Before leaving Spanish Waters in Curacao, we often saw sights like this—sailing schools for anyone.
The beach bars nearby, though not cheap, had excellent local food like fried mero—grouper, one of our favorites, with morro—beans and rice.
On March 3, we managed to successfully travel to Bonaire where we spent a few days waiting for weather. The trip was not a pleasant one as the seas were lumpy and the wind out of the east made it unsailable.
On March 16, we successfully left Bonair. Arriving in Sotavento, we were thrilled to find beauty and solitude except for the nearby fishermen. They came over at our call and traded a wonderful lobster for a small bottle of rum
and a pack of cigarettes. Such a deal!
Onto Barlovento, the next island in the Aves...The water was beautiful with tall scraggly mangroves harboring lots and lots of birds.
Red-footed boobies, frigates and pelicans swarmed amongst the trees, daring us to get any closer to their sanctuary. They squawked loudly as we snorkeled in to check out the reef close by, and we got the message!
A couple of other boats came in the following day, but still it was a very quiet anchorage. By Saturday the weather seemed reasonably accommodating for our 35 mile push onward to Los Roques. Of course, it turned out to be another lumpy, bumpy motorsail, but we were anxious to move on. Our first night in Elbert Cay was miserable with opposing wave actions rocking the boat every whichway unmercifully. The next day we moved onto Carenero, a lovely spot where we again had the good fortune to find the local lobsterman. He traded us a loster for coffee
which we took back the following day to his wife and daughter.
On to Francisqui , another island in the Roques, to wait for weather and get protection from the 13' swell due over the weekend.
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