Aves De Sotavento

Monday, November 5, 2001

012-2.280 N
067-40.800 W

Had a very nice sail with 15+ kt on the stern. It was quite exciting coming around the southern tip of Satavento and entering the reefs off the western end. The water is so clear that it's very hard to determine how deep things are. You're in 15-20 feet of crystal clear water with coral right under you and you're swearing that it's up at the surface. It sure didn't help that we were doing close to 8 kts on a beam reach! Ken had the exact same feeling when we talked about it later.

Anchored off of a small island named Isla Palmeras in attempt to escape the SE and SW swells. It seemed to work until about 2 AM when the NW swells arrived...

Went snorkeling off of the very small island S of Palmeras. Lots of swell, but the reef was teeming with lots of small fish. I entered a stream of hundreds of Jacks (which are about 6" blue angel looking fish) and was simply immersed in a sea of blue. It was really cool.

The Coast Guard stopped by both boats at about 16:30 yesterday. Young kids, but very professional. Gave them some beers and a Coke while they completed the paperwork & then gave them some Marlboros and a bottle of rum when they left. They were very nice & it helped to have all of the paperwork in order.

Ken & Bonnie came over for another feast. We had Beef Stroganoff, tomato & cucumber salad and a fresh "impossible" apple pie that Bonnie made. It was great.

At around 2 AM the NW swells arrived and made it miserable. On top of that it sounds like I left a flashlight on top of a water tank. Only when the boat would roll a special way would the object roll and bang into some boat part. Long periods of searching turned up nothing, but I know where to look.

7 AM came calling all too early as we had agreed that we would depart for Bonaire at that time.

Log ID: 127