Back in Puerto La Cruz

I forgot to mention that on our way to Los Testigos we had to change the chip in the GPS to get the charts for Venezuelan waters and noticed that they were corrupted, although we had GPS coordinates we did not get a map reading. While in Testigos Sid worked on it and we realized the chip IS broken. Our back up is the computer but it would not recognize the GPS which it used to. There is really nothing in the way between the Testigos and Margarita and we know the anchorage well so it was no big deal but it sure is nice to be able to see where hidden reefs, rocks, shoals other dangers lurk. The sail towards Margarita started with light winds and flat seas until we came out of the lee of the island from then on it became more and more unsettled. Luckily we were going with it therefore no pounding but we did occasionally roll from side to side as the waves pushed us. This eventually settled as we inched closer to Margarita by then the sea was calm and the breeze just very light if at all. It actually felt so comfortable we decided that we really didn’t need to stop in Margarita just for fuel, rum and wine so we just kept going. Sailing along the south side of Margarita towards Coche thunderstorm started rumbling left and right the wind picked up and white caps built all around us which got us a bit nervous. They staid away from us until we came closer to Coche then the thundercloud to the left decided to spread out and it looked as we would get the most tremendous downpour and of course just when we would anchor. For some reason the cloud never made it and we were not complaining about it at all. We pulled anchor again very early in the morning and were a bit concerned when we saw a red sunrise as in “Red sky in the morning, sailor takes warning”. To begin we had 15 knots of wind which dwindled away over a few hours and as we headed around the Araya Peninsula towards Mochima Park the sea became as flat as a table and there was no breeze at all. Coming between the islands towards Guanta dolphins greeted us as they always do and it felt kind of good to see the familiar shoreline in the distance and put a frown on our faces to see the Cement Factory smoldering as ever.

So here we are again in Puerto La Cruz and this time our lines are tide in a slip at Bahia Redonda. Not too many cruisers are here anymore as more and more cruisers are leaving Venezuela for good as Venezuela is changing for the worse. Now cruisers are only allowed to stay 3 months in Venezuela as well as the boat whether in a marina or on the hard. I was right when two years ago I said we have about two more years of good cruising in Venezuela. Hugo is doing a good job in ruining his beautiful country. Power and water outages on a daily basis and he blames it on his people. But I don’t want to go into that it’s too depressing.

The water at Maremares was always filthy but now the color of the water at Bahia Redonda is of that same while the rest of the canal now is dark brown and with the oh so wonderful oder of “Eau de toilette”, even driving the dinghy along the shore this wonderful odor lingers in your nostrils. It’s horrible and I was just told that it was much worse during the summer. It makes me not even wanting to drive the dinghy through this waters anymore.

Maremares is done, no more cruisers are there. We were considering going back but they now took Cable TV, Internet, phones and laundry machine away.

Prices have gone up again and by a lot. My favorite champagne for which I had paid anywhere from 14 to 16 BS is now 60. The bread I had paid 1.50 BS in November was 3 in December and is now 6, can of Campbell soup 5 US dollars. Carta Roja rum 7dl used to be 7 BS now 22 the litter was 12 now 27. How are these poor Venezuelan people surviving?

While in Grenada Jenny wrote us that Joe on Scirocco was bringing his boat to Puerto Rico and that he needed crew and if we were interested. So our cruising plans are deviating once more. On the 15^th or 16^th of November we’ll be sailing out of here direction Puerto Rico via Blanquilla, St. Croix, Culebra, Fajardo and to Salinas with Joe and the previous owners Udo and Melanie. Can’t wait to go shopping, yeah Wallyworld here I come.

There will not be any entries in the Blog until we come back in two to three weeks until then take care.

The Fench Testigos

Later that afternoon I went snorkeling on the reef in front of us. The water was so clear I could see at least 60 or more feet. This was by far the best snorkel I've ever done. The visibility was amazing, Paradise is anchored in 20 feet of water and usually you can't see the bottom clearly here it's as clear as can be, no haze nothing as if there was no water between the boat and bottom. I followed the chain to the anchor which was dug in nicely just beyond the anchor the bottom turned into hard coral sand and then big boulder started climbing up the reef. Beyond the boulders the most colorful coral reef opened up. This is a very healthy looking reef with all kind of corals. My eye caught some elk horn coral they were grouped in a half circle and took my breath away, never mind I forgot to suck air through my snorkel. It looked like the nicest manicured fish tank. Around the elk horn coral hundreds of fish all different species gathered around and under one of the elk coral was a giant puffer fish, what a sight. Where's the camera when you need it. I staid there for at least five minutes watching then as I ventured towards the small island a turtle came across the reef my direction, as it was just a few feet away from me under the turtle a mall stingray lifted off the ground and swam under the turtle into opposite direction. Wow this can't get any better. I swam around the island and saw the most colorful parrot fish, angel fish and giant trumpet fish which changed their coloring according to their background. Golden colored moray eels are also abundant here and a 6 foot sea snake, white with beige spots slithered across the white sand. I had to go back the following day to take photos but wouldn't you know it I ran out of batteries.

On my fishing excursion earlier that day I drove through all the anchorages and was happy to see that we were in the most protected of them all. The boats in the most westerly anchorage were rolling from side to side. All together there are about 20 boats in Los Testigos and we were the only US flagged boat the rest was all French until Scott Free pulled in. I happened to see them sail into the western anchored as I was fishing and headed to their boat to let them know that the reef we were anchored was not as rolly. They were very thankful for that as they had a very rough trip and needed a good night sleep. Later at five we were invited on Scott Free for sundowner and met Scott, Heather and their guest Jeff. It came out that they know a lot of our cruising friends it's really a small world. Unfortunately they were on a fast track to Trinidad and had to leave the following afternoon, but not before we exchanged Trini for Curacao money and I took them ashore for a hike across the dunes to the beautiful white sandy beach. The water is just amazingly clear and even though a high surf crashes ashore the water stays clear. As we were in the water and the waves curled and crashed on top of us we could see right through the waves.

We are surrounded by French boats which are known for running around naked on their boats and this morning as I was enjoying my coffee and bacon and eggs breakfast my neighbor got on deck and stood there totally naked saluting the morning, so I turned around and was facing my other neighbor's boat and ohmygosh, noooooooo pleeeeease don't bend over!!!!!!!!! Too late!!!!!! There went my appetite!
You would think after the Grenadines we would be used to it by now. And then when a young French couple shows up you think ALL RIGHT it's a big disappointment as the young and good looking ones don't walk around naked, oh well. Actually it's the guys who are showing off on deck the women are more modest.
Time's up the three days are over and tomorrow we'll lift anchor and sail to Margarita.

Los Testigos

After listening to Chris's weather prognoses we decided this was the perfect time to head for Los Testigos with only 10 knots of wind in the forecast and the northerly swells to disappear. At 17:00 we pulled the anchor up hoisted the mainsail and headed out of Prickly Bay with some tears in our eyes as we remembered having to leave Tika behind, she is and will be missed. It was promising as we pulled the jib up and watched the knot meter climb. We had 10 knots of wind that pushed us along with a two knot current at almost 7 knots. As we got further away from the island we lost the 2 knot current but the 10 knots of wind stayed and kept pushing us with almost 6 knots towards Venezuela. The sunset was beautiful and as the night sky took over the stars started to twinkle. Just before 20:00 the moon came up over Grenada and was amazingly big but then lost her size as she climbed up into the starry sky. The moon is always a welcome sight especially during night crossings as we can at least see where the water and horizon touch. The first few hours it was pleasantly calm but then as we got into swells it started to get a bit rougher. At times we realized that this was caused due to different depths of the water the shallower it got the more lumpy it was and vise versa. But then as we were in more then 600 meters of water the lumpy seas staid just that and made it hard to sleep for the off watch person. I did the first off watch and I think I managed in the three hours to sleep a total of 20 minutes. Sid managed to sleep the first hour then we realized that our green starboard running light was not working, Sid got the hand held running light for the dinghy out and mounted it with ducked tape to the bow then he caught some more sleep. As we changed watch we both saw the most incredible shooting star, this one's tail was so bright and full of explosions we thought we could here it sizzle. On our next change of watch an odor of burning plastic got into my nose and I immediately alerted Sid while I followed the smell in the cockpit Sid followed it inside and as he opened our electrical panel he saw a spark coming from the main wire. At that time we had the refrigerator, freezer, water maker running and also tried to load the batteries of our two cell phones, let alone radar, GPS, Autopilot and a few lights guess a little too much for the little wire. Good thing is we caught it on time before it could turn into a disaster. The rest of the night went without any glitches and as Sid laid down the seas got calmer and he slept for a good two hours. The sunrise was spectacular and the seas a lot calmer and as the sun crawled into the sky we could see the Testigos islands from 18 miles away. As we approached the Rajahd rocks we noticed a red buoy to starboard and then we noticed the current that pushed us sideways directly at the buoy. There was nothing we could do the boat got pushed into and over the buoy and caught up on the rudder. Not good as we could not start the engine it could get wrapped on the prop. As fast as we could we pulled in the jib and as soon as it was in the buoy broke loose made some knocking sounds against the hull and we were free. We immediately started the motor and headed to the lee of the island where we were protected from the fast current. Talking about an adrenaline rush, no thanks not this early in the morning and we never had a coffee, didn't need it anymore. An hour later we pulled into the anchorage, got settled in and ventured across to the village to check in. Although it's not an official clearing port, cruisers are advised to check in anyway and they will allow us to stay 2 days. Since Sid's back was still a mess I did ask for a few extra days, at first the officer was not willing but when I told him that I was not able to manage the boat by myself he gave us an extra day. One extra is better than none. Back on the boat I prepared some pizza dough for dinner then crashed for a good 3 hours and caught up on sleep I didn't get during the passage. Sid went right to work on the wiring problem and replaced the burned wire with a much bigger one. Pizza dinner was wonderful and the night sky staid clear and all our hatches staid open all night long which we haven't been able to do in the Grenadines. After a good cup of coffee Sid decided he was not going to do anything that day and I decided to go fishing. Sid hooked me up with a pole, a bucket, pliers, cloves and off I was. First I trolled along the rocky shore let the line loose and just the second I set the clicker a fish snapped it, wow, that fast. I stopped the dinghy and started reeling the fish in. It was a good size needle fish but as soon as he saw the dinghy he managed to break loose and took off. The lure went back into the water and I continued trolling along the rocky shore and I noticed an awful lot of frigate birds soaring above me but it was too late to realize that one was interested in my lure and the lore started soaring up into the sky. Luckily the bird was not strong enough to lift the fishing pole up into the air but he did some circles and nose dived into the water. I pulled him gingerly to the boat and with gloved hand grabbed him by the peek and pulled the lure out with the pliers. As he panicked a bit he now got the lure into his wings but luckily I was still holding him and managed to get that out of his feather. I lifted him a bit out of the water as they have a hard time to get out of the water and he started to fly away to fall into the water again. Oh no, I thought and started to close in on him to get him into the dingy for an easier take off, but finally he managed to get his wet body out of the water. I kept fishing but as soon as these giant birds circle above me I pulled the lure in.
When I returned Sid was not laying on his back as he had said he was rummaging around the boat and then he fixed our running light. So here we are wondering what we'll have for dinner since I didn't catch fish, wondering how that frigate bird would have tasted? Just kidding.

Getting ready to sail to Los Testigos in Venezuela

Diane on Jabulani moved over to Grand Anse, had her over for a nice dinner she cooked, yes she brought dinner to us and it was wonderful. The following morning early we helped her to get her boat into the Marina as she was leaving for the States. The good thing was that Sid's toe was all good again but then helping Diane getting the dinghy aboard Sid pulled a back muscle and oh well was on his back for four days. We did move back to Clark's Court Bay to spend some time with Mike and Cynthia on Minx that was as always a lot of fun. On Halloween we all dressed up and joined the Hash House Harrier Halloween run, well only Mike went on the run, the rest chickened out instead we sat around the pull bar and enjoyed cold brewskis. Before the night ended Cynthia and I drove the dinghy over to Clark's Court Bay Marina and did a last time Karaoke together, what a blast. Hurricane season is officially over and only a few left over tropical waves are still out there to dump some needed water on us to keep the boats sparkling and refilling our water tank and sun shower. We're back in Prickly Bay to see Bernie on Transition who is leaving for Trinidad tomorrow. We'll be checking out of here on Thursday and leave before sunset to sail to Los Testigos in Venezuela. We're still having problems finding good propagation to send email out via our ham radio so if you don't hear from us in a week it's obviously not working and we'll send a report in from Margarita.