good night sleep last night that we went to bed at 8:30pm and slept until 6:30am! October 6 Wednesday Another cloudy, windless day with the prediction that it'll be this way until Sunday at least. Hope we do not have a repeat of the weather from last year when we had many days of windless, cloudy days with lots of thunderstorms and had to run the engine almost every day. I made a canned chicken, mushroom soup, pasta casserole - the first time I have ever made it. Anyway, Laurence came over and taught me how to make bread. I am getting better at it but still don't have it completely right. Every baker seems to think the flour in VE is not good for bread making and they could be right. We had marvelous bread on her boat the other day so hope I will be able to duplicate it. Anyway, Larry went spear fishing with Ingemar and they managed to get a few fish. I started the water maker and ran it for about 1.5 hours until the low voltage alarm went off and I shut it down. Looks like we'll have to run the engine again as we just aren't getting enough electric. I wish I had done the wash when the Tropical Wave was here as we had lots of electric to run the water maker then! At 2pm, Larry and I went snorkeling way out on the reef near the first reef. Ingemar and the kids joined us shortly after. Usually it's too windy to snorkel out here as it's so close to the deep water and the waves go crashing against the reef. We snorkeled for about 2 hours and might have stayed out longer except I needed to get back to the boat to put the bread in the oven! Anyway, the whole family came over around 6pm- we had cocktails and appetizers and then dinner. I also baked some brownies with a recipe that just uses cocoa powder- it came out very good and I was very pleased. Unfortunately, the casserole came out way to dry - I think it's because I made it early in the day and than it sat the whole day and the pasta absorbed the soup. However, it definitely was a good dish and I will make it again. I can use up all the canned meat I still have left from when we left the US 4 years ago! I actually don't have that many cans left- maybe 20 at most. I'm not sure if I have any mushroom soup left but I can always get some in Bonaire. Anyway, they stayed until 9:30 and we all had a very good time. The boys, Nils and Axel, were extremely well behaved. I am really amazed at how mature most of the cruising kids we meet out here are. We still have no wind and it was very hot sleeping. For dinner, they brought over a really good 16-year-old bottle of red wine that was fantastic. It was very nice of them to share it with us but I think they appreciated us letting them use the oven. We didn't want them to have come all this way and have to leave because they couldn't cook. They actually have a problem with the prop shaft so think they will only be staying a few days anyway. We have really enjoyed their company. October 7 Thursday We are both very tired today. We didn't go to sleep until after 10pm last night and both did a lot yesterday so I guess we are both feeling the effects now. The water line is extremely bad with lots of grass on it so Larry is cleaning it this morning. I cleaned up the rest of the kitchen and all from all the cooking I did yesterday. It's still very cloudy with almost zero wind so we are running the engine and water maker. I used a lot of water yesterday with the bread, pasta, and loads of dishes so we have less than 3/4 in our port tank. Thankfully, the starboard tank is full. I stayed in the boat while the engine and water maker are running, as we want one person at least to be here while they are on. We don't like to leave the engine and watermaker going when we are not on board so we can make sure everything is OK. I know what both sound like so if either start sounding funny, I would just turn it off until Larry could look at it. The sky seems to be clearing a bit and we hope to get out snorkeling this afternoon and go to the blue hole. We had to run the engine 2.5 hours and the water maker 3.5 hours to get everything charged and full. The water maker actually got too full and started running into the bilge! October 8 Friday Larry worked on cleaning the bottom of the boat more. He can clearly see where we hit the submerged object in the water in Carenero last January. The spot needs to be filled in but there's no real damage to the boat. He also saw some blisters so hope this doesn't mean we have too many. We need to go on the hard when we get back to PLC! It's been 1.5 years since we've hauled the boat so we really need a haul out. There is absolutely no wind at all - zippo! So it's extremely hot and uncomfortable. We also have about 90% cloud cover so we aren't getting in many amps. We had to run the engine from 9:30 - 12pm just to charge the batteries. We had to let the batteries charge some before we could run the water maker. We ran the water maker from 10:30-1:30pm. I made some scones and brought some over to Dolphin Street, as we know they have no gas to cook. I also made a big pot of spaghetti sauce and cleaned and defrosted the freezer- it was really very bad. Laurence came over to cook lunch using my stove. We had hot dogs and cucumber soup for lunch but I had loads of dishes to clean up! We went snorkeling at 2pm to the south side of the blue hole. I got a conch and gave it to Dolphin Street- we will teach them how to open it and cook it tomorrow. They caught some more fish and invited us over for a wonderful fish dinner they made on the bar-b-que. I loved the mojarra fish- it was very good. I made a corn soufflé and some rice, as they can't cook anything. We went over about 6pm and came back around 9:30 and had a great time. We have really enjoyed their company and they are very nice folks. Oh, we have such little wind and sun we had to run the engine another hour in the pm to charge the batteries. October 9 Saturday The wind is back slightly from the east, 5-7 knots - not much but that little wind sure makes a big difference, as it's not so hot. We are very glad to have the breeze back! We had a lot of clouds early but than got the sun back in full by 11am- the best time of day to get sun for the solar panels! I cleaned up the kitchen as we had lots of dishes. I made English Matrimonials - one of my favorite desserts from my favorite cookbook. We are having Dolphin Street over for dinner as they are leaving tomorrow. I think they really appreciated us letting them us our propane as they would have had to leave here by now if they hadn't had it. The parents said they would have been OK with gas but with the kids it's difficult. Larry went to clean the hull again and I also made some pizza dough, shook out the rugs and swept the floors. I am very tired, as I have not been sleeping well since it's so hot on the boat without the wind. We went snorkeling at 1:30 although I was tired and didn't really want to go. I got another conch- this time a huge one. They got 2 conch also so we went over there in the afternoon and Larry taught them how to get the conch out. It actually worked and he got all 4 out without ruining the shell! The only problem is our good $20 fillet knife broke! Anyway, I made the conch and Dolphin Street made some accras- French appetizers we had liked from Martinique. We had a lot of appetizers. Then we had the pizza- I had only made 1 pie but with all the appetizers, this was plenty. We also had the dessert I made which was a big hit. They left about 9:30 and I was totally exhausted. Thankfully, I had used paper plates for dinner and napkins for dessert but there were still a lot of dishes. Oh, they brought us a mojarra fish they caught today, as they knew we both really enjoyed it. They even cleaned and filleted it for us- how nice! Larry and I each did part of the dishes as there was a lot even with using the paper plates and napkins. I am very tired and need a day just to do some R&R. Also, I have some cuts on my hand so I think I need a day out of the salt water. |