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Larry's LogSunday a rain shower woke us up at 6 and I quickly closed all the hatches; and just stayed up - Diane went back to bed. We just took it easy most of the day. Around 3, Jose and his 11-year-old daughter Marina, from Nausica, came by. We met them in Martinique and were our friends from Spain. His wife Elena was back in Spain for a little while so it was just Jose and his daughter. They were leaving and so we just talked for a bit and we wished them well on their trip to Porlamar this evening. After they left, we went into shore and saw Frank and Paulette come in to burn their garbage. They showed us how they did it and where and as they were igniting the bag, we saw a beautiful green flash as the sun set. We then took 'showers' on the beach and went back to the boat, rinsed off and had dinner. We had seen 2 of the Crested Caracaras near the beach, evidently they were a pair since we saw them together several times during our stay. That evening I had trouble again doing email. I would connect but then got disconnected in the middle of transmission. Also, the transmission signal strength bars on the radio were almost gone. I decided to remove the PC to radio remote control connection and tune the radio manually, and it worked fine. Something to address but at least I figured out where the problem was, now I had to see why. The strange thing was that it worked fine before with the remote control USB connection. The next morning we cleaned the bottom of the boat; it hadn't been done in a while and I knew it would be a lot of work. I went in first and spent about 2 hours doing the starboard side, which was worse than the port side. Diane went in for about 90 minutes and did some of the port side. We would need to continue it tomorrow to do the rest of the port side, the rudder and the rest of the keel. It was pretty bad since it hadn't been touched since we were in Puerto La Cruz and I'm not sure how complete a job Alejandro did there. We went snorkeling on the reef just near the beach after lunch and found it surprisingly good and we saw a French Angelfish, Queen Angelfish, a Whitespotted Filefish and an Orangespotted Filefish, all unusual species. We didn't bring the camera but it was fine since the light wasn't too good - it had gotten cloudy but at least we had seen these beautiful fish. We could take pictures when the light was better. Back at the boat, we decided to hoist the dinghy and so got everything ready, put our snorkel gear aboard and hoisted to deck level on the halyard to get it out of the water. Diane went below after rinsing off and called out to me that there was a bird in the cabin. I stopped what I was doing, and sure enough, there was a hummingbird on the cabin sole. I picked it up and put it on the galley top. It was a White Chested Emerald that was obviously very tired and partially in shock. Diane made up some sugar water but it wouldn't drink so we eventually put it in a blue bowl in the cockpit but it didn't like that and tried to flutter out. It still wouldn't/couldn't fly so we just left it out there while we had dinner. It eventually perched on the side of the bottle cap Diane had used to give it the sugar water and stayed there, just looking around. We weren't sure what to do with it since La Blanquilla didn't seem a likely habitat for a rainforest species. I felt it had gotten blow away from Margarita, about 60 miles away. Our little friend was still there in the morning; he/she hadn't moved at all. Diane gave him some fresh sugar water and in the morning we just ran the engine and watermaker and read. In the early afternoon though we went snorkeling again and saw some more new species. The reef here is alive, meaning the coral is growing and so the fish are all around. We saw many large French Angelfish and several Queen Angelfish again, as well a very large Whitespotted Filefish. Later on that evening, we went to shore for a potluck dinner on the beach. Just about every boat in the anchorage was there and there were some pretty good dished to share. We got back at about 8:30 and our new 'mascot' was still there although he had fluttered to the cockpit floor. I put him back near his perch and he was there still in the morning. We felt adventurous Wednesday so we dinghied up to Americano Bay to do some snorkeling and look around. We anchored in about 10 feet of water and had some very nice snorkeling - saw some new species again and some that we hadn't seen since the Tobago Cays. It was a bit rough out so we didn't snorkel under the rock bridge but we walked along the beach and looked into the old house that was built there. Coming back was a bit rough as the wind was up to about 20-25 knots but we were wet already so it didn't matter much. Our little friend was still with us - I think his right wing may be broken, although he can move it a little. We were tired after the snorkeling trip so the afternoon was just relaxing and reading. (Don't forget happy hour.) Since we had recovered, the next morning we went for a long walk and wound up going back to Americano Bay again, about 3 miles away by foot. We mostly followed the donkey trails that are all over the island and a 'road' for a little bit. We saw the Crested Caracaras again and I got some nice shots and we also saw some hummingbirds but I couldn't identify them. They definitely weren't the same species as our bird though. As we walked north, we also saw that 4 boats left Playa Yaque and went to the north shore, since the wind was going southeast or ESE. Nobody went into Americano Bay though and I think we may go there tomorrow since it's so nice in there. The walk wasn't strenuous since the island is only 60 feet high at the most, but there's no shade. We got back to the boat around 1, and coming back was hot and sticky, in more ways than one. The island is full of cactus and other thorny plants and although we managed to avoid the worst of the thorns, we both had them stick into our sandals. When we got to the beach, we went into the water to cool off and then stopped at Lady M III to invite them over later for drinks. When they came over, we talked for a bit and we showed them the places in the Gulf of Cariaco we had just been to and liked so much. They told us about the southern anchorage on La Blanquilla. The next morning, our little friend still with us, we upped anchor and went to one of the northern anchorages just north of Americano Bay. We were going to go into Americano Bay but Diane felt it was to enclosed and we might hit the rocks or reef when the wind shifted so we went continued on about ½ mile and found a very nice beach all to ourselves. There were some boats about ¼ mile south of us and another 300 yards away but he moved about an hour after we anchored - so our spot was very private. After we got the anchor down and the sun canvas back up, I worked on fixing Diane's computer. I had tried installing some Spanish language software and it encountered an error. After working on it for quite a while, it seems there's a bad spot on the drive but fortunately I could back up Diane's work. With the data safe, I tried reformatted it since I have the software to reinstall. Unfortunately it seems that the drive may be history. Electronics aside, we went snorkeling after lunch and it was very good although a bit murky from the wind roiling the water. We saw a couple of new species I think too but I couldn't be sure since I saw them only for a minute. We then swam to the beach and walked around, found some nice shells and then swam back to the boat. Our little friend was waiting for us. We, and him, just relaxed the rest of the afternoon, and we, but not him, watched a video that night. There was so much wind that we ran the watermaker again for an hour. We went to shore around 9 the next morning and while I took pictures of the beach and surroundings, Diane burned the garbage. After, we both had a swim. The wind was down from yesterday and there were few clouds; it was a gorgeous day. I took my first nude swim in the Caribbean from the beach. The 2 boats that were about ¼ mile south of us went into Americano Bay so nobody was around - glorious privacy. After lunch on board, I went in the water to clean the prop and the rest of the bottom but found the prop zinc had fallen off. This was the second time it had happened, the first time was in the Tobago Cays on our last visit. It had to be replaced so I got back in the boat, got out a spare zinc and an extra bolt (one had fallen off), and the Allen key to tighten/loosen them, and got back in the water. First I cleaned the surface of the prop that touches the zinc and then I carefully got the first bolt on to hold the new zinc. No problem and I got the remaining bolts on without dropping anything - not too bad and it only took about 20 minutes. After that, while Diane worked on her logs on my computer - hers was still dead - I cleaned the rest of the prop and the rudder. The prop wasn't too bad but the rudder hadn't been done since PLC and had lots of growth. Once that was done, I showered and just relaxed. Since boat maintenance knows no "days off", Sunday I did some routine maintenance on the engine while Diane worked on the PC. I was glad I checked the engine since I discovered the alternator belt had frayed. Of course, even a simple thing like replacing a belt can be difficult. Unfortunately, when I put the raw water pump back on the engine after rebuilding it, I didn't leave enough clearance between it and the fresh water pump pulley. So, I had to loosen the pump body from the engine and rotate it a bit. Finishing that, I put the spare belt on, tightened it, checked the oil and transmission fluid and cleaned out the raw water strainer. I had been running the watermaker and just a little after that cleaning the raw water strainer, the watermaker lost pressure. Of course, although I didn't realize while I did it, when I stopped the water flow to the water strainer to clean it, I also stopped the feed water flow to the watermaker. At first, I couldn't figure out what went wrong so I stopped the watermaker. After much scratching, and some swearing, and after cleaning up the engine and putting those tools away, it occurred to me what had happened. I would have to try to fix it later or tomorrow. By then, it was time for lunch and I decided to go snorkeling again while Diane napped. It was really good and I saw a new species of butterfly fish, as well as many of the somewhat unusual kinds that we had seen recently. I also saw a barracuda, about 3 feet long, which seemed a little interested in me; I swam after him a bit and then he swam after me a bit but eventually he went off and so did I. Just before I got back to the boat though, I found the object of his true intentions, a huge school of small fish that had congregated about 100 yards off the beach. I swam through just in awe of the sheer numbers and the way the school moved around me as I went past. A little later in the afternoon, we went for a little dinghy trip up the coast and down to the anchorage just south of us, where a fisherman was now anchored and where the 2 boats had been anchored a couple of days before. I took some pictures and then we went in to "our" beach for a swim. Our wonderful private beach was still all ours but the 2 boats that had gone into Americano Bay 2 days before came back to their old spot around 5. We now had neighbors again, albeit about 1/4 mile away. |