Isla Coche

Wow, shocker! Has Margarita gotten expensive, it's not the shopper's heaven it used to be anymore. Some of the food is as expensive as in the States if not more and liquor has definitely gone up BIG time. The Carta Roja rum we used to buy for 6 BS, 7 max is now 13 BS. My favorite champagne went from BS 14 to 21. It doesn't help either that the BS are now at 3 to 1 dollar, when we left it was still at 5.
Checking in is easy now in Margarita, you don't need to have an agent anymore nor have to take a taxi to get the official stamp for the paper work. My suggestion is to check in first thing in the morning (9:00) when the door opens, as I did, most officials were not there yet, so they took our paperwork and told us to come back after 3, easy enough for me. Others who went later were at the office about 1 to 1 ½ hours to do the whole process. Cost is BS 40 for the boat and BS 80 for each person plus
BS 20 for something else, so we paid a total of BS 220, in Puerto La Cruz they don't charge the extra BS 20. Not many boats use Juan anymore to check in, don't need to anymore, it's simple enough, but he still will tell you that you have to check out in order to go to Puerto La Cruz. Once you are checked in you are checked in for the whole country and are good to sail around. Juan was complaining to me that he's business is suffering due to the fact of nobody checks in with him anymore, he even tried
to tell me that it would be cheaper to check in with him. He just charged some cruisers 280 to check in. My thought to that is he had it coming as he,s ripped cruisers off for too many years and still does. There is not one boat here that speaks kindly of him, not even the taxi as they have to give him a cut of their money they make from us. Juan has his fingers into everything, even Pedro the dock guy he hired has to give him a part of the tips we give him. I have to mention too that he tells the
cruisers that they HAVE to pay Pedro BS 2.50 whenever they come or go, no matter if Pedro helps in anyway, really?!
Not too many boats are in the anchorage about 1/3 what we usually see but then it's still early in the season, most will show up next months when the tropical waves will have intensified. The anchorage shows her true face as it is rock n roll city. At the last Hash in Trinidad Sid sprained his ankle pretty bad, it was good until two days ago, we went swimming around the boat and cleaned some sea grass off the hull and the following morning Sid couldn't stand on his foot. It was swollen again and
he was in agony for a couple of days and so we staid for the tropical wave. The wave brought heavy wind (25 knots) out of the SE and brought rollers of 4 feet straight into the anchorage. Just glad we have the flopper-stoppers, although one broke and needs to be fixed. Still with just the one up we sat more comfortable in the water then the rest of the boats who were rolling from ear to ear. They all looked like little rubber toys being tossed around in a huge bath tub, it was not a pretty sight
and I felt sorry for them even though we didn't have the most peaceful sleep either. At this time of the year one wave after another is headed from the African coast to the Caribbean and every 4 to 5 days we feel the effect as they bring us heavy wind and rain. Our original plan was to visit the outer islands of Venezuela but the tropical waves have strengthened already we decided it was safer to just head to the Golfo de Cariaco where we have possibilities to find safe anchorages especially if one
should develop into a low or worse. We waited for Sid's food to feel better and headed to Isla Coche, and had another nice sail of about 4 hrs. Another tropical wave is underway and we did not want to spend this one in what a cruiser calls it Rollamar (Porlamar). We're anchored in front of the resorts in Isla Coche, along the long white sandy beautiful beach. Even though the wind is blowing at 18 knots the water on this side is a calm as a little pond, no matter how strong the wind will blow. The
wave should hit tonight with wind predicted to blow 30 knots, we had some thunder clouds around us already last night. It's so nice to have a good night sleep again in a calm environment.