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Larry's LogWednesday was a nice last day in Los Roques. In the morning, we got an invitation for drinks and snacks from the French flagged boat next to us, Dolphin Street. We had spoken to them briefly yesterday when they came back from snorkeling on the other side of the island. Initially we weren't going to accept since I wanted to bring the dinghy on deck for the passage to Las Aves but Ingemar (he was Swiss) said he would pick us up so we gladly accepted. After running the engine for a while (low wind and a bit cloudy), we went snorkeling at the eastern point of the island and had a good time - nothing new but still a lot of fish and some interesting ones. After coming back, we got the engine off the dinghy and got things ready in general. A little later we hoisted the dinghy up and just relaxed before our 'ride' came. We got there at about 6 and had a really nice time. They had 2 boys who seemed very well adjusted to cruising and although they didn't speak much English, seemed to have a good time also. Ingemar and Laurence spoke English well and we had a very nice time with them. They had sailed from the Ivory Coast and had been cruising now for over a year. We said we must get together again in the Aves. We were leaving tomorrow and they planned to leave early next week. Thursday, September 30 we left Cayo de Agua although not too early, about 7:30. The wind was about 10-12 knots but from the east-southeast so it was directly downwind to Las Aves. That meant that we would have very little apparent wind and the boat would roll in the 3 to 5 foot swell that was still out there. We tried sailing with the jib alone and then motor sailed with the jib (I didn't try the main because I knew it would just slat and produce very little thrust). Eventually though, since the jib was just flapping around and just creating more noise and vibration when the roll of the boat would throw it to the windward side and then it would then fill and bang back onto the leeward side, I furled it and just motored to Barlovento. Other than the somewhat uncomfortable ride, the trip was very uneventful, particularly in the way of catching fish. Diane convinced me to set up the pole with the new reel we had brought from the States so I did that, using a new lure I bought in PLC. No luck - all I caught was a small piece of weed. We got to Las Aves de Barlovento at about 1:30 and anchored in the same bay where we were last year - in 20 feet of water near the island with the huge numbers of birds - still a beautiful spot. Diane spoke to another cruiser in Las Aves a little after we got in who heard that Survival had finally arrived in Trinidad with the help of another boat. We had spoken to Tom and Steph on Mima in the morning just after we got underway - both boats had left Margarita bound for Trinidad; Mima arrived at first light, but Survival hadn't. Judy had gotten a friend to come down to help move the boat and both boats left early the day before. Mima had a great trip but evidently Survival had engine problems. We put out a 'boatwatch' on the Safety and Security Net that morning for Survival but it seems that just after we turned off the radio, someone (we think it was Steph on Mima) came on and announced that Survival was now being helped into the anchorage. Thank goodness! Anyway, we just relaxed the rest of the day. Friday was a pretty typical day for us out cruising. The morning was occupied with some small chores like running the watermaker and cleaning up some stuff while Diane made some dishes in the galley. She made a foccacia bread that was pretty good and we had that for lunch along with some cheese and cucumber soup. After lunch, we went snorkeling on a reef we had visited last year and enjoyed it. We also collected 2 conchs to have for lunch tomorrow - you can fish and collect conch here but not in Los Roques, which are a national park. Anyway, we saw nothing new but lots of interesting fish all the same. There was also wonderfully colored anemone, pale lavender fading to white at the base - simply fantastic. Back at the boat, we left the conch in a bucket of seawater so we could extract the animals tomorrow and just relaxed the remainder of the afternoon. Ahh, it's a tough life. The next morning we went to shore for several reasons. First, we needed to burn some garbage, open our conch and walk around a little to see the birds. We went to the little landing spot under the shade of some mangroves, tied off to an overhanging branch and walked to the little area previous cruisers had setup as a meeting spot and place to burn garbage. We were disappointed to see that people left aluminum cans and glass bottles there - those things obviously won't burn and should have been removed. Anyway, we took care of our stuff - we would collect the unburned material left by others later. While the fire died, we started on the conch. I tried to extract it 'the right way' but had no luck so I finally just smashed the shells to get at the animals inside - besides, that way lets me take out my latent aggression. While walking back and forth from the fire though, I saw a small wading bird in a pool of water along the path. I was a little surprised he didn't fly away at first but then noticed he couldn't. His wings seemed OK but I think he had a broken leg so he couldn't stand up to get airborne. After watching him for a while, we figured that he would certainly die out in the blazing sun so I moved him to some shade near the dinghy entrance. I later identified him as a Lesser Yellowlegs. He was pretty weak and obviously hadn't eaten for a while - his crop was empty and when I picked him up his head started to just flop over. We left him alone hoping he would be able to recover, but I told Diane I didn't think he would. Back at the boat, I "fixed" our very tattered Venezuelan flag while Diane used one of the conch to make fritters for lunch - very good. We then relaxed a little and decided to go back to the island to walk around and see the birds. We went in around 3 and walked for about an hour - I got some nice pictures again but we both thought that there were somewhat fewer birds than last year. I imagine the population fluctuates but we were also here a few weeks later last year. The Yellowlegs we found had earlier had moved a little but was still sitting near where we left him. We planned to move the boat tomorrow morning so we may never know exactly what happens to him. Sunday morning we had planned to go out on the reef to meet some people on another boat but there was a tropical wave that came through bringing some wind and rain so we couldn't leave when we wanted. We waited, thinking it might clear enough to leave but the wave brought wind and rain throughout the day, on and off although not much of either but enough to make moving among the reefs a tricky proposition so we stayed put. Diane did some more cooking and I did some cleaning and other little things. We didn't leave the boat. Monday night I got up around 4:30am when the wind picked up. I had to turn the wind generator off because it was overcharging the batteries and when I looked out, saw dark clouds and lighting just to the south of us. I took off the hatch covers in case it started to rain and then stayed in the main cabin for a while so if it did start to rain, I could quickly close the hatches. It never did rain so I just went back to bed around 5:30. I got up again at 8am when Diane put on the SSB to listen to the morning net. The day was still a little overcast but seemed to be clearing. We left Isla Sur around 10:20 and made our way carefully outside the reef system surrounding the island. After motoring for about 30 minutes, we anchored near Avatar at a spot they called the 'Blue Hole', for obvious reasons - there was shallow sand (about 10 to 20 feet deep) enclosing a reef that was much deeper, probably down to 60 feet. The area on the reef looked spectacular. We had found this spot last year but had anchored about one-half mile further south and took the dinghy up here. We had spoken to Brenda and George on Avatar a few times via radio but had never met them so when we got settled, they called and said we should go snorkeling in the afternoon and we invited them over for drinks in the evening. We went snorkeling at a reef nearby and had a nice time. George was a spear fisher and he shot a White Grunt for us. We stayed out about 90 minutes and enjoyed it. Around 6, I went to pick them up and brought them back to Destiny. They were leaving the next day and wanted to get their dinghy ready so I said I would pick them up - no problem. They stayed for a while and we enjoyed their company a lot - it was too bad they were leaving so soon, but that's the nature of the lifestyle. As I dropped them back at their boat, George said he would call tomorrow morning with the waypoints for some of their favorite spots in Barlovento and Sotavento - they had been cruising this area for 10 years. I got up again on Tuesday night at about 4am because of some lighting near the boat. At first I thought the storm was going to miss us but then another cell approached and I knew we were going to get hit. I took off the hatch covers but didn't close them until it actually started to blow at about 4:30. Sure enough, we had our first wind reversal for 2004, what joy! This one got up to about 30 knots and lots of rain but fortunately we had no problems except that the dinghy, tied so it was alongside, was bouncing up and down so much that the front of the pontoon hit the Fortress anchor in its holder (on the stern rail) and the cover had a nice 3 inch rip in it. I stayed in the cockpit during the storm to make sure everything was OK and had a towel around me to stay warm. Avatar had put on their anchor light earlier and we put on our tricolor since the anchor light seems to be out (something I'll have to check). We spoke briefly at 5 on the radio and it started to calm down a little by 5:30. I could have gone back to bed but probably wouldn't have slept so I just made coffee and did some things on the PC. I had turned off the wind generator just before the storm so I put it back on with the wind now at about 10 knots. While we stayed facing southwest to west-southwest during most of the storm, then started facing north at around 8:30. It was around that time that Avatar picked up their anchor and started towards Tortuga. We spoke with them just before they left and gave us some more information about spots to go in Las Aves. We thanked them and they thanked us for last night. They were headed to Trinidad to get the boat hauled and go back to the States for over a year. By 9:30, they were out of sight and the wind clocked to the east-northeast at 7 to 10 knots, and the boat was rolling from the left over swell from the west. An hour later, the wind was from the 'normal' direction of east-southeast, but very light, and stayed that way the rest of the day. It also stayed cloudy all day and since the wind was so light, we weren't generating much power. Still, we ran the watermaker for about 90 minutes. It wasn't a good day to go snorkeling so I worked on setting up a way to move the dinghy painter to the stern without having to hold the end and pass it around all the stuff on the stern, to be able to cleat it there so it would trail behind the boat. In bad swells, when it was alongside, it would hit the side of the hull pretty hard sometimes and during this storm, it had gotten some damage. I made up two lines, one that ran from the stern pulpit to the first stanchion gate and was tight, and the other with an eye in it arranged so that the eye ran along the first line freely with the other end also tied at the stanchion gate. The idea was to clip the dinghy painter to the eye, and let the dinghy drift back with the painter's clip moving along the line from the stern to the gate. Once the clip slid to the stern, I could grab the painter easily and cleat it off. The purpose of the line with the eye was so that when it came time to use the dinghy and bring it alongside to board, I could take it off the stern cleat, walk to the gate and pull the line at the gate, thereby pulling the painter and dinghy to the gate where I could get in and finally unclip the painter. It probably seems silly to rig such a thing but it always made me nervous to pass the painter from one hand to the other while moving it around all the obstacles. It also made moving the dinghy to the stern easier. Anyway, it probably took longer to describe it than to rig it. After that and some lunch, Diane and I started cleaning the stainless steel, starting with the bow and stern pulpits. They were getting pretty bad and since they were now salt-free from the rain, it was a good time to do it. It was also cloudy so it wasn't too hot to work on deck. While we did that, we saw a boat approaching the island. Diane called it on the radio and it was Dolphin Street, the nice family we had met in Cayo de Agua. We told them where we were and so rather than going into the island anchorage, they came out to the reef. I was finishing half of the stern stainless when they finally arrived and Diane went over to say hello. When she came back, she told me they had some problems - the stuffing box was leaking badly and the propane regulator was broken. Diane offered to let them cook on our stove so they would come over later. I finished up, we took showers and Laurence and Ingemar came over about 5. Ingemar and I talked in the cockpit while the girls cooked. Interestingly, they didn't have the storm we did last night, rather the wind further east was completely calm - they even had mosquitoes. They finished cooking and went back to feed their boys but we invited them for dinner tomorrow. Otherwise, they had planned to leave tomorrow so they could get to Bonaire to try to replace the propane regulator. I had a spare but they had a European system so it wouldn't work. It was nice to see them again though. |