North By Northeast Passage

Perhaps this religious grotto on the rugged north coast of
 El Grand Roque blessed our journey as we said "Good Bye."

Seasoned cruisers know that if they are in the vicinity of the ABC Islands or Los Roques Islands and intend to make their way north to Puerto Rico or the Virgin Islands, it is one of those “You-Can't-Get-There-From-Here” easily routes.  Oh, it is possible, but to do so one must traverse the first 60 nautical miles through a strong westerly current and westerly fetching seas and then make your way northward through the remaining 340 or so miles in moderate westerly currents and seas. So the wise crew must work to get as much ‘easting’ in as possible early on in the journey or end up motoring east dead into the wind and waves later.  With this in mind, the good captain set a course for Exit Strategy towards Frederiksted on St. Croix’s western coast and hoped that we’d make land fall no further west than Salinas, Puerto Rico.

A prime weather window for making this passage began on Thanksgiving Day. During the first twenty-four hour period we were blessed with east-southeasterly winds of 12-17 knots and seas of 4’-7’.  Once underway, the Captain was able to adjust our course farther east to take advantage of the winds and get some of that much needed ‘easting’ in early. The main was reefed and the vessel glided effortlessly and quietly through the water. We gratefully enjoyed a Thanksgiving meal of roasted chicken and freshly made potato salad. All was well on board.


Sailing conditions were perfect under sunny skies and starry nights.

On the second day, the east-southeasterly winds continued, but were reduced to 8-14 knots accompanied by seas of 3’-4’. We gladly shook the reef out of the main and once again, were able to move our course farther east.  This time we aimed for the EAST coast of St. Croix, fully expecting to ultimately be blown toward Frederiksted.  We were ecstatic to have been sailing northward comfortably for two solid days, averaging about 7 nm/hr. And I was so relieved to be able to sleep soundly when not on watch at night.

On the morning of the third day, the wind and seas were even more subdued. We were anxious to arrive in St. Croix before nightfall, so we adjusted the sails and fired up the engine to motor sail the final 60 miles.   By midday, St. Croix was visible at the horizon over a relatively flat sea.  We began to pass huge mats of sargasso seaweed floating on the surface of the water and we knew it was the perfect time to hook some mahi mahi, as they like to rest under any flotsam. Within a short time, we had hooked three mahi mahi! We hauled them aboard with the gaff, cut off each head, and cut them into slabs small enough to stow in the refrigerator to be cleaned hours later when at anchor.


Sargasso Seaweed

Our crossing from El Grand Roque to Buck Island near St. Croix's northeastern coast was 385 nm long and took us two and a half days. Each morning we listened to the SSB radio Weather Net at 7am and then checked into the 8am Coconut Telegraph Net.  We had heard that friends of ours set sail for the USVI a day before we did and arrived a day afterward.  The main difference was that they left from Bonaire and we left from Los Roques, putting us 93+ nautical miles farther east from the start.  So getting our easting in early really paid off!

ISLAS de LOS ROQUES

El Grand Roques is easy to spot.

The rest of the cays are only 10'-15' above sea level.

      

As you may recall, in mid-November we decided to visit the Venezuelan out islands just east of  Bonaire before heading north to spend Christmas with our son’s family in St. Croix. We planned this route for three very good reasons.  First, Las Aves and Los Roques were highly recommended by fellow cruisers, always a big plus. Second, we felt it was too early to head north and trust that the 2014 Hurricane Season was really over. But the third and most important reason we headed to these Venezuelan island groups was to get some serious easting in before sailing north.  We were richly rewarded on all three accounts.

The light house at West Cay as seen from Cayo de Agua

From Barlovento, Las Aves we knew we that a very long day lay ahead of us, so we weighed anchor before daylight and began to motor-sail toward El Grand Roques, Los Roques- our intended destination. After slogging our way over forty nautical miles, we’d had enough and dropped the hook at Cayo de Agua, the first available anchorage in the Los Roques group. It was late Sunday afternoon and a half dozen motor boats were hurriedly shuttling the folks on the beach back to their posadas before nightfall. We remained the only boat there in water that shallowed-up pretty quickly.

This is the only village on El Grand Roques.

View from the top overlooking some cays to the NE

       

After a sound sleep and a hearty breakfast, we worked our way around some cays and through deep water passages to anchor and clear in at El Grand Roques which is the largest and only populated island in the group.  Cruisers had cautioned us to make way and anchor only in good light because the marine charts for the 355 square miles of these islands are incorrect. The water was clear enough to see and avoid coral heads or large underwater boulders. Thankfully, many times the water was deeper than our electronic charts showed.



It was siesta time when we stopped for information...

Capt. Dan always peruses the local hardware stores.

If you speak Spanish, you can probably complete the entire procedure for clearing in- which entails visiting 4 different offices located in different parts of the town- within an hour.  We don’t speak Spanish, so it took us almost 4 hours. At least one and a half hours of that was spent waiting for one office or another to reopen after their midday siesta, as they don’t all close at the same time. To complicate matters, Venezuela is on what we came to call “Chaves Time” which is one-half hour behind AST. (For example:10am AST is 9:30am Chaves Time.  I bet you are saying, DIOS MIO!) We sensed that many of the officials understood most of what we were saying, but were reluctant to speak English.

 

Just one of the classier posadas

Visiting El Grand Roques is like taking a step back in time.  None of the streets or roads were paved and large blue plastic cisterns were perched upon rooftops of buildings no more than two stories high.  The streets are lined with posada (inn) after posada, each entrance brightly painted or decorated with ornate tiles. Our noses lead us to find the panaderia (bakery) one day where we bought 2 large loaves of bread, 2 seasoned hoagie-type rolls, and 2 huge coconut custard filled sweet rolls for under $3 US.

Spotted this guy one day alone on this tiny cay. 

The money exchange rate was and is fluid in Venezuela.  We exchanged $100 US for 9,200 pesos when we arrived.  The stack of pesos was about 2 inches thick and the smallest denomination in the pile was a 20 peso note. Another day, we found an exchange rate of 86 pesos to $1 US, while the banco offered 62 pesos per $1 US. We paid cash for everything because the strained relations between the USA and Venezuela prohibited the use of credit cards.  Before leaving Los Roques, we went to the only supermercado (floor space of about 20’ x 30’)  to use up the last of that peso stack.

We were so enamored with all that Los Roques has to offer that we already plan to return there for part of next summer. El Grand Roques has the only high "mountains” (180’) and the rest of the cays are only 10-15’ high and are relatively narrow strips of sand with low vegetation. This island group caters to wealthy Venezuelan visitors as evidenced in many of the posadas.  The outlying cays are plentiful enough for cruisers to be alone in the bay on any given night, sometimes sighting flocks of pink flamingos at dusk winging their way home to nest for the night. Among the many cays you can fish, dive for lobster and conch, or buy some from local fishermen who are willing to bargain or barter for items they need. We had many white sand beaches to ourselves whose shallow waters were dotted with sea stars and whelk. The Islas de Los Roques have safe anchorages lined with reefs that shush you to sleep at night and energize you during the day.  We only had time to explore six of the 60+ cays during this stay, so we look forward to going back! (And I have been taking my study of Spanish more seriously these days.)

Going...


going...

gone.

 




     


ISLAS de LAS AVES

We had been curious, but reluctant to travel to any Venezuelan islands due to repeated incidents of piracy that included bodily harm that in some cases resulted in death.  However, various cruisers in Curacao and Bonaire painted a much safer, friendlier picture of the two small rarely visited Venezuelan island groups situated due east of Bonaire.  A review of our boat insurance policy indicated that we could NOT cruise the mainland of Venezuela, so we figured the out islands were fair game and made plans to head east to Islas de Las Aves.

Sandy "bumps" in the road

We set sail early one morning in tandem with a lovely Puerto Rican cruising couple who had been to Islas de Las Aves many times. Their vessel, a catamaran called CAMPECHANO, is aptly named as they said it translates loosely to “Nice Guy.”  Captain Ronnie is one of the nicest guys you’d want to meet. The fact that he also has extensive sailing experience and represented the USA in the Summer of ‘84 in Olympic Sailing left us fully expecting that Exit Strategy would be eating COMPECHANO’S dust, so to speak. Once underway, they rounded the southern tip of Bonaire well before us and by the time we cleared that point their cat seemed to have disappeared. We thought they may have dropped their sails to motor as the wind that day was ESE. Then we noticed a white sail way far north of us.  We didn’t think that could be CAMPECHANO because our intended course to Las Aves was pretty close to due east.  We monitored VHS Channel 16 and finally were hailed by them a few hours later. It was then that we learned that Captain Ronnie doesn’t race anymore.  Now he sails to FISH.  It was his vessel that we spotted far to the north- a course he’d taken to follow the birds who would lead CAMPECHANO to fish.  And FISH they did!  By radio, he reported that they had hooked and landed “a monster of a fish” and were now heading toward our set destination.

Not your usual fishing boat, is it?

Islas de Las Aves are only scantly inhabited by mainly fisherman who live on one of the southernmost cays. The islands resemble small sand piles situated among the reefs. There are no trees, but the sand does support the usual grasses and beach vines. Las Aves is Spanish for the birds. I think they should be named Las Aves de NOCHES because they only seemed to chirp (no- make that squawk) at night. These cays lie in two clusters designated as Sotovento (meaning Leeward) and Barlovento (Windward). We anchored at Lighthouse Island and went ashore to sightsee.  It took only about 20 minutes to walk the entire circumference of this cay, but by the time we were nearly finished we encountered two uniformed men walking toward us. They explained in English (Thank God) that they, as Venezuelan Guardia Costa needed to board our boat to check us in.  There are no Customs or Immigration Offices in Las Aves, so as a courtesy the coast guard takes down your information and then allows you to “rest and cruise”* the waters of Las Aves for three days before you should continue on to Islas de Los Roques where there are C and I offices. The Guardia Costa were young and quite polite, saying we could contact them by radio if we needed anything.

Ronnie's wife Babbie is in the water while Robbie- his twin bro- cuts up the monster. 

COMPECHANO arrived a short while later and was greeted by the Guardia Costa like old friends.  When the officers left, Ronnie called us over to get some fresh yellow fin tuna. It was a MONSTER of a fish and we took as much as we could fit in our freezer and fridge. (To date, we still have 2 mammoth-sized steaks left.) Then they treated us to a wonderful tuna dinner complete with a flan dessert made by Ronnie’s wife Babbie.

The following day the crew of COMPECHANO lead a lobstering expedition to a nearby reef with good results. The men donned their scuba gear and I mainly helped as a spotter and a bagger for Dan.

We found quite a few hiding under a huge stand of mustard-colored elkhorn coral.

Early on our third day in Las Aves, we said a sad good-bye to our Puerto Rican friends who began their passage north to their home port of Salinas, PR. Then Exit Strategy motored another seventeen nautical miless east and anchored behind a reef in Barlovento to “rest” another night before continuing on to Isla de Los Roques.


*By law all persons and vessels MUST clear Customs and Immigration upon entering/exiting a foreign country.  However, it is accepted practice that a captain may stop to rest or make a repair without officially clearing in, although one cannot go ashore.

DIVER DAN

Can you spy the teensy weensy shrimp?

Ages ago when vacationing in the BVI with our best friends, we took an introductory scuba course that allowed us to dive with a dive master in water 30 feet or less.  I was not comfortable clearing the pressure from my ears due to having a history of ear infections and was content to forgo the diving experience. That was when we were in our mid-thirties and still young and beautiful.


The reefy Salt Pier

In our early fifties, those same best friends invited us to take the full complement of scuba lessons with them to get our individual PADI licenses. Once again, I wasn’t interested because of my ear fears, but eagerly encouraged Dan. However, he didn’t want to unless I partnered with him, so our friends got certified without us.

An octopus nestled into the coral

During these last four years of cruising, countless acquaintances have expressed what a pity it was that we weren’t divers because we were missing the exotic creatures of the deep Caribbean reef. (Well that, and being able to clean the bottom of the boat with greater ease!)

Eww! A spotted eel on the left; dinner (grouper) on the right.

Finally, though, being in Bonaire- THE dive capital of the world- did it for Captain Dan. There are NO shortages of dive partners when in Bonaire, and it took Dan only about two months to decide that YES, he’d like to get his PADI certification. So he signed up, spent hours slathered in sunblock studying the textbook on deck, took the required written and in-water exams, and DID IT!!


Dan positions himself to take the Mike Nelson plunge.

      
As soon as he got certified, he had offers to go diving with two to four other cruisers daily.  Many times I tagged along and snorkeled above them to watch from the surface as they meandered along the reefy bottom. I remain quite happy with being just a snorkeler, although I have been practicing swimming deeper and clearing my ears with limited success.

Rose, the happy voyeur

“C” is for CURACAO

Dutch buildings are a bouquet of COLOR, especially here in Willemstad, the capital.

For a change of pace and scenery this year, we set sail for the island of Curacao to wait out the 2014 Hurricane Season.  Prior to putting it on our float plan, we had the impression that Curacao was a summer haven for a younger set of cruisers.  We were pleasantly surprised to learn that there were plenty of “old salts” in the main crowded anchorage of Spanish Waters, and it seemed that many of them came and never left.  It is a busy anchorage with dinghies, fishing boats, and day trip boats whizzing by. Although the water was clear, the bottom is dark and grassy and uninviting for swimming.


Our view at anchor in Spanish Waters

Curacao is part of the Netherland Antilles and is the “C” of the ABC islands that are located just north of Venezuela.  It is now independent from Holland, but still very DUTCH, and perhaps that is why there is an overwhelming number of friendly Dutch cruisers here. There is also a growing population of Venezuelans who contribute to the economy by owning businesses, providing services, or shipping scads of fresh produce. Thankfully, almost everyone speaks English and the ATMs disperse Dutch guilders, as well as US dollars.

This swing bridge opens when vessels enter Willemstad's Harbor.

 

Immigration for vessels was recently improved by allowing 120 days for visitors.  But clearance procedures, i.e. completing paperwork at both Customs and Immigration, is quite a hassle. Spanish Waters is about an hour bus ride away from the port of Willemstad where the offices are located. The offices are about a twenty minute walk apart and you must time your trip right to avoid their closed doors during their midday meal. Another downside to being in Curacao is that the authorities make it complicated for boats to move about to other anchorages. Each time you want to move, the Captain is required to secure an anchoring permit for the new location which may not be granted if too many other vessels have permits to go there. So Exit Strategy stayed put anchored in Spanish Waters. 


Our engine was hauled out for routine maintenance.

While in Spanish Waters we elected to have a locally recommended mechanic work on a short maintenance list for our Volvo engine.  What we expected to take a few days, was finished bit by bit over ten weeks.  When we finally left the anchorage we motored to Willemstad to be pulled out so we could put on a few more coats of anti-fouling, replace the damper plate, and replace the oil seals on the sail drive. The mechanics there were able to get the job done easily after pulling our engine so they could access the damper plate.  We had a good experience at Curacao Marine.


Burgers for 4th of July with Tony & Jane of sv Capisce.

Grocery shopping is a challenging endeavor here if there is no picture or English on the packaging to identify if the item is what you need to buy.  One can guess correctly at some cuts of meat, but unless you can read Dutch it is impossible to identify others.  Cheese- CHEESE! It seems that they mainly have gouda- no cheddar, and it is gouda light, gouda dark, gouda with wasabi, or with dill or maybe cumin, or with something red… Deli counters with freshly sliced meats are rare and most stores only package enough lunch meat for one sandwich! 


Long-maned horsehead formation in the caves

Our frustrations with Curacao were luckily balanced by our upbeat experiences with cruiser friends we met there. We enjoyed many an afternoon playing (but never winning) Mexican Train Dominoes on one boat or another. We joined others for hikes to a couple of different beaches where we snorkeled and lounged. We wandered the quiet roads near Spanish Waters to explore the ruins of a fort and some salt ponds with friends who were in to geocaching.  Occasionally, we ventured into Willemstad by local bus to shop, have dinner, and attend an English mass. We also rented a car a few times to tour around the island during which we visited some caves and I ate stewed iguana for lunch. (It was at a restaurant and quite flavorful in a red gravy with the taste and texture being a cross between chicken and pork,only with a lot more bones.)


My iguana lunch platter

I didn’t intend for this entry about Curacao to come off like a rant because our experience there DID have some redeeming qualities.  However, what it boils down to is that we enjoyed Curacao so much that we are planning an extended stay in BONAIRE for the Hurricane Season of 2015!

PS:  We took ARUBA, the “A”, off of our float plan because we had vacationed there by plane years ago and heard that now it is even more built up with no real appealing anchorages.


"SEX Stones" as our friend Barb dubbed them...F---ing rocks.

Dan, me, Barb, & Jimmy in Aruba around 1987

  

BEST of Summer Home Visit 2014

Every June we sail Exit Strategy well out of the hurricane belt imposed by our boat insurance and nestle into a bay with like minded cruisers that hopefully has some marine services and an airport near by.  We visited Bonaire first and then continued west to settle in Spanish Waters, Curacao. (Our Curacao experience is the topic of the next bog.)  Being out of the hurricane belt does NOT guarantee that Mother nature won’t mess with you and your vessel, but it does offer a good degree of peace of mind that you probably will be safe.

Never the less-  I always see the season as the perfect opportunity to fly back to the states to spend a couple of months with our family and, if time allows, friends. My time in the Midwest usually is a span of two months from mid-July to mid-September. Dan is keen on staying with the boat busying himself with small maintenance projects and has been joining me in the states for about two weeks.  That will hopefully change in the future, though, as this year our youngest grandchild, four-year-old Genna, wanted to know why I “get to come for two months and Grandpa only comes for two weeks?”

These are the highlights of our visit-

Maya, Genna, & Becky at Lake Michigan's shore

Genna & Maya with one of their many fairy houses 

  

Uncle Joe played "Grandpa" at the Van Buren Fair.

Watergun fight in Grandma Glista's garden

  

Tie-dyeing at Becky's with Julie and baby Chandler

Kalamazoo County Fair

 

Surrounded by three toothless kids and Genna

Playing Scrabble with Grandma at Lee's

 

Fishing & CATCHING with Grandpa

Aslan was thrilled with Uncle Joe's heavy duty equipment. 

       

Maya, Lyla, Aslan, & Genna lovin' on Bob & Joy at the dunes

“B” is for BONAIRE

Sample of Bonaire's art: this was on a particle board fence surrounding a construction site. 

Bonaire is the “B” of the ABC Islands- AKA, the Netherland Antilles- that lie 40 to 50 miles north of Venezuela’s northern coast. Many, many years ago, a friend in Indianapolis raved about the endless natural beauty in the reefs that surround the island of Bonaire. When he said the island was an unspoiled diver’s paradise we were heartily intrigued. Then last year, our friends on Tiger Lilly cruised there, loved it, and encouraged us to sail to Bonaire.  How could we not go?

Can't identify this one, but I like the mask.

French Angelfish

  

The waters surrounding the island comprise the Bonaire National Marine Park.  More than 100 public moorings line the western coast, as well as the coast of Klein Bonaire- its small uninhabited out island. However, vessels can only overnight at those situated just off the main town of Kralendijk- a small town by US metropolitan standards, but during the tourist season can berth two cruise ships and double the population of the island for the day. We snorkeled right off our stern where the reefy bottom dropped into the dark abyss and saw a pair of large French Angelfish, Yellowtail Snappers, Peacock Flounders, hordes of Sargent Majors, and schools of Blue Tangs and Bar Jacks. Bonaire has eighty-seven specified dive sites. Many of the people we met there were divers and they motored their boats around to different sites every few days, while we dinghied to some that were recommended by acquaintances. We were surprised at the size of the fish even in the shallower waters.

Kralendijk's main drag

The free water gym at Karel's Bar

  

The official local languages in Bonaire are Dutch and Papiamentu. Papiamentu sounds like a mix of mostly Spanish and Dutch. Lucky for us, many of Bonaire’s residents also speak English and Spanish. We got along fine except under two circumstances.  The first was at the grocery store where everything is in Dutch and second was at Sunday Mass where every word was in Papiamentu.  At the store, I got needed translations from some Dutch cruisers we met, but at Mass all I could sort of decipher was the page number of the hymns so I sang along in the best pseudo-Papiamentu I could muster and prayed for forgiveness!

I was barred from getting a closer shot of the flamingos.

One day we road the island bus to the town of Rincon in Bonaire’s interior.  The trip was short, passing plenty of desert scrubland. Rincon was the first settlement on the island set in the shallow inland valley hidden from pirates on the sea. Over time, though, Kralendijk became more developed and populated because of its accessibility on the coast.  The bus driver took us beyond Rincon to see where the flamingos live and the iguanas waddle rampant. (They eat iguana on Bonaire and I wanted to try some, but we were never in a restaurant the day it was on their menu.)

Cadushi Distillery in Rincon brews with CACTUS!

All homes are brightly painted; my sister Lee would love this one.

 

We liked Bonaire for many reasons. The island’s reefs are rich and inexhaustible, and we plan on returning to see more. The people made us feel right at home and the shop keepers didn’t haggle us to “come in and look” when we walked through Kralendijk’s tiny tourist “malls’'. The businesses welcomed yachties with a good number of daily activity/dinner/drink specials. We met cruisers there from Holland, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and America. When all was said and done, we all laughed in the same language. 

Oh, yes, we’ll go back to Bonaire.

Red sky at night, sailor's delight