Niue

Leaving Suvarrow was hard, we knew and know, we will not see a place like that anytime soon. But we were going to Tonga and all was looking up. Catching up with sailing and land friends, and Tonga itself its a "not too bad" (I never quite got this kiwi expression... seems so negative when it actually means the exactly opposite!) place to be.

But alas, it was not be, we had no wind and no desire to use our engine so we decided to vear a bit further south and call into Niue.

What a great unexpected surprise! First it was like being home, without actually being home. Everyone was so NICE. The local yacht club offered great service with the mooring balls which we totally believe need to be used as the holding would be pretty difficult with such a rocky terrain.

The clarity of the water was the most incredible thing I have ever seen anywhere in the world. You could easily see 40 to 45 meters. We could see the coral clearly from our boat, 15 meters down, even when we swung to the deeper side at 30 meters we could still make out the little fish around!

Sea snakes are abundant and after our experience in Sumatra (where one came into the galley after the beans I was cooking in the pressure cooker) we stayed away from beans and kept the hatch well closed.

The weather was not fantastic but good enough to allow us to go for a swim in one of the many crevasses around the island and explore some of the lovely caves.

We attended a local fund raiser that loaded us with lovely bubbly and delicious local feast/hangi. It was a great night and Brisa danced the entire time!

One of the hints we were getting closer to home, was when we walked into the yacht club in Niue and Russell bumped into his primary school mate, Fiona Tarlton! We had a great time with her and her son Tane

The only down side was having to hoist your dinghy onto the dock everytime we went ashore. It was quite a mission everytime, but well worth it.

But it was time to move on to Tonga as we had Trevor and Gill (the previous owners of Moonwalker) coming and we were really looking forward to catching up with them and being in Tonga!

Suvarrow

After an amazing week in Maupiti we had a very benign but uncomfortable sail to Suvarrow in the Cook Islands. With the wind right on your stern we decided to use the wing on wing/ butterfly approach to sail dead downwind for the first time.

We used the genoa to one side and the storm jib to the other. It worked really well. We had about 20 knots most days but the motion onboard wasn't very pleasant and for the first two days I wasn't much help (Russ by now is getting used to that) and Brisa wasn't too flash either on the first day.

It took us about 5.5 days to get to Suvarrow and we arrived in the morning with bring sunshine and quite a bit of wind.

How can I describe paradise? Suvarrow was everything we expected and more. It was Chagos all over again with added benefits.

Snorkelling was great, shelling, fishing, mantas, sharks you name it it was there for us. The bird life on the islands of the atol was amazing. What was so incredible about it was the variety of birds species. In one little bush you would see a Tropical Bird nesting on the ground, a tern in a branch, a Booby on another branch, and further on a Frigate bird. It was such a mix match os species, nesting side by side it was the most ecletic environment I have ever visited!

We made many friends, amongst them the two care takers of the island in front of the only authorized anchorage in the atol. They provided us with an excellent venue everynight for our pot lucks and general entertainment

It costed us US$50 for the park fees which we gladly paid. Visiting other islands (apart from the anchorage Island) required a presence of a caretaker, which they were happy to oblige us with in exchange for fuel as the Cook Government sent them there with half the supply they had organized promissing another supply ship within 2 weeks. Well the supply ship never materialized and they had to fend for themselves. Yachties are pretty good and generous people by nature and Harry and Ants got all they needed and more from us all as they were wonderful hosts.

Brisa once again was in ecstasy! Lovely calm beaches (if you didn't mind sharks which she didn't), swing, hammocks, many friendly people, a cat, loads of shells to play and did I say swing-slaves? Yes she had many of those ready at hand to swing her to her heart's content. Her first swing slave was her Grandpa in the USA. Any chance she had she would drag him to the local playground and they would be there for hours.

3 weeks passed in Suvarrow without us even noticing. We loved our time there, made many friends and have vowed to come back in a near future. I will let the photos from the link bellow talk for themselves!

https://picasaweb.google.com/108718390294505747992/Suvarrow?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCNOd6Li08ZnR0AE&feat=directlink

Maupiti days...

Huahine, Raiatea, Tahaa & Bora Bora

With our new rudder made we were ready to carry on visiting the French Polynesian Islands. We set for Huahine on an uneventful overnight sail.

Huahine was lovely but strong winds aborted our plan of seeing the easter side so we stayed between Fare and Avea Bay, being the later and Teapaa Bay our favourites by far. Good snorkeling and shells, lovely walks and sand beaches. Asher, Turia and Kirahu from Moorea where in Huahine visiting some family so we were lucky to have a car to tour the island! We saw the sacred eels, the beautifully maintained Maraes and collected cockles with Turia's family in the northern Lagoon. It was quite the experience! We saw the century old fish traps still in use.

Then we were off again to Raiatea to collect Claudia, Casey and Nicolas coming from NZ for a week of fun.But it wasn't to be, a total tragedy in New Plymonth with one of Claudia's brazilian students being taken by a gigantic swell of the rocks during an outdoor pursuits group excursion, meant Claudia was in for an incredible amount of work and emotional stress. The poor girl stayed in New Plymonth for 2 weeks of much hope, sadness and frustration. But Casey came and we made sure he had a good time so he could send out love back to Claudia.

We toured Raiatea and Tahaa with Casey, and loved the twin islands. By far our favourites, right there with Moorea. Surf, shells, sand beaches, lovely hikes, there was something to please all onboard. Especially Brisa whom got her own personal entertainer in Casey!

The highlights were the river Faaroa, where we got to pickf fruits from Andreas garden and only payed him after much convincing after all he had 2 kids to feed as well; Marae Taputapuatea where as good Kiwis we paid out respects to the launching place of the Maori Canoes bound to New Zealand millenia ago; NaoNao Motu and Pass, a snorkel & shell paradise hardly visited by the cruising fleet. Our surf point of choice was Tetoora where the boys got some good waves and it was mellow enough at times for a visit from Brisa even! Uturoa was a love village with great crafts, I dropped a bit of cash there I must confess...

Then it was off to Bora Bora... well, it is beautiful, especially on the eastern side, but with the wind it was very hard to take the boat there so we got stuck on the western side with all the tourists. Unfortunatelly we could see what bad tourism can do to the island (it was by far the dirtiest, untided, area we have ever seen in French Polynesia), and the people seemed to have lost the genuine smile and friendlyness.

But it is still beautiful, Matira had an amazing turquoise lagoon we anchored in 2 meters of lovely white sand and looked like we were flying. Brisa loved playing on the beach with the local boys and the odd tourist. We walked around the thousand dollars a night hotels and I strongly believe we had the best bed in town! Russ loved the Bloody Mary's Bar, a Bora Bora Institution and one of the best themed bars we have seen. Everything had been thought of. And it was a pretty reasonable price for what was in offer. Russ thought the penis shaped flush cord was hilarious. They had awesome carvings everywhere and the bloody mary was good as far as bloody marys go. Not my thing really.

Having had enough we decided to carry on and are now in Maupiti, where we knew we would be pinned down as there is some fronts coming across the entire week. But it is a nicer place to be stuck than Bora Bora that we know already. Check the videos with the Mantas and drool on our prison paradise!

Tahiti

We have been in Tahiti and surroundings for the last month and what a little paradise they have got here... Its not even that expensive!

Dear Papeete, which everyone says is chaotic and messy I must disagree completely. Its a pleasure and so easy to get around downtown. The Paofai gardens are gorgeous, the local market delightful and you can have delicious meals at the local Roulettes (food hawkers in converted vans) for very reasonable prices.

We are now in a free mooring ball in front of Marina Taina, have free dinghy access to the marina premisses, free water and a bus right in front. Carrefour (massive supermarket) is a 2 minute walk and we can even bring the trolleys all the way to the dinghy dock and not worry about returning it! How is that? To be completely honest I really don't believe we have been this well treated in ages!

Well the whole bond thing is a f%#k up and cost an arm and a leg (you have to deposit a return tkt to your home country, NZ$4000 in our case which they refund you when you leave in local currency)with all fees and terrible exchange they provide. But we could have saved us a lot of hassle if we were so not against using agents... it would have saved us a lot of time and money. So apart from all this this is nothing short of paradise.

Since we arrived we have caught up with quite a few of Russell's old windsurfing mates and they have been nothing short of lovely to us. Jean Claude and his lovely family have showed us around, throw Russ in a windsurf board for the first time in 13 years and provided us with a lovely dinner. Thierry has lent Russ is million dollar views workshop just up the hill from where our boat is. There Russ got all the toys he can dream of to construct our new rudder. By the way, the infamous rudder has eventually washed ashore in Kauehi, apparently it was in pretty good nick but the people that saw it didn't know it belonged to us and left it where they found it. If it wasn't over 400 miles up wind to get it... anyhow Russ is half way into the project. The blade is made and the casing is half done. Russ believes one more week and we will be ready to go again.

Mike and Adi along with Nathan, Jeannie and Ruby Secker have been and gone, we had a blast with all of them. It was all a bit rushed with Mike and Ads as they only had 2 weeks - we are used to have them around for way longer! But we managed to fit in a bit of everything for them: rough sailing, the shits, tahitian dancing and tahitian rum, a local hangi, some small and huge scary waves, including some dodgy pass experiences, loads of snorkeling and some standboard paddling which we all loved. Brisa loved their company and there wasn't one day she didn't invade their room in the mornings to give Adi (her adored Adi.. she still asks about you babes...) a good morning kiss and make a complete mess on their bed. Sorry guys, its her territory too!

With the Seckers we had some lovely high class times, loved the car rides, girly talks and Russell's semi organized excursions that always ended up well because he has his back protected by some higher power. The Seckers gave us an update on what's going on in NZ and the sad state of affairs in Christchurch and how the city and its people are trying to cope. We loved and adored all our talks and plays with Rubs our lovely Star. Brisa is mad keen on you girl, another name she still mentions even after 2 weeks! Especially when I am putting a dvd on, she asks about "ubil, ubil"?

So after a month of much socializing and carefree life, we are back in the grind of cruising life, fixing things, cleaning, organizing, planning and finding things to complain in our near perfect life... We are shameless like that.

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Tuamotus

After a great time in Daniel's Bay in Nuku Hiva, where we took Brisa to see the waterfall, enjoyed the lovely heavenly gardens and the super friendly people we loaded the boat with fruits and took off to Ua Pou to wait for some wind, but on the way across the wind picked up and we decided to just keep going - we seem to have acquired a taste to doing this lately - and arrived in Kauehi in the Tuamotus in 3 days.

Entering the pass was very easy, we got there just in time for the slack water we believe as we managed to sail into the lagoon (we had the engine on just in case) dodging the fishing boats scattered at the pass. The village was adorable with well tended gardens and smiley people everywhere. The church was the main feature of the village with amazing shell chandeliers and constant singing going on. We missed (again) the mass on Sunday, but next time I promised myself that I will go even if I get there half way through. The singing sounded amazing.

We met the mayor and his daughters at the local cemetery (I know weird) they were cleaning the dead flowers from the tomb of his mother. He had the local shop and one of his daughters opened it just so we could by a couple of frozen baguettes! Well the baguettes eventually got stolen by the dogs in another house we stopped to drink coconut water. The lady of the house was mortified poor thing. We left with a bag loaded of husked coconuts.

We have since sailed to another part of the lagoon which is uninhabited and is beautiful. The coral is mostly dead but seems to be regrowing. The groupers and coral trouts are amongst the biggest I have ever seen (even in Chagos!) and sharks are constant companions. Locals say this lagoon doesn't have cigatera but we still got plenty of mahimahi to eat!

The only bad thing I got to report is the loss of our port rudder - yes, again... - this time we were not so lucky as the last time and the fitting which holds the rudder bar to the casing snapped off so we lost the lot. We don't believe we hit anything like last time, we guess it was fatigue as its our windward rudder and it's been getting a heavy work out for a long time now. We can still sail no worries with the other rudder (we did over 700 miles last time with only one!) but it means a lot of work for Russ in Papeete, and less time for us in the Tuamotus, but we are trying to make the most of it.

We are leaving tomorrow to Tahanea Atoll, which is uninhabited and reported to be magnificent. Then we will see famous Fakarava for a few days and a dive before heading to Papeete. We are all loving the turquoise warm waters. Bri scored a nice friend on another boat anchored here too, so a great time all around.

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Nuku Hiva

We are here!!! Arrived in Nuku Hiva in the Marquesas Group in French Polunesia yesterday at 9am local time. We did Las Perlas in Panama to here in exact 25 days! 6,5 days to Galapagos, 18,5 days to Nuku Hiva!

The trip had its ups and downs but all around it was a dream trip, much easier than we had thought. Brisa whom was thought to be a problem to be dealt with during the trip, turned out to be the maker of our trip. Without her it would be have been boring as hell. She was an absolute trooper, hardly ever complaining about the days she was not able to go on the trampoline and making the best of it on the days she could which made us way more active and playful than usual. She is a master of drawing circles, waves and zig zags, her pen control is amazing! Her imagination has blossomed during this trip, she role plays with all her toys being Au-au Levy (a barking puppet dog given to her by her good mate Levy in Curacao) and Gigi the Giraffe (given to her by my Dad when we were in USA) her favorites. She took these toys everywhere she went. Play doh can now be turned into little semi round balls, including faces!!

Sailing wise we had a mixed bag of winds to start with as we had a big blow from the north to shoot us out of Panama, but from then on we had mostly light winds up to 15 knots. It varied from S to SE to E then to NE. We used our main only half the trip, the rest was all up to the Kite, Code Zero and Genoa. The sea conditions were much bigger than expected by the amount of wind, and we had quite a few uncomfortable but tolerable days. There seemed to be a constant current with us which varied from 1.5 to 0.5 knots, it diminished the further south we got as expected.

It is a bit unfortunate that we could not enter through Fatu Hiva or Hiva Oa which would allow us to see a bit more of these friendly islands but we have been sailing for a long time now, Bri deserves a good anchorage and a nice beach for a while to rest up (I guess it applies more to us than to her actually...). We will have a look around here then plan to spend a bit more time in the Tuamotus which seem to be quite an astounding place.

We went ashore yesterday and it was dragon boat race day! Quite a neat little party ashore with drums and lots of smiles. They are polynesians no doubt, they look, smile and even dress like Maoris, but they speak french which clashes quite a bit with the way they look. Actually I seem to noticed they spoke their own language amongst themselves. I could not understand much. But the generous friendly smiles and that unmistakable laugh (ririri, know what I mean?) is very Polynesian, it is very much like our own Maoris - made us quite homesick!

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1200 miles to go!

We have been at sea for 17 days now and have another week or so until we get to the Marquesas.

Unfortunately the initial plan of sailing to Gambier had to be changed as the angle was very uncomfortable which is a shame but we endeavor to enter Marquesas in Fatu Hiva the southern most island so we can have a bit more of a look.

All is going well onboard, Brisa keeping us entertained and on our toes.

Food wise we are doing well but fruit is now pretty much gone, we ate the last banana this morning which leaves with a couple of oranges, 5 limes and 2 tamarillos! But we have quite a few vegies still and loads of canned stuff so we should be alright. The giant tuna is still feeding us so no fishing until that is eaten!

The SSB nets are busy, some 20 boats at least that we hear in the airwaves everyday doing the pacific crossing. Many kiwi boats! Wonder where they have been as we hardly saw any all the way round!

Brisa is doing great, growing in front of our eyes, very verbal now, with an astonishing mix match of English and Portuguese. It will send our family crazy in NZ until she understands whom to speak in which language!

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Past Galapagos!

We are now at 2 degrees South of the Equator, past the Galapagos Islands after 7 days of excellent sailing!

Moonwalker has once again proven herself as an amazing boat in light winds, although we had good strong northelies to start with from the Perlas Islands. Probably we got the last northerly blow of the season which was a lucky strike but by heading south and staying in the eastern side of Malpelo Island we managed to stay with a favorable current between 1 to 1.5 knots all the way past the Malpelo Island when we started to get some current against.

So we made such good time and used so little fuel, plus had some rain in the ITCZ area (which was remarkably small where we crossed her, lasting not much more than a day), that a stop in Galapagos seemed unnecessary. We are in such a good rhythm already, that stopping would mean starting all over again and it takes at least 3 days until the girls onboard find their good sea legs.

Our plan now is to head to the Gambier Islands just to make something a bit different, and seems like we have a good forecast to heading that way as we have fairly light winds still with a more easterly direction as we go further south. At the moment we got about 12 knots out of the SSE. The sailing has been superb to say the least.

Crossing the Equator for the last time was a bit of a non event onboard as it was in the middle of the night, but we had a special lunch and did our offers to our beloved Iemanja ( the Goddess of Waters in Afro-Brazilian culture). Our little statue of her was perfumed, fed with raisins, a shot of rum and some sparkling hair clips where applied to her clothing. After a few prayers of thanks and lots of caressing from all of us She seemed pleased as the next day, once the rum had evaporated, we caught a massive yellow fin tuna! The gigantic fish was about Brisa's length and easily 20 kgs. Our biggest fish by far.

All going well we should be in the Gambiers before the 20th of the month... long long way....

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After 10 days of much work since my return from the USA, we got the boat ready and eventually our Pactor ready with the massive help from Robert and James from Duxbury, in Cape Town  - South Africa. They were great and very supportive.

So now we are about to pull up anchor and head to the Perlas Islands. From there its a puzzle, we will head towards Galapagos Islands but Ecuador is a strong candidate for a stop if Moonwalker real struggles with the current and winds and we are running low in fuel and water. Otherwise, if all goes well and we are looking fine, we might just as well continue all the way to Marquesas.

We are open to it all. I would rather just keep going but with the battle against the ITCZ, Humbolt Current and all sorts of other hazards its hard to make too much of a plan so we might as well go with the flow.

Brisa has a stock of new toys for each day of the future crossing (25 toys, 25 days is my very optmistic calculation) and will probably be spoiled rotten by the time we get anywhere but its well worth it as I believe she will provide the biggest challenge for us, by having to be entertained. She has been such a trooper so far though.

The captain is beside himself trying to get away from the big smoke and considering the challenges of the last few days she is fairly calm (a bit like a contained calmness ready to explode but reasonably calm nonetheless), so he is very relieved to have all sorted. He has a huge challenge ahead of him but once we get to the trade winds by Galapagos I believe we will be laughing all the way to Marquesas. We gotta think positive, the Pacific is hugely massive gigantic proportions making it fairly intimidating.

We got a lot of enternainment onboard with many games on our brand new tablet with films and a new dvd player. Plus tons of books. Fishing should be fun too.

Wish us luck and drop us a line on Sailmail when you guys can, we miss everyone and crossings can be quite lonely affairs so emails always bring a nice smile to our boring crossing days.

Panama City

Well, yes, we have crossed to the other side already... Sorry! But most of our followers have managed to get a glimpse on Facebook maybe, but if you didn't here it is the proof:

The first photo is from my sister Mariana in the USA and the second was taken by Gary Alway from NZ.

We left Cartagena and visited some of the islands on the way to Sapzurro just south of the border with Panama. We had a good and uneventful trip until we approached Sapzurro... it was windy and the swell was big but we didn't realised how big until Moonwalker entered Sapzurro bay... the waves were huge and breaking all over the place, to say Russell was " focused" was an understatement. But there was no return, he made the call and in we went. I locked myself in the cockpit with Brisa and kept an eye on Russ and on the waves behind and it went remarkably well considering the nerve wrecking conditions.

Once in the corner where we had to anchor was far from perfect, and very tight but quite picturesque. It was a fast visit to say the least. The dreamed surf was a mess, waves big but with wind and without a proper shape. But they were fun to watch from shore. We walked around the village which was very nice, Brisa had her first kindy experience, spending about an hour with the other kids in the local day care. She even had the (extremely sweet) rice pudding the teacher served. They were all lovely and Bri had a ball.

We sailed from there to the San Blas villages in the south, very seldom visited by yachties. Because of Brisa we had some of the most amazing interactions with the local population. She danced with old Kuna ladies, pointed to their nose rings to their delight (thank Godness they didn't understand what she was saying " caca, caca" meaning " dirty dirty"), had lovely swings on their hammocks and ran ammock with the kids in general.

Another significant event when we arrived in the San Blas was our forestay, whom decided to part company with the mast and drop down with a ping not a bang THANK GOD!!! The mast stayed up and all was fairly ordely to recover and tidy on deck. We were up and sailing again in about 45 mintues... eventually at the end of the day at anchor, the coin finally dropped and we realised what a mission we had ahead of us. Adrenaline is a blessing and an amazing strengh giving natural drug... This is how Moonwalker looked like until this afternoon:

Sorry a bit far away but you get the idea - we carried our furler tied on the side for almost 5 weeks! We sailed on small jib and double reefed main for almost a month and Moonwalker still went well doing 7-8 knots!

Unfortunately San Blas did not get any better...the 3 weeks we stayed there it was windy and rainy, not pleasant at all. The place is beautiful though we can totally see its potential but it wasn't for us so the weather Gods pushed us forward and we made it to the town of Portobelo, a lovely place 20 miles from Colon and the Panama Canal.

Colon is aptly named as it is the "colon" of the world, a shit pitt with very little to offer apart from a quick passage to the Pacific. We organized ourselves so we had to spend as little time as possible in the place and it proved to be a wise decision. The catamaran anchored next to us in front of Clube Nautico got borded and robbed 2 days after we left. Don't think I need to say anything else.

The Panama Canal crossing was in itself fairly uneventful as far as dangers goes. It was a very ordely and timed affair which was made very pleasant by the fact we had good friends in another catamaran Sans Souci attached to us as you can see in the photo. They even had a playmate for Brisa, little Fritz whom is only a month younger than Bri. Our crew onboard were on the ball and very experienced. We had Jo and Selwyn from Morning Cloud (NZ) and Dave from Green Flash (USA). Only the boys did any work, the girls took photos, cooked and played with Bri. Our advisors were very nice and made our crossing very easy.

It was quite an amazing experience to be in one of the wonders of engeneering in the world. The massive iron rivetted gates were there from the beginning and are still doing their jobs very well. And fancy starting your day in one ocean and finish in another? How's that?

The Pacific was felt straight away, cooler water, variable winds and bird life. We are so happy to be on this side. " Only"  around another 7000 miles to go and we are HOME!

ps: Forestay fixed, side stay to be done tomorrow - captain is vey proud of himself and happy.  
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Leaving Cartagena

Leaving Cartagena for the San Blas today, planning to visit some of the islands off Cartagena (Tintinpan etc) then across the bay to Sapzurro where Russ hopes to maybe score a wave which our friend from Afar had 6 amazing weeks, then north to the famous San Blas Islands.

We are looking forward to the coming month, so much to see! Cultural encounters with the Kuna Yalas, the only try caribs left (tiny people, second only to the pigmies in Africa!). Their ladies make the famous Molas, intricate stitching work, very colourful for which they are well known world wide.

Be in Colon for the Canal Crossing by the end of March.

Cartagena - Colombia

Who would have thought that we would be drifting under kite all the way from Curaçao to Cartagena? The notorious tricky seas in Santa Marta delivered the expected 30 to 40 knots but very little swell, 2 meters at its worst, the only time we put the kite down and drifted (again) under bare poles - just a little slither of genoa for maneouverability - for about 6 hours until we put the kite up again and off we went to lovely Cartagena. Took us about 3 days. So we have been here since saturday the 18th.

So here we are and what a pleasant surprise! Cartagena is a big city, but pleasant to see and be in - even Russ is enchanted and this is big news as you all know. The old town is magnificent, the supermarkets world class and way better priced than the Caribbean thank you very much, and only a 2 minute walk from the ancorage which is great!

Checking in is pricey and we thought we could get away with it but it was not to be as we saw the Coast Guard boarding a few boats today (tuesday the 21st) so we decided it wasn't worth the risk. You have to use an agent and all up it costs about NZ$ 100 for an one week stay. The Clube Nautico charges NZ$27 for a week of water, dinghy dock, internet and facilities. A taxi ride around the inner city area is NZ$4 and a meal out for 2.5 (got to include Bri) is around NZ$30 including beers, juices and ice cream!

Bri simply loves the street dancers, with their colorful clothes, big skirts and energetic African drum beat. She just starts swaying and shimming away as she hears them and when she sees the dancers she is just mesmerised and stunned by all their moves, she kind of tries to imitate but eventually just watches and shuffles from feet to feet. The problem is keeping her in the perimeter of the audience, she wants to be there in the middle of all the twisting legs, torsos and hands! And when they end, she squeals, laughs and claps saying " ais ais ais" (more more more!). She stole the dancers show the other day by just being Bri. Oh God we were so terribly unashamedly proud of our little girl!!!

Anyhow, we are having a ball and will enjoy this amazing city for another week before going across the gulf to the San Blas islands, where we expect to see some pretty amazing things too... all in all we are have a feeling we are about to enter some of the best times of our lives.  

Venezuela's Blanquilla, Los Roques & Las Aves Islands

We had an overnight sail from Prickly Bay to Blanquilla. We had no navigation lights on at night but it wasn't on purpose, they had a bad contact. But apart from a few ships we saw nothing and had a pleasant sail. The swell is a bit confused getting out of Grenada so it takes quite a few miles to really feel the “ open sea” and it was fine.

We anchored on the Western side of Blanquilla and were happy to see two other boats there. We thought it may be a bit of a tight fit as the guide said so but it is not the case. There was us, a brand new Hansen 60 and a 40ft, both from Venezuela. We felt safer by being with them and realized they were not flying any flags (not even Venezuelans) so we quickly hid ours too. Next day the skipper of the big Hansen came around to say they were moving to another anchorage and he just wanted to make sure we were ok with that and to reassure us that we were perfectly safe staying there. They had been sailing the Venezuelan coast for years and said Blanquilla was a very good island, even the officials were totally fine to deal with but that we were not going to see them unless we went to the anchorage further south, they tended to visit them too only to have a beer or something.

They were from Margarita Island and said it was a no go zone specially for foreign yachts. Apparently the dangers are very localized in the Venezuelan Coast and off Shore islands and as long as you avoid these areas you should be safe enough. The trick is to know which areas are safe...He recommended Testigos Islands but they were past us already and gave us good tips on where to go in Los Roques and Aves. He advised that we pass quite far (10 miles at least if during the day) from the Militar Island of Orchilla. Not because there are problems but the military may hail you by radio and if you don't understand spanish it can be a hassle. As we were passing it at night we didn't care. Actually for the sailors whom are going that way the light in Orchilla can be seen almost 20 miles off the coast and it says only 5 miles on our CMAP so I got a bit of a fright when I spotted them at night as I was unsure of where we were then.

We bypassed Grand Roque in order to avoid officialdom and went straight to Sarqui. It was just beautiful. We stayed 3 nights there. The snorkeling was good but not great, actually it was like that everywhere in Roque as the reefs are dead and bleached. The fish life is interesting and quite plentiful but lack the variety one would expect. Some big scary barracudas always lurking around... they gave me the creeps and made me go into the water without any jewelry or sparkly bits as I am told they are attracted to them. The mistake I made was dropping the spear of my spear gun right in front of one... shivers she was not moving away and as I moved she moved too... it took me ages to reload my gun...Ok Ok Ok for the greenies there... Los Roques is a national park and in theory you are not supposed to fish with guns and if it makes any difference I caught nothing. However I may add that every other boat is fishing with some serious gear and there are many fishing camps around. Plus cigatera is a problem in Los Roques so the gun was more of a safety, or just in case something happens to impale itself...

After Sarqui we visited Carenero, just off Felipe Island. It had a few boats and a fishing camp close by so it was a busy area. Moved then to Becqueve which was very pretty and had nesting birds on it. Russ had a field day of photos. We went then to the leeward side of Cayo De Agua for the day with the day visiting tourist boats as aparently the snorkeling was good there... no a fat chance, all dead. But the average tourist just wouldn't know better. I guess they are happy just to see fish scrapping coral. The beach and land was very pretty and made for picturesque photos.

We spent the night on the inside on Cayo De Agua anchored with an Argentinean boat. It was nice to meet such a young excited couple. We had a great night with them and moved on the next day to Los Aves.

We visited only Aves de Barlovento as Sotavento has officials. In Barlovento there was a couple of fishing camps but they kept to themselves unless they had some medical issues, which happened to one of them with an infected toe. The anchorages are good and the eastern most anchorage in Isla Sur is very good for shallow draft boats. Even being exposed to the wind a bit it was dead flat if you managed to tuck yourself right in. We had a couple of night there with heavy winds. And another 3 nights on the second anchorage from left to right, just by the nesting birds. Russ had another field day taking photos. We spent one night in the Isla Oeste but that was not so good but we had hauling trade winds and were a bit too close to the fishing camp to my liking. Walking around the islands is lovely. The yachting shrine in Isla Sur is real cute and we left our contribution. The snorkelling can be excellent in some areas, the further way from the island usually the better. Had crays for dinner one... I caught one and Russ the other.

With an aching heart we decided to cover the 65 miles to Bonaire after a wonderful week in Aves.

The sailing was great, we were doing real good speeds, the sweel was not very high and with us. As we approached the lee side of Bonaire the real fun started... flat water and still 20 knots of trade winds made for perfect sailing grounds for our beloved sailing machine. In no time we had kite surfers and windsurfers coming to greet us. It was super nice the contrast of dry land, turquoise waters and the salt ponds with its colorful obelisks.

We got a mooring in town as there is strict no anchoring policy in the island. We were happy to oblige but not too happy to have to pay US10 a day for the privilege. But hey its all for a good cause at the end. Bonaire is trully lovely and hassle free. Very accessible and friendly. We enjoyed immenselly. It would have been perfect if we didn't have so many outboard problems. Because of it our exploration of snorkeling sites was very diminished. But I managed to have a couple of good dives and can see why Bonaire is so famous for its diving. It's pristine.

However, as the spoiled brat that I am, Indonesia (namely Sumatra and Komodo Area), Chagos and some areas of Madagascar are still much better. I love the soft corals and I didn't see much of that there. AND NO SHELLS! I was beside myself. The no spear gun policy was strictly adhered to but it hurts to see awesome eatable fish swimming by at a hands touch... I saw some of the biggest snappers I have ever seen here. No barracudas thank God! Or sharks for that matter...wonder what happened to them...no sharks in Venezuela either come to think of it... hum... better not too think too much of it... it brings memories of walking into a fishing camp off the coast in Madagascar to see massive boxes full of salted shark fin (“chinamen buy” the fisherman's smiley face said).

So now we are here in Curacao after a super sail again, hoping to stock up, see a bit of the island then move on to Aruba in order to get a good window to Cartagena – Colombia. Apparently the seas are very rough at this corner of the Caribbean thanks to the very end of the Caribbean seas, so a rather long fetch for the swell to grow plus the end of Andes funneling winds plus the depth of the sea which encourages fairly big swells too. So it should be an interesting ride but thankfully short. Russ is preparing mentally for the worst, comparing it to the going around northern Madagascar... I guess we have to think of the worst so if we get something a little less bad we may be able to smile all the way there!

Check the webalbuns guys, shortcut on the left here. Heaps of cool photos there.

Tobago to Grenada and Grenadines

Wow, it's been a fair while you guys... well, I can give you all the excuses in the world and they will be always true but I really should just drop a few more phrases here and there for the blog followers... I guess the convenience of Facebook and the easy webalbum updates I have been giving makes me a bit lazy to write on the blog when I have the rare opportunity like this afternoon.

I will start by describing our present situation from Bonaire where the top speed was 17 knots. Moonwalker was loving it, and Russ had a lovely grin on his face. Brisa and I took the chance to read a book and catch up on sleep. We are good at that when we sail! At this very moment Bri is sleeping after falling asleep on the dinghy ride back from a local marina where we went to get water, and Russ is in the hospital with the son of the said marina as he had a bad accident with a piece of glass I am told. I not even noticed Russ was gone as Brisa was running around the courtyard after three very friendly dogs. Therefore I have the boat for myself for a wee while I hope. Can't not even remember the last time I had such peace even if the circumstances are odd!

So where did we last leave you all? Tobago! Yes, lovely Tobago. We had a blast there. Spent a month as we had two weeks by ourselves and another 2 with my uncle Tadeu and his family. It was a very nice place to cruise around. The anchorages are fairly good but some can be rolly with the northerly swell which we had when we arrived in Charloteville. We pretty much seen the entire island and were astounded to discover so few people visited it. Eventually we came to understand why: weather. We were at very end of season to visit it really. As when the infamous “ Christmas Winds” arrive from the Northeast predominately most of the anchorages become unattainable I believe.

To tell you all the truth Russ and I hadn't really done our homework and had no idea these winds were so severe. We discovered when we got to Trinidad to drop my uncle off and ended up being stuck in Trini for over a week – which is probably as much time as you need to be there if you got nothing to do on your boat. It was like, when the weather Gods hear a Christmas Bell they just turn on the fan into maximum! It was 20 to 30 knots daily from North to Northeast.

We managed to score a lighter easterly to just north of east winds on the 27^th December which allowed us to go to Grenada without too much trouble (just a bit of pain in our pockets as we had to pay extra in order to check out of Trinidad on boxing day– super expensive if you ask me at almost US150 for a bit over a month there!) but still with a very unpleasant swell. The plan was to by pass Grenada and anchor in Carriacou and head to the Tobago Cays in the Grenadines as soon as possible but as we approached St Davis Harbour in Grenada the days was coming to an end and the wind was getting stronger and more northerly (in other words right on our nose!). So into St Davis Harbour we went. There we realized there was no way we were going north anytime soon. The weather forecast was very strong winds all the way to the 4^th of January so we headed back down the island to more populated anchorages of Clarks Court and Hog Island. Eventually we settled to spend New Years in Prickly Bay and were very pleasantly surprised to meet many good friends, some from South African times.

Eventually we got a lighter wind forecasted – 15 to 20 – and thought we should give it a try. We decided to take the lee of the island even though it added 10 miles to the trip. The sail up the lee side was good, we had the company of another 10 boats which added to our confidence that we had made a good decision until we got to the end and had a glimpse of the channel to Carriacou... it was white foamy caps of 25 to 30 knots gusts Russ was fumming. He yelled at the winds and to whomever wanted to hear that he had thousands of miles to go so why the f?!@k should he sail up wind so come stupid Caribbean island? Oh well... I told him, as a good girl that I am, that I didn't mind we could just turn back to Grenada and carry on West, no harm done. However Russ kept checking all the other boats coming and everyone was doing it, even Filipe's Trimaram (a nice Italian sailor we had met in Prickly) was there bashing up wind... so Russ bit the bullet and off we went. Every time a wave crashed, the boat bashed or got slapped under Russ would growl... it wasn't a pretty sight. But we did it and anchored for the night in Carriacou. We watched as most of boats entered the same anchorage after us all weather beaten and salty. Russ with a cold beer in his hand exchanged pleasantries with them all from the salty deck.

Next day we moved up the chain into Union Island, still a bashing upwind but Russ seemed a bit more resigned into it and actually had some fun laying out plans wind angles and anchorages we could see while utilizing the wind to our advantage. Well, reality is we hadn't until then, to deal with contrary winds! Quite astounding I know. So I was a whole different game. We anchored on the lee side of Union, for the night and next morning we checked into the Grenadines by going into the crowded and tight harbour there. Winds were still hauling at 20 to 25 constantly. We moved after checking in, as Russ didn't want to stay there, to Petite Martinique, which was actually back tracking a bit but a good wind angle and not so bad with the high running swell. Next day the angle was good to sail into Tobago Cays.

The Cays is very pretty with picture perfect anchorages, beaches and turquoise waters but crowded. The wind was relentless and everyone was bashing in the main anchorage area of Horseshoe Reef so we decided to check our luck in between the two islands right behind it and managed to tuck ourselves off the main channel up against the shallow waters of the beach. It was paradise. Lovely beach just next door, off the strong wind and still. It was great. But the weather made snorkeling a pain with its constant chop and going out on the reef was pretty hard. So after 3 days we packed our stuff and moved on. Probably the coolest thing we saw was the biggest cruising catamaran in the world called Hemisphere. It is 120ft and looked enormous, but that is all it was, a very big cat. Not quite the statement we expected when we hear about a boat with that title. Russ made me visualize a down scaled hemisphere, and asked if I thought it was a nice boat. I had to agree with him it wasn't such an interesting boat after all. But man, it was big and flash...

We eventually returned to Grenada via the windward side in order to visit the Salina Islands off Carriacou. There we had an incredible time, with the anchorage just to ourselves, beautiful beach and water loaded with turtles. It was quite amazing to think that just a few miles north we had to share anchorages with dozens of boats. It was a great tip from an Irish sailor we met in Brazil.

In Grenada we did a good stock up bought a couple of guides for Venezuela and ABC islands – say whatever you want to say about cruisers net, but the Grenada net on VHF is absolute priceless and incredibly helpful in all matters so good on them (channel 68 at 730 am local time) – and off we went against everyones advice to the Venezuelan Off – Shore Islands!