Mochima National Park

Our house is awesome but not all too much different to a boat as there is always something to fix. At least most of them were easy fixes like exchanging light bulbs and throwing away the blender because the fluid we pored in came out of the bottom faster than we pored in, hooking up the hot water to the washing machine and tightening the hoses so it wouldn’t flood the floor anymore. The water pump had to be rebuilt and now it goes out all the time, so it’s going downstairs to turn it off, then walk upstairs to the third floor and turn on water tank. Then when we have enough pressure again it’s climbing up to third floor turn water tank off and all the way to ground floor to turn the pump on again. Well, the guys are doing that for us.

We had a wonderful house warming party last Friday and all our friends showed up, we had a full house and partied late into the night. Everybody loved the house and we have reservations already to rent our guest room when they are in the yard and others will rent the slips in front of the house until our boats come back. Best yet, an old friend Bill Tittle from Venice Anglers came, he lives just around the corner from us, small world.

Last weekend we were invited on an overnight boat trip to Mochima National Park on Snow White a most beautiful 57 foot Nordhaven (used to belong to Gene Hackman “Hula Girl”). It was an overcast day and rather on the cool side, we almost decided to put on jackets. On the way to Mochima we had a big pod of bottle-nose dolphins which played with the wake of the bow. I took 130 photos and managed to catch some out of the water. They must have been on our bow for at least one hour, it was really neat. We also saw a big flock of flamingoes fly along the coast that is a rare sight.

Approaching Mochima reminded us very much of the Channel Islands with the dry brush like appearance and rock formations. El Culto was our anchorage which lies deep in a bay surrounded by islands, very protected and remote. Sandy and I tried to do some noodeling, but changed our minds after dipping our feet into the freezing water. Later when the sun came out we did sit on our noodles, not for long as our skin was hurting and the toes were freezing from the cold water.

For dinner Larry, Dotty and company came over and we had such a good time we decided to stay another night.

The following morning Dale and I took off in the dinghy to a nearby fishing village to see if we could buy some fresh fish but the village was abandoned. Instead we saw this big fishing boat along the rocks with lots of small boats attached to it, so we drove over there to check it out. Between the rocks and the boat was a huge fishing net which they brought in and now were scooping sardines out of the water and into the boat with a huge net, the net was at least 10 feet across and 10 feet high and each dip they filled it up half way. It was amazing to watch. Nobody had any bigger fish than the sardines and one of the guys scooped two big scoops of sardines into our dinghy. They flopped all over the dinghy covering it and us with scales. I fried them up for lunch later on and even Sid was impressed that they tasted better than he thought, for him sardines and anchovies are bait and belong on a hook. I finally convinced him that Sardines are actually very tasty.

After that we all decided to take the boats to the town of Mochima, which is around the other side of the park, a tiny quite village with a couple of restaurants and one little convenient store, actually all we saw in there were coconuts and some bananas in a cooler.

In the evening Dale and Sandy thought us a new dice game “Mississippi Marbles”, I think we kept the whole anchorage awake, well the three boats that were in there anyway. We laughed so hard our faces hurt.

But then it was back to reality, we had to haul out Paradise. It went pretty much without any glitches until they started pulling her out of the water and the cradle slipped, wow almost heart attack, for me anyway. Then they told us that they couldn’t lift the boat any further, that we had to undue the forestay, of course the jib was still furled up on it, so it took a while to get it off as there was lots of tension on the rig. But then it was smooth cradling her to her temporary resting place in the yard, although they want to move her to a better spot for the paint job. Sid took the rudder off today, which needs a new bushing. He said it was tough work to get if off as it is very heavy. He also found a week spot in the steering so we may be in the yard a tiny bit longer then we want to.

Last Monday Manuela got talked into a job, she’s teaching English every Monday and Wednesday in a private school. She has two classes the first one with 9 kids ranging from 4 to 8, for as little as they are they sure wear her out, kids now days are just not as behaved anymore. The second is the fun group with 8 teenager girls all 14 years old. She just had her first day last Monday when the principal asked her already if she would extend her classes to adults. I don’t think so!!!!!!! But it’s fun to do it for a while and it will give me the chance to better my Spanish as well.

Oh, can’t forget to talk about El Presidente, I guess he screwed up last week by eliminating the TV stations as the Venezuela stock market plunged and the Bolivares was for one day at 5000 per 1 US dollar. It’s now at 3300. He also announced that he wants to change the name of Venezuela to Republic de Bolivar. A lot of cruisers feel like it’s time to head out of this beautiful country.