giovedì 19 febbraio 2015

SAILING FROM TRINIDAD & TOBAGO TO BONAIRE



Bloody Hell!!!
We are finally leaving Trinidad and everybody is feeling good.
I’m just joking. Maybe a bit of emotions or the long waves from east, we are all smashed by the  sea sickness. The plan is try to reach Testigo Island where we can spend a day. The boat run well and also if we have always some little things to fix we are really enjoying the cruise.
Cooking  while cruising on a catamaran is so much comfortable than on a mono hull, but is still far from be easy. The very good thing is that yesterday we went to shopping  on three different amazing place, made for the one that want to eat first choice meal.  And for who knows how to cook it ;-)
The first it’s a normal big shopping center in Port of Spain, where we could find nearly everything like in Europe except the gourmet things. And the other two that you can easily google it to find some real gourmet food:
BLOOMS : sell every kind of high quality frozen meat and fish. Everything  is vacuum sealed and well maintained. They have also a good choice of olive oil and sauces. I cannot recommend something in particular because all the food we bought there was absolutely excellent.  The prices are quite high but sincerely worth the quality.
PERPPERCORN: this shop is into a shopping center  and from the outside it looks like a chocolate shop, but it’s a real mini market with every kind of deli from Italy, France and all over the world. Here you can easily find Riso Arborio, Foie Gras, Champagne, Tahine, Pasta, Tea, Nutella etc… Also here your wallet will be lighter after the cash out, but like the other, we can say that everything was excellent .
This is the first experience for me of cooking on board, and honestly I lie if I say that I’m not a bit scare of what I’m going to do, however this challenge makes me everyday always more committed to this job.
I always wanted  to be a chef, it was just hard to accept it, but once I’ve done it, I felt like limitless, or better, borderless.
We arrived at Testigos during the night and that was a lot more comfortable than we thought, the big open  bay between the two island allowed the entry without any issue and the mooring was quite good. When we woke up in the morning  we couldn’t wait to jump into the trip’s first bath. Blue sky, green forest and turquoise sea, nothing better than a day spent swimming, fishing and eating our own catch of the day.
The fantastic sunset under the note of Ravel’s Bolero was only the signature on a perfect day. What was funny of this three island, was mainly the facts that all the women are living on the big island with the school for the kids, and all the mans are on the other  island mainly fishing lobster.
Lazy and happy we pointed the boat on Isla Blanquilla at 3pm in the afternoon, planning to be there before the dark the next day. I start also to understand how to calculate and program a trip on a cruise, so much different than when we are on a race and we are always sniffing for the best corner with the right wind. Here the gigantic jennaker is always the protagonist and make us sure to have at least our 8-9knots with comfort especially on the night cruise.
At 6am the next day, with 15kts of wind, a 10kg tuna decided that our Rapala was his choice and so I had the chance to  explore a bit of my knowledge in raw fish and  tropical fruit. The smile on the face of the guest it’s always the top for me.
After a meeting with the Venezuelan coast guard concluded with two Coronas we finally let down the anchor in front of one of the most typical pictures of the Caribbean sea: white sand, blue water and one only palm standing  on a perfect beach. That was enough to make us happy and proud of our day. 
Next step is also our first real destination : Los Roques. This colorful and breathless archipelago it’s an amazing place to visit, we snaked in from the south island and anchor on a turquoise bay, full of corals, pelicans and mangroves. The beach in front of us was also one of the main attraction for some fishermans or day trip for tourist, so we thought to spend a few days surrounded by the most amazing nature.
Days are going fast and Captain Jack is not here for relax or joke to much, the aim is to do the world tour in approximately three years, and the schedule of friends that are joining us on board is already settled, so sometimes we feel like if we were rushing a bit, however, every place is special and also if we stayed for a couple of days, it’s always hard to leave it.
It was the same for our next stop on Aves Islands, amazing view and hundreds of birds right on top of a tiny little island that makes us feeling like lost on the peaceful sea.
Our next destination is going to be Bonaire, apparently the first place till know that should be fully organize and has supermarket, restaurants and other tourists. It seems funny to say but fe feel like to see some sort of life around us. We entered the island from the South and we were a bit surprised to find a fully filled coast line with salt and oil company. A big cruise ship was sitting on what we could imagine it was the city center and not many other boat where on our side in the marina where we anchored the cat. The island’s first impression  was no longer last after the first tour along the beach. Everybody that love to dive should come on this side of the world, and actually lots of people come here for these reasons. The colors of the water is excellent and  the visibility unbelievable. We can easily see something from the surface to twenty meters on the bottom of the sea, corals and fishes are always ready to welcome you on their world and for us it’s so much nice to snorkel  on this paradise. On the opposite side we can say that other than snorkel or diving there is not much else to do.
The island is a Dutch colony, and the population is divided by the hollandaise and the “carribegni”. The first are people very serious and tipically from north of Europe. The other are more or less the opposite with a touch of afro American style. So when you go around on this island, don’t be so confuse if crossing a street you’ll see a car stopping twenty meters before to let you pass and the next time you’ll try to cross, you’ll hear some high volume music coming from a messy car that seems run into you.
We are going to stay here for a week or so, waiting for Victoria e Roberto, a couple of dentist from swiss that are coming on board to see if they like this boat and eventually buy one. We don’t know much about them but from the mail they send to Captain back and forward, they sounds very nice.
For the moment we chill a bit on the sun of the Caribe and we enjoy the company of Luc e Martin, other two big guy that are travelling since a few years with their Amel Super MAramou 2000S.
From Bonaire See You Soon     

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