Back in Puerto La Cruz

We’ve been enjoying the clean pool at Medregal, the wonderful dinners Jean Marc prepared, the colorful sunsets and Heidi turning a normal color again without any bruisers, although she did manage to fall into the water while trying to get in to the dinghy, poor girl.

Saturday was the trip again to the local market in Cariaco and since I was out of salads and I wanted for Heidi to see a typical Venezuelan village we took the opportunity and joined the other cruisers for the trip into Cariaco. We had a good time at the market, bought lots of salad, fruits and veggies and some wonderful bread at the bakery, the only glitch was the liquor stores were closed as they had elections the next day, Sunday. Here it is against the law to sell or drink liquor the weekend of the election. So the guide took us to a supermarket, I didn’t even know existed. It’s by far the best store in this area but still only has the essentials. The boss managed to sneak two cases of beer out the door and into our van for the doubled price of course, but we all were happy to have a cold beer on our way back to Medregal. (The election was held on Sunday and El Presidente lost a few important seats to his opponents but still has the majority. What we found out too is that El Presidente promised to pay 400 Bolivares per person who voted in all the poor states so that they would vote for him. He is slowly loosing his image as more and more people realize that he really is not there for them. They had lots of protest before the election and the roads were still a chaos two days after the elections, schools in this area were closed as well. In the mean time he told his new elected people to take over any land and divide it with the poor, no mentioning to pay the owners any money. He is trying again to get the new constitution in to keep him in office for the rest of his life. I just listened to his three hour talks he has daily, he told his people that Jesus was a socialist, imagine that. Since about three months we cannot find Pepsi then when Pepsi is available again, although in limited amounts, Coke is off the shelf. 7Up and other beverages have been taken off the shelf completely and diet Coke or Pepsi you’re lucky if you find it once in two months. What I don’t understand is that these sodas are made in this country. There are still no toilette paper or paper towels available and if you see them on the shelf ones every months you’re lucky. For several months I couldn’t find decaf coffee, now all you see is decaf but no regular coffee. Rice comes and goes too. El Presidente is starting to ration foods again, just doesn’t make sense. His people are very angry at him that he is spending all the millions on his new satellite and not using it for his people. I think in the near future we’ll see some serious problems here. I think it’s time to leave).

Anyway, on the drive back we saw a wild cat, I’m still not sure if it was a Leopard or an Ocelot but I tell you when he ran across the street and the fur caught the sunlight the markings were just incredible, what a beautiful cat. We stopped immediately and tried to follow the cat into the jungle but the cat was long gone.

On Tuesday we took Heidi to the Laguna de Cariaco for the scarlet Ibis. After arrival we did a dinghy ride up the river into the mangroves and saw quite a few of them. We also found some scarlet feathers for Heidi to take home as a souvenir. As we came back to the boat a piñero (fishing boat) with two fishermen drove really close by Paradise, one standing on the bow, stretching his neck as far as he could and checked out the whole boat. Then later as we were sitting in our cockpit another piñero with 5 fishermen approached. One offered fish, we declined, but then they just sat there starring at us and eyeballing the entire boat. Finally, after what seemed minutes they took off. 10 minutes later another one came by, they just looked at us and didn’t say a word. After two more of them we felt pretty exposed and not to take chances we decided to pull anchor and headed back to Medregal.

Back in Medregal I decided to take a swim to cool off and stood on the last step of the ladder looking dark green water with not much visibility thinking, I really don’t like to go into the water by myself not being able to see what’s below me. That moment something came out of the deep and came straight towards my feet. I shrieked “Shark” and stepped right back onto the deck. Sid and Heidi came running over and to proof them that I really saw a shark I climbed down the ladder again and as soon as my feet hit the water the shark came back, wow. The shark was about one foot long and brown and other fish were swimming under the boat, so I think he was rather curious then hungry but I decided to take a deck shower instead.

Sandial caught up with us and as Thanksgiving approached, they invited us over for Turkey Dinner. What a feast it was, there was so much food and we ate so much that we almost sank the dinghy on our way home.

Early at 3 am we pulled anchor and sailed 58 miles back to Puerto La Cruz. The night sky was incredible and I saw one shooting star after another while dolphins were playing on the

bow. The dolphins were lit up with either red or green by the running lights depending on which side they surfaced, it was just beautiful:

CRUISING IS……..

………Sitting on deck sipping a cup of hot tea,

as we gently rock on thegentle sea

and dolphins play in the wake of the bow,

their spray lit up with a red and green glow.

Above the twinkling stars reflect in the sea.

I think I will have another cup of tea.

By daylight the dolphins turned around and started their daily routine of herding fish for their next feast. Heidi finally got up just as we left the Golfo de Cariaco, by now the wind was blowing with about 10 knots, not enough to sail so we kept motor sailing towards Puerto La Cruz. Coming into the Puerto La Cruz Bay the wind stopped co

mpletely and of course just as we turned the corner towards Maremares the wind started to blow like snot and made it a challenge to get into our slip.

Here we are again sitting safely at Maremares while Sid and Heidi started packing for their trip on Sunday.

Heidi is back in Switzerland and Sid is in Bocas del Toro, Panama to help Dale to bring his boat Snow White to Roatan in Honduras. Sid will be back on the 17^th of ecember.

In the mean time I found some more projects for the boat. I am going to tackle the bimini and try to sew a new one, wish me luck, it’s not going to be easy. I’m sure I

will find other odds and ends to sew so I will not be bored here alone.

You can follow our stories again after the 17^th when we start heading tow

ards Trinidad and up to some Caribbean islands for the next 6 months

Here are a few more Fotos of Heidi's vacation (click on photos to enlarge):

Medregal Village

As always, we are just taken back by the tranquil atmosphere of Laguna Grande. The nights are so quite that only occasionally we can here the chirping of cicada or the flapping of jumping fish. Early morning just before sunrise birds are starting to chant a lovely good morning serenade. On the near by shore a fox is yelping. Then the sun starts lighting up the high hill tops unfolding all the colors Laguna Grande has to offer, from red to orange, white, gray and right now the lush green bushes and cacti. As the shadow rolls down the hills and disappears in the flat calm water the most incredible mirror image on the water's surface takes our breath away. No matter how many pictures I have taken of this, photos just don't do justice. Around noon the winds starts picking up and depending on the trades can blow quite a bit. Around 3 o'clock puffy thunder clouds are starting to built and occasionally roll over us around 4 o'clock. For sunset it's nice a calm again and the mirror image matches the scenery and slowly disappears with the last ray of the sun showing off the most vibrant colors a sunset can offer. Yet at night as the calm starts all over again the water now reflects the stars that twinkle in the clear sky and now and then the water churns up with a luminescent light where a fish just swam by. This is by far one of the most beautiful anchorages anywhere.
 
       Although that night the hatches had to be closed for the night as the ITCZ brought the clouds north and covered all of Trinidad up to St. Lucia to the North eastern part of Venezuela where we are and showered us with lots of rain in the late afternoon with an occasional drizzle after sunset. We heard on Eric's net that Trinidad was hit hard with rain and had flooding throughout the country. Downtown Port of Spain was under water. The police announced on the radio for everybody to stay at work and don't leave the house and result was a panic, everybody left to go home and created a huge gridlock. The ITCZ is still present in our area so we should get some more rain. For us the rain is welcomed as it cleans our rigging for us, also it cools down the hot day so that we almost have to get jackets out. ITCZ is the Inter Tropical Convergence Zone which lies mainly along the Ecuador in which weather systems from the southern and the northern hemispheres converge. These areas are basically over the ocean. Normally in this zone there is a lot of cloud activity with rain and little wind. The zone can travel north or south by as much as 10 to 15 degrees of latitude which enhances weather systems.

 

 Freddie, the young son of a local fisherman showed up again asking for a diving mask, which I thought we didn't have. Sid told me later that we do have one so Heidi and I took off in the dingy across the other side where Freddie lives. I also brought along some milk, black beans, veggies and sugar for his family. In the many times we've anchored in Laguna Grande we never went to see the fishermen. Upon arrival I asked one fisherman where Freddie's house was, he invited me to tie my dinghy to his shack and pointed into the direction where Freddie lives. We followed the path and passed more little shacks and asked again for directions. We finally found Freddie's house and with a huge smile he greeted us. You should have seen his eyes when he saw the dive mask and snorkel and couldn't believe that he finally got one. He then invited us to see his village and took as along a pebbled path which was entirely shaded by lush bushes. I never thought to find such a Paradise in this dried out desert landscape. We passed more houses that were built under the greenest of mango trees. Papaya trees were loaded with the biggest fruits I've ever seen. In front of every house pigs and chicken were roaming around and the laughter of little kids filled the air. Freddie told us that this is all one family living here. At least 20 homes are nestled under this green oasis. On the other side of town on a slight upward hill the greenery ends as the dry desert takes over again. From here we had a magnificent view over the area and to the local school which beyond lays another green oasis with yet another village, the village of another family. On the way he asked me if I liked goat, oh do I like goat. He then told us to wait, ran up to his uncles house, came back and told me that we'll get a goat later this afternoon. Before we headed back to the dinghy he told me to wait, minutes later he came back with his uncle and we had to tow them all the way across to were our boat was. They went and gathered oysters and after a while disappeared from our view. In the mean time I was worried about that goat, what was I going to do with a whole goat. After a few hours they came back and apologized that they didn't get a goat for us as they escaped running up the hill. He then said that they will try the next day. I told them both that it was OK and that we'll be back at Christmas time will have the goat then. Sigh….., got out of that one easy, by Christmas I'll be better prepared for a goat, including some presents for the kids and food items for the families. I gave them a tow back into town and as I had returned he sky was filled with dark clouds. I took a swim to cool off and to wash my hair and pretty much after I was back onboard, the sky let loose. It must have rained for over an hour with heavy rain and the cracks in the dried hills turned into rivers bringing clay colored waters into the bay changing the color from green to pink. It was really neat to watch. The pelicans in the near mangroves had a blast taking a bath in either the trees or in the water. What amazed me the most was them stretching their necks straight up into the air, opening their huge bills and let the rain water fill the bill up with fresh rain water. We had happy hour together with the pelicans, us sipping a Cuba Libre or Margarita, them shots of rainwater out of the sky, cheers.
 
       The following night it was nice and clear again with the brightest starry sky and a wonderful morning awaited us. Around 10 am we brought the anchor up and headed out into the Golfo direction Medregal. We encountered many areas with working birds, but only occasionally saw a few dolphins. The mountains on the South side of the Golfo were covered with heavy, black clouds and it rained at places. Our side was fairly clear until we approached the anchorage, a huge cloud came over the hill and a vale of rain started heading our way. We guessed we had max 15 minutes before it hit us. We had just about enough time to anchor, get the sun awing up, button everything down before it hit us. It must have rained heavy for about 1 ½ hours. In no time did we fill a 5 gallon bucket of water. After the heavy rain stopped it drizzled way into the night.
 
       Swen and Ilva (Ex Bloody Mary) now living ashore open their home on Monday and Thursday nights for Pizza. They now go by the name Coco Bongo. Moi the cook needed a night off so we enjoyed all the other cruisers at Coco Bongo. Swen built a huge pizza oven in his yard and the pizzas he made are just us thin and good as I remember them in Italy. We had a wonderful time. We we'll stay here for a few days and enjoy Jean Mark's pool and cooking and mingle with other cruisers. Pam, Wally and Mariah had just left Maremares and are now in Laguna Grande and will catch up with us soon.

---

One site has it all. Your email accounts, your social networks, and the things you love. Try the new AOL.com today!

El Oculto

Poor Heidi had a very long and tiring trip but the champagne I brought along for the ride home from the airport gave her some new energy as we talked way into the night. The following day I took her shopping in the dinghy, which was definitely a new thing for her and in the afternoon we relaxed in the pool. It's really great to have her here, we went to school together about 30 years ago, long time and it's amazing, she hasn't changed, she's still the same I knew from school. I had a chance to show
her around the local market as we provisioned for our sail. Yesterday we had a nice sail for about 2 hours as we left the harbor. As soon as we got in the lee of the islands the engine needed to help again and as always passed the islands we got to see dolphins, although not as many as we usually see. We arrived just on time to anchor and put the sun awning up before it started to rain. It was a heavy down poor due to a wave passing. We are the only boat in El Oculto and I don't think many will anchor
around this area anymore. One week ago Chill and I'Lean headed out for Isla Tortuga with a stop at Isla Boracha, 6 miles out of Puerto La Cruz. Lots of cruisers stop first at one of the islands and leave in the middle of the night to reach Isla Tortuga at day time. This is a very sad thing that happened, they were sitting on one of the boats planning their night escape when a local fishing boat approached and asked for water. They handed them some water, one guy took it set it down in the boat took
a gun out and shot Ken twice in the heart. Steve managed to get his shotgun out and saved the rest of the crew. The whole cruising community here is in mourning as we all know that this could happen to any of us. So here we are sitting alone in El Oculto but we feel that this incident will keep this area quite for a while.
Heidi is having a great time and is learning that boating is not just getting a tan, it's getting boat bites as we call them, she has bruises everywhere, poor thing. Today we'll take her snorkeling, the water right now is crystal clear we can even see the bottom under the boat (25 feet) which usually is not possible here. Another tropical weather system is headed this way, hope fully the last one this season as hurricane season ends end of this month. So this is a good place to be for bad weather,
besides we will not be bored, there is plenty here to do, bottom cleaning for one.

WELCOME BACK ABOARD PARADISE!

Yeah, we’re back!!! Sorry for the long break but I took the opportunity to upgrade the Blogg. At the end of each travel story you’ll find now photo stories and films.

I also added:

ABOUT THE BOAT: http://boatbummsparadise.blogspot.com/

ABOUT US: http://boatbummspreviouslife.blogspot.com/

GALLEY HINTS AND TIPS: http://boatbummsgalley.blogspot.com/

BOATBUMMS GOURMET: http://galleytips.blogspot.com/

Resent upgrade:

TIDBITS: http://boatbummstidbits.blogspot.com/

TIDBITS FOR CRUISER: http://boatbummstidbitsforcruisers.blogspot.com/

In the mean time Sid returned from his 6 week trip to the States where he visited with some family and friends. He had a great time but main reason was to sell his Mom’s car which he did the very last day before he went to the airport in Miami.

He had a great time with his cousin Nancy in NC and had a chance to make home made Molasses with his cousin O’Neal, I tell you that stuff is liquid gold, now I HAVE to make pancakes for breakfast.

He visited Ron and Leslie in New Bern who were just in the process to move into their beautiful new house. Of course he spent some time with his West Marine buddies.

(Click on photos to enlarge)

Greg and Megan Bilson inWilmington took him on a fishing trip and Sid caught a 53 pound Wahoo (Megan have you found the Domino yet?).

Joe and Mary Mondello were surprised when Sid popped up at their door near Knoxville TN, Joe just had surgery.

Sid barley got a rest when he was at Bob and Kari’s in Knoxville, they kept him busy, plus he did all the shopping for my stuff.

Before he flew home he stayed with Dale and Sandy (Snow White) in Key Largo and when Dale took him out fishing he caught a 35 to 40 pound female dorado/mahi-mahi.

Thanks you all so much for taking such good care of my hubby, he had a wonderful time and said that it was really great to see you all. You fed him well too I can tell LOL!

While he was gone I was dealing with some health issues. Daily I kept breaking out in hives, still do and learned that I'm allergic to all kind of foods and things. What we think the real problem is, is the cement factory that is polluting the air around here. I'll find out once we leave.Actually it was a good thing Sid wasn't here as my diet was pretty awful, he got fed much better in the States. I’m glad he’s back home though, six weeks was a long time, especially taking care of two boats. Our friends on Three Keys were in the States and we took care of their boat and their two furry critters, so when Sid was gone I moved onto Three Keys and went through everything on Paradise, cleaned her in and out and sanded the new teak floor, so when Sid came back all he had to do was varnish, well there was some more sanding in-between coats.

He got done just on time to move back onto Paradise before our friends came home.

Of course while stateside he hit every West Marine store he saw and brought lots of boat parts home, which kept him busy for a while fixing things and exchanging others.

The sails needed some re-stitching so did the dodger and I had to make a new radar cover, gas jug covers and sewed other odds and end. All the work is done now Paradise sparkles in and out and the new carpet pieces look awesome on the beautiful teak floor. She’s ready to head out for new adventures. (note the dog and cat had to help with the sewing)

Of course we did not just work we had some fun too, every Sunday night we have a potluck. Everybody brings something to throw on the BBQ a dish to share, something to drink and lots of fun stories.

Just before Sid left we celebrated Pam’s 50^th birthday with a roasted pig and turkey, that was a hit.

For Sid’s Birthday I made a wonderful Fondue Dinner for him and our neighbors on the dock.

When Jim and Jenny came back we had a Birthday party for Jim, Sid and Harry with a whole lamb roast, wow was that yummy.

Not to mention Halloween!

Unfortunately the Maremares family is dying out, there are currently only 5 cruising boats left at Maremares. Whenever one leaves they fill the slip with permanent Venezuelan boat. We heard that they don’t want any cruising boats in this marina anymore. Just glad we had the chance to be here while it still was good.

November 10^th my friend Heidi from Switzerland is arriving for 3 weeks so a couple of days after she gets here we’ll cut the lines and head to the islands for a new adventure. You can keep track again on our

BOATBUMMS LOG: http://boatbummslog.blogspot.com/ with

POSITION REPORT: http://www.aprs.net/cgi-bin/winlink.cgi?KG4EZH where you can see our anchorage via Satellite.

Hope this finds you all well and welcome back aboard Paradise for more adventures!

Hugs and kisses

Sid, Manuela and Tika

PARADISE TAKING A BREAK

HELLO!!!
ANYBODY OUT THERE?



















I GUESS NOT SO WE'LL JUST TAKE A BREAK FOR A WHILE






















SO CHECK BACK WITH US IN A COUPLE OF MONTHS.
IF YOU GET TOO BORED YOU CAN READ OUR LAST ADVENTURE AND IF YOU JUST WANT TO SEE FILM AND PHOTOS SCROLL TO END OF:
CLICK HERE

Life got even better as we had El Oculto all to ourselves. The weather not too hot during the day, humidity was down, the sunsets spectacular and the evening filled with a cool breeze so cool we needed a blanket to keep us warm in bed. The snorkeling again was incredible. A rare treat was to see a sea snake, many moray eels, baby trigger fish and a couple of octopus.

We think Tika had the best time of all chasing all the birds:

"YUMMY, dinner!!!!"

"I SWEAAAAR I didn't eat it, look!!!!"

After three days in this bliss bad weather was predicted as another tropical wave was underway and so we decided it was time to head back Marina Maremares where we are well protected from eventual storms. Just as we left the anchorage the already dark sky started opening up and a very heavy gust of wind let us know that the waves was already upon us. Luckily we had the main already double reefed but decided it was safer to lower the main and just sail with the jib, which we did. We didn’t get any other strong gusts but learned later that Cumana just about 20 miles east from us got hit with damaging winds. We sailed at 6 knots while rain was pounding on our dodger and a cold breeze chilled us. I called Maremares to let them know we were underway, but our slip was still occupied for another three days, bummer. We dropped the hook in El Farro which is by far the prettiest anchorage on any of the Puerto La Cruz Islands. The drawback is that every day around 10am one boat after another unloads tourists for the day and on weekends all the locals bring their power boats over and turn this quite place into a zoo. Every boat has their stereo on full blast you can’t tell who has the loudest music; that might not be too bad if they were on the same station. The nice thing is at 3 all the tourists are heading back to the mainland and around 5 the power boaters are heading home as well and we have the place all to ourselves again. Since it wasn’t a weekend only one other powerboat was anchored for the night. It was nice and quite although a swell rolled us a bit around, but we enjoyed the cool breeze as the wave had passed. In the middle of my sweetest dream I heard voices screaming. I jumped out of bed, my heart was pounding and I ran on deck, it sounded like there was some kind of disaster out there. I ran into the cockpit and saw an about a 50 foot power boat dropping anchor about 40 feet behind us with at least 30 people onboard, partying and the music full blast and that at 00:30 in the morning, I wanted to shoot them. They stayed about one hour before they thank goodness disappeared again. On the second day a flock of pelicans dashed into the water next to our boat and scooped up bills full of anchovies. One pelican had his bill so full his head was pulled underwater every time he attempted to fly off. Each time dozens of anchovies managed to escape out of his bill while others gobbled them up immediately. It was too funny to watch this guy as he over and over tried to lift off. The bill was so heavy he could not lift it out of the water, not even an inch. You should have seen how big his bill was it was enormous where is the camera when you need it?! Where there are anchovies there are bigger predators and Sid pulled his good fishing pole out. One cast and he landed a nice bonita, another cast a second good tasting bonita. He cast eight times and we had a wonderful dinner consisting of a wonderful appetizer of bonita sashimi, bonita poki (Hawaiian) and bonita tartar (yummy) and seared bonita. Unfortunately we also hooked a pelican, reeled him gently towards the dinghy, threw a towel over his head and bill, while I was holding on to his bill Sid took the hook out of his belly and as he was set free he sat numb for a few minutes while starring at us, then wiggled his butt feathers and happily swam away. We hoped the next day that the anchovies would come by again but no such luck.

Carlos the guide that took us to the islands on the tour boat we rented whenever we have visitors came by and brought us the freshest mangoes from his garden and a present. Last time we did a tour with him I found a stone that looked like a sailboat. He took it home and made us a present. He mounted the stone onto a piece of wood surrounded it with shells and also brought us a doily his mother had made, what a super nice guy.

Since the weekend was approaching and we definitely didn’t want to be in this anchorage for that so we pulled anchor and headed towards Maremares planning to anchor out until our slip was open. There was no need to anchor out as Jean had a slip for us right between the two nicest, biggest and most expensive mega yachts in the marina, remember my Christmas present a tour on Rompemar a 6 million dollar mega yacht? Paradise after her face lift feels pretty special to have the privileged to be placed next to the big bucks boats, well at least until our slip opened. We’re back in our slip and are enjoying once more the beautiful facility of the Maremares Hotel with its incredible pool, the many wonderful restaurants within just walking distance, the company of our old friends at the marina, sitting under the tree of knowledge every evening sipping on a cocktail and exchanging stories and indulging on the wonderful meals at our Sunday potlucks. There is no better place to be than here during hurricane season, it feels like home.

Beeeeeeeeeeeeees!!!!

What is it do we look like a honey comb???!!! We had a storm cloud building up on the other side of the bay and the boats started to turn into the wind of this thunderstorm. We enjoyed the cool breeze while reading our books. Once in a while I would glance over the side to see what the storm cloud was up to and with horror I noticed hundreds of bees buzzing right next to the boat. That made me jump: "Siiiiiid we have a huge problem!" sure enough behind our boat were many more bees, all trying to
land on the fast spinning wind generator. "Sh…..t, *&^%$...., oh nooooo…..!!!!" We both grabbed a can of insect spray and started spraying. The wind was blowing too much and the spray only reached the bees on our level. The wind generator is about 9 feet higher then the cockpit and the spray was ineffective. The wind generator had chopped up about 500 and sprayed them all over the solar panels (we were thinking about Beesburgers for dinner). What now? Sid ran to the foredeck and got the hose and
hooked it up to the saltwater outlet in the cockpit and started to spray the invaders with salt water. You should have seen the trail of swimming bees behind us. But the spray still didn't reach all the way up to them due to the wind. I guess at this point we had half of them in the water. There was only one thing to do abandon the anchorage and head out as fast as Paradise can do into the wind. While pulling up the anchor I noticed our French neighbors running around their boat with fly swatters,
kind of funny and made us giggle, I wonder how we looked running up and down the boat. We did get the attention from all the other boats as they stood on deck watching us flee. We hurried out into the bay, straight into the wind and these buggers kept following. Sid was still spraying water at them. We must have gone almost 2 miles before we could count less then a dozen and slowly turned back to the anchorage. We decided to anchor on the west side this time but then we noticed the Swedish boat spraying
his wind generator which had quite a few bees stuck to it, so back towards our original spot and they came back. Out to sea again and they left, so we finally anchored outside of all the other boats and maybe had another 10 bees which luckily flew right into the insect spray.
We got back just on time to take a shower and get ready for our guests Kylie and Mike on Meggie. We settled down with a beer and told them our other bee adventures we had in Puerto La Cruz. WHY US??!!! Sid said that if we have one more invasion he is going to paint the boat blue!

There are numerous Swedish boats in the anchorage and they are talking on the VHF hailing channel all the time, I mean all the time. The rule is when you call someone you switch channels so that the others don't have to listen. Well, they don't, which wouldn't be so bad if they would speak English so that we at least could lurk into the conversation. So we get annoyed and turn off the radio. Don't really like to do that, especially at night as it is a bit of security for boaters could alert each
other of any dangers. So the radio was off and just before 3 am I heard our Swedish neighbor's dog bark like crazy. "What's the ruckus?" I hollered at Sid in the cockpit, he replied: "you better get out here". I got dressed in a hurry and as I got into the cockpit I saw flames. Ohmygosh, a boat was on fire. Sid said that he was woken up by the dog and some flares and many voices were screaming. To me it looked like a sailboat was on fire, but Sid pointed out that it was a fishing boat behind the
sailboat that was on fire. We turned the VHF on and sure enough a lot of frantic Swedish was exchanged, so we lowered the motor onto the dinghy, grabbed a flashlight and hand held and headed towards the boat on fire to see if anybody needed help. Sid explained that he saw four fishermen splashing water onto the fire then jumped into the water. On the way over there we ran into two Swedish dinghies one in tow. They told us that the guys in the burning panga had stolen two dinghies. They had retrieved
one and he was showing us the cut rope and where they had cut the chain. Then he went: "wait a minute" and pulled a big object of the dinghy floor it was the bolt cutter the thieves had used and left behind. The fires attracted all the local fisherman either fishing in this area or coming here from their homes. They all were pissed when they heard that these guys had stolen two dinghies. They've been having some problems here lately as the thieves don't just target us cruisers they steel the engines
especially from the fishermen trying to make a living. We went back to the boat to get the camera to take a photo of the registration numbers on the boat and name before it sank. Early in the morning Sid saw two policemen on the dock where the carcass of the burned out boat was. Later we found out that they had caught the four guys, one was badly burned on his arm. Of course stories started flying about what happened and we were amazed how fast rumors start. I talked to the security guard of Medregal.
He caught one of the guys on the beach and roughed him up a little, which he was very proud of then he called the police. He said that three of the guys were arrested after being caught by the villagers and the fourth one later. They were from Cumana and had been victimizing this area for a year now. He also said that the fishermen in the village roughed the guys up pretty bad to teach them a lesson. It's great to know that the panga of the thieves burned down, we just hope it was theirs and not
a stolen one. Unfortunately dinghy theft is everywhere even in the States and cruisers are warned to haul the dinghies up at night. Still some cruisers ignore the fact and leave them behind their boats although chained to the boat but that does not help.
It's a shame that this happened here at Medregal as they never had a problem here before, just good this had a happy ending and the bad guys lost their boat and are in jail.

During summer time right around end of July the Golfo can develop westerly winds which usually occurred around 1 o'clock for a few hours, by four it's usually out of the east again. It depends on how strong they blow in how rough it gets, but in any case the anchorage gets uncomfortable with 3 to 5 foot swells rolling through the fleet resulting the boats to hobbyhorse around. This year the westerlies have started early, every afternoon the wind shifted. On two of those days ominous thunderclouds
started building up from the east due to another tropical wave. As ominous as they looked we saw it as a blessing as they suck the air right out of the west killing the wind and flattening the sea. Then the question was how much wind would be involved in the thunderstorm but the rain is always a welcome sight and you can find Sid on deck scrubbing everything down, including himself.
In the mean time the first Atlantic hurricane of the year "Bertha" has formed and is luckily in an area where she should miss the Caribbean islands. Hope the Bermuda Island will be as lucky. We're glad we are in a safe area and definitely out of the hurricane belt and all we have to deal with are tropical waves and perhaps a tail of a hurricane.
We got tired of the westerly winds so we pulled anchor and sailed the 8 miles into the Laguna de Cariaco. We were the only boat in the Lagoon, the water was as flat as a mirror and the only thing we could here were pelicans splashing into water, catching fish and occasionally leaping mullets jump out of the water. As the sun lowered towards the horizon hundreds of parrots filled the air with their loud squawking and settled in the near by mangroves. Then the scarlet ibis returned. We sat on deck
with camera and binocular and of course a cocktail and watched how these incredible birds lit up the sky in fiery red. They settled and after a few minutes it was quite except for the pelicans and fish. What a peaceful place. I prepared us a wonderful dinner (rack of lamb, lemon herbed rice and salad), played some cards and ended the day with watching the stars.
After a peaceful good night sleep Sid scrubbed the mud off the chain and anchor as we lifted it and headed along the Golfo towards El Oculto. It was a very delightful day and flew the spinnaker until we passed Cumana. The highlight again was dolphins accompanying us for at least two hours. They were really lively this time, many jumped completely out of the water right next to the boat, it was awesome. What I really enjoy is watching them play with the bow and them looking right into my eyes and
when you hear them talk to each other you just want to jump in the water, cuddle them and play with them.
Just as we reached the entrance to the Golfo the wind shut down and down came the shoot and the iron jib carried us the rest of the way to El Oculto where we are the only boat in the pretty anchorage just in time to cover up for a rain shower and a sundowner Ah, life is good.

Medregal Village

I don't think there is a more peaceful place than Laguna Grande, it gets so quite you can hear ants walk around. Yes, aunts as we accumulated quite a few of these nasty little pests. We're not the only ones having them; it seems every boat we've gone aboard over the last year has them. They definitely got on board Paradise in Puerto La Cruz, to numerous times we've seen them crawl up the dock lines. First it seemed we had two types of pests on board, one a tiny sugar aunt the other looked like some kind of mite until I trapped on under the magnifying glass and compared it with photos of ants and discovered the mite and ant was the same and no other than the Ghost Ant. That was somewhat a relief as we were afraid that they could be wood eating ants or mites. They are tiny small and have a white almost see through butt, so when they walk on a dark surface they look like mites and when they walk on a light colored surface like an aunt. On deck we have another type aunt that is double the size and has a read and black body, they are cruising along the deck and cockpit and are seldom seen inside. Are they part of the other ants? Not sure. Where do ghost ants live? They can hide in pretty much anything, cloths, linens, computers, toasters, paper towel or toilette paper rolls, you name it. We tried to track them even left treats out for them just to get frustrated as they crawl along ledges and then disappearing into a hole or crack somewhere on the boat which we cannot trace any further.
Sid was cleaning the deck and moved the bumpers out of the way when he realized something was wrong with them then he saw the nests. Two nests, one in each bumper and sprayed them of course with ant killer. It seems that keeping after them the ghost ants disappeared as well only an occasional one wonders lonely around. It finally seems after one year of battle we are winning. Well, lets hope we are.
Two other boats where here already, one from Nice and the other from Spain "Heritage" with Jordi and Christina we met in Porlamar and again Coche. In Coche we had them over for dinner and Jordi threatened us with an invitation for Paella on Heritage. While here in Laguna Grande they met the local fishermen and they took them fishing inside the bay by laying a big net. What they brought out of the water was more than just fish, so we had the most wonderful paella with shrimp. For dessert Jordi made us one of the best Margaritas we have ever had. Unfortunately they had to leave the following day and two days later we were the only boat in the anchorage. It was just wonderful. Knowing that there is shrimp in the bay we of course took our net out and went shrimping. Many hours and sore arms and shoulders later we hauled 5 big shrimp home and believe it or not but it was enough to make a wonderful lunch to fill our tummies.
The same day we had a little green visitor on board. No worries the Martians are not here yet! It was a baby iguana that must have swam out here climbed the anchor, he was a pretty tough guy as he didn't even mind us getting close to him, he wasn't even afraid of the camera lens that extended almost out to him, instead he just smiled into the camera. He walked around not minding us at all and eventually after about one hour did a swan dive into the water and swam back to the close mangroves.
Fredi the son of a local fisherman comes by every time we anchor here asking for a dive mask and food. I couldn't give him a mask but we did have some food and coffee for him to take home. Maybe next time we come back to Laguana Grande we can bring a care package.
We enjoyed the calm and quite here, we did have another wave come over us bringing us just little wind and rain and the nights were just filled with twinkling stars, phosphorescence in the water and dancing fireflies ashore. After 6 days in this bliss we reluctantly lifted anchor and headed for Medregal Village. The wind was calm and the air was so clear that we could see all the mountain ranges on the mainland and both ends of the Golfo de Cariaco.
The dolphins didn't miss joining us an hour or so playing with the bow and letting the wake push them along side the boat.
We were amazed to just find 8 boats anchored in front of Medregal but the yard that only three months ago had 6 boats in storage had now 30 boats hauled out and one was just being brought out. Wow, great to see that Jean Marc is getting busy. Later we found out that he actually ran out of stands to support the boats and is in the process of having more made. Another wave came over us and spectacular rain shower started on the mainland and slowly inching its way towards us. It rained long and hard and the air cooled down to almost where we wanted to put on a jacket. After the rain it was so crystal clear you could see every crevasse on every hill. The sunset was spectacular, the left over clouds turned a golden red which was reflected in the water. It doesn't get any better than this.