November 14, 2003 -- Los Aves to Los Roques

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.