November 1-6, 2003 -- The Bonaire Rush We left Curacao bright and early on November 1. We had a fast, comfortable trip back to Bonaire. The wind had just enough of a northerly component to it for us to motor sail with our staysail and main. We arrived in Bonaire in time to have a late lunch at the Lost Penguin with Precocious Gale. Then we spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing. On November 2, We had a wind reversal! Wind reversals occur in Bonaire for several different reasons. The biggest reason is that during the summer months, the trade winds drop down to nothing, and thunderstorms along the Venezuelan coast build up and cause the wind to blow out of the west. Of course, when tropical systems go by, they will also cause wind reversals in Bonaire. This wind reversal was because of no wind and thunderstorms. We left the mooring at 5:30 AM and motored around for 3 hours until things calmed down. The reversal itself was over by this time, but the resulting sloppy seas were causing us to roll back and forth, so we figured that we would be more comfortable motoring slowly. Ken, Joanne and their guests on Rusty Bucket were getting ready to head for breakfast when we came back to the mooring field. They graciously helped us back on the mooring, and then went to breakfast. I had already decided that I wasn't cooking, so we showered and then headed in to the Lost Penguin for breakfast where we met up with Rusty Bucket and their guests and had breakfast together. Once we got back to the boat, we did a few odds and ends. On November 3 we worked on provisioning the boat for heading through the Aves and Roques. We didn't need to purchase much in the way of food, but we did need to make sure that we would have enough cigarettes for 2 months. We weren't sure what kind of provisions we could get in Grand Roque and we weren't taking any chances. We took a break from provisioning to change the exhaust elbow on the Northern Lights generator on November 4. That was a fun experience since one of us (me) had to work with arms completely extended trying to get the exhaust hose on to the elbow while the other one (Mike) had to work crouched down, hunched over to get the hose clamps tightened up and then work the elbow assembly on to the stud mounts without loosing the gasket! Finally at the end of the day on November 5, our meat order came in. We had been warned that this would probably happen, so that morning we went out to the Warehouse Store to purchase the fresh stuff we wanted, as well as a few last minute odds and ends. We returned to the boat to put everything away and get it ready to move. Gail and Ashley dropped by to say good bye and to give us half a cheese cake, and then Karen dropped by to give us some of her famous pumpkin soup. On November 6, we left Bonaire at 5:00 am AST to head to Sotavento in the Aves. When we got close enough, we called Carol and Ashley on Blind Date to find out where they were. We met up with them at Long Island, which is kind of a misnomer since the island is only about 150 feet long and 40 feet wide! The holding wasn't great there, so it took us 2 attempts to get anchored securely. But, once that was done, Carol, Ashley and I headed out to do a little bit of snorkeling while Mike stayed on the boat to nap.

November 7-13, 2003 -- Los Aves On November 7, The Starboard engine was running hot on the trip here, so we checked the seacock and sea strainer. The strainer was partially clogged. We cleaned it, and checked the water flow on the engine. It appears to be putting out more water. Next we blew up spot, and put the engine on. It was seized. We were able to unseize the engine and got the engine started. Unfortunately, while testing out the engine, it stopped and would not restart. We checked everything, and the black box has died. So much for snorkeling today. We had dinner on Blind Date, it was a lovely evening. On November 8, We went out snorkeling with Blind Date. We piled in to Precious (Blind Date's dinghy) and headed for the north end of the barrier reef. Unfortunately, we had to cut our snorkeling trip short because of rain headed toward the boats. We spent a quiet afternoon. Carol and Ashley came over after the rain stopped and we went for a quick picture trip on Long Island, where they have a sign that indicates Jak's Restaurant 240 NM! We took pictures for Jak and for us. When returned from that, we started getting the boat ready to move to Barlovento, about 10 miles away. There wasn't much to do, but it is always a good thing to give the boat a once over before you move it. On November 9, we moved from the Aves de Sotavento to Aves de Barlevento. After we got in, we dropped the tender and then I picked up Carol, Ashley and Bo (the cat) and we went for a tour of the mangroves and saw lots of Boobies. Remember the Bugs Bunny cartoons that had a whitish bird that flew well, but always crashed when it landed? I think that the cartoon bird is based on these birds. They really can't land! We saw several little ones that we thought were dead; however, they were just hanging their heads over the side of the nest sleeping. After touring the boobies, we went to Amphritrite for a visit and to invite them to cocktails. They were planning to go to the reef early in the morning, so they declined our invitation. That evening, we had cocktails with Blind Date on Nightwinds. On November 10, soreness caught up with Mike from moving the boat. There are so many muscles that you don't use normally that are used to keep you level when the boat is underway. After moving the boat a hundred miles on open ocean over the past two weeks, we were a little sore and decided to take a rest day. I went for a swim and a snorkel to check out our anchor and make sure it was well set, and then to check out the small patch of coral that formed a protective edge to the lagoon we were in. On November 11, we went snorkeling with Blind Date. We tried two different sites. We saw some interesting fish and some coral heads. The current was very strong so it tuckered us out. We were back on the boat by noon. We watched a movie and napped the day away. On November 12, my day started very early when Mike woke me up saying that there was lightening about. He must have been talking in his sleep because he was snoring again by the time I got out of bed. So, I headed top sides to take a look around and to check the radar. I saw a 60+mile line squall that was about 6 miles to the south of us. I wasn't too concerned because the wind was blowing out of the North East. I watched the spectacular lightening show for about 45 minutes while keeping an eye on the squall. It moved in to about 4 miles off when Mike got up and joined me. About 10 minutes later, we felt the tell tale signs that a squall was about to strike. The temperature fell by several degrees, and the wind picked up. It wasn't long before we had a full fledged wind reversal. The wind got up to 30 knots blowing out of the west. Not being comfortable on a lee shore, we reanchored toward the middle of the little bay that we were in. The boat was rolling back and forth for much of the day. We couldn't do much else so we popped another movie in and waited for the roll to subside. On November 13, I was in the forward part of the boat, when I heard the windless running. It turned out that the hand control unit had developed some kind of short so we changed the hand control unit out. It was rainy off and on all day, so we decided not to move on to Cayo de Agua. We stayed on the boat and didn't do much.

We Left for Cayo de Agua around 8:00 am AST along with Blind Date. In the beginning, we played a little bit to get close enough to them so that we could each get pictures of the other's boat under way with sails up. Then we got serious about moving on to the Roques. Blind Date wasn't moving terribly fast, so they opted to turn out further and sail, since they would be able to travel faster that way. Initially, we followed them. However, due to the differences in our boats, we can't point as well with our Jib, so could only fly our staysail and main. While it wasn't a bad rid, it certainly wasn't comfortable! When the seas climbed to about 8 feet, we decided that we had had enough and put the staysail away and motored for Cayo de Agua after letting Blind Date know what were doing. The wind certainly did not justify the seas we were seeing! We checked in with each other periodically, until one time we called and Carol answered the radio saying, "We are having a bit of an emergency right now, we will call you back." Blind Date's backstay chain plate broke. We maintained radio contact with them every 30 minutes until they were in. Delphinis, a catamaran we met in Bonaire was also traveling to Cayo de Agua. They caught up to and then passed Blind Date after Ashley had stabilized the mast. We sped the boat up since we were a little bit less than an hour from the anchorage at this point. We dropped anchor and then put the tender in the water, if we needed to, we could make it to Blind Date much faster in the dinghy than in the big boat. When they got close, I dropped Mike on board Blind Date to help them drop the main sail and provide an extra hand for anything else that needed doing while they were coming into the anchorage. That night, we had Carol and Ashley over for dinner.

November 15 was my birthday! Mike tried to let me sleep in, but I woke up at 7:30 am. We went over to Blind Date so we could take a closer look at the damage, and then took a quick look around the edge of the island in the dingy. We spent a quiet day. Blind Date came over to help celebrate my birthday. We had Surf and Turf and a salad, followed by cheesecake and way to much champagne. On November 16, While Mike went over to help Ashley rig a temporary backstay, Carol came over and we repaired flags. Ashley and Mike were done before Carol and I were! Carol and I finished up, and then we all spent a quiet rest of the day. On November 17, Mike and I started the day by repairing the bow lifting eye on the tender. Over the last 4 years, it had gradually weakened and was pulling loose from the fiberglass. Then, We went up to the beach to wander around a little bit, and to see Cayo de Agua's light house. It was a fun morning, though with the fine powdery sand on the beach, we were ready for a nap by the time we returned to the boat. On November 18, we spent a quiet day followed by a great evening on Blind Date. On November 19, Carol and I went snorkeling while Mike and Ashley stayed aboard. We saw a couple of turtles and the reef that forms one side of the anchorage was phenomenal. On November 20, Carol and Ashley left for Peurto La Cruz while the winds were still down. We set up a radio schedule with them in case something happened with the backstay. This way, someone knew their position, course and speed within 4 hours in case anything happened, since if they lost their mast they would loose their antennas also. On November 21, we started our maintenance cycle. We did lots of the little jobs that we have been letting slide for the last few weeks. In the afternoon, I tried making hamburger buns with one of our favorite bread recipes. Unfortunately, it was the wrong type of bread and the buns were really bad as hamburger buns. However, as individual serving loaves for garlic bread, they were pretty good. Between November 22 and 27, we continued our maintenance cycle, working on various projects to help keep the boat in good working order. We had a nice Thanksgiving dinner, which was a nice ending to our time in Cayo de Agua.

Today was the day that we needed to move the boat to Grand Roque to meet Gary and Josefina tomorrow. The day started early with some strong squalls, followed by unrelenting strong winds over 25 knots! The wind had been blowing lightly until the squall! Oh well, we had been putting off moving, and now we would pay for it. We debated putting the tender up on deck, since we had heard that it can be rolly in Grand Roque. Finally, we opted to tow it. It was a twenty mile trip, and mainly in protected waters so we were relatively comfortable with this. We headed out, and the waves were a little worse than we expected, but we plowed along and the tender rode very well. However, we decided that the conditions were not comfortable for us towing the tender. We ducked into the anchorage at Saraqui where we put the tender on deck, had some lunch, and finally set off again for Grand Roque. The rest of the trip was uneventful, and even verged on being pleasant, considering the strong winds. We arrived in Grand Roque around 4:00 pm AST, and after getting settled and the boat cleaned up, we put the tender in the water. We debated whether to go into town or not and finally opted to stay aboard the boat since Gary and Josefina were bringing us a fresh veggie care package. We settled in and spent a quiet evening enjoying the view of lights of a small town for the first time in almost a month.

On November 29, we picked up Gary and Josefina from the airport at 7:00 am AST. The airport actually turned out to be a crumbling landing strip that was barely long enough to support the small planes that fly in there. It is almost as long as the island is wide! We returned to the boat so they could unpack. They had packed us a goody bag that included lettuce, tomatoes, a few onions, potatoes, and cilantro. After putting those away, and Gary and Josefina got settled, we took a walk around town. We found the two grocery stores in town, and so were able to pick up eggs and bread, which we were also out of. We returned to the boat and headed for Crasqui. It is a beautiful island with a long beach. We had lunch, and spent the afternoon catching up with them. On November 30, Josefina kicked into full tourist mode, and we found out, she had extracted a promise from Gary that he would be a full tourist also, complete with loud Hawaiian shirt, bermuda shorts and camera around the neck. Gary, Josefina and I went to the beach to do some beach combing and investigation of the small restaurants (there were two) and other amenities offered here (basically wind surfer, hobie cat and tent rentals). After several hours, we were ready to return to the boat for some lunch and a nap! However, before lunch, Josefina showed off the different things she had found. She enjoys beach combing and then turning her findings in to pieces of jewelry to commemorate her travels. While Mike and I napped, Gary and Josefina headed back to the beach to play in the water and get reaclimated to snorkeling. It has been several years since they went, and they live on an island!