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Larry's LogSunday I called my friend Tony in the morning using the Internet phone - the connection was pretty good since we're so close to the wireless antenna in the marina. Our friend Sally came over for a few hours in the morning so we did a dive after lunch. We went nearby since the dive shop staff said that visibility was not good so we went to Something Special, a site just outside of the marina. The visibility was only 40 feet or so and the current increased during the dive so it wasn't very good. We wanted to do a night dive as well as one during the day so we left early the next morning to meet Sally at a site we did last year called Jerry's Reef, near Klein Bonaire. When we got to the site though, Sally said the current was really going strong (I had seen it when we were near the dive shop dock) so we went to a site on the south side of Klein called Bonaventure, one we hadn't been to before. It was a very nice dive and we enjoyed it, although we didn't see any frogfish, which we had hoped would be there. We went back to the dive shop, got our tanks refilled and went back to the boat to relax before our night dive. To prepare, I got out the other dive lights but found that the cap on the small tank light we had was cracked - unbelievable since I had only used it twice. We still had 3 lights though and I checked the batteries in all of them. A little later, Joel and his son Nathaniel, from Amorita, came over and we went over some information about Los Roques and Las Aves. They had come down from California, gone through the Panama Canal and come east, so they hadn't seen those islands yet. We gave them some waypoints and hints and said they should plan to spend as much time there as possible. We got ready for our night dive and went out to the Something Special mooring at 5:30. We were a little worried about the current but watching the mooring, it didn't seem too bad. For some reason, the loop on the mooring line was tied back to the part leading down to the mooring blocks so I had to get in the water to get out painter on it. But, that confirmed the current was OK. We got our gear on and started the dive at about 6:30 with no problem. However, about 10 minutes into the dive, I noticed my light starting to dim. It lasted only 30 minutes but Diane's was fine. We started back to the dinghy early and were shadowed by a few large Tarpon that liked the assistance our light gave them in catching fish. We found the mooring and saw another dinghy attached. It was the couple from Water Music; we didn't know them but they seemed very nice. I got in the dinghy and got the gear ready to leave. We went back to the dive shop, rinsed the gear, dropped off the tanks although they were not even half empty, and went back to the boat - we were both pretty tired. We got ready for our night dive and went out to the Something Special mooring at 5:30. We were a little worried about the current but watching the mooring, it didn't seem too bad. For some reason, the loop on the mooring line was tied back to the part leading down to the mooring blocks so I had to get in the water to get out painter on it. But, that confirmed the current was OK. We got our gear on and started the dive at about 6:30 with no problem. However, about 10 minutes into the dive, I noticed my light starting to dim. It lasted only 30 minutes but Diane's was fine. We started back to the dinghy early and were shadowed by a few large Tarpon that liked the assistance our light gave them in catching fish. We found the mooring and saw another dinghy attached. It was the couple from Water Music; we didn't know them but they seemed very nice. I got in the dinghy and got the gear ready to leave. We went back to the dive shop, rinsed the gear, dropped off the tanks although they were not even half empty, and went back to the boat - we were both pretty tired. The next few days weren't very exciting - I checked the dive lights and it seemed they were OK but the batteries I used weren't fully charged, even though I had just charged them. I did some work on the boat and we didn't dive since the weather wasn't cooperating. On Wednesday though, we did two dives to the south and they were excellent, although it was very windy and getting there was rough. We finished breakfast, got the gear ready and went to pick up our tanks. Since we wanted to do 2 dives and didn't want to come all the way back to get our tanks refilled, they very nicely gave us 2 of their tanks, so we had all the gear, ourselves and 4 large scuba tanks in the dinghy. It was quite a load. We left the shop's dock about 10:30 and we got very a rough ride, first because it was so windy and second because the inflatable was so slow with all the extra weight. We finally got to the dive site, the Hilma Hooker, a large wreck about 2 miles south of the marina, around 45 minutes later. We did the dive and although the visibility was only about 40-50 feet, it was a very nice. We saw about a dozen large Tarpon and watched as some jacks chased some baitfish in and out of a large porthole - that was very interesting as the small school of fish "flowed" in and out. The wreck was in fairly deep water so I had to watch the time carefully, but we had been to the site 2 years ago and still found it interesting. Once we had to come up a little (to avoid a decompression stop), we swam over to the reef nearby to be able to look at the fish there. Finally, we swam back over the reef to the mooring line attached to the wreck and ascended to the dinghy. We had brought some water, apples and cookies with us so we could have something to eat while we did a surface interval in the dinghy. We waited about an hour and then went to the site nearby, called Angel City. We had been to this site 2 years ago but I had equipment problems so Diane did the dive with the friends we had come with, so this was my first time here. It was really great. There is a double reef system that makes it very interesting and swimming over the outer reef is like a large coral garden since it doesn't have any large inclined slope. We also saw some great fish - a large Tiger Grouper being cleaned, a large school of Black Margate and Schoolmaster Snapper and a school of Southern Sennet, a first for us. We couldn't go beyond 60 feet for very long, but we did stay down for about 80 minutes. Overall, it's definitely one of my favorite sites and it would have been even better if visibility had been better rather than the 40-50 feet it was. We got back to the dive shop and then to the boat at about 4:30. It had been a long day but a lot of fun. In the morning the next day, Diane went to the marina office and told them about the issue we had with the boat next to ours and the electricity. He had unplugged our power cord and plugged his in to run some power tools. He was a local and must have known that electricity is metered so it was very annoying. The marina, however, said they would do something for us and then moved our plug to the other side, in case our neighbor wanted to use the power again. She also picked up the package that contained the wind generator parts we ordered from Trinidad - it only took 5 days via Fedex. After that, we went diving to the Petrie's Pillar site to meet Sally from Zahi. We had seen a seahorse there before but she said there were at least 2 and possibly three there. We got there at about 10:30 and met her underwater. She was taking pictures of the seahorses and we saw the 2, both black with some light grey stripes. They were in about 40 feet of water and out in the open, just holding on to some rocks or small gorgonians near the bottom. We found them pretty quickly and then went to dive a little deeper but went back earlier than normal to watch them again. We found them again pretty quickly and just watched them for a while. They really are quite something to see. After the dive, we went back to the shop, they refilled the tanks for us and we went back to the boat. It was pretty windy again so I was glad to still be in the marina. We just relaxed and walked to the Wannadive party later. It was very nice as usual and we got back to the boat about 8. Friday we went diving at Andrea 1 in the morning since we hadn't been there this year yet. It's a nice site but Petrie's Pillar is better - better coral and seemingly more fish. I enjoyed it though. After going back to the shop and to the boat, Geri from Freestyle came over to get some of the extra foodstuff we had from Venezuela that she couldn't get in Bonaire. After that, we ate lunch and I told Diane we needed to go back to Immigration to check on our extension. Luckily, we found another cruiser who was going into town with their car who gave us a ride, but when we got there, they told us to come back next Tuesday and it should be ready. Well, we're planning to leave a day or 2 after next Tuesday so I think we'll just skip the extension and just come the next time to check out. We stopped for some ice cream on the way back and then walked back to the marina. Diane went shopping Saturday morning and I did some things around the boat, like put the last Venezuelan diesel into the tank and worked on the water tank some more. The bulkhead between the water tank and the locker next to it was hard to go through - first, it was about 1-inch thick plywood; second, it had fiberglass on the sides; and third, the wood was wet, making it tough to saw. I eventually got the 4" hole drilled - thank goodness I had an angle drill; it would have been almost impossible otherwise. I also found out that the leak on the starboard side over the shelf wasn't from the chainplate, so that meant either the toerail or the stanchion base. Either way, I would have to remove the ceiling there and check it out, but the leak wasn't too bad and it would wait until we got to PLC. In the meantime, I put a piece of Drideck under the books there and a paper towel in the corner to catch any small amount of water that came in. By the time I was cleaning up, Diane had come back and after getting everything on board, and eating lunch, we relaxed for the rest of the afternoon. We wanted to do a night dive later. Around 6pm we got everything into the dinghy and went to Something Special. I had checked all the lights and put fresh batteries in my large light. We submerged about 6:30 and enjoyed the dive very much although the water was starting to get cool. Diane was cold by the end of the dive. We didn't see any Tarpon this time but lots of Cardinalfish, Brittle Stars and lots of other interesting critters. There was a lot of rain overnight and then into Sunday morning. We were supposed to meet Sally at the Eighteenth Palm site to look for a Frogfish and possibly do a 2 tank dive if we could get the tanks. We left as soon as the rain stopped (we closed the boat up and sprayed for mosquitoes), went to Wannadive to get our tanks but they didn't have any extra to spare so we just went down with ours. We got there and Sally was already in the water but she had left a note on her dinghy where she would be. We went down, found her and looked for the frogfish but had no luck. While Sally looked around some more, we continued the dive after looking for 10 minutes more. It was a nice site although the visibility was again only 40-50 feet. We saw a large Cubera Snapper (3.5 feet) and several eels. I also saw a new species, a Bigtooth Cardinalfish, inside a large coral pinnacle, alongside a 2 foot Tiger Grouper. We looked around some more and then went back to the dinghy. Sally had already left so we went back to the dive shop (when it rained again) and they filled the tanks right away. We decided not to dive again though since the visibility wasn't so great, even on Klein Bonaire, according to the shop staff. We went back to the boat and after eating, I put some things away in preparation for leaving sometime this week. We just stayed onboard and I worked on my PC while Diane napped and then worked on her laptop. We did a 2 tank dive the next day to some of the northern sites. We picked up the tanks and got to a site called Kalli's Reef, one that was just put in. It was about 2 miles north of the dive shop and was very nice. I went down deep for a little while to check out what was there but saw nothing unusual. When I started up though, Diane pointed out a Hawksbill Turtle that seemed very unafraid of us so we watched him for a while and then continued the dive. It was a very pretty site although we saw nothing out of the ordinary. After that dive, we rested a bit, had some water and cookies that we had brought with us and went down to Petrie's Pillar, where we planned the second dive. We waited until we had been on the surface for about an hour and then went in the water. We first looked for the 2 seahorses we had seen there and found them both. We watched them a little, continued the rest of the dive and then turned around and found them again. We left the seahorses about 2 minutes before we saw a large group of divers coming from the mooring site. A dive boat had picked up the mooring but it wasn't a problem. We got our gear organized and started back to the shop just as the rest of the boat's divers were getting on board. After going to the shop and back to the boat, we just relaxed the rest of the day. We planned to leave the marina tomorrow and going back out to a mooring, assuming one was available. Tuesday morning we tried listening to the weather but propagation was pretty bad so we couldn't hear any, although I did get weather information over the Internet. We did get out to a mooring though and it was nice to enjoy the breeze again. The next day, we took Destiny to the Hilma Hooker mooring and did Angel City again and Alice in Wonderland, the next site to the south. The Hooker was one of the few moorings that you could use for a boat longer than 40 feet. It turned out to be a long day but a lot of fun. It was very convenient to have the big boat there to relax on during the surface interval. Visibility at both sites was bad though due to the rain and bad weather and we didn't enjoy it as much as last time. We alsi didn't bother going to to the outside reef at Alice in Wonderland because Diane was worried about navigating back to the dinghy. Maybe next year... We left the dive mooring at about 4 and got back to our normal mooring about an hour later. We brought the gear on deck for the trip back and towed the dinghy. I got into the dinghy when we got close to the mooring while Diane drove the boat. It seemed easier for me to get the mooring lines and attach them to the boat that way than to use a boat hook to grab the lines from the water. The next morning, we spoke to Tom and Steph on Mima, the had left for Cartagena from Curacao - we had hoped they would be coming back east this year but I guess not. Hopefully we'll see them again although we will definitely stay in touch by email. Later, we went to Klein Bonaire and dove at a site called Monte's Divi Tree, which we had never been to before and we enjoyed it very much. The visibility was better than near the main island. After that, we walked to some stores a little distance away - Diane went to the variety stores and I went to Koolyman, a big hardware store, and NAPA, where I bought some oil. Later on, we went to our last Wannadive party for the year. The next day, Friday, we went to town to clear out and did some shopping. While Diane was at a supermarket, I bought her a t-shirt for her birthday which was coming up. She wanted to get a small washing machine once we got back to Puerto La Cruz but I wanted to be able to give her something on that day. Once we got back to boat Allen and Cherna stopped by to say goodbye, and we started preparing to leave but then waited until tomorrow since we were too tired. Saturday morning we finished preparations, like hoisting the dinghy on the foredeck, putting the awning away, etc. and left about 3pm. We would decide on our first stop in Venezuela once we were past the tip of Bonaire, based on the wind direction. We finally decided on Ensanada Cata since the wind was a beam reach. The trip was great until we hit some squalls about 10:30pm and the wind direction clocked to SSE so we had to motorsail. We didn't want to fall off our course and go to Chichiriviche since we had gone so far east already, so we motored in the lightening winds. We hit some more squalls around 6am on Sunday morning and they lasted to 8:30 with winds gusting to 25 or so - it was pretty hard to see the shore coming up but luckily the rain stopped and the mountains came back into view. We were approaching the anchorage and missed the morning net but we did talk to Mima who was having a good trip to Cartagena, although they had squalls as well. We made it into Ensa Cata around 10am, seeing the fishing net again that had been there the last 2 years, although this time the fishermen came out to warn us. We got safely anchored slightly inside the net but had plenty of room to leave later. Today was Diane's birthday and I gave her the nice t-shirt from Bonaire (light blue with a pink embroidered seahorse). We then relaxed and had some dinner. There were some thunderstorms and rain but not much wind so hopefully the seas will be calm when we leave later tonight. We straightened out the boat and rested a while. |