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Larry's LogWednesday, and Diane went shopping again while I worked on the rope mat for the front of the dinghy. The one I made yesterday was too small when I tried it on so I untied everything and retied it into a bigger one (yesterday's was a series of smaller ones tied in the same rope). I retied the bigger one quickly but it took almost 3 hours to get it to look right - it was a square mat but I couldn't get it to look square. Finally, after figuring out that I needed to get the tension right on all strands, it started to look good. By the time Diane came back at almost 4, it looked pretty good but I didn't have a chance to fit it. I was also waiting all day for the head part that was supposed to arrive. When I went in to pick up Diane and the groceries, she stopped at Jak's to see if the part had, in fact, arrived and sure enough, it was there. Don wasn't around so we couldn't pay for it but they let us take it anyway. We got back to the boat, put the stuff away and got ready to go to Spice Island Lady; Lois and Lynne had invited us over. We finally spoke to Don from their boat and he said to just come in the next day to pay for the part. I didn't get a chance to install it but would do that tomorrow morning. Hopefully everything would go back together OK and we could leave soon. In the meantime, we had a very nice time with Lynne and Lois. The next day we both went to town to go shopping but before that, I put the new piece for the head in the pump, reassembled everything and mounted it back in the head compartment. That took about 2 hours but the part worked fine and the head now seems to be working OK. A little leak, but that was always there, so it appears fixed. Our shopping took us to a large mall where I could get on the Internet and Diane could go shopping for some (hopefully) last minute groceries. I was on the Internet for almost 2 and ½ hours since there was a lot to do - updating the Destiny Logs web site (not done since January) updating my friend Joe's site, checking and downloading our financials and clearing out all the spam email (there was over 800 junk messages from just a little over 2 weeks, amazing!). We got back to the "marina" and checked to see if Don was around so we could pay him for the part. He wasn't there so we left a message for him to call us on the boat when he arrived. We put all the stuff away but he never called. We just did some little things on the boat the rest of the day. On Friday we got ready to leave for Juangriego tomorrow. Of course, Diane went shopping again for (this time really) last minute stuff and some other things (we ran out of money yesterday). While she was gone, I cleaned up my tools (some had started to get rusty) and put things away. By the time she got back, I was almost done but then there was getting the boat ready to move again. Just after she got back, the water barge "Waterbaby" came over and we filled the port tank - the only one we had used since leaving Trinidad. The starboard tank was still full and we only took 100 liters since we had been running the watermaker here. She had found Don before she went shopping and paid him for the part for the head and once we had everything put away (or at least put everything in the boat someplace) we went back in for lunch at Jak's. I had my usual fried calamari and so did Diane this time, and we weren't disappointed. The place was actually quite busy but with local people having lunch rather than cruisers; there were only about 25-30 boats in the anchorage now while there had been about 150 when we were here the first time. As we were finishing, Lois and Lynne came in and had lunch also. We recommended the calamari and that's what they had as well. We talked for a while and then went back to the boat to get things ready. We couldn't hoist the dinghy just yet since Diane wanted Lois to cut her bangs a little more (she had just gotten a haircut but the bangs were too long) and also give them some books. She went over around 3 and came back at 4, after making one more run in to get rid of some garbage, since we wouldn't be able to get rid of it until going to Puerto La Cruz in about 2 weeks, unless we burned it someplace. When she got back from Spice Island Lady, we got the dinghy ready to hoist - took off the seat, oars, etc, and then got the engine off. I brought the boat around and Diane hoisted it while I held it steady in the 20 knots of breeze we had - not easy to do. We managed though and I tied it down off the deck a bit so we could get some air below and continued putting things away and getting ready to leave. It takes about 3-4 hours of solid work to get the boat ready for even a short passage (more if we've been someplace for a long time or of I've had to get out tools to do some work). Saturday, we finally got out of Porlamar. We got up early, around 5, and after I had coffee, I tied down the dinghy and we got underway at 6:45. (We still had some stuff to put away.) The passage to Juangriego was uneventful and started out very quietly. We got the bridle undone and motor-sailed out past Punta Ballena, the eastern tip of Margarita, and started sailing in about 10 knots of breeze from the East-Northeast. The seas were about 4-6 feet with an occasional 7 footer just to be interesting. It stayed that way until we got around Cabo Negro, the northern cape of Margarita. After getting past that the wind started to pick up and change direction a bit. By the time we got to Juangriego, it was a steady 20 knots with some gusts to almost 30 - we hit some nice speeds and almost were surfing down the waves. The sea hadn't built up yet but would have if it stayed that way much longer. I think though the wind was being funneled past the mountains of Margarita and creating locally increased winds. We got into Juangriego about 1 and had the anchor down in 11 feet of very murky water. It had been dirty the last time also. We had lunch and then I straightened out some things and made up a temporary strap to hold a boom preventer. We probably could have used it today and would most likely need one tomorrow on the way to La Blanquilla. I also put an extra wrap on the furling drum and straightened out the jib sheets since they had gotten tangled from furling in one of the big gusts coming into the harbor. The rest of the day we relaxed while the wind blew. We got up very early the next day, around 4:15, intending to leave for La Blanquilla but we decided not to go. It was raining and windy still and so we figured another day won't make any difference, although we both wanted to leave. We didn't feel the rain since the dinghy was down and blocking it. We had discovered we could open the forward hatch a little with the dinghy tied down and still get some air. Since it was blowing so much that it was more than sufficient. Diane went back to bed and I stayed up and got a weather fax, but the forecast was the same for tomorrow. The rest of the day was spent doing little odd jobs, but I did get a temporary boom preventer set up since we will need it when we do leave for La Blanquilla. Monday we got up early again, around 3:30 and the wind was down and the sky clear so we decided to leave. We got ready, I made coffee, and we were underway by 4:15, with the sails up by 4:30. The wind was very steady at about 8 to 10 knots from the East-Northeast, once we got out of the little bay. The seas were only about 3-5 feet so although it was a bit rolly, the ride wasn't too bad. The trip was pretty uneventful until we were about an hour from La Blanquilla - at which point I caught a fish! Only the second I had caught in the Caribbean (out of the three times I put a lure out) but as I was reeling it in, the reel jammed. So while Diane held the rod, I pulled the line in by hand. I got a small tuna, about 15 pounds. It was almost dead by the time we got it to the boat since we were going about 7 knots, even though I had furled the jib when it first came on the line (the wind had picked up to about 12 to 15 knots and we were on a beam reach.) So after being on the line for about 20 minutes, we got it on board fairly easily and administered the coup de grace by pouring a little French rum over his gills. We didn't drink that stuff anyway. Now, of course, I had to deal with cleaning it and cleaning up the mess afterward. Conditions were too rolly to do it then so I made some incisions to bleed the fish and then put it in a plastic bag and Diane managed to get it in the refrigerator for cleaning later. I then unfurled the jib again and we started going about 7.5 to 8 knots in a rising breeze of 15 to 18 from the ENE. Once we got close to the island and in its lee, the seas calmed down but the wind increased and for 30 minutes we hit about 9 to 9.5 knots on a broad reach in 20 to 22 knots of breeze - a nice ride. We got around the southwest tip of La Blanquilla and saw just 2 other sailboats but several local fishing boats and anchored in 20 feet of water off the northern side of Playa Yaque, where we had first anchored the last time. We got there around 2:30 after a passage of about 9 hours, thirty minutes. There were some local boats there but most left by nightfall and all I did the remainder of the day was get the sail cover on, untangle the jibsheets (they got that way again during furling in big gusts and of course, clean my fish. It took about an hour to clean and fillet it and then clean up afterward. Diane made the fish for dinner and it was pretty good. It was still blowing about 15 to 20 the next morning so we didn't go snorkeling or launch the dinghy. I worked out a new arrangement for the boom preventer, which took most of the morning, and did a nice Turk's Head knot on the steering wheel in the late afternoon but that was about it. We also ran the watermaker for 2 hours, filling the jerry jugs that I had emptied into the starboard tank earlier in the morning. Diane had wanted to put some bleach into the tank and so we did that as I put the water into the tank, to make sure it was mixed well. We had leftover fish for dinner - that tuna was still pretty good. Wednesday started slowly but we did do some things. In the morning, Diane made her biscuits for breakfast, the first time in months - I guess we're off the diet for a while. I redid the way the boom preventer was done and tested it. It would work OK but needed some 'tweaking'. I also fixed the reel and got the line back on but that actually took both of us working about 2 hours to get the knots and tangles out of the monofilament. We had the last of my fish as tuna salad for lunch. After doing that and running the watermaker again, we finally went snorkeling. We hadn't been in the water for months and it was really nice to get back in, especially in a good place like this. The snorkeling wasn't great but was pretty good and the reef was wonderfully alive, unlike many places in the Caribbean where the coral itself is dead and bleached. I did see another new species though, a small grouper-like fish, called a Coney. We only snorkeled for about an hour since it was late in the day (around 4) and we started to get cold. Besides, we couldn't miss happy hour! I got up about 7 the next day and noticed that the other cruising boat, about ¼ mile south of us, had left. We were now the only cruising boat here, probably on La Blanquilla altogether. Of course, the fishermen were still here but other than going past in their boats and offering a fish or lobster for sale to us, they were fine neighbors. We were going to launch the dinghy today but it was too windy - about 20-25 knots for most of the day so we just did some odd jobs around the boat, ran the watermaker (and I emptied the jerry jugs into the starboard tank since I could never figure a way to pipe a connection to there from the watermaker). We then went snorkeling again, using our new side-boarding ladder. We had a good time, seeing a new species (Honeycomb Cowfish) and some others that were pretty unusual, at least for us. When we got back to the boat, we decided to move tomorrow to the broad beach just south of here; it was a prettier view. While having our sundowners, we observed some interesting bird behavior. A pelican would dive down, head first (as they often do to catch a fish) and a gull, seeing this, would fly to where the pelican had entered the water and land on the pelican's head, hoping to get a fish. Sometimes several gulls would compete for this landing spot but naturally there was room for only one. The gull would then fly off when the pelican finally swallowed its catch; the pelican would keep its bill underwater until it was actually ready to make the gulp. We had heard about this behavior but never saw it before and we never did see a gull get rewarded for this unusual act of attempted piracy. We stayed up that night to see the total eclipse of the moon. It was pretty interesting and the night was clear. We could see the Southern Cross, Polaris and some other constellations (the ones I recognized). By the time the Earth cast its full shadow on the Moon, it was almost 11:30, way past our bedtime. |