Los Testigos Islands in Venezuela

I don't think we were quite ready to leave Trinidad yet after all we haven't had a chance to slow down and relax after all the frustrating boat work was finally done. But instead relaxing we did some last minute things including provisioning and cleared with customs and immigration. We tried to be out of the slip by 13.30 but that never happened, sometimes I think time speeds up and you slow down just so you don't make the time limit. By the way the authorities here are real sticklers, when you check
out you have exactly 2 hours to leave and you have to leave, you cannot even go to one of the islands first and wait up for weather or relax, you MUST leave. Of course just about 20 minutes before we headed out of the slip the wind started to blow with strong gusts and knowing Paradise does not back up well, especially not out of a slip we were a bit worried, rightfully so. The channel between the opposite slips is very narrow and we watched numerous boats get in trouble trying to get out of the
slips because of cross winds, even hitting other boats. As soon as the lines were off the cleats the wind pushed us against the dock, pinning us to it and of course as soon as we were out of the slip the strong gusts didn't allow Sid to spin the boat slowly around instead it pushed us on the beam towards the shallow water at the end of the docks. No matter what Sid did the boat would not turn around and you can't goose the throttle otherwise you'll end up hitting boats. It was a hopeless situation.
Luckily one of our neighbors had the dinghy ready in the water and just in time before we reached the shallow end pushed our bow around and we were out of the channel, ufff were we lucky. Not even in case of heavy wind, customs will not let you stay one minute longer, you have to leave. Out in the big open anchorage we had to calibrate the new autopilot first, that took a few rounds, we were hoping that it worked as there was no return to get it fixed unless we would check in again and pay quite
a bit of money to do so. Luckily it worked. The wind was gusting up to 28 knots, not what we needed especially to get out of the Boca, the channels between Trinidad and Venezuela which is nothing but rip currents and miserable for any small boat to come through. First we were going to go around all the islands and up the main channel but the water looked so calm between two of the islands we gave it a shot and headed out, even though everybody said not to attempt it. That was a good call as the water
was calm and the further out of the cut we headed the wind was a steady 15 knots and didn't gust through the canyons anymore. A current of 2 knots picked us up and shot us literally through the opening into the wild Boca. We did speeds up to 7.8 knots an impossibility for out boat, well under normal circumstances. At first it was really smooth ride but then the Boca opened its mouth and started to swallow us, well that's what it felt like. It took us at least two hours to get through this turbulent
mess and we were actually glad that we took the short cut as we had less current to battle with. As we finally arrived on the other side of the Boca of course we hoped the water would calm down, no such thing, it was a lumpy bumpy ride and this throughout the night at least not the wild ride we had through the Boca. We averaged a speed of 6.5 knots as a current was in our favor and pushed us with two knots all the way to Los Testigos. Towards the morning the weather calmed and we had to motor the
last couple of hours. Los Testigos are a delightful group of islands with about 160 inhabitants who live by fishing. The islands are fairly small but offer gorgeous beaches with sand dunes, lots of fish, interesting snorkeling and adventurous hiking. The Testigos make a convenient first landfall from either Grenada or Trinidad. The beach we anchored in front reminds me of one of those water color paintings of lonely beaches. Immediately upon arrival a friendly French man approached us by dinghy and
invited us to a gathering on the beach the same day. Immediately we jumped into the dinghy and drove across to the little village to check in with the Coastguard. This was probably one of the funniest checkins ever, we chat and joked with the guard and they gave us permission to stay here for 3 days or until the weather was good again, we still had that tropical wave coming. This is just a temporary check in the real one is in Isla Margarita so they give you a time limit which usually is 48 hours.
At 7pm we went ashore and joined all the other cruisers, 3 French boats with Swiss people aboard, 2 Canadian, 1 Argentinean and 1 American boat us. We had a good time until the wind started piping up and just a few minutes later a heavy downpour followed and ended the party. Here we are again in a tropical place to work on the boat LOL. Well, not really we are just tidying up the mess we didn't before we left. Sid needs to hook the water maker back up and has some other little odds and ends to fix,
but that's it, the rest will be relaxing.