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Larry's LogThat night the wind was very light again, except around 2:30am when a thunderstorm threatened. We never did get any rain but the wind picked up to 20-25 knots and I had to feather the wind generator to keep it producing. I also had to get some of the things in the cockpit out of the wind. Why do these things happen at 2:30? It didn't last long and the wind died again but then we started to roll at about 5am. That woke up Diane who woke me up when she got out of bed to stop the dishes from rattling in the drain. Need less to say, we didn't get up too early, around 8am. When we did get out of bed, it was cloudy and we were still rolling, with the wind about 5 to 10 knots from the southeast, the direction with the most fetch, hence the roll. We were going to visit the island just south of us, only about a 1/2 mile away, but figured we could do that another time and would go snorkeling instead, assuming the clouds dissipated. The clouds did disappear and we decided to visit Curricai (the long, narrow island to the south of Saki Saki) to see if the roll would be less there and to see if there was an acceptable anchorage. There was a big trimaran anchored just north of Curricai and that looked pretty good but there was only room there for one boat. We got to the island and we landed on the beach without too many problems, although the dinghy got a bit wet in the surf. There was more coral around Curricai than Saki Saki and the roll was the same. Also, the sandy patches seemed to be a very thin layer of sand over rock - not good holding so we decided to stay where we were, at least until tomorrow. We did walk around the island though, and being only ¼ mile long (maybe) and 100 yards wide (at its widest), didn't take too long. The leeward beach was very pretty though and there was a small fishermen's camp on the southern end. Diane stopped to talk with them and ask that if they got any fish, to bring one over and maybe we could do a trade. They said the boats came back in the evening so we would see. As we walked around, we saw a signpost erected by some cruisers earlier in the year, showing distances to various places - Miami, Puerto La Cruz, Puerto Cabello and Jak's Restaurant in Porlamar, Margarita! There was one lone Palm tree on the island and it looked pretty forlorn but it still stood. After a short swim, we went back to the boat, noticing that the boat just south of us near Saki Saki had left. There were now 2 boats anchored in the northwest part of Aves de Sotavento. We were going to go snorkeling in the afternoon but since it seemed to be getting cloudy again, decided against it. I was reading in the cockpit when I heard a boat coming up. Since the only other boat near us was a sailboat and he hadn't taken his dinghy down since we were there, it had to be fishermen. Sure enough, they were coming over so I went below (put some clothes on) and told Diane they were coming. She went up and they had some lobsters and 2 large fish. After a little negotiation (sorry guys, no cigarettes) we came up with 5 cans of Coke and 1 can of the Brinkman's Beef with Noodles (I don't like this anyway). They cleaned and filleted the fish, a large snapper and a large parrotfish and gave us the 3 lobsters in a bag, 2 large, 1 small. We told them we would be out on the reef tomorrow if they got anything else. After they left, we talked about eating the parrotfish. They were known to be ciguatoxic. Diane emailed Giulio to see if he knew anything about the reef fish here. The lobsters were not the normal Spiny Lobsters we had seen in the rest of the Caribbean. We looked them up and they were Slipper Lobsters, with flat, rounded antenna, supposedly tasting better than their cousins. That evening we had corn (from a can unfortunately) and delicious lobster. I am not a big fan of lobster, but these really were good. For dessert, Diane had made brownies earlier in the day; not a bad meal for being out of touch for almost 4 weeks. It started early Sunday morning with some rain and lightning at about 5:30am. I got up and closed the hatches as I did yesterday at this time when it started raining lightly. Today though, it kept raining and the wind kept increasing. The wind started from the southeast and slowly started to clock to the south. I went into the cockpit to make sure the things we had there wouldn't blow away since it had increased to about 20 knots in the 20-25 minutes since it started raining and I got up. The awning was up but it had survived 25 (and more) knots before so I wasn't too worried. Then the wind increased more and clocked further, now to the southwest. Now it was getting a little more serious. Our protective reef and island were now a lee shore. From that quadrant now, it blew to about 30 to 35 knots and the waves picked up to about 3 to 4 feet with some breaking crests since there was now nothing in front of us but the mainland of Venezuela, about 90 miles away. Diane had been up for some time at this point and asked if she could do anything. I thought we were still OK and said no but as soon as I said it, the wind increased some more. I looked at the island and could barely see it - luckily I could see the light from the lighthouse still and we hadn't moved, except of course that our stern was now facing the reefs. I told Diane we should get out of the anchorage and move out to sea until this went by. She suggested turning on the engine and using it to motor into the wind and seas. I said OK, as we had used that technique before. About that time, we heard a loud bang from the bow. I figured the snubber line had broken. Later, I found out that it didn't break but that the chain hook had fallen off, letting the bight of chain run out and stop hard once it hit the end still in the windlass (I was lucky the windlass stayed in the boat, but since we were motoring into it at that point, the shock load wasn't as bad as it could have been.). The boat near us (Honalee, about 75 yards away) had his anchor light still on and I could tell that he was trying to leave. The rain was so strong I could only see the light sometimes. Diane had gotten the engine started and I was motored slowly into the wind and waves, now blowing 40 - 45 from the due west with seas up to 6 to 7 feet. The bow of the boat was regularly buried and we took some green water over the stern as well when the boat pitched up on a crest before the previous one had passed. Diane asked if she could do anything else and I said no but as soon as I said it the flagpole broke. I had attached the awning's boltrope to it using a boathook as a strut. The boathook was flapping around on the rope and so was the broken end of the flagpole (with the flag). I asked her to steer while I got the mess straightened out. Retrieving the boathook and broken flagpole wasn't too bad and I took over steering again, just motoring into everything and keeping an eye on the island, the reefs, the dinghy (which was on 2 lines trailing behind the boat since we had planned to tow it up to the reef today), the depth sounder (making sure we didn't get into water shallower than the 16 feet we were in currently) and the waves which were breaking regularly now. The rain was so hard I couldn't look directly into the wind and it felt like little needles on my bare skin. (I hadn't had the chance to put on a shirt.) The only bright spot (literally) was that I could see the lighthouse light on the island (the structure itself was hidden by rain) and it was not getting closer, meaning we weren't dragging. Honalee managed to leave during the worst of it; at least I couldn't see his light anymore and hoped he had gotten out. Diane called him on the VHF and then the SSB (when his VHF stopped working) and he was all right, just heading west until he could get back. Then I couldn't see the lighthouse light - it must have been on a timer that shut off at 7am. Fortunately, there was enough light by then, even with the rain, so I could see the water and most of the reef that was about 25 yards behind us; it didn't seem to be getting closer and the water depth remained fairly constant (going up and down by 3 feet each time waves picked up the boat but always around 16 feet). We stayed like that for about an hour and eventually the wind started to lessen. The waves stayed pretty bad though and we kept motoring until the wind came down to about 20. It also backed to the south. So when we stopped motoring into the waves, we started rolling through 35 to 40 degrees as these now smaller (!) 4 to 5 foot seas came through still from the west. At least we were past the worst of it but we could only sit in the wet cockpit, in our wet clothes, and hold on to keep from being thrown around. We saw Honalee come back in around 10:30 and he anchored in about the same spot he was in before but he had to re-anchor several times until he was OK. He finally got settled as the wind started to come back to the southeast and the rolling let up a bit. Allen came over in his dinghy ("Are we having fun yet?") and we invited him aboard and had a drink (it was late enough in the day for us!!). We hadn't spoken to him before our brief radio conversation earlier that morning but we found out that we had met a couple of years ago at a party for Ken and Vesta, on Great White Wonder, given by Cosmos in Trinidad. Diane made a snack and we just talked about the morning's events and tried to calm each other down. Allen and his wife (back in the States for 2 weeks) had been cruising this area (Curacao to Trinidad) for 14 years and he said that was the worst wind reversal he ever experienced. Lucky us! We talked a bit and had some more drinks and then he went back to Honalee around noon. The only other thing we had happen (besides the broken flagpole) was that the port tank had emptied (some of my supplies fell out of the forward head locker and turned on the faucet). He kindly offered to let us get some water from him since he had 250 gallons on board and a 40-gallon/hour watermaker. I said we might do that and thanks. We agreed to listen to VHF 72 (he had fixed his radio) and talk later. As he left, the wind was now about 5 knots from the east and the seas were now 1 foot. The sky was still very heavily overcast though. After the snacks, we weren't too hungry so Diane tried resting and I cleaned up some more of the mess. Some of the water from the leaking faucet spilled on the floor and although my tools in the toolboxes in the forward head weren't wet, I had to take everything out to dry the floor and get the rug out. After that, I rigged something to hold up the awning on the starboard side in the stern. The awning itself had come through pretty well. We didn't loose anything overboard so the only losses were the flagpole and the water in the port tank. It could have been much worse. I told Diane we really should have gotten out of the anchorage but she said she was just too worried about me going to pick up the anchor on the bow in those waves. I told her I would have gotten wet but could have done it. I inspected the anchor roller and the windlass. It held well and I re-attached the snubber line that had just been hanging down. If we hadn't been easing the strain on the windlass by motoring, I'm sure there would have been some damage. Around 3, we went over to visit Allen and brought over a bottle of rum and a Caribbean Compass we were finished with. We filled our 2 water jugs and then just visited for a while. After we figured out we had met him already, it turned out that we had a number of friends in common. He also had a cat on board that was very friendly and Diane was very happy to have a cat sitting on her lap being petted (like our cat used to do). He gave us some ices (from Bonaire) that were delicious (I hadn't had those in years) and then we moved on to some very good beer imported from (where else) Holland. (Sorry, but it was much better than Polar - the most popular beer in Venezuela). We talked for a couple of hours, still trying to unwind after the morning's excitement and we finally left about 5. Diane made a very nice dinner of Chicken Italiano, chicken encrusted with Parmesan cheese (one of my favorites), and we went to bed early with the wind from the east at 5 knots and no noticeable roll. It had been a very full day. It started to rain a bit early the next morning but stopped quickly, thank God. Diane wasn't feeling too well, probably something she drank yesterday. Around 9:30, I made (yes, I made) some biscuits since Diane wasn't feeling well. (I had done it before when she was back in the States for a few weeks.) The sky looked menacing again but when I spoke to Allen, he said wind reversals only happen at night. I'm not sure if he was serious but the rain we got was mild and the wind only got up to 15 knots. It quickly went back down to under 5. We had planned to go snorkeling with Allen around 11am so he could show us some good spots but we all decided it was better to stay with the boats since the sky was still so menacing all around. There were squalls around us constantly and although we missed most of them, and the rain we got was light, we figured we should be ready. So, while Diane made bread and relaxed, I read and relaxed as well. The wind was up and down but mostly down although at one point we were facing south and later in the day, we faced northeast. Around 3, the wind was zero and the water was like a mirror. Even with clouds overhead, you could see every piece of coral and the sand ripples on the bottom in 20 feet of water. I went over to Honalee around 3:30 and filled the water jugs again. I gave Allen the September issue of the Compass and we talked for a while. He had been watching videos that morning; nice to have a big generator (I wish I had one!). Diane still wasn't feeling too well so we had a simple dinner and continued our process of recuperation from yesterday's storm (sans alcohol though). |