The views are so 'grande' that it's almost impossible to describe it in words ........... Vistas of blues, interwoven with strips of white sand ..... A tapestry of shades just too beautiful to define ...... We have parted with the yacht "Meerkat" from our convoy, but the three of us continue to crawl through the channels and reefs ...... Deep water passages in between allow us to sail to a new anchorage each night and we follow that with a lay-day for exploration ...... Just do a double-click on some of these photos ...........
From the top of the mast the view is just plain exotic, screen-saver beautiful and I look down upon the reefs and upon our fellow cruisers with awe ......... Ray and Lea on the catamaran "EQUINOX II", who are from Melbourne, AUSTRALIA and on their way back there, and Peter and Yutte, on the ketch "FREYA", who hail from Germany and Denmark respectively, and have traveled the World in search of places just like this ........ Places few will ever see, and certainly not from this perspective ......
We just don't seem to ever get tired at looking at this beautiful clear water ...... This poor flying fish didn't make it through the night and Laurie found him near the toe rail in the morning ..... At least we think it's a 'him'' for what would a 'girl' be doing out, so late at night .....
The lay-day explorers Ray, Yutte, Peter and Lea heading with snorkels to the reefs .... We are in our dinghy behind them, and obviously out of sight ....... Cruising together like this has been most rewarding in the sharing of ideas, the making of pot-luck meals together and the security of having fellow cruisers nearby at night .... at some point we will all part ways but until then the cameraderie is tops ......
Star-studded days and nights, in a tropical paradise .......... How lucky and blessed are we .......
Now you may not realize this, but most of the shots are taken with this little Casio Exilim point-&-shoot camera, that we carry with us wherever we go ..... Laurie has the bigger better Nikon ones for when you don't want to point and shoot ...... Wait, that doesn't sound right ..... They are for distance photos and delayed stuff, and for underwater, we use those little Pentax ones to capture furry corals and fast fish ............ Some laid-back local fisherman's houses ....... Needless to say there is no tidal range to speak of here .... Or perhaps the land just doesn't get any higher .......
These islands are remote and fishermen's houses are put together with whatever may have drifted ashore ......... There is usually a mother ship of thirty feet or less nearby, with its holds full of ice and the locals fish all day and then sell it direct to the mother ship at night, who supplies them with basic food items and gasoline in exchange..... Money has no value here, and trade is everything .....
And there is competition even amongst the birds, for good eating fish ..... A bit rude we thought, to sit on the head of the one doing all the work .... Then again isn't that the way of all bosses ...... And on the beach we found the flipper prints of a sea turtle that had come ashore to lay its eggs high up in the sand dune .......
Despite the beauty of sailing, you still have to be prepared to deal with breakdowns ....... Some Venezuelans came to the rescue on Ray and Lea's catamaran and lent them a battery to get their port engine started so that they could recharge their own .... Nice guys and very helpful ........ Smiles and rum work wonders .....
During that rolly-polly weather after leaving Grenada we had torn the genoa, or more correctly it had caught itself on a mast fitting while attempting to flog itself to death .... So out with the sewing machine, on with the generator and stitch it all up again ..... The things you have to do if you want to sail to beautiful and remote places .....
But it is not all work and no play ......... See, there's that little underwater Pentax camera and the International 'ILU' sign .....
Tomorrow all three yachts, ARITA, EQUINOX II and FREYA wil sail on to the islands of "LOS AVES" ...... Another very isolated group of reefs and islands barely above the water, inhabited by lots of birds and a few fishermen ....... Another unspoiled bit of paradise that we hope to see and hope to leave without a footprint to show our passing ......
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