(no subject)

We're out of cheese, fruits, salads, coke, wine, beer and have only 4 carrots, 1 zucchini, 3 onions, 3 potatoes, one cabbage and one dozen of eggs left, freezer is still full of meat, lobster and conch and I guess our can opener will work over time in the next month or so, LOL.
Cayo Herradura is a very busy fishing island, there are about 6 camps and not one day goes by where not at least 4 pangas knock on the boat to either sell fish but mostly to ask if we had hats, sombreros, matches, sodas, epoxy, fan belts, motor oil, eye drops and mostly cigarettes or cigars.
On our walk around the island we were greeted at one of the fishing camps by a friendly older man his name is David, his weathered brown face showed the brightest smile with a few teeth missing. So we talked to him for a while and watched his fellow mates sitting in the sand fixing big fishing nets, while others hauled fresh caught fish to two guys cleaning and salting them. They wanted us to bit a lobster the size of about 8 to 10 pounds, a bit too big for our pot or liking. We like them a bit smaller they are more tender and easier to cook. The jolly old man was very happy talking to us and invited us to come back to his camp at any time. From that day on he knocked on our boat daily to bring his battery operated phone. There is no power on the island and therefore no way to load his phone. We were actually amazed that they had phone option here but my cell phone didn't show any bars. While loading the batteries around 4.30 the phone started ringing and ringing. We gave David a hard time about having too many girlfriends on the mainland. We were happy to fill the batteries for him daily, even when they started bringing a second phone to load and a third. David brought me some onions one day and the last day they took our months worth trash ashore, I would say that was a good trade.

We truly enjoyed our walk around the island, well almost around, the northwestern shore is nothing but sharp rocks the rest is surrounded by beautiful fine white sand. The beach is steep too and on the southeastern end the beach narrows and ebbs out to give away to a long reef which extends southward. Here small waves run over the side from both sides and clash together towards the middle, a fun place to walk through. On the north shore the waves were quite a bit higher and crashed towards the beach with a roaring sound, a very beautiful scene. A red and white striped light house lies on the northwest shore which adds a lot of charm to this horse show shaped island. No matter where we were the view was spectacular and Paradise was surrounded by flat and calm turquoise water. She was anchored in 8 feet of water which is a very pleasant temperature to cool off when there is no breeze blowing. The first few nights the wind was howling and we had even gusts up to 30 knots. During the day the wind would slow to maybe 5 knots and at times completely disappear. We had anything from a northerly to a light westerly and each day was just absolutely beautiful.
While at Los Palanquinos with horror we found a lot of mildew in the V-Berth. All the shopping bags I used going shopping in the dinghy were gray. The humidity had been high and it doesn't help to get an invisible spray of salt air from the waves breaking over the reefs on the other side of the island to keep everything damp and eventually it will mildew. We went through the whole boat and whipped down anything and everything. Even our upholstery showed some mildew and had to be hand washed right away. The water maker was working over time. We have never had a mildew problem before. While here in Herradura I found some more mildew this time in all the cockpit cushion covers so I did some more laundry. Never a dull moment in and on Paradise.

Gustav was going to sail to Tortuga while we were here. His first attempt was while we were still in Caldera. Gustav encountered 40 knots of wind and had to turn back. The second attempt was while we were in Herradura, he made it halve way and lost the steering, luckily he had some wood onboard (he's boat is under construction) and rigged an emergency rudder to get back. It was a bummer as we were excited for his visit, not to mention all the provisions and beer he was going to bring. Poor guy has to drink all that beer by himself now LOL. As soon as we had word that for a second time he had to turn back we pulled anchor and took the good weather opportunity to sail to the Roques.
We left with about 15 knots of wind, which dwindled away over a few hours and left us with 5 to 6 feet rollers on the beam, not a very comfortable ride. Sid was n watch until one in the morning while I tried to sleep in the tossing waves. The wild ride finally started to calm down and Sid was able to sleep most of my 4 hour watch. By 5 am it was a fairly comfortable ride and I laid down for some sleep again and didn't wake up until 7 when I don't know what woke me up first Sid standing over me yelling "I got a fish, I got a fish" or the loud BZZZZZZZZZZZ sound of the over heating reel. In any case my adrenaline was rushing, didn't need any coffee anymore, I jumped up turned the throttle down, brought the jib in while Sid tried to crank in on the fish. At this point he didn't know yet what it was but then a blue marlin jumped a couple of times out of the water while the reel was still sizzling. It took him a while to get the fish along side the boat. Sid finally managed to get hold of his bill and counting the sweat dripping of his forehead I my guess was the fish is about 100 pounds. He managed to get the hook out of his bill and with a good luck wish he sent him back into the deep. Blue marlin is an excellent eating fish you probably are saying right now but we do believe in catch and release in bill fish, especially when one does not fit in both the fridge and freezer. It was fun and Sid finally caught his first marlin. The funny thing was Sid was just in the process to put out the reel, the lure was barley touching the water when the marline hit. He didn't attempt to catch another one but an hour later when we saw some tuna jumping we tried to catch one of those without success. By now we were only 10 miles away from the Roques but you can't see the islands until about 6 miles out. We headed for the lighthouse and about one mile out we could distinguish where the entrance was and followed the darker blue water into the sheltered bay inside the reef. There we had to follow another reef to our anchorage. It's beautiful here and our first visitor was a big school of calamari under the boat. There I said it again calamari, I meant squid. Lucky devils it's a national park here and fishing is not allowed.

Conch mystery: in Caldera one of the fishermen gave Manuela a beautiful queen conch, so how do you get the meat out and not damage the shell? We heard many stories over the years: hang the conch up in the sun and it will slowly come out (pew can't imagine the stink!). The other is to put the conch in the freezer and the other boiling. We were not sure which one we would use and talking about it with Wind Shear someone mentioned that the snail was all muscle so the idea came up giving some muscle relaxant. Sid ground up some Flexeril. Mixed it with a little water and filled the conch up with it. An hour or so later the conch started crawling out and a couple of hours later it was so relaxed Sid just pulled it out of there. So the conch mystery is solved. We definitely did NOT eat the relaxed muscle!

Drinking tip for cruisers:
When to drink your Martini on deck or in the cockpit? When you see white caps appear in your martini glass and vodka waves are sloshing up the martini glass wall like waves crashing onto a beach, it's time to retreat into the cockpit and continue enjoying your martini there!