A Few More Islas de Venezuela

Who's there? Red Footed Booby perched in mangroves in Las Aves. Las Aves means "the birds" in Spanish - aptly named! There were boobies, frigate birds, pelicans, and just about every other species of seabird. All up close and personal - and smelly!

Brown Booby and chick on nest. When the chick stands up and asks (demands) to be fed, its bigger than the parents. We know what that's like!

Good to be in clear water after murk of Grenada. Temperature about 85F (30C).

Especially when you see cool stuff like these very large (close to 3') Midnight Parrot Fish. We also saw a school of equally large Rainbow Parrots feeding on top of the reef in water so shallow they were half out of it.

This water is not so clear. Some of the islands have fresh-ish water just below the surface. This was critical for the original inhabitants and is still used by fishermen. Even with our watermaker not working we weren't tempted to fill our tanks here!

We don't always anchor off a perfect tropical beach. This is the view from Idyll Island of the mangroves at the anchorage in Las Aves. Reminded us of the Ents in Lord of the Rings, though we couldn't hear a word they said over the noise of the birds!

On our way to Bonaire from Las Aves we were joined by a pod of dolphins for 20 minutes or so. It seemed like they were trying to see which of them could come closest to touching their dorsal fins to Derek's hand as he stretched over the forward crossbeam. They came within inches but never touched. They looked like they were laughing with the sport of it! (Or maybe because he wasn't wearing any shorts.)
A bit later we were welcomed to Bonaire seaspace by a Dutch Coast Guard plane that flew by at about 50' off our stern. They didn't look like they were laughing (Derek had shorts on by then). There is a lot of drug smuggling out of nearby Venezuela and Colombia, so they are pretty vigilant in this area.

Sailing up the southern, leeward side of Bonaire past the salt ponds and mountains of salt waiting to be shipped. One of the best sails in the Caribbean with 20 knots of breeze in flat water. We hit 10 knots reaching with our spinnaker which we had up for the full 35 miles from Las Aves and kept flying right to the entrance to Kralendijk harbour.

On the mooring at Kralendijk, Bonaire. View from the front porch.

After a month in the islands, the boys are off to do the laundry. OK, let's not stretch it tooo far but they are at least carrying the bags!

Las Islas de Venezuela

We left Grenada at "O dark thirty", in company with Randy and Lynn on High States. As dawn broke and we watched them pulling away from us with their big genoa, we decided it was time to get our spinnaker up. We had a great sail to Los Testigos - the first of many over the next few weeks. Downwind is good!

One fish ....

Two fish. Yellow fish, blue fish! Good fishing as we sailed over the reefs near Los Testigos. We were able to offer Randy and Lynn their choice of catch of the day for dinner that night. Both were mighty tasty.

On arrival at our anchorage in Los Testigos (about 4PM) the air was filled with wheeling frigate birds and various types of boobies which nest on the surrounding rocky islets. Most were juveniles now fending for themselves and lacking the graceful and successful fishing skills of their parents. We sat in a lovely bay looking over a sand isthmus to the open sea and low hills where small goats fed. We were a bit uncomfortable about several shots we heard and the rough looking fellow returning to his shack with something(?). Several of the locally built, very high prowed fishing and boats passed with friendly waves and smiles. The coral heads near the boat revealed three different types of morays within 15 feet. Next day we dinghied to the main fishing village on an adjacent island and were checked in by a very nice young member of the Venezuelan Garda Costa who was very tolerant and encouraging regarding our poor/non-existent Spanish. You never know what to expect from the officials. Would that they were all so friendly and helpful.

We spent a couple of days exploring the surrounding islands finding extensive sand dunes and beaches with very recent tracks of turtles who had dragged their massive bodies to and from nests, and little tracks, evidence of tiny turtles scrambles to their first swim. After one of our forays we returned to the dinghy and noticed that it had been moved, however all seemed in order. We later learned from the French couple anchored in the next cove that that the fellow on shore with the shotgun had rescued our dinghy and re-anchored it for us. We wanted to thank him, so gingerly approached his 'home' with a bottle of wine. He welcomed us, was very nice and showed us the dinner of seabird he was preparing which he said was delicious. We took his word for it and hope the wine helped to wash it down. There are no stores on these islands.

On to the island of La Blanquilla. We left in the evening so as to arrive in good daylight. Unfortunately, it was mostly a motor sail, but the seas were flat and the moon was full.

High States getting ready to drop the hook at La Blanquilla. We spent a couple of days here, enjoying snorkeling at spectacular Americano Bay, one of our favourite spots from last year.

Americano Bay, La Blanquilla. Very cool to snorkel under this 20' arch.

We then sailed off into the sunset headed for Los Roques, temporarily leaving High States. We had a full moon, a 15 knot breeze from behind us and only a 1-2m swell. Perfect conditions to fly the spinnaker - our first time at night with just the two of us (only one on watch at a time). It was magical as we sailed along at up to 10 knots with the bright silver moonlight illuminating the sea and the sail, with the sound of the boat swooshing through the water and surging gently on the swells. And of course the air was a soft, velvety 28 degrees!

When we arrived in Los Roques we spent the first 3 nights anchored in behind the barrier reef. Our only neighbour was this trawler who some years ago miscalculated the position of the entrance through the reef. A grim reminder to keep a careful watch! We travelled through the archipelago in mid-day with one of us perched up high to make sure we could see the reefs.

The beach scene at Gran Roques. The previous day was a bit more stressful when we went to check in with the Garda Costa. We were hit up for a $60 "fee" which went straight into the officer's shirt pocket. In return we were assured we could stay in the wetern half of the archipelago "no problema" for 10 days, instead of the official 24 hours for a vessel in transit. We later heard from an Italian boat that they paid $100, while our friends on High States didn't pay a peso. Probably depends on who's watching...

Off to explore one of the dozens of cays (keys) and islands that make up the Los Roques archipelago. Most of them deserted.

Even in paradise there's laundry to be done. The watermaker must have been working that day!

Derek fishing for the elusive bonefish. Los Roques is reputedly a mecca for those who pursue this wily fish.

And still fishing. He did catch a small bonefish and released it after a scrappy fight.

You'd think they'd be easier to catch when you're snorkeling and see them swarming like this!

July in Grenada

Our last installment ended with Tristan flying back to Victoria after a great visit on Idyll Island. He had to return to his responsibilities of earning money working as a lifeguard and as a vineyard worker to help support himself at college, while his wayward parents fell back into the relaxin’ lifestyle of Cruisers in Grenada. It really is a great island with friendly people, just enough challenges in finding parts and provisions to keep things interesting and to have something to complain about. Highlights included meeting old friends, Jim and Renate (well, Renate is not old) who finally caught up with us after being a couple of islands behind us since January! Of course they started in Florida – in November… They anchored their boat, Emerald Seas, right beside us so we were able to keep an eye on them and vice versa. We had lots of good times and just hangin’ out floating around in the water keeping cool. We also consumed a few bottles of wine that had somehow survived the trip from St. Martin. Emerald Seas is an Island Packet 37, a solid, seakindly boat that is looking after them well. They also have a fancy new dinghy, a Walker Bay Genesis hard bottom inflatable (RIB) with a 15hp outboard. Jim told us how well this boat performed and Derek was particularly interested because our Avon RIB of the same size (11’), with the same engine goes fast but cavitates badly when trying to turn on the plane. So a couple of days later Jim and Derek are heading off to town in the Walker Bay to buy some boat bits. Jim gets her on the plane and then asks, “Want to see how well she turns?” He cranks over the steering handle and within a nanosecond, Derek sees Jim disappear over the side with the most amazed expression on his face. Derek was laughing so hard he could barely get the boat back to pull Jim out of the water. Luckily no one was hurt and yes indeedy, that boat does corner like its on rails. After that we noticed that Renate seemed to do most of the dinghy driving…

No season in Grenada would ever be complete without at least one visit to Gouyave (we went twice) - the Fish Capital of Grenada. Every Friday night they close off several streets and dozens of vendors set up to sell many types of fish cooked any way you like as long as its fried. Actually, we found a tasty wahoo pizza and a snapper steamed in foil with veggies. But the fried flying fish were pretty darned good! And then there's the free rum sampling....

Its a great scene and everyone is really friendly and havin' a good time, Mon!

Looking for one more piece of fish....

And the beat goes on ....

Another fine dinner on Emerald Seas. Jim and Renate look pretty happy with their cruising lifestyle!

Before we left Grenada, we were lucky to have good friends Bruce and Laura on Amaryllis sail in from the USVI. It was great to see them and have another chance to say “Farewell”, before we headed west and they back to the US for a couple of months. In Grenada, we also reunited with Lynn and Randy on High States, whom we met last year just as we were starting out from Soper's Hole in the BVI. They are also from Victoria. Fortunately, we don't have to say "So Long" to them just yet, as we are going to buddy boat with them through the Venezuelan Islands to Bonaire.

Back in Grenada

Tristan and Cathy looking good in the Tobago Cays.

Its been a busy time on Idyll Island since our last update. After saying “so long” to Derek’s brother et famille, we picked up our good friend Dave Reay and spent a few days sailing with him to St. Thomas, where he caught his flight back to Victoria to spend the summer on his BC boat. Once he had left, we started working through the list of projects and repairs that had been in hiatus while we had friends and family aboard for the previous few months.

We picked up another 2 solar panels (total of 650 watts now) so that we can be pretty much engine free while at anchor; we repaired our starboard alternator (again) and watermaker (again), bought ourselves a liferaft, just in case our unsinkable boat isn’t; got our shortwave (SSB) radio fixed so that we can now talk as well as listen, installed an automatic identification system (AIS) so that we can see who those ships are at night and which way they’re going, installed a Crew Overboard alarm system (Raymarine Lifetag), shipped in a sewing machine and material for Cathy to make covers for our cockpit cushions, and we finally succumbed and bought ourselves a TV/DVD unit. Not to mention the 6 cases (or was it 7?) of wine, case of rum and oh, some food too. We were thinking that this was going to be our last stop where we could buy many things we couldn’t get “down island” or if available, only at piratical prices. While in St. Thomas we had a couple of farewell get-togethers with our friends Bruce and Laura on Amaryllis. We probably won’t see them again before we head west. That’s the hard part of cruising….

So after a couple of weeks emptying our bank account while watching Idyll Island sink lower and lower on her lines, the weather finally settled down to where we could head east. It wasn’t like we planned to go to Sint Maarten, the only place with more services and shopping than St. Thomas at even better prices, the wind gods just kind of sucked us in… So again, we went into project/acquisition mode and modified our helm seat to swing out of the way when at anchor (makes way more room for partying in the cockpit), installed a raised maple paneled ceiling in the galley (to give Derek enough headroom to do the dishes without whining quite so much – probably the most expensive inch ever), had the salon table and chart table refinished ( a bit of a saga…), and found a reeeally great rum (El Dorado from Guyana) at a reeeeally great price, so stocked up on that to make us feel better about spending so much money on other stuff. We also met up with our friends Chris and Kelly on “Verna Breeze” and Jen and Jay on “Rum Runner”. Some good evenings sampling rums and wines. Based on Chris and Jay’s recommendations we also bought a cool little black box that plugs into our newly purchased TV and allows us to play just about anything, and Chris gave us a great deal on his 750 GB hard drive fully loaded with 100+ movies. Now we have even more excuses not to do boat work!

Idyll Island at the dock in St. Maarten for a few upgrades.

Our new swing-away helm seat. FKG Rigging did a great job. You can't see the cool custom rod holder they also made up for us.

The new raised maple ceiling in the galley. A bit of an ordeal to get it in, but Derek now doesn't have to do his Quasimodo impersonation to work in the galley.

We finally got out of St. Maarten, with poor old Idyll Island sitting even lower in the water, but her crew happy if significantly poorer. We had only just enough time to get to St. Lucia to meet our son Tristan who was flying in to spend 12 days with us. One of our stops was Montserrat, with its active volcano. It was there that we discovered a leaking (pouring) cooling manifold on the starboard engine. Thankfully, being a catamaran we have built in redundancy and can operate on one engine. We were able to call Island Water World in St. Lucia, and they were happy to order in a new manifold to be there when we arrived. We did have a good tour of Montserrat and saw how the islanders are working to rebuild their country after the devastating eruptions destroyed half their already small island, including burying the capital city in volcanic ash.

Portsmouth, ex capital city of Montserrat, buried in ash. The image is a bit fuzzy because it was taken through a long telephoto as you aren't allowed anywhere near the area due to the real risk of more pyroclastic eruptions.

The Montserrat International Airport. Also ex. Buried in ash.

On the way to St. Lucia, we stopped at Fort de France, Martinique for a day, mostly for Derek to gorge on French pastries!

Between Martinique and St. Lucia, we sailed through a squall with winds to 30 knots. It hit us before we realized that it would have been a good idea to reef the sails, so we ran down wind in front of it for half an hour, surfing along at 10-11 knots under full sail. A bit sketchy and a reminder to reef early. We dropped anchor in Rodney Bay St. Lucia the day before Tristan was to arrive. We had spent too much time in St. Lucia last year getting our watermaker fixed the first of many times. But everyone was very friendly and helpful and made us feel welcome. And the jet skiis were far less obnoxious than last year. Jon at Regis Elecronics provided some very good advice on our again-not-working-very-well watermaker. No, not to throw it overboard -with Jon’s advice, Derek was able to fix a sticking brush in the feed pump and stop an air leak. Finally, our watermaker seems to be working as it should! On Saturday (June 20th), Tristan arrived. It was so great to see him – Christmas in Bonaire was the last time. Derek spent the following day (Father’s Day) installing the new cooling manifold while Tristan slept off his jet lag, then we celebrated with a fantastic sparerib dinner that Cathy made for us in her new pressure cooker. The following day we set sail for Bequia and the Tobago Cays.

Caught a nice Wahoo along the way. Put up a decent fight, but succumbed quickly to the overproof rum once we had him on the gaff!

Then the butchering starts. Blood everywhere with these fast warm water fish. Took about an hour to fillet this guy. Well worth it though as the meat is very tasty without any "fishiness" at all.

It was great to finally be sailing with the wind on our beam, it seems like we have been bashing to windward for most of the last 6 months. The boat goes faster, quieter and more smoothly - just like in the brochures. We checked into Bequia, a very sleepy little town, with not much in the way of anything. Many of the restaurants and bars were closed (including our old hang-out from 13 years ago, the Green Boley). Normal end-of-the-season slow down, exacerbated by the impact of the ailing global economy. We quickly headed for the Tobago Cays, just a few hours south.

Tristan taking a bath on the trampoline!

A pod of dolphins off St. Lucia, must have been over 50 and they were way to busy herding their dinner to pay any attention to us!

We dropped anchor in 7’ of crystal clear water with nothing but a reef between ourselves and Africa (and we had a layer of Sahara dust all over the boat to prove it). For the next 5 days we snorkeled with turtles and rays (eagle rays swimming right off the back of the boat and turtles everywhere), explored the reef and little islands and just hung out and relaxed. We had a few squalls blow through, but the holding is about perfect and our anchor just dug in further. We had a good visit with Walter, “the Face of the Tobago Cays”. We first met Walter 13 years ago, when he delivered ice to us every day so that our friend Mike could have his beer really cold.

Tristan, jumping for joy at being back in the Tobago Cays!

Walter, de Man.

Cathy and Derek hangin' out in the Tobago Cays....

Tristan's old water-polo coach would be happy to see that Tristan can keep up with a turtle! They actually swim pretty darned fast when they want to.

The water is so clear its like flying.

Tristan up a tree

Sweet nectar!

Laughing gulls having a good time. They are amazing flyers, though in their eagerness to grab food out of the air before anyone else gets it, they sometimes crash into each other.

After a great time in what Tristan describes as his favourite place in the whole world, the weather forecast suggested it was time to leave the Tobago Cays and get ourselves to Grenada. We pulled in to Prickly Bay and dropped the hook just inside the reef. Checking in with Customs the following day proved to be a bit more complex than last year. In an attempt to prevent the spread of swine flu, instead of just the skipper going ashore to the Prickly Bay office, everybody on board is required to get on public transportation and travel into the capital of St. Georges. Seems like a good way to ensure maximum exposure!

We celebrated Canada Day quietly sipping cold beers, swimming, listening to Tristan play the guitar, then a bottle of champagne on board and a great Chinese meal at Choo Light, a short walk down the road in the tropical evening. We wrapped it up with a couple of episodes of Trailer Park Boys. What could be more Canadian, eh?!

We walked over to Mt. Hartman Bay, to see the anchorage where we spent 6 weeks back in 1996. The docks are still in use but the reort was damaged in hurricane Ivan 4-5 years ago and has been left vacant since. The bush is slowly reclaiming it, though we heard that there are plans to rebuild.

On July 3^rd we were up at 0400 to get Tristan on his plane. He finally had an uneventful trip back to Victoria! He is now home trying to earn enough money to cover his portion of next year’s expenses for his second year in the Environmental Technology program at Camosun College. We continue to be very proud of how he is pulling it all together on his own, while his parents cavort about on the oceans.

Tristan playing "I'm Leaving on a Jet Plane". We are always sad to see him go.

For a change, we don’t have any critical boat projects to do, so we are free to move on whenever the weather looks right. For the past several days we have had a series of tropical waves moving through, bringing winds to 40 knots (over 70 kph) and torrential, though short-lived, downpours. At the same time its 32d Celsius and the hatches have to be closed. Funny, but nobody back home ever sounds very sympathetic… Next week the weather is supposed to settle down and we’ll likely be on our way to Bonaire via the Venezuelan off-shore islands of Blanquilla, Los Roques, Les Aves. We are looking forward to getting back to the fabulour diving in Bonaire….