Saturday 21st April

Palmeras Island,
Aves de Sotavento

12 01.213 N
67 41.035 W

Happy Birthday Barb, STITCH! miss you.

The night was hot and humid, not a breath of wind, it made sleeping rather difficult, it’s a good job we hadn’t got to do much today. After breakfast and a few minor jobs it was time for some exercise, we decided that we were going to go snorkeling on the nearby reef. The snorkel gear went into the dink closely followed by us. We motored the short distance to shore where we beached the dink. A short walk along the beach found us staring at a huge pile of conch shells – the remains of a bumper harvest by the looks of things. There were 2 more huge piles further down the beach, we had to wonder if there was any conch left to find. The other thing we found were loads of plastic bottles, a great shame as the beach was ruined by them, we guessed that most of them must have been washed up on the beach but it is a bad reflection on boaties in general that these beautiful tropical beaches are being spoilt by trash which is non bio degradable. After our walk we donned the snorkeling gear and plunged into the water, the shallow shoreline quickly dropped off and we snorkeled around a reef in about 20 foot of water. Again we could have been in an aquarium, the tropical fish were plentiful and there was a huge variety. After snorkeling for about an hour Gerry’s head was getting sun burnt and we were both getting tired – it was time to go back to our boat for a shower and rest. I had taken the camera with me and shot lots of pictures but the lens fogged up and not a single one of them came out – I was very disappointed but will try again. Luckily Lorie had taken much the same group of photos so I have copies of hers. Gerry spent the afternoon checking his eyelids for light leaks whilst I did a bit of cooking and read my book. We joined Dale and Lorie on their boat for a delicious thrown together meal of pork and left over bits; watched the sun go down and then returned to our boat for the night.

Friday 20th April

Palmeras Island,
Aves de Sotavento

12 01.213 N
67 41.035 W

Make a note of this date on your calendars – today was the day we caught our first ever fish! More of that later.
We secured the dink to the davits and readied the boat for a short passage to the other Aves – a distance of 23.3miles. We wove our way out through the same reefs and coral heads that we had come through on the way in – in fact I just used the same chart plotter track on the way out that we had made on the way in – it makes things easier! Then we headed west and slightly north until we reached our destination. We put the jib up when we first cleared the reef but the wind was very light and the jib kept collapsing so Gerry wanted to try the main by itself to see if we could get along with just that. Away went the jib and we turned into wind (what wind?) hoisted the main sail and then turned back on course. At least the main didn’t keep flapping about but we could only manage 4.5 – 5 knots and at times less. We slowly crept past Gypsy Palace who had started out in front of us but were only flying their jib, we both looked like we were wallowing in the water rather than sailing. As the afternoon began to take on the feeling that we wouldn’t arrive at our destination until dark Dale called us to say that he thought motoring was the only way to get there in day light, we agreed and we began to motor, stopping briefly to drop our main. Once we were motoring at a reasonable speed we threw the fishing line out, joking that it was a waste of time as we had noticed a large flock of birds diving into the water about half a mile off of our port bow. Just as I was getting into the last chapters of my book the fish alarm (the yellow peg on the safety rail) went ping and the last of the line vanished out of the back of the boat. We didn’t get too excited as this has happened before when we increased speed but Gerry tugged on the line and yelled that we had a strike. We both leapt about like idiots, Gerry slowed the boat down whilst I began to reel in our catch on the Cuban hand reel, it was heavy and hard going to say the least but eventually I dragged the fish up alongside the boat. We had no idea what it was so we called Dale on the radio and described it to him – Wahoo!!! Now we were stuck with what to do next, we couldn’t haul it aboard as the dink was on the davits – one of the few times that we traveled that way. I couldn’t bring it up over the side rail as it was too heavy for me and in the end I gaffed it and with a hand gaff and hung it from a cleat on our back arch, hoping that nothing bigger took a fancy to it whilst we dragged it along. We were so close to our destination that we decided to deal with it once we were anchored. We motored into a small gap between islands and dropped our anchor, Gerry dove the anchor to make sure we weren’t going anywhere and then it was time to deal with the fish. Dale and Lorie came over to our boat so that Dale could instruct Gerry on cleaning and cutting up the Wahoo. We took photos to brag about and then it was time for the serious stuff. The next hour or so was too painful to record, we did get the fish cleaned and filleted and we practiced the fillet and release program that we have so often joked about. The Wahoo was a good size – about 30 -35 pounds and we got a good amount of meat off of it, I hasten to add that there was also a lot that we wasted but we can only store and eat so much. Once we had dealt with the fish it was time to clean up the blood and mess at the back end of the boat, luckily not too much but it still took a while. I made some coleslaw and then we dinked over to Gypsy Palace to share our fresh catch for dinner. Lorie had made some killer potato salad and we hade another great meal watching the sun go down and wondering what the poor people were doing. (Eating fish on the back end of their boat I think!)

Photos of fish on cleat and Me with my catch from camera of Gypsy Palace

Thursday 19th April

Isla Sur
Aves de Barlavento

11 56.755 N
67 25.940 W

Many happy returns Carmel, hope that you have a good year.

After a good night sleep we decided to go exploring a bit more. The trusty dink was launched and off we went around to the first bay that we had bypassed on our way to this anchorage. We had noticed a cut through the mangroves and thought we would go and see what was hidden down there. The water was a bit murky; full no doubt of bird crap and feathers. It was also quite shallow so we could only get so far up into the cut. Again the trees were full of birds, loads of boobys, a few herons, frigate birds and pelicans. Only the pelicans took flight when we got close enough to take photos, all the rest seemed to be unaware that we might present a danger to them. Once we had exhausted the photo opportunities in the cut we headed back out and a bit further down to where the lighthouse sat. We beached the dinghy and walked along the beach where we found a small ? not finished ?derelict building. It had been built of coral and the walls were very straight sided almost as if someone had put them together and then cut them with a saw to make them straight. There was a window shaped opening in one side and the view looking out of it was fabulous – an artist would have loved it. There was also a small shrine or grave – we couldn’t decide which just outside of the building, marked by a whole lot of conch shells. The lighthouse was ultra modern – a steel tower painted with red and white stripes, with a solar driven light on the top; not as pretty as the older types of lighthouses but at least it worked! There was little else to see on the beach so we then dinked in the opposite direction and made our way to the reef. We found a small patch of sand to anchor the dink to and then donned our snorkeling gear to explore the reef. It was a spectacular reef, not very deep – perhaps 18 inches at the deep parts. Plenty of live coral, mostly brain coral and a huge amount of tropical fish live d in this area. We saw some of the smallest fish I’ve ever seen and if we had had the camera I’m sure we would have got some fantastic pictures as you could get reasonably close to them. The sun was quite hot and as we began to burn we decided to head back to the boat for the rest of the day. We spent a lazy afternoon doing very little except prepare food for the evening meal – dinner was on our boat so we fired up the bar b que for ham steaks and pineapple, The dinners are becoming very creative as we are running out of all sorts of things, we really will have to do a big shop when we get to Bonaire.

Photos of Derelict building and Mangrove tree from camera of Gypsy palace

Wednesday 18th April

Isla Sur
Aves de Barlavento

11 56.755 N
67 25.940 W

08.00hrs arrived much too soon and we were hauling in our anchor and motoring out of the narrow entrance. The day was a little overcast to begin with the wind was very light and the sea almost flat calm. Once we had cleared the entrance we turned into wind to hoist our main sail, all of it as the wind was so light, then we turned back on to our course and cut the engine to see how we would go. It was painfully slow so Gerry decided to try and fly the jib as well, knowing that it would be a battle to do so. The wind was coming from almost directly astern so he decided to play a bit and put the jib out on the opposite side to the main – goose winging it. As the sails flapped and collapsed in when they back winded he then thought he would deploy another toy – the whisker pole. This pole attaches to the bottom corner of the jib and to the mast at the other end, holding the jib out. The whisker pole we have is a locking telescoping one and on the first attempt to use it Gerry didn’t telescope it out far enough. As the main was the driving force of the boat Gerry decided that the jib and the main needed to change sides, down came the pole, the jib was dragged across to the other side and then the main was forced out to its opposite side. Re attaching the whisker pole, Gerry lengthened it this time and it held the jib out a bit better, still not perfect as we were still getting some back wind from the main. We were getting along a little better but it was frustrating sailing. Dale had deployed his asymmetrical spinnaker and had found he couldn’t fly both the main and the spinnaker together in this wind so he had put his main away and was just sailing with his spinnaker; they were getting along quite nicely with just the one sail. Our spinnaker is stowed beneath the forward bunk, under the hatch which is covered by the dinghy on the deck – to get it out would have been difficult so we are saving it for even lighter weather. We again dragged the fishing line behind us all the way; we were managing 6 knots of speed so we thought we might have a chance of fish for dinner – yeah right! Now we have the fishing completely sussed, any fool can do it, it’s the catching bit that we have to work on! Needless to say the fish had the last laugh again, we caught nothing. As we got closer to the Aves the wind became even lighter and changed direction slightly, we furled away the jib and then the main, choosing to motor to make sure we arrived in daylight so that negotiating the reef wouldn’t be a horror story. We were suddenly surrounded by a pod of dolphins, there had to have been at least 20 of them, leaping around our boat, playing in the bow wave and chasing each other. I grabbed the camera and managed to shoot a couple of shots but they were so fast in the water that it was hard to catch them at just the right moment; I did manage a couple of half way reasonable shots though. We flew the jib again for a short while just before we arrived but not without the motor. The Aves are 2 separate little island archipelagos separated by about 10 miles of water, they are surrounded by an extensive reef which provides some protection to the islands. The other claim to fame for these islands is that they provide a habitat for a large number of birds, mostly species of booby but also herons, frigates and other sea birds. We were going into Isla Sur rather than Isla Oeste, it had 4 anchorages and we were going to anchor in the second one. We wove our way through the reef and coral heads which were easy to pick out in the sunlight. We made our way into the second anchorage and joined the 4 other boats already there, dropping our anchor in 15 feet of water. Once we were happy with our anchoring we put the dink in the water and did a tour of the surrounding mangroves, snapping pictures of the birds resting in the branches. They must be very used to tourists as they seemed to have no fear of us, even the fluffy looking baby boobys just stared back at us. They have a distinctive feature – red webbed feet, I’m not sure that any other species of bird has this, it was quite odd to see and very distinctive. Dale and Lorie knew a couple of people on another boat here and we were all invited to join 3 other couples at the “trash burn site” for drinks and a burn session at 16.30hrs. After returning to our boat we gathered drinks and nibbles’ and then dinked to the location where we were introduced to the couples from Excalibur, Island Dreamin and Moon Goddess. The others had all brought along paints and markers to leave their “autographs” on flat beach stones. The trash burn site had a wall of these stones where various visiting boats had left their boat names and dates. Lorie searched for a stone to draw on and tried to talk me into doing the same. I have “a thing” about leaving such memorials behind and refused to make one, much to Lorie’s surprise. After making one for their boat Lorie then made one for ours and left it on the pile with all the others, she then wondered if it had upset me! After a couple of hours we all returned to our own boats and we had a quickly assembled dinner before falling in to bed for the night.

Tuesday 17th April

Carenero
Los Roques

11 53.051 N
66 50.686 W

Today was a really laid back chill out sort of day. A fisherman came by the boats at 07.30hrs offering to sell us lobsters, they were about $20 per kilo (negotiable). Gerry said they were huge and that he only wanted the tail – the man didn’t understand what he was talking about and even offered to exchange the lobster for a bottle of red wine! Gerry eventually declined as he didn’t want to have to kill the lobster himself, and was concerned that we didn’t have a pot it would fit into to cook it (he forgot about the bar b que); I’ll never forgive him for not buying them. Once I got up, we cooked breakfast, did house work jobs, then Gerry put up the hammock. We don’t put it up very often as there is nowhere we can leave it up, we have to attach it between the forestay and the mast – obviously it can’t stay there whilst we are moving so it was a notable event. The day was hot and sticky but there was a breeze blowing out on deck – just perfect for a swing in the hammock. I made full use of it for an hour or so until I began to get sun burnt then I covered up and ducked into the shade in the cockpit. One thing we noted when we arrived yesterday was that there was a large mound of rubbish on the beach. Our cruising guide said that the rubbish was collected from the boats at the major anchorages every few days, it looked like this lot had been here for quite a while so we decided not to add our rubbish to the pile (we only had a small amount anyway). To our amazement mid way through the morning a couple of motor boats stopped at the beach, bagged up all the trash and made a pile of it all, Gerry and Dale checked it out and as the guys were going to haul the trash away both Dale and Gerry added bags to the pile, sure enough the boats took it all away leaving the beach clean again. Gerry went off and snorkeled the reef behind our boat, coming back to say there were thousands of fish over there. I was quite happy reading in the shade and didn’t want to get wet so I didn’t snorkel - apparently a big mistake. Dale had bought 3 lobsters and invited us over to share them, I threatened Gerry with death if he so much as sniffed at the lobster – I didn’t think it right when he had the opportunity to buy some and didn’t. We took some chicken that I had marinated and Lorie asked to swap some lobster for chicken as she is not a sea food fan – it all worked out in the end. The sun set was much better viewed from their position in the anchorage, it turned the sky a fantastic shade of pink but there was no green flash – I really doubt it even happens. Our last thing for the day was discussing plans for the next day’s sail – we planned to leave at 08.00hrs for Aves de Barlavento.

Photo of pelicans from camera of Gypsy Palace

Monday 16th April

Carenero,
Los Roques

11 53.051 N
66 50.686 W

After a good nigh sleep we were ready to continue on our trip. We had to check in with the authorities before going any further as Los Roques is a national park and there are rules and regulations to follow including checking in with Guardacosta, Guardia Nacional, Inparques and Autoridad Unica (PHEW!) To check in with these bodies we had to make our way to El Gran Roque which was just over 4 miles away. We upped anchor at 10.00hrs and motored the short distance, dropped our anchor just out side the “township” and Dale and Gerry dinked over to the dock with documents and cash in hand to do the right thing. Lorie and I remained on our boats to guard the crown jewels. The men returned a little under an hour later with the news that they had caused problems by saying we were only in transit and not staying in Los Roques for any length of time (apparently this is unheard of!) anyway they were told that they could stay in El Gran Roques for 2 days without paying any fees –bonus, more of that in a moment. Then they asked if they could stay at a different island in Los Roques for the 2 days instead – well you knew they were difficult didn’t you? The answer to that was a little unclear so they offered to pay but were waved away; we assumed that it was then OK to stay at one of the eastern islands for the 2 days instead. According to our cruising guide the fee structure to stay in Los Roques was US$2 per boat foot plus US$12 per person and who knows what else, and these fees were based on 2002 information so they were probably even more by now. It would have meant that we could have parted with US$100 just to pass through the place so we were delighted to motor sail our boats over to the eastern island of Carenero which was just over 11 miles further on. We approached Carenero and entered into a beautiful anchorage through a narrow channel with reef on both sides, easy to navigate in the light of day. Inside the anchorage there were supposed to be 6 mooring buoys but it turned out to only be 4, of these 3 were taken and one was set in the mangroves and not useable for a sail boat. We dropped our anchor in the clearest water we have seen to date. The anchorage had a small beach on one side and reef and mangroves on the other; it was totally protected and flat calm, a perfect spot for a 2 night stop over. Once settled in we put the dink in the water and went on a tour around the surrounding area, not too much to see from the dink but there was meant to be excellent snorkeling on the reef – that would have to wait until tomorrow. Dinner was on our boat; unfortunately the mangroves obscured our view of the sunset so we planned to eat on Gypsy Palace, who were anchored a bit further away from us, the next night purposely to see the sun set (and possibly the green flash that we still don’t believe exists!). Over dinner we tried to guess where the boat anchored next to us was from, they were flying a flag with red, white and red horizontal stripes (any guesses?) we ended up looking it up – they were from Latvia! Amazing how far some people have traveled to arrive at the same place we were at. Other boats in the anchorage were from Canada and Venezuela.

Sunday 15th April

Francisquis,
Los Roques

11 57.403 N
66 39.025 W

As the sun rose we had about 8 miles left to go before we would arrive at the entrance to Los Roques. We had planned on arriving in daylight as there was a serious reef to negotiate. The approach to the entrance was marked by a lighthouse and as we got close to it Gerry noticed that our C-map navigation chart on the chart plotter seemed to have us in a different spot than our eyeballing told us we were. We very slowly and carefully made our way towards the entrance, realizing that the chart plotter was about .2 of a mile off. We made it through the entrance by eyeballing the reef and moving slowly, we radioed back to Dale & Lorie, who were busy catching a fish, to warn them that our chart was out by .2 of a mile and to take care incase theirs was (they uses navionics on their chart plotter), Dale later came back with the information that his chart was also out by about the same amount. We were all glad that we were doing the reef part in daylight as it would have been a disaster in the dark when we would have had to rely on the chart plotters. We followed the reef line from the entrance for 10 miles, awe struck by the fabulous colours of the water over the reef and the landscape on the other side of the reef. We passed a couple of wrecks on the outer reef – big ships that hadn’t made it; we wondered what chart they were using! One of the wrecks is even mentioned in the cruising guide as a prominent landmark to navigate by. We navigated the reef without incident and made our way to one of the small islands, Francisquis, to the north of the chain of islands that make up the Roques. Again we had to carefully make our way into the bay where we planned on anchoring for the night. As it was the weekend the bay was full of party boats and visitors, the beaches were crowded with Venezuelans who had come there for a weekend away from home. We dropped our anchor just off a white sand beach and sat watching the locals windsurf, water ski, and generally enjoy what was left of their weekend, by 17.00hrs most of them were packed up and gone, leaving just us cruisers in the bay for the night. Gerry did a quick tour of the area in our dink, there was a lagoon inside the bay which was accessible if the boat draft was less than 6 feet, at 5’10” we decided that we didn’t need to go into the lagoon that badly so we stayed where we were. As I have already mentioned Lorie had caught a Tuna just after sun rise so we went over to their boat for dinner – the first fresh fish we have had this trip between the 2 boats! It was delicious. After a long night at sea and a 10 mile trip dodging the reef we were all ready for an early night.

Saturday 14th April

At Sea

We began our day with the decision to take the dink ashore and go for a walk along the beach. It was a picture perfect day, beautiful blue sky and fantastic pale blue sea framed by the white sand on the beach. Gerry got the dink off the deck attached the outboard and prepared everything for the ride ashore whilst I downloaded pictures from the camera onto the computer and typed up some blog notes. Then with camera in hand we took the dink on a ride around the perimeter of the bay, scaring the pelicans and snapping photos of the deserted fishing shacks as we went. Once we reached the spit at the furthest point away from our boat we beached the dink, hauling it far enough out of the water to ensure that it wouldn’t drift away without us (we didn’t need to make fools of ourselves by loosing the dink!) and began to walk along the spit. The view was spectacular on both sides; contrasting blues and greens of the water, different kinds of sand on each side, one side had more shells and gravel than the other, small areas of reef visible on both sides and all divided by a low lying sand spit which was about 50 yards long. We reached the end where the water from either side met and made our way back to the dink. We were a bit disappointed to find empty plastic containers of engine oil strewn along the beach farthest away from the bay where we were anchored; it somehow ruined the whole scene. We re launched the dink and made our way to the fishing shacks for a look and a second walk along that part of the beach. Our cruising guide said that the shacks were always occupied but there was no evidence of any recent occupation. We stopped at several of them and took pictures as they were a great study in contrasts. One of them had a shrine inside it, we think it was to the Virgin Mary – but couldn’t be certain. It was quite elaborate and had various offerings inside it, including some money in a dish – I was surprised that it had remained there. Anyway as we walked further along the beach we came across another shrine on the beach, also quite elaborate and again with offerings inside it – no money in this one but there was a fresh apple there, obviously someone had left that very recently, it may have been a fisherman or a passing boat we will never know but the shrines are evidently cared for by somebody. After taking even more photos we made our way back out to the boat and secured the dink back on the foredeck. It was then time for a swim to cool off and get some exercise, we raced over to Dale and Lorie’s boat where we rested and chatted with them for a while then we raced back to our own boat. We had had a change of plan instead of leaving early and anchoring outside the reef we were going to leave at 20.00hrs and head straight out as our out bound passage took us away from the reef that we had dodged on the way in. After showering and changing into dry clothes it was time for some lunch, reading of books and a short sleep before the overnight sail to Los Roques. As the afternoon wore on several boats joined us in the harbour, most of them were flying Venezuelan flags and we think that they must come to this anchorage for a week end stay, it is after all a beautiful spot for a short stay. We had an easy dinner in the cockpit and watched the sun go down; it was pitch black as we readied the boat for our overnight trip. At 20.00hrs Gypsy Palace began to motor out of the harbour with us following about 10 minutes after them. We both put up our main sails and shortly after our jib, turned off the motor and began sailing. We managed to sail all night, it wasn’t exactly smooth sailing but we got along at an average speed of 6 knots making it to the outskirts of Los Roques by mid morning. Again we dragged the fishing line behind us, mostly to keep the fish amused I think as none of them were interested in becoming part of our dinner. At least we didn’t loose the lure this time!

Friday 13th April

Cayo Herradura
Tortuga

10 59.573 N
65 13.662 W

After our almost sleepless night we all agreed that we needed to stay for at least a day to recover but Lorie suggested that we move anchorages and go about 10 miles further to Cayo Herradura another lagoon which appeared better protected from the prevailing winds, we all agreed and set off at 10.00hrs. I have to add that by now the wind had dropped back down again and was pretty mild compared to the night. We had to first pick our way out through the reef and then we unfurled the jib which turned out to be a total waste of time, it was flapping all over the place and not doing anything to help move us along so it was very quickly furled away again. We motored the 11.4 miles, picked our way very carefully into a very pretty bay where we were the only sail boats and anchored in shallow, clear pale blue, water over sand. The shoreline was spectacular, quite flat, white sandy beach with a few derelict huts on the beach and a red and white stripped lighthouse on the point.
Almost as soon as we were anchored we decided to go for a swim and snorkel around, the water was cool and refreshing, there wasn’t much to see as far as the snorkeling went but it was good to get in and have a swim. I volunteered to cook dinner and set about getting food ready for that night. Dale and Lorie went off in their dink to explore the island. Gerry did a few small jobs around the boat – fixing a hatch support that broke when we opened it, emptying the lazarette and mopping out the water that had gotten into it – he needs to find the point of entry for the water but that will be a job for another day. Dale and Lorie came over for dinner and we ate in the cockpit, watching the sun set and wondering what the poor people were doing – see we do think of you! As the night fell we began discussing our next passage, we were going to be doing an overnight trip to Los Roques and the suggestion was to leave at 20.00hrs. By now it was 19.30hrs and it was pitch black out – not a sign of the moon and you couldn’t see a hand in front of your face – this was about the same time we planned on leaving the following night! Lorie and I were both concerned that with no moonlight getting out around the reef was going to be a nail bitter. We compromised in the end and decided to leave the anchorage late afternoon, anchor a bit further out and then take off as planned, this way we don’t have to do the reef dance in the dark. Dale and Lorie returned to their boat and we cleaned up the dinner debris before going to bed for a long overdue good night sleep.

Thursday 12th April

Playa Caldera
Tortuga

10 57.343 N
65 13.662 W

The coast guard had ignored us and left us alone last night and we had a half way reasonable sleep after the wind died down. We were up at 05.30 hrs, getting ready for a day sail to our next port of call – the island of Tortuga. We had discussed our next stop with Dale and Lorie, our original plan was to head to Los Roques from La Blanquilla, a distance of 116 miles; but as the trip would mean we would be square on to the wind making it extremely uncomfortable we had decided to take an alternative route to get there. Our new route was going to be 2 short hops, first to Tortuga, 66 miles and then on to Los Roques, 85 miles. Whilst the extra miles were something we didn’t need we would at least have a chance of sailing it and we wouldn’t be bashing into the seas. At 06.00hrs we hoisted the anchor, watching the sun rise and began motoring out of the anchorage. We raised our main sail with the reef in place and then unfurled the jib fully. The wind was quite light but we were getting along at about 5 knots so we cut the engine and began to sail. It wasn’t too long before we decided that if we were going to Tortuga in daylight we needed to shake the reef out of the main sail and see if we could get along a bit faster. It worked for a while then the wind came further back aft of the beam and the jib began to flap about. We tried tightening it right down, loosening it off and goose winging it all to no avail – it just wasn’t dong us any good so we ended up furling it away and sailing with just the main. For quite some time we managed a respectable 6 + knots and we even dragged the fishing line behind us in the hope of catching something edible. Unfortunately we did get a bite, in fact it was a huge bite and took our lure right off at the line, we put another lure on the line but that was it – no more fish were interested. As the afternoon wore on the wind gradually dropped until we were only managing 3.8 knots, at this rate we were going to get to Tortuga at night, something we wanted to avoid as there are reefs surrounding the anchorage. We finally decided that with 16 miles left to go we were going to motor sail the rest of the way and turned the noisy engine on. We reached the anchorage at 16.30hrs – it had taken us 10.5 hrs to do the trip – far longer than we had expected. We wound our way around the outside of the reef and into the large horseshoe shaped lagoon anchorage. The water here was a really pretty light aqua but it was a little cloudy. We anchored in sand and began clearing our stuff up in the cockpit. Gerry discovered 3 flying fish on the deck as he did some of the clearing away, maybe we should give up with the lures and just eat what lands on the boat! Lorie called us on the radio and said she was cooking dinner that night and to bring over potato salad and dessert. Whilst Gerry continued with the clearing away stuff I prepared the things we needed to take over to Gypsy Palace for dinner. Dale had volunteered to pick us up in their dink as it was on the arch of their boat and quicker to get in the water than ours which was secured to the foredeck. So just after 18.00hrs he came across to collect us. The wind had increased a bit and we had a choppy short ride across to their boat. We watched several other boats pull into the lagoon and anchor after us, most of them had been at the anchorage in La Blanquilla with us. Dinner was good as always but we were all a bit tired after the long day trip and decided to call it an early night. Dale had to ferry us back to our boat and it was then that we realized just how much the wind had kicked in; it was now blowing 20 knots! The ride back top our boat was a little rough but we made it safely and climbed aboard, waved Dale off and then watched as the weather got even worse. One boat left the lagoon soon after, we weren’t sure where he went but we thought he was mad considering the reef surrounding the lagoon and the lack of moonlight; despite everything he must have made it to some place without problems as there were no distress calls and we have found no wrecks on the way out. It wasn’t a very peaceful night, the wind howled all night and we had strange noises inside the boat that I had never heard before, not that we could find the cause of any of them – guess it was just the creaking timbers (well fiberglass anyway!). Despite all this we agreed that the decision to go this way was a good one as the trip we had originally planned would have been far worse – we would have been bashing into the sea all the way.

Wednesday 11th April

Playa Yaque
La Blanquilla

11 50.274 N
64 38.832 W

The sun rose a little before we arrived at a small group of Islands (big rocks in the middle of nowhere) called Los Hermanos. We were both on deck at the time as we wanted to be sure that we didn’t make any mistakes going through the gap between them, especially as we were tired. From these rocks it was just 6 miles to the anchorage where we planned on stopping. Thinking that we had about an hour to go I went below to cook up some biscuits (scone type things) and sausage. I had just about got them done when Gerry called out for me to come out on deck, turn on the motor and help get the main down, breakfast was left to get cold! Now that we were ready to drop the sail and anchor the wind began gusting up to 25 knots – just what we didn’t need whilst we were putting the main sail away and trying to anchor between the boats already there. We made our way towards the anchoring spot and dropped the anchor in a sandy patch just in front of the only palm trees on the beach; as soon as we were happy that the anchor was set we ate our sausage and biscuits, which were still warm, whilst we watched a 4 masted cruise yacht anchor behind us and begin to disgorge passengers onto the beach. We watched the coast guard board Gypsy Palace and waited for our turn – it was sure to come but after a wait of nearly an hour they put - putted off in their boat and vanished around the corner. It turned out that they boarded Gypsy Palace and did a safety inspection, not just the routine checking of boat documents, we are still expecting them to return to see us as I type. Gerry spent the rest of the morning sleeping; I couldn’t get to sleep so I just read my book. After lunch Dale and Lorie wanted to go exploring, possibly snorkeling: Gerry went along with them but by now I was tired and falling asleep so I went to bed for an hour. On his return Gerry told me that they had dinked around the end of the island to a place called Playa Los Americano, where there were ruins of a small house and a natural rock arch which sticks out into the ocean. We both read for the rest of the afternoon and watched as the coast guard boarded the boat to the left of us, there are only 5 boats here so we are pretty certain that our turn to be boarded is coming – we are just waiting!

Photo of Playa Los Americano from camera of Gypsy Palace

Tuesday 10th April

At Sea

We began the day with a couple of small chores, Gerry cleaned the marks off the side of the boat where the travel lift slings had been, whilst I did a general tidy up and made the bed. We had a late breakfast, made some water and then just as we were getting ready to go for a swim Lorie called to see if we wanted to go ashore with Dale, her, Scott and Heather further along the island. We all dinked around the bay and beached the dink at a small sandy beach which had a sort of pathway leading up a huge sand dune. Gerry made his way to the top of the dune which was very steep and called out from the top that this was the path way. We all began to follow, it was a case of one step forward and slide three backwards unless you crab walked from side to side. The rest made it to the top but I gave up - I didn’t think it was worth the effort and it was hurting my knee which doesn’t need to be causing me any more pain than it already does. The trip back down was like skiing, except on sand. Gerry joined me as he didn’t want to walk to the beach on the other side and we both went for a swim in refreshingly cool clear water. The others made it back after trekking to the beach on the other side; Lorie looked extremely red in the face but began to return to a normal colour after floating in the sea for a while. Once we had all turned into prunes we got back in the dinks and made our way back to our boats. We said goodbye to Scott and Heather as they are heading in a slightly different direction to us but we may meet up again in a few days time. Back on board it was time for lunch then Gerry had a nap whilst I prepared our evening meal. Later in the afternoon we put the dink back up on the deck and prepared the boat for our evening departure. We began hoisting our anchor at 18.00hrs and motored far enough out of the anchorage to turn into wind and raise our main sail – reefed of course! The wind was very light to begin with, we unfurled the jib and attempted to fly it but it kept collapsing and in the end we furled it back away as we couldn’t stand the noise of the flapping. With just the main flying and the motor turned off we were only managing 4-5 knots until we were some way out to sea. The wind gradually picked up but it was aft of our beam so we were rolling from side to side for most of the trip. Our speed increased with the stronger wind and we managed to do a respectable 6.5 -7 knots for the rest of the passage. Both Gerry and I tried to fly the jib at various times during the night, but the wind just wouldn’t stay in the right direction to fly it. Eventually we gave up trying leaving just the main to do the work. The worst thing about that was that the boat rolled from side to side all the way making it very difficult to get to sleep when it was time to be off watch, neither of us slept very well all night. Again we saw the Southern Cross in the night sky – it’s beginning to feel like we are really on our way home.

Photos from camera of Gypsy Palace

Monday 9th April

Los Testigos

11 22.896 N
63 08.087 W

Many happy returns of the day Jean, we hope you have a good birthday, with love from both of us.

It was to be a very laid back and easy day for us. We woke fairly early after catching up on our sleep. Dale, Gerry and Scott took off in the dink to check in with the coast guard as this was the thing to do here. There are no immigration or customs officers here so we continue to fly the Q flag; in fact there isn’t a clearing in place at any of the next 2 or 3 places that we intend to stop so it will be the Q flag for a while. We aren’t going to stop on the Venezuelan main land which I think is a shame as I would have liked to do some of the inland tours but as we are on a time limit and our travel companions are a bit nervous about being on a USA registered boat (the US is not greatly liked in Venezuela) we have decided to only stop on the outer islands on our way through to Bonaire. Whilst Gerry was gone I ran the water maker to top up our tanks, made a dessert for the evening meal and then as I sat down to read my book he reappeared. The coast guard had apparently been very pleasant to them all, took our details down for his log and that was it. Gerry spent the rest of the day trying to load some charts on to the computer, it was one of those occasions when it was best not to go anywhere near him nor to ask him how it was going unless you wanted your head bitten off. He did eventually succeed but the language would have made any sailor blush. I spent the day vacuuming, washing down the inside of the boat and then polishing the wood – it was a job that needed doing as the blue dust from the paint we had removed was everywhere, even in places that you would never have expected it to be able to get into. We had a visit from Lorie to make sure that we were going to be OK to have dinner around 17.00hrs on their boat; any time I don’t have to cook is good – I can’t imagine why she had to check! Gerry had a brief nap before we loaded a bag with rum punch, some hors d’oeuvres and the dessert I had made and made our way to Gypsy Palace. Dale and Lorie had been saving a prime rib roast for the occasion and we had a wonderful Easter dinner, I think it will be a while until we have such a good bit of beef again. We watched the sun go down and then we dinked back to our own boat for the night.

Photo from the camera of Gypsy Palace

Sunday 8th April

Los Testigos

11 22.896 N
63 08.087 W

As we made our way in towards the anchorage we noticed a whole load of birds just ahead of us, I commented to Gerry that there must be fish there and as we approached we were suddenly surrounded by a large pod of dolphins. They were having a ball in the waves, diving, racing alongside us and riding the bow waves – they were a joy to watch but they disappeared as fast as they had appeared.
We all arrived at the anchorage spot within minutes of each other the trip had taken us 13 hours from anchor up to anchor back down. We dropped our anchor and it seemed to set quickly, Gerry decided to dive it to make sure it was OK as there was quite a lot of wind gusting through the place, lucky he did as the anchor wasn’t set properly, it caught on coral and the chain was wrapped around another piece of coral some distance away. We did a repeat anchoring and when he checked the second time we were well set in the sand and not going anywhere. We raised our Q flag as we were only going to be stopping here a short while and had no intention of checking in to Venezuela, which the Los Testigos belong to. It was then time to clean up, have a shower, eat breakfast and get some sleep. Although we had done 3 hour watches overnight neither of us had slept very well on our time off watch and we needed to catch up. After 4 hours sleep we were feeling a bit better and went on a dink around the place with Dale and Lorie to see the scenery. It struck us all as a very isolated place and I certainly wouldn’t want to live here. There were a couple of nice sandy beaches and some very barren looking land. Apparently the islands are inhabited but only sparsely. Quite a few boats were anchored in the designated anchorages, most of them flying Q flags – it’s obviously a popular “stop over whilst in transit” spot. The anchorage was a little rolly but we were too tired to care much, we could put up with it for a brief stay. Loads of frigate birds were playing the thermals over the anchorage and every so often one of them would fold its wings and dive bomb into the water, as they never seem to come up with fish we think they must do this for fun or to rid themselves of parasites. It’s spectacular to watch anyway. After our brief sight seeing dink around the place Dale and Lorie joined us on our boat for a couple of drinks and a post mortem of the night passage. Once they left we ran the generator, made some water and read for a while before fixing dinner. Eventually it was time to have a shower again and go to bed.

Photo from the camera of Gypsy Palace