Porlamar

01/01/03

We had a wonderful, quiet, NYE with Steve & Pam (Viva). There were fireworks going on all around the harbor so we had a panoramic view & it was really beautiful. We will restock as much as we can here then get checked out & get on the way to Bonaire ASAP. The strike continues to escalate, mostly in Caracus with more marches & shortages. There has been a gas shortage here & some rationing but a ship (from Brasil) just brought in a tankerfull so they are OK for another month or so. The only items I cannot find in the stores are flour, soft drinks of any kind & beer. Everything else seems well stocked & they are open normal hours.

01/10/03

Los Roques

We had a wonderful overnight sail from Tortuga, probably the best sailing of the trip (so far). Hard to believe I actually enjoyed a night sail. The wind stayed at 15-20 kn from the stb. aft quarter & we made 7 kn average speed for most of the trip. Finally we were able to turn off the engine! There's nothing like the feeling of traveling (fast) & making your own energy (wind generator).

We did not have a good entrance to Los Roques though. By then the wind was whipping up to 25 kn & it was nearly impossible to read the water depth by color as you must do to enter this reef. We had to abandon our first three choices of anchorages because we could not see the channels clearly enough or it was too rolly. We finally got anchored behind Bequeve Island after a very stressful & tense morning.

I am glad we got stuck coming here though. We went for a walk today & saw hundreds of Boobies nesting all over the ground. They were so unafraid of us we were able to walk up to a yard away from them. I think we could have petted the babies if we were so inclined, they are so cute & fuzzy! The snorkeling was a disapointment but after that who cares?

01/13/03

Aves De Barlovento

We had another wonderful sail to the Aves. We are anchored in a small harbor surrounded by mangroves FULL of Boobies. There is a small channel through the trees & we motored to the end & floated back listening to the waves crashing on the other side of the (narrow) island & birds cackling. There were an unbelievable number of birds, babies & adults nesting in the trees. Disneyland could not have created a better ride. The snorkeling leaves nothing to be desired either. The water is incredibly clear & the fish & coral are healthy & beautiful.

01/16/03

Bonaire

We are finally out of Venezuelan waters. Bonaire looks beautiful. The water is deep blue almost to the coast but turns bright turquoise near the land. We are on a mooring (no anchoring allowed anywhere) & from the looks of the water we could snorkel or dive from the back of the boat. Sean (First command) met us as we pulled in & directed us to a mooring.

I was happy to see him again as we have been trying to find him since Porlamar. He is alone on the boat & I almost found him some company. In Porlamar there were two Swedish girls looking for a ride to Curacao where he was headed. Since he never made it to Porlamar I never got to introduce them. What fun to tease him with the possibilities he missed! The opportunity to harass him only got better when we met Jim (his father) & Seth (his brother-in-law). Now I know that he will never, even if we lose touch, be allowed to forget that he missed his chance to be accompanied by two Swedish girls on his travels. My work is done.

Kralendijk, the main city, is really clean & very safe. It is a pleasure to be here where I do not feel like I have to lock everything down at night. The grocery is good but since they get many of their supplies from Venezuela there are a few shortages.

Last report from Venezuela was that the guardia had been called in to get the soft drinks & beer flowing again. Apparently there is a lot of resistance to this as it is not considered essential to the country. If soft drinks & beer are not essential, what is?

01/22/03

Mark & Sharon arrived safely & we picked them up at the airport by dinghy. As Sean said, this must be the only airport with a dinghy dock! Their flight was good, this is a great place to fly into.

It's great to see them especially since they brought our old computer with them. Mark had to repair it for us as it crashed the day before departure from Texas. This was supposed to be our backup computer but since our "new" computer crashed on the sail over from the Aves it is going to be used immediately. I hope we can save the memory from the old one as my entire log of Venezuela has not yet been sent to Doug. We would also loose all of the pictures from Venezuela, our ability to download weather-fax, and all of our e-mail addresses. Some of this should be available on Allen's Palm Pilot but apparently it crashed recently. As Mark has pointed out (more than a few times already) we need to back up our data on a CD frequently.

We found a Yamaha dealer here & had an interesting conversation with the owner. Apparently the frequent problems we have had with our 4-stroke Yamaha outboard engine are to be expected. The fuel here (or almost anywhere other than the USA or Europe) is too high in sulfur & since the 4-cycle burns so hot it forms sulfuric acid which will eventually eat up the engine. Allen has rebuilt the carburetor many times already & found a black gooey substance in it & that is also a result of the fuel problem. This will apparently continue until we are back in the USA or the acid destroys the motor. Our best bet would be to replace it with the 8 hp or, with a bigger dinghy, a 15 hp Yamaha Enduro as the dealer said both of these engines are rock solid. (He did not recommend the 10 hp)

01/26/03

We are having a great time with Mark & Sharon. We rented a truck so we can drive all around the island. One day we went to the National Park. Lots of iguanas, lizards, cactus & rough roads. I'm glad it was a rental truck. There were beautiful views & we climbed to the top of the "tallest mountain on Bonaire". It was not exactly Mt. Pelee in height but it was a bit tricky to climb in some spots & I almost chickened out when it got too steep.

We also visited Lac Bay where the wind surfing is incredible. There were kids as young as 5 years old surfing. I'll bet they will be great when they grow up. There is a part of the bay where they kite-board & we spent much time watching them also. We may even try to get some lessons when we return to Bonaire from Curacao. It looks like so much fun.

We have done some snorkeling although it is not as good as we had hoped. There are a few good spots, such as "1000 steps" & "Old Blue" but most sights are just a tease. You can see that it is beautiful starting right at about 20 ft. but no one except Allen was able to free dive that far. Just trying to get close by diving wore me out but I am able to dive much further than I used to. Bonaire is definitely better for scuba diving than snorkeling.

We had a chance to hear a lecture by Captain Don (of Captain Don's Habitat). It was lots of BS interspersed with interesting information on how the diving has evolved on Bonaire. He was instrumental in declaring the entire coastline of Bonaire a Marine Park. His book is said to be 85% true & that's about right for his talk, I would guess.

Mark & Sharon decided to get a condo for a few nights to get some space. It is pretty tight with four people on the boat but I am amazed how nice it has been. Maybe they are good guests or we are so used to being crowded that we don't even notice! I'm sure it would be a tough thing to get used to for others. The condo, rented by the "It's Raining Fish" restaurant ($62/day), is very nice & huge but the best part is it has a washer & dryer so we can get some laundry done!

Having guests is a great incentive to dine out so we have had a good chance to check out the local restaurants. The restaurant scene here is good but not great in most cases an expensive in almost all cases. The Lighthouse at Harbor Village Marina is excellent (Smoked mackerel salad) as is It Rains Fishes (tapinade with the bread & great tapas esp. escargot). Buddies Dive, Cap't Don's Habitat are just OK but Lions dive is better.

02/02/03

Curacao

We sailed over to Curacao Thursday to get Mark & Sharon some sailing experience. I'm not sure they were really glad they asked for the trip as both got a little queasy on the way. Well, they wanted to get some cruising experience & seasickness is definitely a part of the cruising experience! We are anchored in Spanish Waters, a very well protected cove with many lobes to hide in. The place for cruisers is Sarifundy's Bar & restaurant. They have a free bus to the grocery daily & many other services for cruisers.

All four of us took a bus downtown customs & immigration, conveniently located about a mile apart. We got checked in OK but we did not realize that Mark & Sharon would need their plane tickets to get removed from our crew list. We really should have known that. That meant that they would have to go back to the downtown immigration office before catching their plane the next day. It was a chance for them to experience another of the joys of cruising, hours spent in the pursuit of legal immigration!

Downtown Willemstad is as pretty as a postcard. There is a main inlet channel to a large very protected harbor. On each side of the inlet is a row of brightly painted buildings connected by a floating pontoon bridge opening for any ship traffic day or night. There are several streets of good shopping and many good to great restaurants to choose from in the area. Right at the bus stop is a market with beautiful fruits & vegetables & many other items for sale (including whole goat heads, ugh). The fresh squeezed orange juice is worth the trip. There is also a floating market along the quay with fresh fruit & vegetables they bring from Venezuela daily.

02/14/03

We are still in Curacao as the winds have been blowing 25kn or more for weeks. We were warned about these "Christmas Winds" but we really thought we could find one day when we could make it back to Bonaire. We still plan to go back there for a few weeks to dive before heading North to Puerto Rico. I am not too sorry to be "stuck" here though as we have gotten a chance to really explore Curacao & it is really a nice island, probably better than Bonaire for a long stay.

We spent one day downtown with Sean & Allen (Nomad) with lunch at Ot & Sien (75 different Dutch Pancakes). We visited the Maritime Museum, very informative since all of the history here involved the ship traffic. Another day we saw the Kura Hulanda Museum. It bills itself as a history of mankind with an emphasis on African history & the slave trade. It is built on the sight of a former slave pen & is very graphic in its treatment of slavery, very interesting museum. The Anne Frank exhibit, attached to the Kura Hulanda Museum, was a bit of a rip-off. It consisted only of posters of pictures & stories.

One of our best days was spent walking to Sea Aquarium beach. It was a long walk, about six miles total, but with breaks for lunch & drinks it seemed about right. We had lunch at Kon Tiki beach Restaurant. Most of the beaches here are private & charge an entrance fee. It really works out nicely since, for the fee, you get chairs, shady trees, restaurants, bathrooms & showers. This restaurant was really nice. Each table was set in it's own little palm thatched gazebo & the food was very good. I think I'd like to spend a day here if we stay longer. On the way back we stopped for a drink at the Zanzabar at Jan Thiel Beach. It looks like a nice restaurant. The Papagayo Beach Resort (across the street) is the most beautiful hotel we have seen on this island ($175-275/night). Each hut is freestanding with an open living area & reminds us of the Regency Resort in Chaing Mai (Thailand) we loved so much.

We visited Hato Cave this Monday. It is pretty much a small tourist trap but inside the cave is really beautiful. There are several large rooms, one with a small lake (pond) & waterfall (trickle). The path was well constructed & the lighting was so nicely done it really enhanced the carved stone, stalactites & stalagmites. It was worth the trouble to get there by bus. We got back to Willemstad for a late lunch at the Governor (wonderful Gouda soup & au gratin potatoes) & still made it back to Sarifundy's for happy hour & the free Monday night movie.

Most of our time here has been spent reading, doing varnish, hanging out with Sean & Allen, & trying to decide where we should go from here. We considered going to Cartagenta, the San Blas Islands & Panama but it looked like too much hard sailing with too little reward. Now it looks like we will head back to Bonaire whenever we can then head North to Puerto Rico which we missed on the way down. We will try to make it to the East Coast & the Spanish Virgin Islands fighting being pushed West by current & wind. After that we will head West to the Dominican Republic. We also missed the DR on the way down & have heard from other cruisers that it is one of the best places to visit. Then we will head up through Bahamas & the Abacos to the East Coast of the US by around June.

All this may depend on whether the US government continues to incite the world. If they declare war we may not want to come back to that mess. I wonder if our government realizes that the duct tape & plastic they are suggesting people protect themselves with has made us the laughing-stock of the world. The whole thing would be funny if they did not have the power to destroy the world.

02/19/03

Still waiting for a weather window.

We have now started on varnishing the toe rail. This is a job I never wanted to do again but the varnish is starting to break down even though we were assured that it would last a year before needing re coating. I seriously doubt that the guys in St. Lucia put the 8 coats we requested. This is a pretty big job but Allen is leading the way ("inspiring" me to join in) & doing most of the work. He has even come up with a slogan, "protection not perfection". He knows I can turn into a perfectionist when it comes to varnish & it would take forever to do it the way I do the smaller wood trim. I think the engineering management urge is hitting him. Maybe it's time for him to go back to work. Management slogans just irritate me & I don't take orders well!

We did take a day off to go to the Ostrich Farm. It took two buses to get there then a 2 km walk but it was worth the hassle. We almost got stuck with a cruise ship group on our tour but Donald (the guide) suggested that we wait for the next tour. We had lunch there (ostrich egg quiche), most of the menu was ostrich meat.

Donald was a great guide, so funny. He stopped & let us feed the ostrich out of a large bowl then Allen fed them by hand. At one point he had me hold the bowl in front with my back to the ostrich & they ate over & around my head. That was really not too much fun for me but the rest of our group thought it was really funny. They are really big birds! We got out in one pen with the one year olds & he chased them around until they stampeded around us, did I mention, they are REALLY big birds! They grow to full size (300-400 lbs) in one year. That's usually when they slaughter them. In another field we got to sit on one of the birds for a picture. Donald explained that they have a mating ritual that involves flapping their wings & then the female gets on the ground. He went into the field & flapped his arms & she did actually get down on the ground and he pinned her down (while pretending to unzip his pants!) so that we could all get our picture taken on her back. Later we got to see an egg, which is so strong I could stand on it. They were so nice there. Since we had to wait so long for our tour they took pity on us & drove us into the small town where we could get a bus back to Willamstead.

2/23/03

Still stuck in Curacao. We are having a very nice time here though. Most of the varnish is done now. We have been hanging out with Allen a lot. We have had several great meals on Nomad (sushi, curry). Today we went up to an overlook & sat in a deserted hospital & watched the sunset & shared a bottle of wine Allen thought to bring along. We don't see Sean much these days. He advertised for crew to join him on the journey North & a cute girl, Valarie, answered. She has no sailing experience but that did not seem to matter.

Bonaire

02/27/03

We finally made it back to Bonaire! The winds have been so unusually high for so long I thought we'd never get out of Curacao. It was a very nice place but it was time to move on. We had a bumpy ride but not, by far, our worst & it only took a few more hours to get here than it took to go to Curacao. The best thing about the trip was that we saw a flock of about 100 flamingos fly right in front of the boat. I had no idea they wandered that far from land & shallow water.

We had an interesting visit to immigration when we checked out. Apparently we were supposed to get an extension to stay in the country after two weeks. Our two weeks we spent in Bonaire counted as that time so the entire time we were in Curacao we were there illegally! Oops. We explained that the woman who checked us in did not tell us that & our papers clearly stated that our departure date was the end of February. The agent went to the back of the office & apparently the woman who checked us in was there & confirmed that she had not informed us that we needed an extension, thank goodness! Now we must go back to the "grumpy guy" here in Bonaire & hope he will grant us the extension! The pursuit of legal immigration goes on.

02/30/03

And on. We skipped the "grumpy guy" at the downtown immigration office since there was a much closer office at the Police department. They said we were legal to stay in Bonaire until the end of the month with no further check-ins required. I was still doubtful so I made Allen go back & check again, but they insisted we did not need to do more. That is a real worry off of my mind. Now all we have to do is get some diving done!

(updated 5/1/03)