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Larry's LogWednesday night the wind came up to about 20 knots for a while and I had to take down the Windscoop. But, by morning, it was down again to about 10. At least the batteries enjoyed it - they were showing full with a voltage of 12.8 volts. After working on the PC for a while, we went snorkeling again, this time on the reef just past the first one. Again, it was really great and we saw another species for our list, the Scrawled Cowfish. Diane saw him better than I did but I could make a definite identification. We also saw the (by now) usual cast of characters - Midnight Parrotfish, French Angelfish, etc. I used the second of the six disposable underwater cameras Diane had brought back. Diane commented that she couldn't see how the snorkeling in Las Aves could be any better. I guess we'll see. We got back to the boat and it actually rained 5 or 6 drops. I was thinking we could use a downpour to at least get rid of some of the salt on the deck. We ate lunch and ran the watermaker again for an hour before going out to see West Cay, the island just to the west of Cayo de Agua and the one with the candy-striped lighthouse. We landed at the eastern tip of West Cay and started to walk around. The beach on the southern side was magnificent, one of the best we've seen in the Caribbean. There was a large tuna fishing boat anchored behind Cayo de Agua and some of the fishermen came to shore to collect something, I'm not sure what, from the tide line - probably mussels or similar. We walked around and went up to the lighthouse where Diane sat in the shade while I wandered around some more. The island was like the others in the group, low and sandy with a lot of scrub and some mangroves along various spots near the shore. I got a great shot of a Brown Booby sitting on a rock - he let me get to within 4 feet before I just walked away - he showed no inclination to leave. I went back, got Diane and we went around to the north side of the island, and while the beach there wasn't much, the bird life was excellent. I got a good picture of a White Egret and walking down the beach some more, we came upon some nesting Brown Boobies. They had built their nests about 20 feet from the surf line and just up on the beach, among the sparse vegetation. Just walking by you could see the eggs. The mothers didn't like us getting too close, they made some particular gestures and noises, so I just took some quick pictures and we left them in peace. It was really great though, the birds nesting so close. We took a nice swim off the beach where we landed the dinghy (it was hot and there was little breeze) and then went back to Destiny in time for cocktail hour, 5:30. I guess it's not all balmy breezes here. That night we were awakened twice by rain - the first time at 1am; it was very light and only lasted 5 minutes. The second time, at 4:30am, it was hard and I had to go outside to take down the Windscoop before the bed got soaking wet (instead I did). That rain lasted about an hour. And of course, before the rain, because the wind was so light, we had mosquitoes. We tried the citronella candle and mosquito coils but they did no good - eventually we had to use bug spray as they just wouldn't leave us alone. We got up late that morning, around 8, and after the morning SSB nets, we started getting ready to go. We decided to go back to Gran Roque on Friday to get some more provisions and gasoline but thought that we'd go to Crasqui first. We hadn't seen that island and it was close to Gran Roque. So, around 10:45 we got up the anchor and motored east through the archipelago. We went past Carenero and through the pass between Sarqui and Espenqui that we saw and the minimal water depth was 16 feet so we had no problem at all except that it was cloudy and we lost the ability to read the water just at the moment when we were going through. Fortunately, since we had been there before and Diane was watching carefully while I steered, we had no problem. It didn't shorten the trip much but it was fun. Once past Sarqui, we went straight to Crasqui and anchored in about 12 feet of nice water on the north side of the island. The guidebook says there is less depth there but we did fine, and anchored about 75 yards off a beautiful beach at around 2:30. We had to motor the entire way since the batteries needed to be charged and we were also running the watermaker, but we would have had to anyway - the wind was extremely light, under 5 knots mostly. We also dodged more rain showers most of the way. Just after we finished lunch, a small bird flew onto the boat. It was obviously tired and decided to rest on one of the supports for the main hatch, in the shade under the hatch cover. I got some very close-up pictures of it and I believe it was a Blackpoll Warbler, a migrant from up north. Maybe he felt at home on a US flagged boat. He stayed for maybe 30 minutes and then flew off. We relaxed a little after lunch and then went to shore to walk around and take a swim. The beach at Crasqui was really great and although there was only one other boat there, it gets crowded on weekends from day-trippers from Gran Roque. We walked up and down the place and enjoyed it - nobody was there except some guys who were camping but they were much further down the island. Our closest neighbors were the gulls and terns. We got some rain again overnight, this time around 5am. I felt the wind increase and the lightening woke me up so I went out and took down the Windscoop before I had to get wet doing it. It was a very busy day. We both went back to sleep after the early morning rain but we were underway to Gran Roque by about 9:30. We wanted to get there before the stores closed for siesta so we could get our provisions, get the gasoline, drop off the garbage and come back to either Crasqui or maybe Sarqui. We motored into a 10-12 knots breeze with just a little chop and we got to the anchorage (a now crowded anchorage) at Gran Roque by a little after 11:30. Since we towed the dinghy, we just needed to get everything together and then I brought Diane to shore, dropped her at the town dock, took the garbage to the spot we left it last time and went back to the boat. Diane had the little FRS radios but they didn't work too well (I later saw one was setup wrong) but after waiting about 30 minutes, I saw her through the binoculars at the dock. I went in and picked up her and the groceries but just as I got to the dock, she saw that there was the 2-liter Diet Cokes in a 6 pack on the dock. She bought one of those and the shopkeeper said he would have more at 2. So she said we would be back later and we brought everything back to the boat. After a quick lunch (peanut butter on nice fresh bread) we went to get gasoline from the "Luciano", the weekly supply boat. We went over and asked to get gasoline and the guy said no problem but after waiting 10 minutes, he came back and explained that the hose they had was too big to fit into the jerry jug I brought. So, we went back to Destiny, I got a small diameter hose (I wasn't sure if it would be long enough) and brought it back to the Luciano. OK, no problem now and we had our gas in 5 minutes - about 22 liters in a 21 liter container for 5000 Bs, more expensive than PLC but still cheap. By this time, it was almost 2 so I dropped Diane off at the dock again and brought the gas back to the boat. Diane called me in 5 minutes on the now correctly adjusted radio and asked that I come in to pick up her and the soda. I went in and there were now about 10 kids playing on the dock, jumping in and splashing. One of them, and an older guy, helped Diane and we got the 4 six-packs of 2-liter Diet Coke into the dinghy. Of course, we got splashed several times and one kid hung on the side strap as we left the dock, getting a tow. Diane got him to let go and we went back to the boat, rinsed off the salt water and got everything below. I mixed the oil into the gas (before I forgot) although the overfilled tank made adding anything else difficult, and we left to go back to Crasqui at a little after 3. We motor sailed back to our spot at Crasqui and dropped the hook at about 4:30. There were more boats here than before, about 7, but the beach was so big that we were still pretty much by ourselves. We were both pretty tired by that time and we had a quick drink and then took the dinghy to the beach for a nice cooling swim. I must admit, Crasqui has the best beach in Los Roques, powdery sand and it goes on for a mile. The breeze had picked up from yesterday and it was now a pleasant 10-12 knots from the ESE. We had run the watermaker there and back so we were doing well. Saturday it looked like some rain was possible in the morning but it cleared and we left at about 9:30 for Cayo de Agua. We motored through the pass between Sarqui and Espenqui and then sailed with the jib only for the rest of the way. It had cleared nicely except, of course, as we went through the passage between the islands. Fortunately, we had no problems. We arrived in Cayo de Agua with another boat coming in from Las Aves just as we entered. Another boat came in from that direction shortly after and also anchored where we had been before. We went a little further in to shore and dropped the hook in about 20 feet of water, got up the sun canvas and just relaxed. It had taken about 4 hours to make it, first motoring and sailing the approximately 12 miles. We obviously took our time. We took a swim from the boat and just relaxed the rest of the day. The wind picked up overnight so I turned off the wind gen before it overcharged the batteries, at about midnight. After we got up and had breakfast, I did some chores, like finally putting on the snaps that had broken on the covers for the dodger sides. I also put some beeswax on all of them to make them go on and off easily and hopefully not break again. Of course, as I finished the first one, the cover I was working on pushed over the box that had all my snaps in it and about half spilled into the cockpit. Damn! I don't think I lost too many (if any) down the cockpit drain but of course, now I had to separate the spilled ones and put them back in place. Oh well, as Tom (Mima) says, 'no good deed goes unpunished.' We decided to wait until after lunch to go snorkeling and ran the watermaker again for a couple of hours during lunchtime. After eating, we went snorkeling on the reef inside the lagoon and it was pretty good and we saw lots of large parrotfish, nothing new though. Maybe I'm getting jaded. Anyway, although the wind was up a bit, maybe 12 - 15 knots, it was still very nice and not a tough place to snorkel. Maybe we'll try the outside reef again tomorrow since we're planning to leave on Tuesday for Las Aves. Back at the boat we just relaxed the rest of the day, running the watermaker again for an hour since we had enough wind to recharge the batteries. Monday we decided to snorkel in the afternoon since the wind was up and Diane wanted to get some hand laundry done. By the time she finished and was ready to put it on the line I rigged, it was about 20 - 22 knots and that made putting out clothes to dry somewhat problematic. I wound up helping and holding the sheet so it wouldn't knock the other clothes off. Fortunately, the sheet dried fast and the wind eventually started to calm down. We wanted to leave tomorrow for Las Aves but wanted to get to snorkel once more here. So after lunch, we went out to the reef just in front of the anchorage. The other boats that were here had left in the morning and we were alone which was nice. We went out and it started slow but ended really well. I saw some new species but we also saw a Caribbean Stingray and some predatory fish starting to feed on an enormous school of small fish. The predators were Cero and Bar Jacks, but I'm sure there were others. It was really amazing to see. We had seen the spectacle from the boat but never before in the water. We got back to the boat and took off the engine and took everything else out if the dinghy. I thought we would try towing it the 30 miles, downwind, to Las Aves. I rinsed off the snorkeling gear and the stuff from the dinghy with fresh water since we hadn't done it in weeks. Meanwhile, Diane prepared our anniversary dinner, lomito (filet mignon) and corn soufflé. We had a nice bottle of champagne and then enjoyed dinner in the now very calm (5 knots) anchorage. |