Puerta La Cruz to Bonnaire

4th November 2008

12.09 N 068.16 W

It took over a month to get to Bonnaire as the cruising in Tortuga, Los Roques and Los Aves was superb, despite the millions of mosquitoes who held us captive below on many an evening. There isn’t enough bug spray in the world, believe me, and I have become a dab hand with the electric mosquito zapper!

Before we left Puerto La Cruz we topped up the fuel and were outraged to have to pay $3 US for 90 litres!

Our first stop was at El Barrocha which is a tiny island known to be the home of vampire bats. We sat in the cockpit in the evening and could hear the bats all around us as they bounced their sonar off the boat, in their search for food. As night drew in so a thunder storm began and the lightening cracked overhead, adding to the slightly spooky atmosphere...hahahahahaaa...... Anyway we kept the screens in place at night just in case!

We had a rolly sail from there to Tortuga, where we found about a dozen French boats had beaten us to the pristine, white sandy coral beach. Still it was beautiful and the water crystal clear. After a couple of days in the main anchorage we moved round to Cayo Herradura – Horseshoe cay – which is about a mile long and was very quiet... until the weekend when suddenly we were inundated with local power boaters from the mainland. On the way out to the reef one day we had a bit of a mishap in the dinghy, we got caught in a breaking wave and flipped over; suddenly I was upside down under water. Bit of a shock but no problem; except for Andy who had to strip the outboard down to get all the salt water out....ooops!

From there we went on to Los Roques where we spent a couple of weeks exploring various atolls. The water was clear turquoise blue around the reefs and it reflected on the underside of the small, white sea birds, giving them an exotic glow. The clouds overhead also picked up the green tint. Very strange.

Our first stop was Noronsqui, where we sheltered from stormy weather for a couple of days as Tropical Storm Omar passed nearby. Noronsqui is made up of 3 little islands joined by reefs which completely surround the anchorage and whilst there was no escape from the wind the reef stole all the power from the sea and kept us safe. It was so well protected we decided to stay a few days and do some boat maintenance, stopping just before sunset each evening to snorkel in the shallows where the turtles came routinely to graze.

Whilst each place we stopped had its own beauty the other most notable one was Elbert Cay. The snorkelling was fabulous. We came across a shoal of over 40 large parrot fish, each one over 2’ long! Parrot fish are common on the reef but usually only about 1’ long, when we do see a large one it is usually alone and will disappear as soon as it becomes aware of us. I suppose it was because there is safety in numbers that these stayed around, their curiosity gradually bringing them close to us. Later, in the same area, we spotted a sandbar shark of about 5-6’. We watched him as he cruised the reef, disappointed as he moved away. Then he turned and came back in our direction. He spotted us and approached to within about 10’ keeping his eye on us as he passed by. I confess I tried to make myself invisible whilst dropping back behind Andy.

After a couple of weeks out, with empty tins piling up on the back deck and the thought of corned beef and mixed veg giving us nightmares, Andy began to have some hunting success and we supplemented our processed diet with fresh fish and lobster. Delicious. One day, whilst trawling a line we caught half a mackerel! Something else got to it before we could reel it in. The tail was gone and the body was covered in teeth marks. We are not proud, the leftovers still made a good meal. The next time we were luckier and Andy pulled up a barracuda which fed us for 3 days.

We had a few days in Los Aves; same old, same old – more gorgeous sandy beaches, blue seas, sunshine....... before heading on to Bonaire. We have been here a few days and have done lots of diving, the corals have been lovely and we have seen spotted eagle rays. It has also been nice to buy fresh vegetables and meat. It has been a bit expensive though so tomorrow we are moving on to Curacao, where we can do some maintenance, get anything we need sent out and enjoy a well earned break from paradise!!