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Larry's LogWednesday was a busy day - in the morning, while Diane did some laundry (her choice), I went snorkeling with the crews from White Cap and Ellida, who had come in yesterday afternoon from Cayo de Agua. We went to the reef that defines the bay White Cap and Destiny were in to the east (Ellida was in the bay to the west of us) and while we all enjoyed it, there was nothing unusual, until I spotted a small conch shell that I tried to pick up just to look at. It was only in about 4 feet of water and when I went down and pulled it, it pulled back! I took a closer look and there was something inside the hole that was holding on to the shell, and it wasn't the conch itself. I finally saw that it was an octopus that had been consuming the conch in his hiding spot. I then noticed that there were lots of discarded shells around the immediate area - a crab shell, several clam shells and such. This octopus had evidently been hungry and wasn't very neat about his leftovers. I was going to show this unusual find to the others but they had left for another reef. I finished going around the reef, got back in the dinghy and then told the others about my find. When I got to them, I saw Kurt had speared a huge snapper, probably about 3 feet, so we all had an interesting morning. I got back to the boat when Diane was just about done and we had lunch shortly afterward of the ceviche Diane had made from the fish Kurt had given to us yesterday. It was really pretty good. Diane and I went out snorkeling again after lunch. Kurt let me borrow his 'hawaiian sling' and I tried it but couldn't manage to get anything, although I came close a couple of times. I had found a large conch in the morning so after we finished snorkeling, we went to the far eastern corner of the bay where there's a little beach of rock and broken coral, anchored the dinghy in the shallow water and proceeded to get the animal out of its shell. In the past, I've almost always had trouble with this process although I've followed the instructions in the book I have. Well, I finally figured out what I was doing wrong and sure enough, the animal came out very easily. I did this to the 3 we had found and Diane then cleaned them a little and we went back to the boat in time for a well-deserved rum and coke. The wind picked up considerably in the evening, from a very nice 10-12 knots to about 20. Unfortunately, the wind generator doesn't like to work that hard so I had to feather it; first to get it to produce any electricity and second, to stop the awful noise it makes when it starts to get hot and then starts freewheeling. The weather forecasts we had heard predicted this - they had been pretty accurate recently. The wind decreased considerably overnight and it had been predicted to continue so I guess something changed. Anyway, I got up in the dark to unfeather the wind generator to get more juice. We didn't do much the next morning except I cleaned off the solar panels (they get dirty and I think that affects their output) and Diane prepared the conch we had gotten yesterday, and went snorkeling in the afternoon. We went to the same reef, just to the east of the boat, and saw some squid and I actually found the octopus again. This time I showed it to Diane and she also saw the collection of shells just outside his hole (she made the same comment I did about not cleaning up). We were watching the sky though as we snorkeled and there seemed to be some clouds building so we went back to the boat, just in case it started to rain or blow. The wind did pick up to about 15 but no rain. Friday was again a relaxing day - we didn't do much in the morning except a few little things and went snorkeling in the afternoon again. We went to a different reef this time and it was OK but not as good as the others. Diane had found another conch so we brought my tools to get it out of the shell and went to the little rock and coral beach. After finishing with the conch, we walked to the extreme end of the island and found a small, very shallow beach. I walked into the water and amazingly, found 2 conch in just 8 inches of water - one of which was really large. Of course, that prompted Diane to look for more but we only found one more that was too small to take (I will only take ones that are mature, with a large 'lip' to the shell). Anyway, we walked back and I removed those as well. We now had enough to last for a while and Diane was happy - 'living off the sea' (at least a little). Back at the boat, I raised the dinghy to prevent any bottom growth and we relaxed the rest of the evening. We went to visit the island the next morning for several things; first, to burn the accumulated garbage we had since leaving Carenero and second, to look at the birds. First, we dropped off a 5 gallon jug of water for White Cap since they were going out to the reef today and we were staying near the island for another day, and then went back to the bay just west of ours and went to the little dinghy landing - a tiny beach covered by mangroves. We went to the spot that had been setup by other cruisers long ago (it was there 3 years ago) and managed to get the fire started in the 20 knot breeze. It took about 30 minutes to burn everything (except glass and metal of course - that stuff we either keep or throw overboard in very deep water). After the fire died out, we went for a walk, first to the west where there were many birds and chicks the last 2 years. While there were lots of birds, there weren't nearly as many as the last time. I think we may have been too early visiting this year (we were here in late October last year) and also the island was much drier now than it's been. The little ponds that had been full were now completely dry - we haven't had any rain in the 3-4 weeks we've been out of PLC. There were still many birds though, and lots of them were nesting, although we only saw a few nestlings. We then walked to the east side and saw that there had been a fire that burned much of the ground cover but only some of the mangroves were affected. The fire must have been some months ago though since there was new growth in the burned areas. There was also a 'firebreak' that had been built - a long line of stones had been placed across the island (its only about 60 yards across) and the existing ground cover to leeward of that had been pulled out for about 3 feet across to prevent the fire from spreading. It seemed to have worked since we saw no fire damage beyond it. We also walked to a little beach where I waded out and saw Destiny at anchor in the beautiful blue water near the green mangroves - a nice picture. We got back to the boat had lunch and went snorkeling for a little while. Then Diane wanted to go back to the little beach we had been to yesterday to look for more conch. We got there and did find more, most big enough to take and we left the small ones, naturally. I got them out of the shell and Diane cleaned them quickly and then we went back to the boat. The wind had died to almost nothing so it was getting hot but fortunately, later in the evening, it picked up again and we started getting our usual 10 knots - very pleasant once more. Sunday we left the anchorage near Isla Sur to move out near the reef, where we had been last year - anchored by the blue hole. We left about 10am and got there about 45 minutes later and anchored in about 12 feet of nice clear blue water, although there were sections that were starting to turn green from the algae growth. The wind had been light and when that happens, there isn't much current going past the reefs and so the algae starts to grow and it can happen pretty quickly. However, the blue hole was still blue and we were happy to be here. A little after we anchored, we saw White Cap coming down from the northern part of Barlovento where they had gone yesterday. He said it was nice there but it did roll a bit last night when the tide went out. It had done the same to us when we were there last year. After lunch, we went snorkeling, naturally. The place was still as nice as we remembered it and the water was really clear with good visibility. Although we didn't see anything new, the fish life was great and the reef itself very pretty, with lots of live coral, sponges and gorgonians. The best thing though was that I found a beautiful cowrie shell, just lying on top of the reef. It was in perfect condition - about 3 inches long, called a Measled Cowrie. We went back to the boat and White Cap called us over and offered us some fish that Christine had caught. Kurt still couldn't go in the water because of his arm (he had cut and bruised it badly using his outboard, which required him to open the cowling to put the pull cord on every time it needed to be started). We accepted a mojarra that I then cleaned and filleted once we got back to Destiny. Diane would make another ceviche with it. A little later, the wind picked up to over 15 knots and backed to the northeast, so the wind generator was doing well until it picked up even more. It was just on the edge of freewheeling, so it must have been blowing about 18 to 20 knots (almost as good an anemometer - my wind instrument hasn't worked since we sea trialed the boat before we bought it). Monday was a very nice day and we decided to go snorkeling in the morning as well as the afternoon. So, after doing the Safety and Security net, eating breakfast and running the watermaker for a couple of hours, we went out to the reef just south of the blue hole. It was very nice but the water on the lee side was getting green and a little murky. Evidently, the 20 knots of wind we had for a brief period overnight wasn't enough to clear it out. We enjoyed the reef anyway though and went back to the boat about 12:30. After lunch and more watermaker run time, we went to the reef just south of the one we had been to in the morning. We had been to both these places last year and remembered seeing bigger fish at the one further south, and it was true again this year. I also found 2 small Goldentail Morays, both in the same piece of coral about 5 feet apart. I showed them to Diane who said they were cute and they should come out to be petted. They were small but I doubted if they would appreciate any petting. We didn't stay as long as we usually did because Diane had to see to the bread she was making. It was sitting in the aft cabin and rising while we were out. After we got back, she started to bake it and it came out pretty good. Listening to the Tuesday morning weather forecast, we heard that we might have a brush with a bad tropical wave in the afternoon or early evening so after we went snorkeling in the morning, I went to check the anchor - it was fine, dug in well in deep sand. We went to the north side of the reef making the blue hole and although the reef was nice, we were both a little disappointed with the fish life. The wind in the morning was only about 10-12 knots and the snorkeling was pretty easy. Before we left to go snorkeling, Kurt stopped by to return our water jug and the DVDs we loaned him. We had given him some more water a couple of days ago. We also gave him his water jug we had filled already. (I think we had given them about 25 gallons of water over the last week or so). He said he was going to leave for Sotavento tomorrow since he was running short of supplies. He and Christine were very nice but they were heading west soon to go through the Canal to complete his circumnavigation so I doubted if we would see them again. After we got back from snorkeling and I checked the anchor, I cleaned off the anchor chain and the waterline and then we had lunch. There were some clouds to the north that were passing by but there was no increase in wind and no rain. We had actually hoped for a little rain to rinse off the boat - we had been out about a month so far and hadn't had any rain to speak of. We decided to skip snorkeling again in the afternoon so Diane took a nap and I read a book - tough life. That evening, just after we finished dinner, we had a small green flash at sunset. (Yes it's a real phenomenon.) We had seen another the first night we anchored in Las Aves. The next morning the wind was about 10-12 knots and we had the power so we ran the watermaker a little bit before going snorkeling. We also dropped off the book and DVDs that Kurt had lent us and said goodbye. They were leaving for Sotavento for a day or so and then Bonaire, probably for just a day or so as well. Many cruisers we knew weren't staying long in Bonaire because they had raised the prices on the moorings so much and weren't maintaining them very well. Of course, the marina had also increased their slip prices but not by the same ratio. Also, the small Club Nautico Marina was starting to charge $10 US per week just to leave your dinghy there for a few hours during the day. We were considering staying in the Harbour Village Marina (where we stayed last year during the bad weather) since the cost difference wasn't as great as it was last year between the moorings and the marina slip. We'd have to see what happened when we get there. Whitecap left around 9:30 and we went snorkeling just a little later, to a reef just south of us. It was just OK although the water had turned back to blue overnight. I'm not sure why that happened since there wasn't much wind but we were both glad - the water was clearer and it looked nicer as a turquoise blue. I think it may have something to do with the state of the tide - it was almost a new moon now. Back at the boat we had an eclectic lunch - peanut butter sandwiches and fish ceviche. Christine had given us a small grouper they caught yesterday and Diane had made it into a ceviche. It wasn't big enough for a full meal, hence the peanut butter and bread. By the time lunch was over, the wind was up again and the wind generator started freewheeling. I had written to the guy I bought it from and he confirmed that there was a possible problem with the 'heat sensors' and they were opening too soon. I could have gotten replacements shipped to Bonaire but I figured that we could live with it that way until we got back to PLC and then I could just get them when we were back in the States. We decided it was too windy and rough to go snorkeling again so we just relaxed and read. The wind did eventually calm down again to about 12 knots so I could release the wind generator and have it produce electricity as normal. We had a nice dinner - Diane had made homemade tortillas and used them to make quesadillas, a nice change. Overnight, I had to feather the wind generator since the wind was up again and the machine was putting out too much electricity and causing the batteries to go to a very high voltage. Of course this happened at 2:30am when I had to get up to turn off the high voltage alarm. There wasn't enough wind to cause it to freewheel so it was really producing. The wind was up though for most of the day and although the sky was clear, it would have been a little rough to snorkel so we just stayed on the boat. We watched some movies and had a very lazy day. |