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Larry's LogSunday was busy again. The morning was occupied with starting to get the boat ready to leave for Venezuela and I put some things away as did Diane. The weather sounded good for Tuesday and we tentatively planned to leave that evening. We had called in to a new weather net (David Jones' Caribbean Weather Center was gone now that he had passed away) and somebody named Chris Parker from Miami had kindly started up a similar service. He said the winds would be reasonable (15 knots or so) and the waves not too bad (around 6 feet) on Tuesday into Wednesday. Of course, I had been getting weather information from NOAA and George's weather net in the morning. The trip back to Puerto La Cruz would be in stages since its directly into the wind and waves. The first stage would be to get to the Venezuela coast at a place called Chichiriviche, a small town but also the location for some Indian petroglyphs said to be from 3400BC. I wanted to see those and also the cliffs in the area. There were also flocks of Scarlet Ibis that would brighten the sky. The rest of the trip back would be to various bays along the coast, with a total mileage of about 350. I estimated that it would take a little over a week. When we finished the morning's activity and lunch, we went diving and finally got to a site called Andrea 2, we saw a dolphin getting there that might have been playing with the dinghy a bit, so maybe that was an omen. We had tried going there previously but there had been boats on it already before us. We had a very nice dive; the highlight was a Green Turtle we found just resting who wasn't scared of us at all and we watched or followed him for some time. I found a large lobster although we couldn't take it naturally. The visibility had been decreasing and was down to about 40-50 feet but it was still fine for us. After getting back and dropping off the tanks, we relaxed a bit before taking down the awning. I also took down the dinghy hoist lines and straightened up the deck a bit before relaxing with a rum and coke. Vicky, from Halliday Girl, had left some Apricot Squares for us in the cockpit as a bon voyage present - it was a very nice gift and they were really excellent. We planned to go into town tomorrow morning to do some last minute things on the Internet, get some groceries and check out of the country, depending on how the weather sounded. Monday morning we did go into town to do some things; checking email and buying some groceries. When we got back we decided that we probably wouldn't leave until Wednesday, or possibly Thursday, since the wind was still up and the seas fairly high. I would prefer about 15 to 20 knots and under 6 foot seas but we may have to settle for more of each. We did another dive today at a site nearby called Front Porch. Its not a pretty site, the coral isn't much and the broken coral from when they sunk a wreck there is ugly, the site does have a lot of sea life. We finally found the large yellow seahorse that the dive shop kept telling us about but still couldn't find the frogfish(es) they said were there (someplace). We did see other interesting things though, like some more Cleaner Shrimp, a Mantis Shrimp and an Arrow Crab. My Christmas present of a book on reef creatures was being used well. We also saw a Goldspotted Eel - only the second we've seen. When we got back to the boat, we listened to the afternoon weather net and it still didn't sound too promising until later in the week. Oh well, I guess we'll just have to continue diving for another day. Again the next morning, we did some things to get the boat ready. Diane made up a large batch of chili so she wouldn't have to cook much in the trip to PLC and I did some more things on deck. I also fixed one of her dive boots on which the zipper broke. We also cleaned the bottom - at least I did while Diane did the waterline. The hull wasn't too bad and the prop and shaft were very good, just some algae which wiped right off. The Velox paint was working very well. By the time we finished (about 90 minutes with us both working), it was almost noon so we left all the gear in the dinghy and ate lunch. We went on what we planned to be our last dive before we left Bonaire at Something Special, the dive site we first went to and snorkeled. I took the last of the underwater cameras and finished up the roll I started in Las Aves. We then went back down (I had to drop off the camera at the dinghy first since it was only rated to 35 feet) and we had an excellent dive although visibility wasn't great. We saw lots of nice fish but the best was the green frogfish I found sitting on a purple tube sponge. He was about the size of the yellow one we saw near Skyus but harder to see. We also saw a small Spotted Moray hunting with a large Red Hind shadowing him in the hopes of catching a fish that he scared. The 'icing' was seeing an octopus in the shallows. We finished the dive, went back to the shop and refilled the tanks right away so we could take full ones with us. We also rinsed the equipment well since it would now be stored, probably until we came back here. We might do some diving in PLC but we would see. The dive shop staff had been very nice and we said we would see them again in a few months. We got back to the boat, put our equipment out to dry and I read while Diane made some brownies with the last of the chocolate. Unfortunately, she used salt instead of sugar and although she realized it before baking, it was too late. She made them anyway but they were inedible - oh well. We also realized too late that Jesse's weekly fish slide show was tonight - we were pretty tired anyway and we had lots to do tomorrow. There was no afternoon weather net today so we'll listen again tomorrow morning and make our final decision then. We got up early to listen to the morning weather (George) but couldn't get it very well. We then listened to the later weather with Chris and he said we would have decent conditions, similar to last night's, which was 10 to 15 knots. We decided we would go tonight. So we went into town, checked out of the country, did some final shopping (the markets were pretty bare since they hadn't gotten a delivery in almost 3 weeks) and had a last ice cream from Bonaire. We got back to the boat just about noon. After lunch, I continued getting the boat ready and Diane relaxed a bit. About 3 we went into the marina to pay our bill, drop off the last of the garbage and get some more water. Back at the boat, we started getting the dinghy ready - got the engine off, etc. and then waited until the wind calmed down a bit more before hoisting the dinghy onto the foredeck. I took down the solar panels, put on the jacklines and then hoisted the inflatable onto the deck. We washed it off a bit and I then tied it down. We were just about ready. We left the mooring at about 8:40 that evening and motored out. The breeze was about 10 knots from the east and I only raised the main since I wanted to charge the batteries first before just sailing. We motosailed for about 2 hours, running the watermaker also, until just past the southern tip of Bonaire, when we turned off the engine and unfurled the jib. It was now about 15 knots, still from the East and we were doing about 6.5 knots with a single reef in the main and the full (small) jib. We went along that way the entire night except the wind did calm down a bit to about 10 knots but still easterly. It was a very nice beam reach the entire way except the seas were still up from the previous winds, about 5-7 feet and Diane did get seasick. Still, it was a nice passage. The moon was almost full and there were very few clouds so it was a beautiful night also. We didn't any ship traffic until about 20 miles from the Venezuela coast, and that one seemed anchored. We got to Chichiriviche at about 10:30, making pretty good time, about 12 hours averaging over 6 knots. The place is a slightly dusty tourist/resort town for the locals but there is a site here that has Indian petroglyphs said to be very old that I wanted to see. We had gotten a small chart from Skyus (a catamaran drawing very little) about where they anchored when they were here just before Christmas. The guidebook also said there was a channel leading in towards the cliffs and caves. After negotiating the reefs around the entrance islands, we tried going into the Golfo de Cuare and ran aground several times. The water was green and very murky so you couldn't see they bottom at all and after trying several promising possible channels, we gave up. Of course, we didn't stop until we ran aground fairly badly. That last time, I could feel the boat bump the bottom and I tried reverse but to no avail. I then tried leaning out on the boom while Diane manned the helm - still no good. All this time, there were pineros zooming around and although one or two stopped to say that there was very little water here, they didn't offer any help. Perhaps it was just as well since I wasn't sure they would know what to do anyway. What we eventually had to do was launch the dinghy and I took the main halyard and attached it to a line from one of the dinghy's hoisting points. Then, with Diane at the helm, I gunned the outboard to pull the boat over on its side as much as possible, reducing the draft. After about 30 minutes of that, we finally got off. I got back on the boat and towed the dinghy behind us to one of the islands we had passed. We anchored in the lee of a small island full of beachgoers, Cayo Los Muertos. The boat traffic back and forth between the town and there was amazing - and I thought Bonaire was noisy! After gathering our wits and straightening out the boat we had a light lunch and tried to relax. The pineros and pirogues running back and forth, as water taxis, was maddening since the only good place to anchor was fairly close to where they had a dock to pick up passengers. Well, we were told it does quiet down at sunset. The place did quiet down at dusk and there were none of the hundreds of people left on the little island. Needless to say, we went to bed early. Even though the welcome hadn't been terrific (running aground), we were still glad to be back in Venezuela. |