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Larry's LogWe did a lot the next day, surprisingly. Early in the morning, before the wind really started honking, we got the dinghy down. Then after breakfast, we moved the boat to the more southern anchorage of Playa Yaque, where the Palm trees are (a much prettier beach than the one we were anchored near). We motored over and put the hook down in about 15 feet of water. We could have gotten much closer but there were anchor floats from some fishing boats closer in and I didn't want to get too close to them. Once re-anchored, we got the dinghy ready - put the engine on, etc. and went to shore. We had the beach all to ourselves, not even any fisherman here yet. It was really great to finally be alone and enjoy the beautiful surroundings. We walked up and down the beach (you couldn't walk inland without good footwear because of the cactus) and I took pictures while Diane did some shelling. We took a little swim before going back to the boat and having a great beach all to ourselves really hit home - fantastic. We got back to the boat and Diane got in while I tilted up the engine. But once she got into the cockpit, she yelled out that there was a bird there. Not again!! She said it was a bigger bird this time. I got on the boat and sure enough, trapped against the textilene mesh of the dodger was a large, perching type bird. I was going to open the dodger so he could fly out that way but he managed to go around and made his escape. Our boat must be a magnet for birds -a hummingbird last time and now this. I looked him up in my "Birds of Venezuela" book and found that he was a Dark Billed Cuckoo, a first time sighting for us. Unfortunately, he didn't stay around long enough for a portrait. Later in the afternoon we went snorkeling again. We hadn't been to the area just south of Playa Yacque and it was pretty good - another new species to our lifelist, a Goldenspotted Eel. We got back to the boat before happy hour and for the first time in months we had pasta for dinner. Very nice. We were up early Saturday when the fishermen anchored next to us went off to work for the day. I stayed up while Diane went back to sleep. A little later, while listening to the morning SSB net, we heard our friends on Kristali. I tried calling but they couldn't hear. A few minutes later though, they called us and so we switched to another frequency and although the conversation wasn't long and hearing everything was hard, it was nice to talk to them again. They were back in Melbourne, Florida and had gone back to let Mike, their teenager, finish high school there and then go to college, after which, they planned to go cruising again. As we finished, we heard other friends of theirs call also - they were popular folks and we always enjoyed their company. After breakfast, we went on a hike. There is a road, of sorts, here and we thought we would just go and see what was there. Last year, we had taken the donkey trails to Americano Bay, but we thought better of it now. We saw several birds, a hummingbird and several small (what looked like) warblers but I couldn't identify them. We also saw the Crested Caracara we saw last year as we walked back. And, we had a traffic jam!! As we were walking, a 4-wheel drive truck came by going to the fishing camp where we had anchored first. We also saw them on the way back and they stopped to talk for a while - of course only Diane had the conversation, but still, I got the gist of it. Back at the beach, we took a short swim before going to the boat for lunch; what a life! In the afternoon, after running the watermaker for a short while again, we went snorkeling; this time to the reef where we had gone when we were here before. Although the water was a bit murky, the clarity was still good enough and we saw some more unusual fish and another new species - a Slender Filefish. We were out about an hour and then went back to the boat and relaxed the rest of the day. The fishing boats started to come in around 4 - there were 8 or 9 scattered around Playa Yaque, but only 2 somewhat close to us. It was a calm night. Sunday was a "typical" cruiser's day - we didn't do much in the morning and snorkeled in the afternoon (at least that's the myth). Actually, that's almost the way it happened except I did do some things on the boom preventer and finished the second rope mat I wanted to use for the dinghy in the morning. We also ran the watermaker for an hour, meaning that I had to empty the jerry jugs into the starboard tank. But, as most days go, it was very lazy. The afternoon's snorkel trip was very nice with another new species seen - the Blackbar Soldierfish; looks very much like a Squirrelfish but all red with a black bar behind the gills. We also saw several large Queen Angelfish, a large French Angel and the largest stand of Staghorn coral I've ever seen. It was about 20 feet long, 15 feet high and about 10 feet wide and covered with fish. Seeing that was worth the trip by itself. The next morning, since the wind was almost calm overnight, the batteries were pretty low. Even though the wind started up again in the morning, we would probably have to run the engine later to get them back up. Just after breakfast we took the dinghy to Americano Bay. The 20-minute ride there was a bit rough in the open water since it was upwind, but the spot was very pretty. We walked around a bit, going up to the abandoned house and exploring the area. We then went snorkeling and went under the natural rock bridge formed by the waves between the ruins and a small spit of land. We didn't see anything new but there was a small Barracuda and a very large Spanish Hogfish, large enough to eat if we could have caught him. The place was just as nice as we remembered it and we stayed until it got cloudy. Since it was getting close to lunch, we started back to the boat. The ride back was much smoother as it was with the wind and waves. We stayed on the boat the rest of the day since it stayed cloudy and as I thought, we had to run the engine for 2 hours in the early evening to charge the batteries. It was the first time we had to do that since we re-launched in Trinidad. Not too bad but it was forecast to be light for the rest of the week. Tuesday was overcast again today so we didn't go snorkeling. My morning was occupied with rearranging the deck and testing the boom preventer on the starboard side - we would be on port tack on our way to La Tortuga. I also put an eye splice in the preventer line but since the line was old, it didn't work too well - I would have to replace it when we got to Puerto La Cruz. A fisherman stopped by the boat and offered us a lobster. They had speared it and although we thought it wasn't in season anymore, we bartered for it with a can of beef with noodles (that I don't like at all) and 4 small Cokes, which we had bought specifically for this purpose. I think we all felt it was a good trade and we had the lobster for lunch. We went ashore in the afternoon and burned our accumulated garbage. There was a spot near the beach that many cruisers used for this purpose and there was some kindling nearby. We burned everything thoroughly except the cans (which I cut open) and glass bottles which we would throw overboard in deep water. I was sure they would sink and that there was no plastic on them. The glass was inert but basically harmless and the cans would corrode and be gone within weeks. It was actually a better way to dispose of our garbage then offered by most of the island countries in the Eastern Caribbean, that just tossed it all in the sea - plastic and all. We saw some small birds on the beach and finally got to identify one, a Yellow Warbler - a northern migrant from the United States (probably on his way back home). After making sure everything was burned and the fire was out, we took a short swim and went back to the boat. Although the wind picked up briefly in the late afternoon, I felt that we had to run the engine again to charge the batteries (it went almost calm again after 7). I didn't like the noise or the use of the main engine for that purpose but since we didn't have a generator, it was the only way. Since we were running the engine, I also ran the watermaker - got about 5 gallons during that time. The next day we decided to leave for La Tortuga since the weather continued to sound good although the wind was probably too light, only about 10 knots, at least it was forecast from the southeast (a bean reach, our fastest point of sail). We would leave in the evening. It was a beautiful day and so we got in a last snorkeling trip in the morning and brought the dinghy to the beach and snorkeled on the far reef from there. We saw lots of the usual as well as many unusual fish, and a small Sharptail Eel, which we also saw last year. We saw him find a hole in the sand and then back in and completely disappear - you would never know it was there. Around noon we went back to the boat and started getting everything ready to go; taking off the outboard, putting things away, etc. The wind was up a bit, maybe to 15 knots but still no problem. We waited a bit to raise the dinghy but did that around 3 and then we were basically set after I tied it down. We had a light dinner of minestrone soup (very good) and some muffins Diane had made for breakfast. We both felt we would miss La Blanquilla but it was time to go, especially since we had a good weather window. We left the anchorage around 6:30 pm and had the sail (main only) up very shortly after. It was 63 miles to Punta Delgada on Isla La Tortuga and I felt that if we had a slow trip, we might have a hard time during it during daylight. Leaving in the evening gave us plenty of time. Unfortunately(?), the wind was pretty good; about 10 to 12 knots and it was a beam reach, our fastest point of sail. Even so, before our haulout, we would have only done about 5.5 to 6 knots under those conditions. Now though, with a clean bottom, new paint (no fouling) we were going 6.5 to 7 knots. That meant we would arrive before dawn, something we didn't want to do since we had never been there before and would need to see the reef coming in. We talked about it and I said that if we do get there early, we could always heave to until daylight. Diane said OK but didn't like it much. I could have reefed the main but really didn't want to do that either in the rolly conditions we had. The problem was the swells were from the east, the wind from the east, but we were going southwest, and had a somewhat uncomfortable corkscrew motion. So we waited and hoped the wind would come down. The wind stayed steady though and about 3am, I started lengthening our course - first I went 15-20 degrees above the rhumb line then 30 minutes later I went 15-20 degrees below. I did that for about 2 hours. I could have tried towing a line in a bight (my stern anchor line would have worked but I wasn't sure how much speed we would loose that way and what kind of chafe it might cause, so I tried the zig-zag approach. It worked of course, and we wound up sailing a longer distance. About 5 am though, the wind lightened considerably so I stopped my "drunken navigator" imitation. Diane came up to take over for me about that time so I went below and rested; but not for too long - the wind started getting very light and the sail was flogging itself to death so I went up, tightened the mainsheet and turned on the engine at low revs. We were only about 12 miles away and it was still dark. During the night, we saw a large oil tanker, heading as it turned out, to the oil depot near Puerto La Cruz. Diane tried calling him on the VHF around midnight but got no response. A little later, we heard a hail on the radio and Diane answered it. It was the tanker's watch officer who had seen us (our tricolor masthead light) and wanted to let us know that he was altering course to avoid us (now that's a First!). Actually, he was early for his scheduled arrival and had to kill some time so it didn't 'cost' him anything. Diane said that she has called before and the officer said they had just done a change of watch and the last guy either didn't hear the call or ignored it, figuring that the next watch would respond. OK, at least someone did. Diane asked if they saw us on radar and he responded that there was only a very faint blip on their screen, something we figured was usually true. Fiberglass sailboats don't have much of a radar signal, even though there's an aluminum mast and we had a good radar reflector up. He did a 170 degree turn and wound up on our other side about 45 minutes later. Other than that, the passage was very uneventful. It was a beautiful night and the stars were out in force until the moon chased some of them away, around midnight. We finally got into Punta Delgada, Isla La Tortuga at 6:30, a 12 hour trip. It could have been much shorter - oh well. There were 2 other boats on the very large bay and we anchored some distance in, off Playa Caldera in 12 feet of water. |