LOST SOLES FOUND

This sole (peacock flounder) was not lost.   

Last Saturday the crews of EXIT STRATEGY, LET IT BE, and MASELLE joined a group of volunteers on the island of Bonaire to clean up a portion of the seabed and reef.  The event was organized by DIVE FRIENDS BONAIRE in coordination with PROJECT AWARE (a worldwide organization dedicated to keeping oceans pure).  The Bari Reef dive site was targeted for this effort because Bonaire’s Annual Regatta was held off a nearby beach during the previous week and the accompanying festivities usually produce much trash.

Gabrielle, Thomas , & Dan sign in.

During an initial safety briefing, we were instructed to collect as much debris as possible WITHOUT disturbing the reef.  So, for instance, if we found fishing line or net entangled IN the reef, we were to free it for disposal by cutting it loose.  If an item already had coral growing ON it, we were to leave it alone since it had already become part of the living reef.  After the briefing, each team grabbed a mesh bag, free tanks of air or nitrox, and suited up to enter the water.  

Thomas (top) & Gabrielle (bottom) loosen PVC trash while Dan (right) holds bag.

Initially,  I snorkeled at the surface to follow Dan’s diving team (Gabrielle & Thomas) and helped them retrieve a three meter piece of PVC found just before the drop off.  Then when they moved into the deep, I lost sight of them. So I continued gathering trash on my own by swimming a tight zigzag grid perpendicular to the shore for nearly an hour.  No other snorkelers appeared to be on duty.  I enjoyed the solitude and allowed myself to be distracted by the beauty of the reef and the array of marine species that crossed my path. 

"Hamburger" coral formation

One of many personal distractions

              
Dan and our friends from MASELLE and LET IT BE were watching the staff sort the trash when I finally exited the water.  They said that they had recovered many beer bottles, plastic cups and utensils, and aluminum cans.  I unloaded my bag to reveal quite an assortment of SOLES, as well as some odd pieces of rubber and plastic, and a few bottles. 

My treasure trove of lost soles

             

In appreciation for the volunteers, DIVE FRIENDS BONAIRE hosted a potluck dinner that evening which was graciously sponsored by a number of local grocers, dive shops, and restaurants.  We feasted on grilled chicken, sausages, ribs, veggie burgers, and hamburgers. Everyone brought a side dish to share, making the buffet quite varied and FULL!  We ate to our hearts content, met more people from far away places, and I won a dive t-shirt in the raffle.

(L to R) Gabrielle & Thomas of MASELLE, Sylvain & Suzanne of LET IT BE,
Rose & Dan of EXIT STRATEGY

Over one hundred volunteers participated in the day’s activities. The bin of refuse we collectively removed from the sea during this quarterly clean up was sorted and will be documented online.  For full details, please visit www.divefriendsbonaire.com.

Sparks DO fly during SEX…

 

Google Image

… at least during foreplay for some species according to WIKIPEDIA.org in its explanation of the naturally occurring OSTRACOD PHENOMENOM. 

Ostracods are a class of the Crustacea (class Ostracoda), sometimes known as seed shrimp. Some 70,000 species have been identified, grouped into several orders. They are small crustaceans, typically around 1 mm (0.039 in) in size.  Some ostracods have a light organ in which they produce luminescent chemicals. Most use the light as predation defense, while some use the light for mating (only in the Caribbean). These ostracods are called "blue sand" or "blue tears" and glow blue in the dark at night. Their bioluminescent properties made them valuable to the Japanese during World War II, when the Japanese army collected large amounts from the ocean to use as a convenient light for reading maps and other papers at night. The light from these ostracods, called umihotaru in Japanese, was sufficient to read by but not bright enough to give away troops' position to enemies.

This season while baching it in Bonaire, Diver Dan was fortunate to meet a lovely Swiss couple who cruise on their sailing yacht MASELLE and are extremely experienced divers. Thomas recently completed his 200th dive while his wife Gabrielle has done nearly 400.  Over the past few months they have often invited Dan to be a third “buddy” so he could enjoy the sport safely. 

Thomas & Gabrielle of sv MASELLE

A few days ago, Thomas and Gabrielle organized a night dive and snorkel trip for seven of us to experience the OSTRACOD PHENOMENON.  This is NOT the same as what you may find in bioluminescent bays around the Caribbean.  The mating ritual of the Ostracods  ONLY occurs two to five days after a full moon at forty-five minutes after sunset and usually lasts about twenty minutes.  Ostracods only breed around soft corals that are located near a sandy bottom off a shore that has minimal residential or city lights to interfere. 





It was determined that Bonaire’s dive site Petrie’s Pillar (a curious story is behind the name of this site) was a likely spot for us to observe this unique phenomena. So just before sunset, we all motored the distance to Petrie’s Pillar and fellow cruisers Peter and Katrine of sv FLORENTINE, a German flagged vessel, allowed us to use their boat as a base from which to dive.

Katrine & Peter of sv FLORENTINE

The sun set at 6:14 pm and shorty afterward Gabrielle, Thomas, and Dan suited up in their dive gear and entered the water toting waterproof flash lights.  About twenty minutes later, the rest of us including Peter and Katrine’s son Jacob jumped in to snorkel and wait for the show.  It was dark, of course, but we could see the three divers every so often even though they had not illuminated their torches yet.  We also could see a few huge tarpons milling around the divers.  (Although tarpon are harmless, I certainly wouldn’t want to bump into one in the eerie darkness.)





The divers light their torches below.

Then the divers at the bottom began to take turns passing their flashlights over the soft corals near them and the show began!  Thomas surfaced to tell us what we already knew since we were in the water watching with great anticipation.  From a snorkelers point of view, we saw a twinkling of tiny lights among the corals.  It was amazing to watch as our divers continued to flash their torches every so often to further activate the ostracods.  The sexy light show lasted well beyond the usual twenty minutes and we enjoyed every moment!


Google Image

From a diver’s point of view, the ostracods light up as depicted in this Google Image as they swim upward.  We attempted to take photos of the event, but every one came out black. (AMATURES!)

A SPECIAL NOTE OF GRATITUDE goes out to Thomas and Gabrielle for organizing this adventure and for including Dan in many of your dives over the past few months.  And many THANKS to Katrine and Peter for hosting us  that evening in your home, FLORENTINE.

Where’d all THIS come from?

Note the varied angles of masts resulting from the swell. 

      
        Surely everyone is aware of Hurricane Matthew that recently passed over the Southern Caribbean, curved northward through parts of Jamaica and Haiti, and then ultimately slammed the eastern coast of Florida.  Meteorologists followed its expected path and progress hourly with intensity.  As prudent sailors, so did we.  Being OUTSIDE of the “Hurricane Belt”, as widely regulated by insurance companies, does NOT guarantee that a hurricane or extremely nasty tropical storm won’t blow through the area.  Although the eye of Matthew was predicted to pass well north of us, winds in our area were to be an estimated 45mph and the seas between 9-10 feet.  Considering that, it took no time at all for the crew of Exit Strategy to prepare to “GET OUT OF DODGE!” 
        We left the wide open anchorage along Kralendijk, Bonaire and sailed about 30nm to the more protected bay of Spanish Waters, Curacao.  For MY comfort and peace of mind once there, we took a slip at Seru Boca Marina that is tucked way into a corner. I thank God that Matthew came and went with nary a ripple and only intermittent light showers in that location.
       But this narrative is NOT about Matthew.  This story is about a storm that we experienced two days ago right here back in the anchorage in Bonaire.  We knew of severe weather that was about 200 miles away over the Venezuelan mainland, however, there was no indication that it would effect us.

2 AM:  We were stirred awake when It began raining. We closed the hatch and returned to our slumber.

3 AM: Intermittent rain continued and the vessel began to sway.

4 AM: The gentle swaying escalated to rocking and rolling.  Small unsecured items began to rattle around and disturbed MY sleep. 

This is out of focus because of the constant motion of our boat.

4:30 AM:  I left the bunk since I couldn’t really relax and commenced working to muffle some of the interior noises.  I quickly realized that the boat was rocking too severely to dare open any lockers in order to shove in towels to stifle the rattling.  The wind was out of the west and a strong swell was crashing into the seawall which was now about 60 feet closer to Exit Strategy due to the wind shift. I carefully walked around the deck to the bow to examine the mooring lines.  (Two days before, one had worn through and we temporarily repaired it with a knot and were patiently waiting for the National Park Service to provide a new line.) 

5 AM:  From the cockpit,  I watched a parade of green and white navigation lights on small fishing vessels and a few sailboats motor northward away from the anchorage.  It occurred to me that we might need to join the band of deserters, so I dutifully cleared snorkel gear and such from around the helm. Then I sat in the cockpit with my foot braced against the table to prevent me from getting knocked around and PRAYED.

6 AM: The intermittent showers stopped and Dan crawled out of bed at his usual time.

“Where’d all THIS come from?” He yelled. A moment later, he surveyed the situation and saw that the boat was OK for the time being. 
“Do you think we could make a pot of coffee?”  I asked desperately.
“Not in this swell,” he replied.  So I had to make do with quietly nibbling on a chocolate granola bar to ease my need for caffeine.

The dinghy after rescuing the gas can.

7 AM: The swell increased and now the dinghy (that is raised out of the water nightly for security purposes) was bouncing forward, backward, and sideways against the hull. The seat popped out and was fortunately on the dinghy’s sole. We had removed the plug to let the rain drain and now we needed to put it back in before lowering the dinghy.  I did so by laying on my belly on the deck and timing the insertion and locking of the plug in between slams. Next I grabbed the seat and stowed it in the cockpit.  We lowered the craft and a few seconds later it was cresting the incoming waves with even more erratic behavior!  Suddenly, one swell flipped it on its side against the hull and the gas can fell out.  Dan used the boat hook to quickly retrieve it and moved the dinghy further aft where it behaved better.

I wonder what the tourists thought of all the boat action in the bay. (Yes, this is out of focus, too.)

8:30 AM: By this time, we expected things to settle down, but they didn’t. So we continued to brace ourselves in the cockpit and read or surfed the net.  There were tourists walking along the seawall, but no cruisers or fishermen were out and about.  We knew that if we had tried to go somewhere in the dinghy, we wouldn’t have been able to land it dockside and get out easily with the constant surge.

12 Noon: The sun came out- which was nice- but the rocking and rolling persisted.

2:30 PM: The swell finally calmed down. (BUT IT WAS WAY TOO LATE FOR COFFEE!)

3 PM: We happily got in the dinghy and zipped over to talk with three other boats about plans that we had for THAT EVENING for a night dive.  The water in the anchorage had cleared unbelievably fast, so we decided to keep our date with the OSTROCOD. (The topic of our next blog.)


Ah-h-h.  All things come to those who wait.

Throwing Caution (& Other Stuff) to the Wind

DIVER DAN
Photo by Gabrielle Heggli of sv MASELLE

        If you’re an avid follower, you know that during hurricane season our vessel’s insurance requires us to be south of Latitude 14°10.  This year, we sailed Exit Strategy back to Kralendijk, Bonaire which is at Latitude 12°09.  Captain Dan, as usual, stayed on the boat for the most part and enjoyed diving and carousing with some old and new cruiser friends here.  Mean while, back on the farm in Southwestern Michigan, I was up to my elbows in family gatherings and good old gardening.
        When Dan leaves the boat for his short visit up to the Midwest, he cleans out the refrigerator-freezer, does any necessary laundry, pickles the watermaker, and employs standard mold/mildew preventing products around the interior. Upon his return, he shops to restore the basic food stuffs, but tends to do minimal cooking.  He’s actually a great, creative cook, but you know how it is to prepare something for just yourself and he’s not real fond of leftovers.

Granddaughters Genna & Maya with me at Van Auken Lake

        Two plus months later when I fly back to Exit Strategy, I find the boat beautifully clean inside and out.  It’s such a wonderful homecoming-  until I begin to organize something for us to eat on the first day.  At breakfast time, I locate the last of the pancake mix stowed in the recesses of the locker under the seat in the salon and examine it closely.  I don’t see any bugs, but it just doesn’t look good, so I toss it into the trash. “Pancake mix” becomes the first entry on my shopping list.
        At lunch time, I pull out a few forgotten chunks of cheese from the bottom of the refrigerator.  They have bits of green and white growning on them. Now-truth be told-  I’m not above cutting off the moldy surface and eating the inside part- although I’ve heard that that is not recommended.  (And I’m still alive to write about it after multiple occasions!)  BUT this time, I have no way of knowing just how long that cheese has been in the fridge.  I throw it out the galley porthole into the bay and make myself a PB&J to eat instead.  “Chunk & sliced cheese” is added to the list.
        Dinner prep reveals that the tiny paprika particles have grown legs, the granular beef boullion, the jerk spice, and the garlic powder have each melted into thick paste in their individual jars. The shopping list grows. 
        Luckily, twice a week there is a free shopping bus that takes cruisers to a large supermarket on the outskirts of Kralendijk.  So, with shopping list and many reusable bags in hand,  I wander around the store and stock up big time.  However, most of the labels are written in Dutch or Papiamento (Bonaire’s official language), so I do the best I can to identify items whose packaging don’t have pictures.  My cart is overflowing when I get to the checkout counter.

        The next day I planned to make chili mac and pulled out package of ground beef I had purchased at the supermarket.  I sauteed the onions and garlic until golden and then added the meat to brown.  After a few minutes, I noticed that it wasn’t browning like beef.  Then that luscious aroma of onion and garlic began to smell a bit off.  I retrieved the discarded meat wrapper to reread the label.  It read “CARNE (I know that means MEAT) MULA”.  When shopping, I assumed that “MULA” meant “minced”, as ground meat is often referred to down island.  It just didn’t smell right or look right.  I asked Dan to fire up his Translator App and guess what?

“CARNE MULA”  is MULE MEAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

        So what do you think we did?

Trunk Fish and French Grunt (Not supper)

        At dusk, I used the mule meat to chum the waters and caught some nice snapper for supper!

FORWARD...NEUTRAL... REVERSE...

What would you do if you were driving down the highway and suddenly realized that your transmission wasn't functioning properly?

? ? ?

Something like that happened on board Exit Strategy last week during the last eight hours of a sixty hour trip to Bonaire. They had been sailing slightly southwestward for over two days from Boquerón,  PR.  During the second night out, while the First & Last Mate was on watch, an unusually large wave smacked Exit Strategy on the port beam and she shifted somewhat violently to the right.  The Mate was standing and looking at the  chart plotter at the time and the force made her momentarily lose her balance throwing the Mate, in slow motion, to the right.   Although she was not injured, the Mate landed on the throttle as she groped for a handhold to stop her momentum.

[Fret not, dear readers, we always wear a PFD that is securely tethered to sturdy jacklines especially on night watch to greatly reduce our chance of being accidentally catapulted off the boat.]

The vessel was sailing, so the engine was not running. The First & Last Mate thought nothing of her hand hitting the throttle because it is always in the reverse position when undersail to keep the propellor from spinning.

By mid morning the next day, the crew could finally see Bonaire through the hazey horizon in the distance.  In order to be able to reach their destination of Kralendijk's mooring field in daylight, they decided to fire up the engine and motorsail which would effectively enhance their speed.

The motor started right up, but the crew soon discovered that it would not shift into any gears.

Oh.   My.   Goodness!

 After sailing for fifty-three hours straight - sans hot meals and a normal nights sleep - the Captain's pent up emotions boiled over.  Within a fraction of an hour, the pot calmed down to a simmer and the Captain did what he does best. He began trouble shooting the problem.

Exit Strategy sailed on effortlessly while her crew focused on the fix.  The Captain partially dismantled the throttle and then went below to make some adjustments on the engine.  Finally,  he called for the motor to be started and instructed the Mate to shift the ďismantled throttle using two hands.

"FORWARD!

NEUTRAL!

REVERSE!

NEUTRAL!" He commanded- over and over and over.

It wasn't working well.  Sometimes it would shift and then it wouldn't.  The crew had no confidence in their ability to pick up a mooring in the busy town of  Kralendijk with vessels moored and swaying right and left and a seawall ahead!

So the Captain devised Plan B. Exit Strategy would sail around the tip of the island and then attempt to pick up one of its 100 dive sight moorings and sort the problem out.  They aimed for a site just north of the salt pier that the crew had visited two years ago remembering that the depth would suit the boat.

In the absence of other vessels and unforgiving seawalls, the obviously new pendant at the dive site called "Jeanie's Glory" was easily had.  It was nearly four o'clock in the afternoon and the Captain immediately commenced working on a fix.

The First & Last Mate crawled through the starboard side aft cabin and into the storage compartment under the stern to remove a sundry of parcels containing extra equipment and parts.  Lo and behold!  This freed up the cables that connected the transmission to the throttle and the Captain was finally able to pinpoint the problem.  A tiny black plastic clip was missing from a cable connection.

You might expect that there would be one of those tiny black plastic clips somewhere in the multiple bags of parts that the Mate had just hauled out of the way. . .

                               But NO!

So the Captain sorted through his supplies and fabricated one from a remnant of plastic pipe.  He is such a resourceful and brilliant man!

Volvimos a Boquerón, PR

       Upon exiting the Turks and Caicos, the plan was to sail toward the northeastern coast of the Dominican Republic and then down through the Mona Passage to rest and reprovision at Boquerón,  Puerto Rico. The proposed trip was an estimated 300 nautical miles.
(1 nm = 1.151 miles)  However, the first half of the trip was quite an intense sail, so we "pulled over" to rest for a few days at Puerto Bahia Marina,  Samaná in the DR.  Then a nice forecast set us packing and we arrived at Boquerón where our friends on sv Windhover welcomed us with open arms.

Sunset on Boquerón's beach

          We met Windhover's crew  back in early February on  our first visit to Boquerón. Susi, Henk, and Teddy are a simply beautiful family inside and out.  They quickly filled us in on what was new and what was not in the area. Susi and Henk have been helping their son Teddy get settled in his new apartment and his new job in Boquerón. This is Teddy's first "bachelor pad" so you can imagine the learning curve all three are experiencing!

Always time for Dominoes with Susi, Henk, and Teddy.

        Since leaving the PR nearly four months ago, we have been reading about this commonwealth's effort to shore up its struggling economy with great interest. Things are changing in the PR and also in Boquerón. In February,  a small portion of the town's waterfront was being redone. Now more construction was disturbing the waterfront, as well as major portions of the streets in the heart of the tourist strip.

Took many exhilarating walks to the bakery.

        MANGO SEASON was fully on during this visit and their sweetness filled the air.  It was not unusual to see a bag or box of mangos set out on the sidewalk that was free for the taking.   I turned some of my free mangos into jam.

Mass at San José en español, supuesto.

        One Sunday as we returned from Mass, we found ourselves literally in the middle of a youth sailing regatta and the officials would not let us dinghy back to our vessel.  We made the best of the situation by climbing aboard Windhover to chat awhile. After that, on some days of the week, we suspected that the sailing instructors designated both Exit Strategy and Windhover as course "buoys" for the youngsters to practice tacking.   We enjoyed having "ring side seats" to watch their maneuvers and, thankfully, not a one hit us!

The TURKS and CAICOS

        The Turks and Caicos lie east of the southeastern-most Bahamas and serve as a good staging area for cruisers to head elsewhere.  On our way to the Bahamas, we rested in the Turks and Caicos for one night at Big Sand Cay, then passed through the Caicos Bank to continue on to Mayaguana of the Bahamas.

        This island group is British, like the Bahamas, but not an independent nation.  Their make up is quite similar, though, as they also are pretty much flat as pancakes, made up of coral and limestone, have scant vegetation, and are surrounded by shallow depths. 

Sapodilla Bay Beach, Providenciales (Google Image)

        Sapodilla Bay was our first anchorage at the island of Providenciales.  As your vessel crosses the boundary waters of this port, you are hailed by PROVO RADIO not by boat name, but by your lat-long position.  Then, via VHF radio communication, an officer takes all the information on the vessel and crew.  Upon anchoring, we proceeded to the offices of Customs and Immigration to complete the process.  However, only the Customs agent was available.  We returned early the next morning to see the Immigration officer who still hadn't arrived so we were told to return in the afternoon. However, he wasn't there either later in the day.  Therefore, we dutifully returned early the next morning and finally got the paperwork done.

Lunched at Las Brisas on Mother's Day 

        All of the Turks and Caicos are a marine reserve with many buoyed dive sites.  Providenciales is geared toward posh resort goers and our time there made us well aware of this fact. There were no dingy docks here, nor were there any grocers, or fuel docks in the vicinity. Considering this information,  most cruisers would deem Providenciales as being "not cruiser friendly".  This island did, however, have the most beautiful, wide paved roads we'd seen since leaving the DR two and a half months ago.

        Eventually, we crossed the shallow Caicos Bank and stopped at South Caicos to clear out.  That island, though much smaller, had far more of what the typical cruiser requires to be content.  We secured the dinghy at the fishermen's dock where we found a convenient fuel dock and a well-stocked grocer.  We had a leisurely lunch across the street at the SUNSET & CAFE BAR & GRILL.  It had to be leisurely because it appeared they had only one cook and didn't expect all their tables to be filled.  I even left to check out the grocer while we waited for our lunch.  The food didn't disappoint us, as it was spiced just right and plenty! 

        After the lunch crowd dispersed, the restaurant owner insisted on driving us to the Customs office to complete our paperwork.  We had been in the Turks and Caicos for less than a week, but the weather window was upon us to move on.  I regret not being able to spend more time in South Caicos.

Just LOVED this BLUE!

        The next day we sailed down to Big Sand Cay and rested for the night. The water there was the most magnificent shade of blue I've ever seen! We swam ashore and had the expansive beach to ourselves.  

        The next morning brought brisk winds and we left the Turks and Caicos to head southward toward the DR and the Mona Passage.

Big Sand Cay