Viva Bonaire !
Sailing off Venezuela
Wow ! What a sail. We left Grenada on Friday and headed west. Our downwind pole was out, and we started going fast. The conditions started out very normal (10-15 knots of wind, 6 foot wave height). Then, the sh-t hit the fan............a small smudge in the sky got bigger, blacker, and finally became "squalpocalyse". We had gusts of 50 knot winds......AHHHHHH !!! This isn't the Chesapeake anymore.
Actually, it wasn't too bad. We have a big, heavy boat with easy sail-handling so we were able to manage things OK. We also had numerous dolphin friends to keep us company. And that's all we had because we didn't see any signs of human life for almost 3 days. No speck of land, only 2 distant freighters, no other yachts. It's weird to look around you 360 degrees and see absolutely nothing but the churning ocean, hour after hour. All the empty space.........all the trackless sea...........perfect opportunity to practice my rapping. I've thought for some time that there's a market niche among white 50 year olds for contemporary "business rap". Still in development......more to come.
We were trawling for fish as well. One green squid......one red squid........same luck. Three days of nothing. I remember the dude who sold me this "Mahi Killer" lure. Sure fire bet. Right. I bought that one hook, line, and sinker. Pretty soon there will be no fish on the endangered species list, thanks to my fishing ability.
Dolphins off Venezuela
The nights are the best. Our trip was during a virtually moon-less cycle, and visibility wasn't that good. The wind is roaring, the sea seems higher, and you feel like the boat is moving at the speed of a freight train. You are bathed in the eerie light of the chart plotter and boat instruments. Looking to the side, the white foam has all sorts of bio-luminescent green things in it. The sleep deprivation and wind howling through the rigging gives you the impression that you are hearing voices, moans........even the radio.
Preparing food and eating is an adventure on a downwind sail due to the boat's motion. It's really rather hard to stand inside, even when bracing yourself against the wall. Stale bread and crumbly cheese for dinner ? Yum. Actually, Kirstin did a fantastic job of making chili and staying alive while doing it. Trips to the bathroom are also a challenge. Lean the wrong way and you'll catapult through the door to the other side of the boat.
As we approached Bonaire, we were skirting some Venezuelan islands. We kept our lights off and our AIS on only intermittently in order not to give away our position to pirates or the Venezuelan coast guard.........don't need any of that, and we had heard numerous stories about hostage taking, ransom, etc.
Our ongoing problem during crossings is sleep. The boat rolling and the wind/seas make it hard to sleep, and this crossing involved 3 nights. By the end, we were really tired. So we didn't need the conditions to deteriorate (which they did). The wind rose to 30 knots, and the seas got quite bumpy.
We had heard the ABCs always have rougher weather than the Eastern Caribbean, but we weren't enjoying the end of the ride. As we rounded the southern end of Bonaire, we were hit with a very large wave and saw green water (meaning the top of the wave went right over us........yikes !!!). The wind reached a roar, and we watched with horror as our wind instrument's readout kept going higher. We had only a bit of our genoa our, and I was hoping we wouldn't suffer any kind of damage. We weren't disappointed.
Our boat performed flawlessly........no damage despite 3 days of sometimes violent rocking and cork-screwing. A friend (with the same boat we have) told us once that the weakest part of these boats is their captain and crew. That sounds like a great toast for tonite's happy hour !!!
Now our baby gets a soapy bath and some boat treats from Island Water World. It's great to be in Bonaire.