We moved to the Islas las Aves de Sotavento (Leeward Bird Islands) on a day with winds too light to do anything but motor, but that was ok with us. Ever since our wind generator committed suicide, we've been forced to run the motor way too often to keep our batteries happy. Part of the problem is that our batteries have become increasingly less happy over the past few months. We could tell that equalization was overdue because when charging their voltage would immediately run up to the full charging voltage, rather than slowly ramping up; this symptom occurs when there is a lot of sulfation within the battery. So we motored three hours to a new anchorage, then reprogrammed the alternator to deliver an equalization charge of 15.5 volts (which means we had to turn off all electrical equipment, as we know from unhappy experience that high voltage is bad for the gear) and kept the motor running in the anchorage for another three hours.
Finding a place to anchor was a pain. The swell from Hurricane Olga had reached the southern Caribbean, so all the lee anchorages, fine in normal tradewind conditions, were rocky from the north swell. We slipped through a gap between an island and a reef, into the area protected by the Sotavento system's horseshoe-shaped fringing reefs, only to find that there were only two depths: 50 feet deep, and reef. Even in the deep water, when we tried to drop an anchor, we found nothing but scoured bottom and reef rubble. We sampled several spots, tension and tempers getting higher, and finally just plunked down the anchor in a marginal place and trusted in the mild forecast for the evening.
The next day we moved into the central reef section, which again was mostly deep water with a few obvious reefs to dodge around, and headed for the eastern edge. Behind the fringing reef we found grassy sand at 25 feet, right on the edge of a deep blue pool surrounded by shallow coral fingers. So here we are, out in the middle of beautiful nowhere, all by our lonesome once again.
The reef here is gorgeous, lots of different types of coral and sponges in dramatic structures which fall steeply from near the surface to 60 feet down. Britt must have grown gills from eating all this seafood, as he regularly dives down to the lowest part of the reef -- not only that, but he hangs out and hunts there. I'm not so aquatic, but I can still manage to free dive to around 40 feet, although I can't hang around very long. I'm not nearly as good a fish-stabber either, so I specialize mostly in lobster (which usually don't move very quickly) and grouper, which frequently hang out motionless and can be carefully snuck up on. (But I did get a schoolmaster snapper the other day, which made me feel quite proud, as they are one of the more skittish fish on the reef!) In addition to the food fish, we've seen lots of angelfish and puffers, a few rays, lots of trunkfish, millions of parrotfish and blue tang, and a few schools of some really hyperactive skinny fish that don't let us get close enough for a good ID.
It's been nearly a month since our last visit to a grocery store, but we visit the grocery reef every day so we are well stocked on seafood, if nothing else. Our fresh fruit and veggie supply is down to a couple of limes, three potatoes, a handful of onions and garlic, one extremely small green pepper, and one and a half carrots. But we still manage to eat pretty well, as you can see from yesterday's menu:
Menu Chez Windom -- Saturday, 1 DecemberBreakfast Coffee (for Ilana) or Iced Tea (for Britt) Lunch Broiled bar jack with ginger, sesame oil and soy
sauce Cocktails Gin and Tonic with lime Dinner Fried squid rings |
The night before, we had Mediterranean Squid; tonight we're having Lobster Pasta. What we have tomorrow night will depend on what we catch -- we only serve the freshest seafood here at Cafe Windom. During our stay in the Aves, we've dined on mahogany, schoolmaster, yellowtail and gray snapper, tiger and yellowfin grouper, scamp, red hind, bar jack, and yellowfin mojarra, in addition to squid and lobster. Now we are trying to get a little ahead of the game so we'll have a few fish to eat in Bonaire, which prohibits spearfishing. Since we don't have a freezer, we'll just store a few filets near the holding plate, enough for a couple of meals.
We'll probably head for Bonaire later this week, as we're starting to feel the time pressure. We need to leave the ABC islands before the winter tradewinds gain their full strength, and we'd like to be in Cartagena for Christmas. Infidien and Kajsa have been in Bonaire for a week and will likely have moved to Curacao by the time we get to Bonaire. Hallelujah went straight to Curacao from the Aves, but will soon leave for Aruba, where we will no doubt leapfrog them as they're flying home for five weeks. At least our friends on Joss, who left their boat at a Bonaire marina for a few weeks and are returning today, should be there when we get there. After two weeks of socializing with a bunch of cold fish, it will be fun to be among human beings again.