We wish you all a very Merry Christmas and may the good times and treasures of the present become the golden memories of tomorrow.
Wishing you lot of love, joy, good health and happiness for the New Year.
Sid and Manuela
Let me catch you up on our trip to Puerto Rico:
We had barely time to square our boat away before leaving on Scirocco. Joe needed us to help him get Scirocco ready for the trip to Puerto Rico. Sid worked hard fixing this and that and provisioned as I was the cook onboard. It was a hectic time but all got done.
We were a crew of 5 the owner and another couple Udo and Melanie who actually are the previous owners. Poor Melanie was sick the entire trip to St. Croix due to contaminated water. The boat tanks were filled with local tap water which is unsafe to drink and there is no water filter onboard. On her day of arrival she drank about 12 glasses of that water for dinner. The owner had filled extra jugs with that water which before departure we emptied and filled with filtered water. In St. Croix we had to get her immediately on IV at the local hospital.
Sail from Puerto La Cruz to Isla Balanquilla new GPS did not work as it was hooked onto the old antenna. Sid had suspected that and brought our handheld, good thinking. Main was not pulled up because it was dark and we had the most miserable motor sail with only the staysail up and no one managed to sleep or rest. We rested in Blanquilla for one day and enjoyed swimming along a beautiful beach with the clearest water in every blue shades, except for Sid he was left behind with owner fixing things. For the 330 mile trip to St. Croix we did pull the main up and what an unbelievable difference it made. The weather was just perfect 15-20 knots of wind and about 4-6 foot seas and the boat just trucked along. What a difference waterline makes, on Paradise it would have been an uncomfortable not to mention 4 days underway instead of the 2 ½ days on Scirocco. Sid and I did the first watch and kept an eye on a squall line headed our way. We were ready for it but as the cloud was over us the wind completely shut down and after the cloud had passed it took about 20 minutes for the wind to fill in again, weird. We had an easy and uneventful watch to the contrary for Joe and Udo they had a close encounter with a freighter (one mile distance). Not being used to the cruising life it was a bit stressful for them. Then later on they had to battle a squall with at least 30 knots of wind. During night watches when Sid checked on the boys they were both asleep in the cockpit. He made some small noise to wake them.
Sid was doing all the navigation which caused a lot of frustration for him Joe and Udo did not trust him and would question the course he had charted, and they would argue. The entrance to the anchorage in Christianstead is quite confusing and there are too many red and green buoys, and then stress level went up, the depth was only at 8 feet and the keel was at 7 ½. Just as we anchored the engine made awful noises and had to be turned off manually. Sid had his hands full in the 3 days we were in St. Croix. The boom vang broke, we also had major battery problems which in St. Croix were exchanged with new batteries, alternator fan belt broke, pully for alternator came off, waterpump fan belt broke. We also had a diesel leak which filled the bilge, plus Sid had to climb the mast as well to check the wind instruments which were toast.
Then of course poor Melanie spent the first day at the hospital with an IV in her arm and doctor said her illness was from contaminated water.
Since it was a weekend we only could check in via phone but had to visit the office the following day, which Joe forgot to do. Except for Sid and Joe we jumped ship and walked through the beautiful alleys of Christianstead with wonderful galleries and stores, not to mention a fun board walk with yummy restaurants. One ocean front bar caters to cruisers. That’s where we caught up with Butch on Tropic Bird and Cathy on Chill and finally the last afternoon Sid managed to join us for some fun.
The sail to Culebra was great and uneventful until we arrived at the channel marker to our anchorage were Sid’s navigation skills were questioned again and the suggested channel was ignored, poor Sid. All I can say about this is that I know now how boats end up on reefs, scary.
Udo, Melanie and I ventured off through the streets of the little town on Culebra, while Sid was fixing this and that again.
We left early the next morning for Sapodilla which was half way to Salinas. We had to motor sail as the wind only blew at 8 knots. The water was calm. Sapodilla is nicely protected by a huge reef but it is a fairly shallow anchorage and poor Udo not used to shallow water as we are was holding the wheel white knuckled as we drove in only 9 feet of water. Joe finally told us that the depth meter was off by two feet. We had a refreshing swim a nice dinner and a calm restful night.
Our last leg to Salinas was on Thanksgiving’s Day. There was only a slight breeze and the motor was working over time. I was down below cooking up a storm. Turkey was in the oven, green beans and corn was ready, so was the sweet potato dish and mashed potatoes. I was just finishing with prepping the salad when all hell broke loose. Sid smelled the engine over heat and when he checked he noticed the coolant was gushing out of the engine. The engine had to be turned off manually again, the water pump belt which was 3/8” should have been 1/2inch broke which in turn caused the alternator belt to come off and over heated the engine. Just a good thing Sid smelled it or it would have wrecked the engine. There still was a battery problem even with the new batteries. You should have seen poor Sid’s head the whole entire trip whenever he had to fix the engine he would hit it on this or that, his head looked pretty banged up and scared. He eventually managed to fix the engine and we motored into the Salinas estuary. The water in this estuary is all about 10 feet deep and shallower at parts and I’m sure many occasions we dredged through the mud. We for sure did heading into our slip as we very slowly moved and the depth sounder showed 6 feet. First thing the following day was to rent a car and all of us had to drive to Ponce to check in with Immigration since Joe forgot to do so in St. Croix.
Prior to leaving Puerto La Cruz we questioned Joe why he chose Salinas and told him that he would not like it there, so did other cruising friends and he did hate it. Joe is a very difficult person to be around and we really wanted to jump ship, but just didn’t have in our hearts to just leave Joe here in a place he hated and offered to help him get the boat to Fajardo, where he had stayed for several years. We left the following day for another two day trip. Udo and Melanie parted here and went on a sightseeing trip before fliying home. We motored the 45 miles in two days and were glad for this trip to be over. We finally were able to buy a ticket back to Venezuela, had no problem finding a flight to Miami for the 4th, but Avior was fully booked for the entire month of December and luckily there were two seats left on the 13th.
The two days we had left in Puerto Rico we rented a car and just had to drive to Guavate with wonderful restaurants selling succulent roasted pig called “lechon”. The drive was spectacular and it was tough again to make a decision in which restaurant to eat. We pigged out! The following day we drove to the El Yunque rain forest, another must, and enjoyed the tranquility. El Yunque offers many water falls, wild orchids, birds and fauna. At mile marker 11 is a pull out with food and refreshment. We were just going to get a beer when a friendly guy with a New York accent handed us a teaser of pinchos (kebabs). It was so delicious we had two orders each and had a blast talking to him. He had just moved to this beautiful island with his Puerto Rican wife and for his father in law until opening his own restaurant in Fajardo. With the delicious pinchos he serve us we don’t see any problems for him not to be successful. So when visiting this beautiful national park. Don’t forget to stop here for pinchos and ask for directions to his restaurant.
On our last day we took Joe out for an early dinner at a great Mexican restaurant then drove to the airport for our flight to Miami. We sure did have a difficult time with Joe and were glad it was over, but we did leave still as friends.
It was nice to see the friendly faces of Dale and Sandy “Snow White” as they picked us up at the airport. It was already late in the evening and despite it we talked way into the night to catch up. Their friend Karl from Germany was visiting as well and when Dotty showed up the following day they had a full house. Molly (their dog) was so cute, after all these years she still remembered us and gave us a special greeting, what a cool dog. It felt so good to sleep in a comfortable bed and was even nicer to relax for a few days. When Dotty found out we were visiting she didn’t hesitate to jump into her Cherokee plane and flew from Naples to the Keys to visit. We had such a good time Sandy, Dotty and I drank 3 bottles of champagne the first afternoon and Dotty even decided to spend an extra day with us. The following day the girls drove to Duck Cay to visit her house. What a beautiful location right on a canal with a narrow mangrove breakwater then the ocean, just beautiful, why they don’t live there is a puzzle to me.
Sid and I drive drove her back to the airport but before she left us she took us on a flight over the Keys. That was so kewl we circled many times around Key Largo to take some good pictures of Dale and Sandy’s houses. Then on the way back to the Homestead airport she let me fly, now that was too kewl. Check it out on You Tube “Flight with Dotty”, go to or click link below:
After that fun weekend the shopping started, we had a huge list and thanks to Dale and Sandy for lending us one of their cars it was easy getting around. I tell you though there is a lot of driving to do in the Keys, everything is far apart. We shopped pretty much everything on the list plus some stuff not on the list and twice had to go back to the Thrift store to buy an extra suite cases.
Just before we left Venezuela we received an email from our sister ship San San that they were in Marathon. GR found us via the Ericson web site and we’ve been email buddies for a while now. It was great to finally meet him, his wife Jessica and swab Gia face to face and exchange hints and tips about our boats. What a cute family, we hope to meet them somewhere in remote anchorages. And get this, there was another Ericson 36C in the anchorage.
Next to shopping and visiting we had a great time with Dale and Sandy. Early mornings we exercised to a Denis Austin tape, (except for Sid) and then went for an hour or so walk through the neighborhood. What a beautiful place and you should see their enormous house, just beautiful. In his yard Dale built a cute pond with 2 box fish, a nice size grouper, lady fish and get this at least 20 good size lobsters. I had fun watching them. Best time was just before sunrise or sunset as they walked in line behind each other through the pond, wow. Dale and Sandy just finish building their new house, oh man, what an incredibly awesome house. You should see the kitchen, it’s enormous with an elegant built in marble table seating at least 8 people. The master bathroom took my breath away. The shower and toilette are each surrounded by the most beautifully etched glass wall that was curved. The etching was an incredible underwater scene. The house also comes with a wonderful view over the entrance to the canals in their neighborhood and the Atlantic ocean. We watched a colorful sunset on the roof terrace with some more champagne.
We felt really bad that our visit was so extended but the 10 days went by fastand on our last night the yearly Christmas Boat Parade was held and we enjoyed watching it from their friends resort and met many of their friends.
We had a wonderful time and Dale and Sandy were the most gracious hosts. Dale and Sandy we can’t thank you enough.
When we finally arrived at the Avior counter there was not one passenger checking in. Really strange but then maybe we were just too early. But then again we were told that they were booked solid for the months of December, after all we had bought the last two tickets. When we finally sat in the plane and the doors locked we were dumb founded, there were only 20 passsenger in the plane, go figure!
Jim picked us up but first we had a little tail gate party at the airport as he had ice, beer, rum and coke ready for us. We had fun in the parking lot for quite a while until the mosquitoes started to eat us. It felt so good to step on Paradise and sleep in our own bed. It’s been a long month which put as behind schedule. Instead of celebrating the Holidays at anchor in the Roques we’ll be spending it here with out Venezuelan family.
Venezuela is slowly changing for the worse as Chavez puts an end to the good times. There are no cruising boats left a Maremares and at Bahia Redonda where we are there are only 3 American boats, one German and about 10 French boats left. Could this be the end of cruisers in Venezuela?
We have a few varnishing and sewing projects to do then we also will leave this beautiful country for good. We will miss all our Venezuelan friends and hope that they will be able to live a good life as Chavez is taking more and more away from them including freedom. Our heart goes out to them.
By the way I posted the first part of our Grenadine adventure with film and photo stories. Don't miss the turtle film. To view go to or click link:http://turtle-express32.blogspot.com/
I forgot to mention that on our way to Los Testigos we had to change the chip in the GPS to get the charts for Venezuelan waters and noticed that they were corrupted, although we had GPS coordinates we did not get a map reading. While in Testigos Sid worked on it and we realized the chip IS broken. Our back up is the computer but it would not recognize the GPS which it used to. There is really nothing in the way between the Testigos and Margarita and we know the anchorage well so it was no big deal but it sure is nice to be able to see where hidden reefs, rocks, shoals other dangers lurk. The sail towards Margarita started with light winds and flat seas until we came out of the lee of the island from then on it became more and more unsettled. Luckily we were going with it therefore no pounding but we did occasionally roll from side to side as the waves pushed us. This eventually settled as we inched closer to Margarita by then the sea was calm and the breeze just very light if at all. It actually felt so comfortable we decided that we really didn’t need to stop in Margarita just for fuel, rum and wine so we just kept going. Sailing along the south side of Margarita towards Coche thunderstorm started rumbling left and right the wind picked up and white caps built all around us which got us a bit nervous. They staid away from us until we came closer to Coche then the thundercloud to the left decided to spread out and it looked as we would get the most tremendous downpour and of course just when we would anchor. For some reason the cloud never made it and we were not complaining about it at all. We pulled anchor again very early in the morning and were a bit concerned when we saw a red sunrise as in “Red sky in the morning, sailor takes warning”. To begin we had 15 knots of wind which dwindled away over a few hours and as we headed around the ArayaPeninsula towards MochimaPark the sea became as flat as a table and there was no breeze at all. Coming between the islands towards Guanta dolphins greeted us as they always do and it felt kind of good to see the familiar shoreline in the distance and put a frown on our faces to see the Cement Factory smoldering as ever.
So here we are again in Puerto La Cruz and this time our lines are tide in a slip at Bahia Redonda. Not too many cruisers are here anymore as more and more cruisers are leaving Venezuela for good as Venezuela is changing for the worse. Now cruisers are only allowed to stay 3 months in Venezuela as well as the boat whether in a marina or on the hard. I was right when two years ago I said we have about two more years of good cruising in Venezuela. Hugo is doing a good job in ruining his beautiful country. Power and water outages on a daily basis and he blames it on his people. But I don’t want to go into that it’s too depressing.
The water at Maremares was always filthy but now the color of the water at Bahia Redonda is of that same while the rest of the canal now is dark brown and with the oh so wonderful oder of “Eau de toilette”, even driving the dinghy along the shore this wonderful odor lingers in your nostrils. It’s horrible and I was just told that it was much worse during the summer. It makes me not even wanting to drive the dinghy through this waters anymore.
Maremares is done, no more cruisers are there. We were considering going back but they now took Cable TV, Internet, phones and laundry machine away.
Prices have gone up again and by a lot. My favorite champagne for which I had paid anywhere from 14 to 16 BS is now 60. The bread I had paid 1.50 BS in November was 3 in December and is now 6, can of Campbell soup 5 US dollars. Carta Roja rum 7dl used to be 7 BS now 22 the litter was 12 now 27. How are these poor Venezuelan people surviving?
While in Grenada Jenny wrote us that Joe on Scirocco was bringing his boat to Puerto Rico and that he needed crew and if we were interested. So our cruising plans are deviating once more. On the 15th or 16th of November we’ll be sailing out of here direction Puerto Rico via Blanquilla, St. Croix, Culebra, Fajardo and to Salinas with Joe and the previous owners Udo and Melanie. Can’t wait to go shopping, yeah Wallyworld here I come.
There will not be any entries in the Blog until we come back in two to three weeks until then take care.
Later that afternoon I went snorkeling on the reef in front of us. The water was so clear I could see at least 60 or more feet. This was by far the best snorkel I've ever done. The visibility was amazing, Paradise is anchored in 20 feet of water and usually you can't see the bottom clearly here it's as clear as can be, no haze nothing as if there was no water between the boat and bottom. I followed the chain to the anchor which was dug in nicely just beyond the anchor the bottom turned into hard coral sand and then big boulder started climbing up the reef. Beyond the boulders the most colorful coral reef opened up. This is a very healthy looking reef with all kind of corals. My eye caught some elk horn coral they were grouped in a half circle and took my breath away, never mind I forgot to suck air through my snorkel. It looked like the nicest manicured fish tank. Around the elk horn coral hundreds of fish all different species gathered around and under one of the elk coral was a giant puffer fish, what a sight. Where's the camera when you need it. I staid there for at least five minutes watching then as I ventured towards the small island a turtle came across the reef my direction, as it was just a few feet away from me under the turtle a mall stingray lifted off the ground and swam under the turtle into opposite direction. Wow this can't get any better. I swam around the island and saw the most colorful parrot fish, angel fish and giant trumpet fish which changed their coloring according to their background. Golden colored moray eels are also abundant here and a 6 foot sea snake, white with beige spots slithered across the white sand. I had to go back the following day to take photos but wouldn't you know it I ran out of batteries.
On my fishing excursion earlier that day I drove through all the anchorages and was happy to see that we were in the most protected of them all. The boats in the most westerly anchorage were rolling from side to side. All together there are about 20 boats in Los Testigos and we were the only US flagged boat the rest was all French until Scott Free pulled in. I happened to see them sail into the western anchored as I was fishing and headed to their boat to let them know that the reef we were anchored was not as rolly. They were very thankful for that as they had a very rough trip and needed a good night sleep. Later at five we were invited on Scott Free for sundowner and met Scott, Heather and their guest Jeff. It came out that they know a lot of our cruising friends it's really a small world. Unfortunately they were on a fast track to Trinidad and had to leave the following afternoon, but not before we exchanged Trini for Curacao money and I took them ashore for a hike across the dunes to the beautiful white sandy beach. The water is just amazingly clear and even though a high surf crashes ashore the water stays clear. As we were in the water and the waves curled and crashed on top of us we could see right through the waves.
We are surrounded by French boats which are known for running around naked on their boats and this morning as I was enjoying my coffee and bacon and eggs breakfast my neighbor got on deck and stood there totally naked saluting the morning, so I turned around and was facing my other neighbor's boat and ohmygosh, noooooooo pleeeeease don't bend over!!!!!!!!! Too late!!!!!! There went my appetite! You would think after the Grenadines we would be used to it by now. And then when a young French couple shows up you think ALL RIGHT it's a big disappointment as the young and good looking ones don't walk around naked, oh well. Actually it's the guys who are showing off on deck the women are more modest. Time's up the three days are over and tomorrow we'll lift anchor and sail to Margarita.
After listening to Chris's weather prognoses we decided this was the perfect time to head for Los Testigos with only 10 knots of wind in the forecast and the northerly swells to disappear. At 17:00 we pulled the anchor up hoisted the mainsail and headed out of Prickly Bay with some tears in our eyes as we remembered having to leave Tika behind, she is and will be missed. It was promising as we pulled the jib up and watched the knot meter climb. We had 10 knots of wind that pushed us along with a two knot current at almost 7 knots. As we got further away from the island we lost the 2 knot current but the 10 knots of wind stayed and kept pushing us with almost 6 knots towards Venezuela. The sunset was beautiful and as the night sky took over the stars started to twinkle. Just before 20:00 the moon came up over Grenada and was amazingly big but then lost her size as she climbed up into the starry sky. The moon is always a welcome sight especially during night crossings as we can at least see where the water and horizon touch. The first few hours it was pleasantly calm but then as we got into swells it started to get a bit rougher. At times we realized that this was caused due to different depths of the water the shallower it got the more lumpy it was and vise versa. But then as we were in more then 600 meters of water the lumpy seas staid just that and made it hard to sleep for the off watch person. I did the first off watch and I think I managed in the three hours to sleep a total of 20 minutes. Sid managed to sleep the first hour then we realized that our green starboard running light was not working, Sid got the hand held running light for the dinghy out and mounted it with ducked tape to the bow then he caught some more sleep. As we changed watch we both saw the most incredible shooting star, this one's tail was so bright and full of explosions we thought we could here it sizzle. On our next change of watch an odor of burning plastic got into my nose and I immediately alerted Sid while I followed the smell in the cockpit Sid followed it inside and as he opened our electrical panel he saw a spark coming from the main wire. At that time we had the refrigerator, freezer, water maker running and also tried to load the batteries of our two cell phones, let alone radar, GPS, Autopilot and a few lights guess a little too much for the little wire. Good thing is we caught it on time before it could turn into a disaster. The rest of the night went without any glitches and as Sid laid down the seas got calmer and he slept for a good two hours. The sunrise was spectacular and the seas a lot calmer and as the sun crawled into the sky we could see the Testigos islands from 18 miles away. As we approached the Rajahd rocks we noticed a red buoy to starboard and then we noticed the current that pushed us sideways directly at the buoy. There was nothing we could do the boat got pushed into and over the buoy and caught up on the rudder. Not good as we could not start the engine it could get wrapped on the prop. As fast as we could we pulled in the jib and as soon as it was in the buoy broke loose made some knocking sounds against the hull and we were free. We immediately started the motor and headed to the lee of the island where we were protected from the fast current. Talking about an adrenaline rush, no thanks not this early in the morning and we never had a coffee, didn't need it anymore. An hour later we pulled into the anchorage, got settled in and ventured across to the village to check in. Although it's not an official clearing port, cruisers are advised to check in anyway and they will allow us to stay 2 days. Since Sid's back was still a mess I did ask for a few extra days, at first the officer was not willing but when I told him that I was not able to manage the boat by myself he gave us an extra day. One extra is better than none. Back on the boat I prepared some pizza dough for dinner then crashed for a good 3 hours and caught up on sleep I didn't get during the passage. Sid went right to work on the wiring problem and replaced the burned wire with a much bigger one. Pizza dinner was wonderful and the night sky staid clear and all our hatches staid open all night long which we haven't been able to do in the Grenadines. After a good cup of coffee Sid decided he was not going to do anything that day and I decided to go fishing. Sid hooked me up with a pole, a bucket, pliers, cloves and off I was. First I trolled along the rocky shore let the line loose and just the second I set the clicker a fish snapped it, wow, that fast. I stopped the dinghy and started reeling the fish in. It was a good size needle fish but as soon as he saw the dinghy he managed to break loose and took off. The lure went back into the water and I continued trolling along the rocky shore and I noticed an awful lot of frigate birds soaring above me but it was too late to realize that one was interested in my lure and the lore started soaring up into the sky. Luckily the bird was not strong enough to lift the fishing pole up into the air but he did some circles and nose dived into the water. I pulled him gingerly to the boat and with gloved hand grabbed him by the peek and pulled the lure out with the pliers. As he panicked a bit he now got the lure into his wings but luckily I was still holding him and managed to get that out of his feather. I lifted him a bit out of the water as they have a hard time to get out of the water and he started to fly away to fall into the water again. Oh no, I thought and started to close in on him to get him into the dingy for an easier take off, but finally he managed to get his wet body out of the water. I kept fishing but as soon as these giant birds circle above me I pulled the lure in. When I returned Sid was not laying on his back as he had said he was rummaging around the boat and then he fixed our running light. So here we are wondering what we'll have for dinner since I didn't catch fish, wondering how that frigate bird would have tasted? Just kidding.
Diane on Jabulani moved over to Grand Anse, had her over for a nice dinner she cooked, yes she brought dinner to us and it was wonderful. The following morning early we helped her to get her boat into the Marina as she was leaving for the States. The good thing was that Sid's toe was all good again but then helping Diane getting the dinghy aboard Sid pulled a back muscle and oh well was on his back for four days. We did move back to Clark's Court Bay to spend some time with Mike and Cynthia on Minx that was as always a lot of fun. On Halloween we all dressed up and joined the Hash House Harrier Halloween run, well only Mike went on the run, the rest chickened out instead we sat around the pull bar and enjoyed cold brewskis. Before the night ended Cynthia and I drove the dinghy over to Clark's Court Bay Marina and did a last time Karaoke together, what a blast. Hurricane season is officially over and only a few left over tropical waves are still out there to dump some needed water on us to keep the boats sparkling and refilling our water tank and sun shower. We're back in Prickly Bay to see Bernie on Transition who is leaving for Trinidad tomorrow. We'll be checking out of here on Thursday and leave before sunset to sail to Los Testigos in Venezuela. We're still having problems finding good propagation to send email out via our ham radio so if you don't hear from us in a week it's obviously not working and we'll send a report in from Margarita.
The weather was really benign and will last until the end of October and so we decided to take the opportunity and head back to Grendada, shop for two days and then head for the Testigo Islands in Venezuela before the Xmas winds start up again. We had a great sail back to Clifton on Union Island, spent on night there, checked out the following morning pulled the spinnaker up and sailed back to Hillsborough, Carriacou to check into Grenada again then sailed over to Paradise Beach and dropped the anchor below Nan and Mike Hatch's house. They were surprised to see us again and on the following day we were invited for a swim in their beautiful infinity pool and lunch overlooking all the Grenadine Islands in the north. We had a great time and it was really good to see them again. Unfortunately we're on a run and left early the next morning and again sailed the whole way to Dragon Bay. For once in our cruising time we feel like we actually do own a sailboat LOL. Dragon Bay is by far the most tropical anchorage in Grenada and still my favorite. Unfortunately the swells do roll in and on the second day a wind chop made it so uncomfortable not even the flopper stoppers could help, so we pulled anchor and motored to the next bay south to a calmer environment. But first we snorkeled the point between the two anchorages which is Grenada's best snorkel and diving spot. Really?!!! There is really not much there so they had to do something about it and placed statues under water. Some were female statues lying in a circle in the sand in about 14 feet of water. For the divers they have an actually tour that takes you through some canyons where now and then a statue is positioned. One is a statue on a bicycle, the other one sitting at a desk with a type writer and a face with a hat. Kind a weird but then I guess if the snorkel area is not good, just add a bit of excitement to it. We spent two nights in Grand Mal were it was calm compared to Grand Anse where all the anchored boats rolled from side to side. Eventually we moved over there as well to do some provisioning and then leave. Shows again that plans are written in sand at low tide. An old friend we had met in Trinidad last year but missed this year as he had to take care of his mom in the States, called us on the radio. Also Diane on Jabulani was still here, we thought she was in the States by now and Cynthia on Minx is still waiting for her teeth to arrive so we decided it was way worth it to postpone our departure to spend some more time with Minx, have Bernie over for dinner (by the way he is the guy who is one of the ham radio stations who sends our emails out to you, thanks Bernie) and help Diane to get her boat into the marina before she heads off to the States. Probably a good thing too that we are not leaving yet as the weather is not the best, there is nothing but rain between here and Margarita so we're not missing anything by leaving yet.
The turtles turned out to be on the shy side we saw them surface around the boat, but as soon as we were in the water there was no evidence that they are around. We did some great snorkeling by Frigate Island and on the outer reef with Mike on Minx and one evening after 8 we snorkeled Frigate Island for lobster. Night time brings them out of their hiding as they feed at night and are easily spotted by the light of the dive light as it illuminates their eyes sparkling almost like little diamonds. We saw many of these delicious creatures but unfortunately they all were very small, the tail would have only been the size of a big shrimp and that's way too small. We did encounter a huge moray eel which was on the prowl as well. The following day October 13th we had a nice Birthday celebration aboard Paradise with guests Cynthia and Mike. Dinner was wonderful and started with appetizer of lobster bits, baked over with Béchamel sauce and Parmesan (yes we did get two lobster which was just enough meat for an appetizer) presented on flat scallop shells, followed by wonderful pizza ala Minx, Spaghetti Carbonara Paradise style and for desert a Rhubarb crisp ala Manuela. We were so full every body vowed not eating for at least two days, well that vow was all forgotten the next day. Cynthia and I ventured ashore to explore Ashton which is a very small town on Union island I don't think any tourists ever come here other than cruisers. Every third house was a grocery store of some sort which sold only the essentials. I had to laugh at the one store with the biggest sign "Variety and Grocery Store", so we went inside to find only old clothes and behind the counter a shelf was just below the ceiling which had 6 cans of sardines and two cans of tuna for sail = THE GROCERIES of course they were heavily dusted and too high up for reach. What we also noticed and I've been noticing in all the Grenadines and even Trinidad, pretty much every store has a if not two big posters of Obama on the walls. The locals were just super friendly and we had chats here and there and before we realized it, it was pasted lunch time, time to go back and feed our hungry men. Cynthia had a dental appointment in Grenada and so they finally left Paradise alone in this beautiful and quite anchorage, the only visitors where the turtles. Unbelievably on October 16th we had our first thunderstorm of this hurricane season which missed us by one mile. This really has been a good year with mild tropical waves and this one was by far the wildest. We did get a lot of rain and each squall had high winds of 35 knots and in just one squall we collected enough water to fill our sun shower and even add about 15 gallons into our tank not to mention that mother nature cleaned Paradise of all the salt and dust, she sparkled. The entire time since we left Grenada we've been trying to send our updates to our Blog with position reports but propagation was so bad we never got connected. We heard that the sun has lots of sun spots which interfere with radio waves, so our updates are not as frequent as we'd like, sorry. It was time to head on as we are getting to the end of our stay in the Grenadines but not before we visit the beautiful Tobago Cays once more. Besides Sid's toe finally felt good enough to get going again. Sid jumped into the dinghy, hooked the engine up on the hoist, I hoisted the engine up onto the bracket, then Sid hooked up the dinghy on the davits and whoops he slipped on the dinghy floor and his big toe slammed into the transom of the dinghy. It hurt so bad I even had tears in my eyes. So his toe is back to being battled and bruised again. But we did move the next day and motor sailed the 9 miles to the Tobago Cays. Just after we had rounded the corner of the northwest side of Union the water turned into a washing machine and we had an almost 2 knot current with us pushing us into the oncoming swells, a mess and we were sure that we would have a wild ride all the way. But then we remember that last time on arrival we had the same effect and realized that it is a local condition with the currents wrapping around the north side of Union and sure enough the further we sailed away from the corner the calmer it got. Luck was on our side as we got lifted by the wind and never had to alter course until we arrived at the north end of Mayreau the wind did that for us. From here it was a short 2 miles hop to the entrance of the Tobago Cays were we anchored in our old spot and as the day went along charter boats joined us but left before sunset leaving us alone in this colorful and scenic place. We watched a movie after dinner and after that noticed some big fish swimming around the boat so Sid hung the light into the water. We never got to see the big fish but a shadow we thought was a turtle came closer and as it was just few feet away from Paradise we realized that our visitor was a baby manta, wow, how kewl is that. So we'll be here for a few days enjoying this beautiful part of the world taking in all the beauty nature has to offer. Including having some lobster delivered by one of the locals who recognized us from our last visit. Well, the lobsters were delivered and the size I had ordered but the arranged prize for 50 EC for two doubled on delivery, no thanks, I don't like to be scammed, so much for trying to support the locals. While Sid was soaking his smashed toe in hot salt water I jumped into the salt water and snorkeled the reef behind us which was full of fish, I've never seen so many in one spot, I was literately surrounded by hundreds of fish from all shapes and colors, just amazing. Then of course I had to swim with the turtles again, but this time without my camera. I found groups of up to 6 turtles in one spot all munching away on the sea grass a sight I will never forget. Next to all the fish and turtles I spotted a good size sole and cuttlefish, how lucky could I get. Remember the little bird that came visit us here last time flying down below surprising Tika? I wondered if she would come and visit us again and had some bread crumbs ready just in case. She never came until the last morning I had just opened my eyes wondering about that little bird and there she was sitting on the life line in the cockpit watching us sleep. I got up and moved the bread crumb dish to the captain's seat, while she watched flew to it and munched away for at least 10 minutes, she even cleaned up after the crumbs that fell on the floor. When she was all done she looked at us before flying off with a loud chirp, I guess she said "thank you".
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