The weather has turned nice again with only infrequent squalls so our movement west has begun.
We spent a most fabulous Thanksgiving at Crasqui Island. We were anchored in a lovely sand covered bay with crystal blue water with Independence, Alegria, Uliad, Vento, and Coquelicot. Roberto from Vento was in the Roques last year for several months and met many people in the area. At Crasqui, a quaint fishing shack is owned by his friends Phillip and Patricia. He arranged a very local Venezuelan seafood feast for Thanksgiving. We started with fried minnows and oysters on the half shell with little fried homemade breads. Then we sat down to a beautiful table setting with local flowers lying around and were served lobster, conch salad, tuna sushi server four different ways, fried whole snapper and rice. What a bountiful feast! There was more than enough; we couldn't even eat it all! After a lovely dinner we all met over on Uliad for a dessert buffet of pumpkin pie, oreo cheesecake pie, oatmeal cookies, chocolate soufflé, brownies and much cheer! All in all a fantastic Thanksgiving!
After recovering from our scrumptious dinner we headed out the next day to Sarqui. Sarqui has a fantastic setting with the surf crashing on the reef just 50 yards away. Another beautiful anchorage in paradise! From there we moved onto Bequeve only 10 miles away. We were able to sail and fish there. We caught a tuna but by the time we reeled it in we only had a tuna head. Another well fed shark is swimming the ocean, thanks to Salt & Light! Very frustrating but as Denny was pulling in the hand line we caught another fish. We thought it was a small tuna but after further investigation and taste testing we realized it was not. We think it was a kind mackerel; we are not sure which one. However we cooked it up that night and had a fabulous dinner! Bequeve is part of 3 islands that form a large cove of sorts. We snaked our way between coral heads and sand shoal into a beautiful anchorage. We jumped in the water to check the anchor and go for a swim and found the bottom littered with huge conch! Jackpot! We easily collected what we needed, beautiful shells and all! On our swim to shore Michaela and I swam over two very large sting rays. What magnificent creatures with there wings flowing up and down. The beach was a treasure trove of shells and collectibles. Our friends on Alegria found a sting ray skull, very cool!! The guys all went hunting while we played on the beach but found no lobsters however came home with lots of reef fish, snapper and grouper.
Bequeve is beautiful but we are on the hunt for lobster and in need to head west to reach Colombia before Christmas. After two days we headed to the Aves where we sit right now. WOW! Thinking we snaked in Bequeve we had no idea; to get into Aves Barlovento we really had to bob and weave our way through coral heads and sand shoals. Thank God for his amazing sun shine that marks everything very clearly. We are getting good at reading bottom color again just like in the Bahamas! A few passages through coral and sand were probably only 25 feet wide, with a side wind it can get very challenging, to say the least!! The snorkeling was fabulous and Denny caught 2 lobsters that were scrumptious. After a couple of days, knowing we needed to head west, we left to Aves Sotavento. It was lobster mecca! We anchored at Curricai and snorkeled right off the boat, it was amazing and the size of the reef fish... huge! We saw a few angel fish the size of a turkey platter on Thanksgiving! The largest we have ever seen. Denny saw many lobsters and brought back four; one extremely large one and the three other were large to medium size. What a hunter!
We needed to head west but it was with sorrow. We would have spent at least a week at each Aves group if we weren't trying to beat the Christmas winds west. If we were to recommend a place to stay for hurricane season we would say go to the Venezuelan out islands. They are pristine, inexpensive, and the holding is superb. I don't think a hurricane has ever crossed the area.
We are now in Bonaire, the most east island of the ABCs or Netherland Antilles. It is an extreme contrast to the Venezuelan out islands. There is no anchoring, to save the coral, so we sit on a mooring ball in the main town on the island with WiFi right on the boat. The first evening here we went into town with Alegria and had hamburgers for dinner! The water is the most crystal clear; we can look down to 75 feet and see the bottom. Denny, Michaela and Liam were able to do 3 dives in one day. The reef is very alive, colorful and full of numerous fish, large and small. They came back talking a mile a minute about all that they saw, a very exciting day.
Enough for now... more hopefully soon before we head off to Colombia. We are hoping early next week, weather permitting!
Ciao!