on route
jenna
Jim / Elaine Soens
Tue 10 Apr 2007 23:41
We arrived in Tortuga late afternoon we had little wind all day and we anchored in Playa Caldera for the night
amazingly there was plenty of wind off the land, which is only a very flat to one side and a beach and reef to the other
on the beach bit there was an air strip - the Venezuelans fly their planes across for the day about 4 flew out that evening
The next day we went a short distance further west and anchored at Cayo Herradura a most beautiful reef but so did a lot of Venezuelans
there where at least 80 big motor boats (only 3 other sail boats) all at anchor some where rafted up together whole family's, of course it was Easter week and
every one was out playing.
The next day was an early start 100 miles to cover and get well anchored before dark we arrived at Los Roques late afternoon and anchored at Dos Mosquises
another wonderful place all these islands are mostly uninhabited though there will be fishermen in smallish boats around. Here we saw blue tuna leaping out the water chasing a group of red snapper type fish. From here we sailed on parasail to Barlovento and anchored in side a reef called Isla Sur just 2 other boats
and a fishing boat. This island has large mangrove trees and a large bird population. There where frigate ,booby's, and red footed booby's also pelicans and small gulls, herons, the booby's had large chicks in their nest. The next day we sailed on parasail again and made good time to Bonaire. There was about 10-14knotts of wind all day till we got close to land then we had 25-28knotts quite exciting getting the parasail down! We picked up a buoy in Kralendijk-yes where in the Dutch Antilles. This a very dry and arid land not at all like the other islands we've visited, they take great care of the water around Bonaire you are not allowed to anchored anywhere. The water is the clearest we have seen all over even in the docks the whole place is a marine park and it has a reputation for the best diving in the world, there are certainly a large number of diving sites around here. I'm tempted to have a go.
Where here for 4 days before we set off for Curacao - only a short sail about 35 miles