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Diane's DiaryOct 21 Mon We took Judy snorkeling this morning. Since the wind comes up around 11am it's best to go by 9am. We had a good time- not many fish but loads of shells. It's the first place we got some really nice shells- some with their owners still inside. We only took a few live shells. We usually don't take any at all but we have never seen a few of these shells- a murex & a tulip shell. Now we will have to try to get the owners to vacate! Dead shells smell really bad too. Anyway, coming back to the boat around 11am the wind was already up. If we had our old dinghy & 5HP it would have taken us forever to get back. We cannot plane the dinghy with 3 people aboard so it definitely was a longer trip back. I still had my migraine headache when we got back so I lay down in the afternoon & tried to read. We went over to Survival tonight for dinner. It's nice with the 3 boats taking turns cooking, as one person doesn't get stuck with all the cooking & cleaning up. Anyway, Larry had gone over to Mima to be with the guys & spend some "quality time" bonding. For those of you not familiar with this, this means drinking lots of rum! Anyway, Judy made a nice chicken & salsa dish with rice. She & Steph had baked a chocolate cake in the afternoon that came out pretty good. Everyone was tired so we made it an early night. Oct 22 Tuesday Larry & I left to go snorkeling at around 9:30am. Another boater (Mo from S/V Motu) stopped by so we got a late start. We did a drift snorkel. This way we have the dinghy with us & don't have to tempt the fisherman with an unguarded dinghy to steal. We have been pulling our dinghy up out of the water by the halyard & locking it every night. It's a pain to do but it's better than having someone steal the dinghy! Anyway, tonight was my turn to make dinner. I made my Swedish meatballs for an appetizer, which everyone liked. For dinner, we had a delicious beef burgundy over rice. Everyone seemed to enjoy my meal - at least they said they did! Anyway, we all had a good time. Oct 23 Wed Well, we closed on our house today so now we are officially homeless! I definitely will really miss the house, as I really liked it after we finished the major renovation & had it exactly the way I wanted it. I hope we get an even nicer house in the future. I like the boat but I am definitely looking forward to having space again. We are just on top of each other on the boat & sometimes that can be difficult as there is no place to go for your own privacy except the bathroom. I liked having my own room in our house that was just mine. I used one of the spare bedrooms for my sewing machine & secretary desk. Larry had his PC & PC desk in the other spare bedroom. Anyway, I was definitely sad about this & thinking about it the whole day. Know we have to figure out where to invest the money! Anyway, many people told us they believe we hit the top of the market for selling it & believe housing prices will start to fall now. I hope that's true for our sake when we go back to live in the US! Anyway, we hiked up the big mountain with Dave this morning. We were up by 5:45am. We needed to do the hike early before the wind came up & the sun got too hot. Anyway, it was 7am before we actually started to hike, as we had to pick up Dave & Spike. (their dog- we did NOT take Clem with us for obvious reasons!) We had to dinghy to where the hill gradient was not as steep. For the first half hour- 45 minutes it was a very steep uphill climb & I got fatigued very easily. I was ready to give up but Dave said once we got on top of the ridge it would become much easier. We would definitely have to find another path to come down though as this one was much too steep. The view from on top of the ridge was fantastic. You could see all of Laguna Grande, Cumana, Coche, Cubagua & Margarita. It was a very cloudy day, which was not good for pictures but good for hiking, as the sun was not beating down on us. We found an alternate way down which was definitely the best way to go. If we ever do this hike again, we would definitely go up that way also. It's longer but definitely an easier route. We started down around 8:15 am & got back to the dinghy around 9:30. By the time we got back to Destiny it was almost 10. We were definitely both tired the rest of the day. Cruisers are not used to so much exercise! Anyway, Survival rafted up to Mima to take on water & did this when we got back. Survival is heading back to the US now & Mima is going into PLC so Tom can fly home. So, since Mima didn't need the water since they are going into a marina, they gave it to Survival & us. Larry did not want to run the water maker in the lagoon as there was a lot of sediment & he didn't want the water maker to get clogged. Anyway, Larry took 4 trips over to Mima to jerry jug all the water. We went over to Mima around 4pm for a last goodbye dinner. I know we will definitely be seeing Mima again but Survival is heading back to the US. They have both been friends for almost 15 years so I know they will really miss each other. I know it must have been very difficult for them to part. Survival will probably not be coming back to the Caribbean again. I think they were all very upset about leaving each other. Anyway, Mima had invited S/V Motu over for dinner also. Since Mima wanted to get their dinghy out of the water, Larry picked up Mo as she was staying in another anchorage & had already taken her engine off the boat. Anyway, I think it was a sad evening for Survival & Mima but they didn't show it. Oct 24 Thursday Well, we were up before 6 as we wanted to wave Mima & Survival goodbye. Since we really aren't in a rush, we have decided to stay another day & just relax today. Anyway, they both left at 7am & we were sad to see them all go. We will be in the anchorage by ourselves tonight so I hope we will be OK. We will stay on the radio all night with Mo & another boat in case something happens. It was hot out the entire day with very little wind so it wasn't very comfortable. It did rain very hard for about 30 minutes. They hardly ever get rain here so naturally it rains while we are here! Anyway, I tried to nap, as I was still tired from yesterday & getting up so early today but couldn't fall asleep. I made banana bread with the last 2 bananas that were going bad. I also made a red wine marinade for some lomito. I updated my logs some. We went to see a British boat so they could show us where the scarlet ibis were at the end of the Gulf, then we went to visit Mo & had cocktails with her. We got back to the boat & took the dinghy engine off & prepared the boat to leave in the early am. We did not put the dinghy on deck since we were in the Gulf & it is protected from the ocean waves. Also, we are only going about 15 miles so it's not that far. The lomito marinade I made was excellent & we both really like it. I will have to continue making it this way. Superb! Oct 25 Friday Well, we were up at 6am & it took about an hour to get everything ready to leave. You are probably wondering why it takes so long to get ready so let me tell you what we need to do. Larry generally takes care of the topsides- tying down the dinghy, fuel tank & engine. We need to keep the dinghy slightly elevated at night to get some wind down below. Since we were only going a few hours, we didn't hoist the dinghy on deck but we always remove the fuel tank & engine. He also takes off the sail cover & ties anything else down. I usually take out the textaline covers for the dodger windows & replace them with the plastic glass. Then we need to take down the canvas we put up - sunbrella attachment pieces that attach the bimini to the dodger, & enclose the cockpit with sunbrella. These sunbrella pieces really keep the cockpit in the shade, which is a necessity down here. The sun is brutal & it's essential that the cockpit be in the shade. I also put away anything down below that we took out & make sure everything is secure. I also take down the hatch covers & secure all hatches. We never travel with the hatches open & will only open the hatches under only in very benign conditions. I also get out the binoculars, turn on the instruments, & turn on the GPS. Then we start the engine. Larry gets up the anchor while I am at the helm. Today the anchor is really muddy so Larry doesn't want to put muddy chain in the anchor well as it will smell. Fortunately, we have a salt-water wash down pump that gets everything clean. However, Larry can only wash down a few feet at a time so it's very time consuming. It took him over a half hour to get the chain clean. So, we left Laguna Grande around 7:30am. It took about 3 hours to motor to Medegral Village. Since we were going due east into the wind it was a straight motor trip & we didn't even put up the mainsail. We wanted to get to the anchorage before the wind started to blow. We arrived at about 11am. It's very hot with little wind so we are both feeling the heat. I was just about finishing a good book that I wanted to finish so I continued to read it. We weren't really in a hurry to go into the resort in the middle of the day in all that heat. So, we relaxed & I read. After lunch we went into the resort. The owner allows cruisers to use all the resort facilities at no cost. This includes the showers, salt-water pool, & games such as ping-pong, foosball, & a pool table. He just wants the cruisers to buy some drinks & maybe have a meal or so. His drinks are more expensive - 800B compared to the usual 300B. However, the difference of 500B is only about .35USD! So, it seemed very reasonable to us to pay this & get to take showers & use everything. He even has 2 long dinghy docks that are very secure - we never locked our dinghy here. We know he has put the 'word out' that he would kill anyone who harms any cruiser in his anchorage! This would interfere with his business & I am quite sure we were very safe here for that reason. He told us the only problem would be "any bad people" coming down from Cumana. I am sure the locals would leave the boat alone. As far as those coming from Cumana- it's 25 miles down the Gulf to Medegral Village so it's quite far for those to come just on the chance a boater is there they could rob. Why come all the way down here when they have an easy target at Coche or Cubagua so close? So, we really did believe we were safe with him. We did hoist the dinghy up at night but 1 night we did leave it in the water - chained of course & had no problem. Anyway, we used the resort's facilities & asked the owner John-Marc to make us a lunch for tomorrow. We heard he is an excellent cook & the price at about $6USD per person seemed quite reasonable to us. We did hear one of the cruisers complain that his prices were too high, but we felt since he is letting us use his facilities, that it really was worth the money. Anyway, we saw our friends on Picasso & invited them over to Destiny for happy hour. We had such a good time with them they didn't leave till after 8pm. By this time, we weren't that hungry for dinner since we had appetizers. We arranged with Picasso to leave VHF channel 72 on all night long in case either of us have a problem. At about 4-5am the roosters on shore woke us up! |