Friday, April 20, 2007

VIVORILLOS - A LITTLE TOUCH OF PARADISE!



Vivorillos 15.50N 83.17W Mar 26 – April 8 2007

Early in the morning we departed for our overnighter into the Vivorillos, a small group of islands located 180 miles east. Just at Sunset we were joined by a pair of swallows (locals call the sparrows) who settled in for the night and the ride on a small line in the cockpit. Doc was mesmerized and spent the entire nightshift checking on his two new friends (or snack) not sure what he was thinking. They departed at sunrise after spending 100 miles with us. Maybe this is how different species migrate, but we were happy to have their company.

It was a solid 24 hours from hook up to hook down and no sooner had we settled in than we made friends with the local fishing boat out from Guanaja Lady Atty, and Arturo (the captain’s brother) was especially taken with Doc and by days end had provided us with 2 lobster, two good sized hogfish, and 3 lbs of cleaned conch (the cleaning is the tough part on conch…catching em ain’t too tuff, cause they swim slow:o).

The Lady Atty, had generator problems and had to depart for Guanaja to save their catch, leaving behind a solitary soul to guard their stuff. His name was Marvi, and Gary and Doc would visit him two or three times a day, and before long they were ‘fishin buddies’. Marvi taking Gary to his favorite spots and each day they would bring back 5 or six good size grouper, trigger, grunts and Gary got his first big hogfish…and she was a 22-inch beauty. We spent two weeks enjoying this wonderful place and were joined along the way by fellow cruisers and got to enjoy a fun get together celebrating Greg & Judy’s (LoneStar Love) Anniversary and Sonny’s birthday (Sonny & Kay, S/v Valentina)
During our stay, we had some very interesting weather including a ‘waterspout’ which came as close as we cared to view it, here is a picture taken by fellow cruisers of KaijaSong with the ‘spout’ in the background…note the size of the funnel and the water at the base.

One of the attractions during our visit was the nesting of the ‘brown booby’ and I do mean birds. Kaija had great fun walking among them taking pictures, despite her presence they paid her little mind and seemed quite comfortable in her company.

Once again, weather was the determining factor in our departure and with light but favorable winds we set sail for Providencia, around the corner of Nicaragua into Columbia Territory and a most pleasant stop along the way.

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