Isla Margarita to Bonaire November through December, 2002

It was difficult to pull away from Isla Margarita. We had made many friends and had some marvellous times. However, such is the life of a nomad... we had to untie those mooring lines and head north.

The trip from Isla Margarita to Isla Tortuga is really quite lovely. Downwind all the way and a chance to play with the whisker pole for the first time. Unfortunately, leaving Margarita at 0600 was not early enough as we arrived at Playa Caldera in the dark and had a very bad time trying to differentiate between GPS location, eye-balling, and dark silhoettes. The charts we were using were not terribly accurate for the area, so we finally just dumped anchor on a lee shore in a large, sandy, flat bay and waited out until daybreak. It was a sleepless night, but pleasant with the stars and warm tropical breeze. In retrospect, we did the right thing as there were some submerged rocks just off of the point and it was better than ghosting around all night trying to avoid them.

Surf snorkelling at the Playa was fun, although the rest of the snorkelling was less than exciting. We purchased some fish from the local fishermen and enjoyed a small feast thanks to Barry's most excellent cooking. We moved up to Isla Los Palanquinos a few days later and had a much better go of snorkelling. No lobster, but plenty of sea urchins!

Los Palanquinos proved to be less rolly than Playa Caldera, so we stayed for four days. However, it seemed that Los Palanquinos suddenly became popular and everyone from Cayo Herradura seemed to move over to where we were. Subsequently, we moved over to Cayo Herradura along with two other boats we had met along the way. Cayo Herradura turned out to be a lovely place with fishing boats and a small fishing camp. The anchorage was well protected, although we found the reef fairly poor. However, there were eel grass beds which were home for the West Indian Sea Egg urchin and manny wrasse species.

We managed to buy some lobster from the fishermen, which we kept temporarily in the shower!! They were not terribly happy there, so we eventually moved them outside while planning a lobster feast. And what a feast that was!! Miceal and Ulrika from Il Sogno and John and Alison from True Blue Voyager joined us and traded information about Trinidad, Los Roques and Bonaire.

The island at Cayo Herradura is low and boggy with plenty of succulent plants and mosquitoes. We hiked around the lighthouse to the opposite side of the island, which was a stark contrast to the calm anchorage - sharp rocks, deep water, and pounding surf.

Next destination - Los Roques. We learned the cautions of GPS as we entered around Boca de Sebastopol - the GPS and charts were out by 200 yards! It was along Middle Reef that we found the octopus' layer when we were snorkelling in 4 feet of water, although the reef was really rather drab otherwise. The mosquitos where really very bad at dusk and we started using our drop nets over our hatches. Given the strong winds, it was a miracle that the little critters could even make it!! When we moved up to Francisquis, the mosquito population on the boat declined.

The view across Francisquis from the top of the mast was wonderful, with the rich turquoise and the small pub on the sandy spit of the island. Large black geckos run across the sand around the pub and rest right at your feet. A lovely "Piscina", or snorkelling pool, is located on the other side of this island. It's about 25 to 30 feet deep, but sandy and tranquil on the west side. The east side is reef with surf, but the fish are remarkable. We had the privilege of following a green turtle around in this pool, and chasing huge Midnight Parrotfish. The fish are not shy and it is possible to swim right up to them.

Gran Roques is clearly visible from Francisquis, and makes for a beautiful sunset. On a calm day, it is possible to dinghy over to the town, which is really delightful and well worth the visit. The people are marvellous and we found a wonderful restaurant - La Chuchera, located off of the Plaza Bolivar and run by Pedro Diaz. The food was excellent!

From Francisquis we headed over to Sarqui. The sand is very hard here and it took us 3 tries to finally get our delta to set. The snorkelling here was awesome and the water would periodically boil with fish. On the western side of the northern reef there is a deep-water side where Cero and larger fishes hang out. We moved to Dos Mosquises, where the fisheries station and turtle conservation group are located. It is difficult to get into this anchorage with our 6.5 foot draft as the passage is narrow and we couldn't seem to get the palm trees to line up at 60 degrees. We wound up following True Blue in on 12 feet depth. It turned out that the reefs surrounding this island has a most terrific wall for scuba. We even spotted a lobster!!

Next stop was Las Aves, which are two separate island groups separated by 10 nautical miles of ocean. The first, Aves de Barlovento has an incredible dense population of sea birds, particularly boobies. There are nests in every tree and white, fluffy chicks everywhere. Birds fight over sticks, not food, and Frigate birds hang about in search of an easy meal. The insects were not too bad if we stayed off of the islands a bit. It was here that we met up with "Sadhana", owned by Michel, Isabelle and Claire. Between us, Sadhana, and True Blue, we attacked the reefs appropriately, trying to identify all manner of fish and corals. We discovered, to our great delight, that there were other sushi fans in the world. In fact, for Michel it is an inveritable religion!! So DP became, once again, the scene of serious food preparation.

At Aves de Sotavento we had much more fun with the snorkelling and started making serious expeditions. The wind was very strong, but subsequently the bugs were few until we approached the island for a picnic one day. Big mistake!! We all returned donning red welts from the no-see-ums. We chose to continue the picnic aboard DP... but with no less enjoyment! Getting to the inner anchorages of Aves de Sotavento requires clear view and weaving between the shoals. I spent most of my time at the first set of spreaders - I'm glad that we put in those mast steps after all!! We all dropped anchor outside the reef for the night so that we could get a good start for Bonaire the next morning.

We had a highly amusing "race" to Bonaire. It took us 3/4 of an hour to pull our anchor thanks to the mess made of our ground tackle system by the boatyard in Trinidad. So with True Blue in the lead and us in the rear, we all took off. It was downwind all the way, so up went the pole again, although we spent most of our time messing around and sailing highly inefficiently. Sadhana really took off and was barely in sight by the time we reached Bonaire. We had caught up to True Blue and ran with her into Kralendijk. We joined Sadhana in Harbour Village Marina while True Blue picked up a mooring.

Bonaire is truly Diver's Paradise. We quickly got to know the people at Wanna Dive, who became our air suppliers and general dive supply stop. Barry and I took the opportunity to increase our PADI certification. John happens to be a PADI certified Divemaster and instructor, which was perfect as we could dive off of the sailboats. Meanwhile, Michel, Isabelle and Claire found out Barry's true profession when they discovered a highly appropriate sculpture for him. The likeness of the diving Santa to Barry is astounding!!

As with all good things and cruising, we had to part ways with Sadhana. Although it is highly likely we will all meet up again in the next month, good-byes are always hard and we all got together for the departure.