Appleseeds: 2009

Sunday, December 13, 2009

Five Bays & Rodadero, Columbia with Andy & Liza

Saturday, December 12, 2009

Rodadaro, Northcoast, Columbia

En route to Cartagena with Andy & Liza.

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Sunday, November 29, 2009

La Blanquilla, Los Roques, Aves de Barlevento & Bonaire

Whew, we're halfway there! Only 400 miles to go. We left Grenada about 3pm on Friday afternoon (Nov. 20) We changed our minds at the last minute after speaking with Chris Doyle, who is a writer of several guide books for the Caribbean. He told us of a recent "incident" (pirating), which happened to a cruiser in Los Tostigoes, which was going to be our first stop. We decided to give that little island group a pass. It's too close to the mainland, which is where you run into all the problems. We had a 24 hour trip ahead of us with our first stop being La Blanquilla, a very small island far enough off the coast of Venezuela as to not be a problem. We went "stealth", that is, with no lights as we didn't want to draw any attention to ourselves.We saw about 5 boats in total throughout the night with the closest one being about a mile away. The sail was pleasant enough, 20-25 knots of breeze directly behind us. It's the 2 hours on, 2 hours off shifts that are so tiresome. If you want to get from point A to point B, there is no way around the overnighters. We recouped from our journey & headed out for our 2nd overnight passage. This was a 115 mile sail to Los Roques. We lucked out once again with a beautiful night. We saw squalls in the distance & kept our eye out for the lightening, which was over the mainland. Did not see another boat all evening. The Venezuelan outer islands have been a very pleasant surprise. They're quite tranquil. Los Roques is an archipelago group of about 50 little islands. You could stay there for a good couple of weeks exploring new places the whole time, but unfortunately, we were only there for 2 days. The few boats we have run across either mind their own business or are very friendly yelling "Hola Canada!!" Only one boat was a bit problematic with 3 drunken fishermen coming up to us looking for some rum. I just played ignorant claiming "No comprendo" & they finally went away. We then moved on to Los Aves, the last group of islands off the coast of Venezuela. It was about a 35 mile sail from our last stop on Isla Carenero in Los Roques. The island we anchored off, Isla Sur in Aves de Barlovento, is a bird sanctuary & there were hundreds & hundreds of birds nesting in the mangroves. Most of the species were a variety of boobies - red footed boobies, brown breasted boobies, white tailed boobies, purple peckered boobies! It was all quite beautiful to see & hear. We were the only boat there. As soon as we put the anchor down, we had a little visit from a couple of local fishermen. This time they wanted to trade a red snapper for some rum, coka-cola, cigarettes & something else which I could not figure out, but once they left, we decided it was food that they were looking for. These guys have absolutely nothing & I felt really bad that I didn't give them something to eat. Anyway we had a delicious dinner of snapper in garlic butter & they got a 3 finger shot of rum & a couple of sodas. Good trade! This was the first night that Peter said he actually felt like he was out cruising again. We left the next morning & had an 8 hour sail to Bonaire arriving Thanksgiving Day. Bonaire is about the halfway point to where we meet up with the kids in Cartegena. We felt in a celebratory mood & went out for dinner at "Richards". Richard was on his way from Maine to sail around the world when he stopped off in Bonaire for a crew change. He wrote to the crew telling them not to bother coming because he fell in love with Bonaire & decided to stay - that was 20 years ago! Bonaire is just beautiful - totally pristine. The buildings are all brightly colored & the people extremely friendly. Everything is in Dutch, but the locals speak 4 languages, luckily one of them being English. My Dutch is a little rusty! We've had some repairs to do, one of them was to fix the head, which has finally happened! Our dinghy is undergoing repairs - it was delaminating & had a fairly substantial leak in it. It's only 2 years old. The sun & salt are just brutal on these things. We'll stay here for about a week & then its onto Curacao, & Arruba. Both of these islands are supposed to be quite industrial & not nearly as nice as here. We've got some friends flying into Arruba on Dec. 6th & they will be sailing with us to Cartegena, leaving a couple of days before the kids arrive. It's going to be very busy. Well, just thought I'd let everybody know that we've made it safe & sound & here's to the next 400 miles!

Friday, November 20, 2009

View From the Boat, Grenada, Roger's Beach Bar, & Prickly Bay

Season 4 - November, 2009, Grenada

We've been back in beautiful Grenada for a week now. Unfortunately, this is the part of boating that I truly dislike (hate is more like it). It's the "getting the boat back in shape after being out of the water for 5 months" part. The only word that comes to mind is "overwhelming". That pretty much sums it up. Appleseeds has been "on the hard" (drydocked) since June & the first step is to get her ready to get back in the water. The boat gets absolutely filthy & the one thing that you don't want to see when you turn the key to view the boat for the first time is the mold & mildew which is a real problem. We were extremely fortunate because Peter had prepared the boat well before he left in June. He wiped it all done with a vinegar & bleach solution & this has prevented any mold from developing, thank god. The two major chores are painting the bottom of the boat with anti-fouling paint & waxing the topsides - the jobs that can only be done while the boat is out of the water - the rest of it will have to wait. This year I added another job to the list though, which entailed removing the boot cove stripe which is just above the water line. It's a decorative tape that's been put on by Jeanneau, but ours was getting quite shabby & made the boat look tacky - that would just not do. Anyway, I got a couple of coats of wax on the hull & was ready to tackle the water line. Ugly, ugly job. Think vinyl wallpaper thats been glued on for years & years & add the fact that this has been baked on by the sun & salt water. Add to this recipe that there's not a breadth of wind, 85 degree heat & 95% humidity. The vinyl stripe was coming off 1/4" x 1/4" at a time & I had 80 ft. of it to do! No wonder all the local guys at the boatyard were coming around to watch me - they couldn't believe this idiot girl. And by the way, why am I the only female working on her boat?? I see no others having to work their way down the scaffolding & balancing vicariously on the ladder where the scaffolding doesn't reach. What's with that? So this is from first thing in the morning to almost dusk that this is going on. Finally, the jobs are done after 5 days & we are ready to "splash" (go back in the water) Monday is a day for celebration. A boat's place is in the water - its just not right sitting up on a cradle. I think the boat yard is being a liitle more cautious than usual, the drop goes without a hitch (as compared to the boat 6 days previous that had gotten dropped on the cement from 8 ft' above & is now a complete write-off - the end of their cruising days for this year anyway) We are officially in the water & this is a very good thing. At least there is a breeze out here & if you get so stinkin hot, you can just jump overboard. The fun stuff starts again except this time, it's down below. There is not an inch to spare what with all the sails, the bimini, dodger, solar panel, etc. etc. that is being stored while on the hard. Nothing can be left out for the hurricane gods to get at, so its all down below. Bimini goes up to protect us from the sun, sails go on because they take up a huge amount of space, solar panel mounted etc. etc. Each of these jobs takes at least half a day to do. On top of that, there's the "little" jobs that you're not accounting for. Like the head (toilet) not working, going to make a cup of coffee first thing in the morning & the propane regulator is leaking - little things like that - things that kind of need to be working. Peter is"overwhelmed". My job is to start at the bow of the boat & work my way to the stern cleaning from top to bottom. I run into hundreds of carcasses of sugar ants. They're harmless, just plain annoying if you get them on the boat, they're hard to get rid of. They climb up on the straps when you're tied down in the boat yard. Luckily, I don't run across any live ones. Good sign. I'm lifting out floorboards & I run into water where water is not supposed to be. Peter's gone off to run some errand, get parts for this & that, spending money & I'm left with the question, "are we sinking?" I start bailing & try to locate the leak if that's what it is. When he returns, we deduce that it's probably residual water from the air conditioner which Peter has just removed so that we have a place to put the water maker in. Another major project. This is a 3-4 day ordeal & entails much swearing for it to be properly installed. Not to make this sound like it's all work & no play, I'm happy to say we have not missed a Happy Hour yet! It's been fun bumping into fellow cruisers that we've met over the previous years. It's good to be back in Grenada.

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This is our second week here. The boat's been in the water for a little over a week now & it's been non-stop projects. We've got the watermaker working; the refrigeration is finally up & running as of yesterday; the toilet is just so-so, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, not an ideal situation! Makes for a real crap shoot. (Sorry, couldn't resist). Peter's been working all day, every day to get the boat ready to go. (Still haven't missed a Happy Hour yet!) I"ve been the errand runner when he needs a couple of more nuts & bolts for his projects which means I take my life in my hands everytime I step onto one of those buses! i did the big shop yesterday for about 10 days of food before we leave for Venezuela today. Yes, we're off to the outer islands of Venezuela. The plan is to take about a week to get through there & then onto the ABC's. First stop is Los Tostigoes, then La Banquilla & then Los Roques. Yesterday, we got a Venezuelan visa that allows us to travel through without having to go to the mainland to check in & out which is where you don't want to be. We will leave Grenada late this afternoon & travel through the night. This part of the journey is the most troublesome - we have to go closer to the mainland than we would like, but that's the course. We won't have any email until we get to Bonnaire at which point, we will let everyone know that we made it safely. Unfortunately, we didn't find any other boat to go with us. Nobody seems to be going that way. Hmmmm!!! The weather looks okay although a bit squally, but that seems to be the norm. Wish us luck!!