Adios Roques and hallo Aves!!

Cayo de Agua is part of a little archipelago consisting of four islands along with many reefs, beautiful beaches, great snorkeling and excellent fishing. It is a delightful island with tall sand dunes, a palm grove, mangrove trees, lagoons and water holes. Walking along the mile long beach was beautiful and hiking up the dune trail to a lonely palm tree very painful as under the sand lots of burrs were hidden and buried them selves into our feet. Further down the beach we ventured inland this time with our crocks on and did find all the holes dug into the ground where the Amerindians got their fresh water. Still some of the holes bring up fresh water to this day. A bit further along the beach a sand spit connects Cayo Agua with West Cay which has one of the prettiest beaches I've ever seen including a lighthouse. You cant' take your eyes away from the contrast of the white sand and turquoise color of the water. In the afternoon we ventured out to the near by reef to snorkel and as we were getting ready in the dingy we noticed lots of black and blue tails surfacing on top of the reef, same as we saw in Tortuga island. As soon as we were in the water we snorkeled towards that part of the reef and were amazed to encounter about 30 parrot fish, most of them were black with cobalt blue heads but the amazing thing was their size, we have never seen parrot fish so huge 20 to 30 pounds and where is the camera when you need it. We had a great time. Since bad weather was on its way, 25 to 30 knots of wind we departed Los Roques with a bit of disappointment that we were not able to stay longer. The sail was lumpy bumpy to Aves de Barlavento but luckily only 30 miles. The wind blew anywhere from 12 to gusting 20 knots but the waves were what made it so uncomfortable. There is no swell action here just unorganized waves that pop up like wild peaks everywhere and mostly only 5 feet apart. They were up to 8 feet in heights. The waves turned us in any which way and the jib even managed to get wrapped around the stay. Took us a while to get it unfurled, pulled in and the staysail let out. The sky was overcast and we were worried not to be able to see the many reefs to get into the anchorage. But imagine that just as we arrived at the southern tip of the island the sun burned off all the clouds and all the blue colors of the water began to sparkle. When we rounded the corner to the Leeward side the water changed to an incredible cobalt blue and we followed the darker shades to our anchorage which was around 40 to 50 feet and winding its way through many very shallow reefs. We dropped anchor in front of the middle anchorage where high mangroves tower along the island where red footed boobies nest. The view is spectacular seeing the green mangroves, the light turquoise green water around our boat and about 100 yards in front of us just beyond a shallow reef a huge pond of cobalt blue water reaching to the outer reef. Isla de Aves are two separate little island archipelagos, separated by about 10 miles of deep water. The name was given due to the large number of birds that make them their home. The birds live in the dense mangroves on the larger island we are anchored in front. Barlavento has a horseshoe reef protecting the two islands and snorkeling and fishing we heard is excellent here. According to the weather we'll be here for a while.

Leaving the Roques

Its' been over two years since we met Irene und Otto on Ottifant and for the two days in Casqui we spent a lot of time catching up with them and met their friends Ines and Peppi on Captain Morgan, she's from Brazil and he's from Spain so between the six of us we spoke pretty much anything from Spanish, Portuguese, German, Swiss German and English, it was fun. We had a wonderful rack of lamb dinner on Ottifant, met on the beach for cocktails while cooling off in the water on noodles with a floating bar with champagne and beer and went for long walks along the beach. Sid and I had the feeling that we should move from Crasqui on the weekend but since we waited along with Ottifant for the fuel guy to arrive from Caracas we staid. Should have listened to our inner voices as the authorities check the islands around Grand Roque for new arrivals on Weekends and knocked on our boat to tell us to check in the following day. So early the next morning we pulled anchor and hoisted the sails and instead of sailing west to meet John we had to first sail to Grand Roques about 7 miles away. Check in procedure took about two hours as we had to walk to the very end of town to the Port Captain, he told us that we are a vessel in transit and can not stay in the Roques, power boats get one day and sail boats two. I guess they changed the law as the last boat we knew to be here left 3 weeks ago and were able to staid one month. It was a huge disappointment that we shared with a captain of a much bigger boat with 12 guests onboard who just arrived from along trip from Grenada to enjoy the Roques, they were also given one day. There were 3 more places to check in before we had to go back to him again and leave the paperwork with him. Then we rushed through the town to find a store for some fruits and veggies which we did. The produce was a bit on the wilted side but they did have flour and eggs which in PLC I could not find regularly. Then we hit the only Internet here which was very new but the connection very slow, it took me 46 minutes to open 3 of 136 emails. (With that all of you who are sending us forwarding emails and jokes, pleeeease hold them until we have Internet again, only 5 of the 136 emails were not jokes or forwarding things).
With the thought of visiting Grand Roque last I didn't bring my camera, should have listened to my inner voice again. This place is really cute, very clean with narrow paths of sandy ground, just charming. After we got all done we races back to the boat, pulled anchor and hoisted sails again and headed towards the west side of the Roques. We arrived mid afternoon in Cayo de Agua one of the two most SW island in the Roques where John on Tazzady arrived one hour prior to us. Another good reunion and Paradise is stocked up again with lots of fruits and vegetables including more Rum for Sid. Gustav unfortunately couldn't make it but he sent us lots of papayas and limes from his garden and some wonderful German sausages, thank you Gustav. Jim on Three Keys sent along a good bottle of Casique for Sid as well, thank you Jim.
So here we are in Cayo de Agua for one day before we will leave the Roques for the Aves.
Anybody who is thinking to coming to the Roques should have a National Zarpe from the Port Captain from wherever they leave, but you cannot check out of Venezuela from the Roques so you have to go back to check out.

Casqui Island

We were lucky we left Tortuga when we did as the first night the wind was blowing at least 20 all night long while we were safely tucked in behind the reef near the Boca de Sebastopol. It would have made for a very rough crossing.
A small mangrove overgrown island separated us from the reef and as far as the eye could reach there was nothing but waves breaking over the reef with a thundering roar. A wreck of a once big fishing vessel stranded on the treaturous reef added to the atmosphere. Behind the rocky reef shore the reef ebbed out to a flat sandy area with occasional coral heads the water was anywhere from ankle deep to shoulder deep and about 100 to 150 yards wide then it came to a abrupt halt and plummet down to 30 feet of water the color there was incredible as it went from a light turquoise green to a dark emerald green just like that and that color change snakes along the entire reef for miles and miles. The reef then gave way to a deep body of water anywhere from 300 to 500 yards and was interrupted by yet another narrower reef and behind yet another body of deeper water and then bigger mangrove over grown islands. Behind those island lies the flats of the Roques which is claimed to be the best bone fishing capital of the world. The ever changing watercolor keeps you in ah. The exploring of the reef was fun and at times we had to pull the dinghy as it was too shallow. Watching the sunsets while heads of turtles popped occasionally out of the water, some schools of fish gathered under the boat and the far distant roar of the waves made this such a relaxed atmosphere. We spent three days in this bliss and only saw a few small boats blasting past dropping tourists off on some of the little sandy islands on the outer reef for the day, other then that we were all alone.

We also had some repairs to do, in we I meant Sid. We lost our wind instrument on the way here so Sid had to climb up there to get it. Out of all things a long hair was wrapped around the baring and I'm telling you I never, ever climb up to the top of the mast, it's beyond me how my long hair got up there?!!! Sid had a wonderful few from up there and took some awesome photos. Later on when I looked at them I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw a round Jacuzzi on our deck, wait a minute..oh.. blond moment it's the radar!

By the way the Roques is a national park and lies about 70 miles north of Caracas and are the most visited outer islands of Venezuela. From here it's only a short hop to the Aves and from there to Bonaire. It's an unbelievable cruising area of about 15 by 25 miles of protected reef with many little islands to be reached within an easy day sail.

As we headed up the reef we follow the inner reef for about 8 miles and kept an eye out for the many smaller reefs popping up anywhere. Knowing of all the hidden dangers you're at first a bit nervous but then you realize the water is very clear and the sun will reveal every little hidden rock or reef there is and they are easily detected to the changing of color. Sid stood up on the boom to see the hidden reefs better and we coasted along the reef with amazement, it was so beautiful. After the 8 miles the reef gives way to a really large body of water and about 2 miles across is the main island Grand Roques. We turned left and headed towards Crasqui Island the favorite island for Venezuelan boaters. Thought we'd head there before the weekend as it usually fills up with 3 story gin palace of power boats. We had to dodge some occasional shallow areas then followed Long Reef and finally around Isla Augustin to our anchorage in Crasqui with a spectacular beach that keeps going for miles and miles and beyond the beach you can see the hills of Grand Roques. As soon as we came around the corner of Isla Augustin we saw several boats in the anchorage and with closer inspection Sid recognized or thought he recognized a boat we knew from Maremares. As we finally headed into the anchorage it in deed was Ottiphant with Otto and Irene aboard and we had a great reunion.

PS: go to the position report and look at the Roques via Satellite photo: http://www.aprs.net/cgi-bin/winlink.cgi?KG4EZH

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We're out of cheese, fruits, salads, coke, wine, beer and have only 4 carrots, 1 zucchini, 3 onions, 3 potatoes, one cabbage and one dozen of eggs left, freezer is still full of meat, lobster and conch and I guess our can opener will work over time in the next month or so, LOL.
Cayo Herradura is a very busy fishing island, there are about 6 camps and not one day goes by where not at least 4 pangas knock on the boat to either sell fish but mostly to ask if we had hats, sombreros, matches, sodas, epoxy, fan belts, motor oil, eye drops and mostly cigarettes or cigars.
On our walk around the island we were greeted at one of the fishing camps by a friendly older man his name is David, his weathered brown face showed the brightest smile with a few teeth missing. So we talked to him for a while and watched his fellow mates sitting in the sand fixing big fishing nets, while others hauled fresh caught fish to two guys cleaning and salting them. They wanted us to bit a lobster the size of about 8 to 10 pounds, a bit too big for our pot or liking. We like them a bit smaller they are more tender and easier to cook. The jolly old man was very happy talking to us and invited us to come back to his camp at any time. From that day on he knocked on our boat daily to bring his battery operated phone. There is no power on the island and therefore no way to load his phone. We were actually amazed that they had phone option here but my cell phone didn't show any bars. While loading the batteries around 4.30 the phone started ringing and ringing. We gave David a hard time about having too many girlfriends on the mainland. We were happy to fill the batteries for him daily, even when they started bringing a second phone to load and a third. David brought me some onions one day and the last day they took our months worth trash ashore, I would say that was a good trade.

We truly enjoyed our walk around the island, well almost around, the northwestern shore is nothing but sharp rocks the rest is surrounded by beautiful fine white sand. The beach is steep too and on the southeastern end the beach narrows and ebbs out to give away to a long reef which extends southward. Here small waves run over the side from both sides and clash together towards the middle, a fun place to walk through. On the north shore the waves were quite a bit higher and crashed towards the beach with a roaring sound, a very beautiful scene. A red and white striped light house lies on the northwest shore which adds a lot of charm to this horse show shaped island. No matter where we were the view was spectacular and Paradise was surrounded by flat and calm turquoise water. She was anchored in 8 feet of water which is a very pleasant temperature to cool off when there is no breeze blowing. The first few nights the wind was howling and we had even gusts up to 30 knots. During the day the wind would slow to maybe 5 knots and at times completely disappear. We had anything from a northerly to a light westerly and each day was just absolutely beautiful.
While at Los Palanquinos with horror we found a lot of mildew in the V-Berth. All the shopping bags I used going shopping in the dinghy were gray. The humidity had been high and it doesn't help to get an invisible spray of salt air from the waves breaking over the reefs on the other side of the island to keep everything damp and eventually it will mildew. We went through the whole boat and whipped down anything and everything. Even our upholstery showed some mildew and had to be hand washed right away. The water maker was working over time. We have never had a mildew problem before. While here in Herradura I found some more mildew this time in all the cockpit cushion covers so I did some more laundry. Never a dull moment in and on Paradise.

Gustav was going to sail to Tortuga while we were here. His first attempt was while we were still in Caldera. Gustav encountered 40 knots of wind and had to turn back. The second attempt was while we were in Herradura, he made it halve way and lost the steering, luckily he had some wood onboard (he's boat is under construction) and rigged an emergency rudder to get back. It was a bummer as we were excited for his visit, not to mention all the provisions and beer he was going to bring. Poor guy has to drink all that beer by himself now LOL. As soon as we had word that for a second time he had to turn back we pulled anchor and took the good weather opportunity to sail to the Roques.
We left with about 15 knots of wind, which dwindled away over a few hours and left us with 5 to 6 feet rollers on the beam, not a very comfortable ride. Sid was n watch until one in the morning while I tried to sleep in the tossing waves. The wild ride finally started to calm down and Sid was able to sleep most of my 4 hour watch. By 5 am it was a fairly comfortable ride and I laid down for some sleep again and didn't wake up until 7 when I don't know what woke me up first Sid standing over me yelling "I got a fish, I got a fish" or the loud BZZZZZZZZZZZ sound of the over heating reel. In any case my adrenaline was rushing, didn't need any coffee anymore, I jumped up turned the throttle down, brought the jib in while Sid tried to crank in on the fish. At this point he didn't know yet what it was but then a blue marlin jumped a couple of times out of the water while the reel was still sizzling. It took him a while to get the fish along side the boat. Sid finally managed to get hold of his bill and counting the sweat dripping of his forehead I my guess was the fish is about 100 pounds. He managed to get the hook out of his bill and with a good luck wish he sent him back into the deep. Blue marlin is an excellent eating fish you probably are saying right now but we do believe in catch and release in bill fish, especially when one does not fit in both the fridge and freezer. It was fun and Sid finally caught his first marlin. The funny thing was Sid was just in the process to put out the reel, the lure was barley touching the water when the marline hit. He didn't attempt to catch another one but an hour later when we saw some tuna jumping we tried to catch one of those without success. By now we were only 10 miles away from the Roques but you can't see the islands until about 6 miles out. We headed for the lighthouse and about one mile out we could distinguish where the entrance was and followed the darker blue water into the sheltered bay inside the reef. There we had to follow another reef to our anchorage. It's beautiful here and our first visitor was a big school of calamari under the boat. There I said it again calamari, I meant squid. Lucky devils it's a national park here and fishing is not allowed.

Conch mystery: in Caldera one of the fishermen gave Manuela a beautiful queen conch, so how do you get the meat out and not damage the shell? We heard many stories over the years: hang the conch up in the sun and it will slowly come out (pew can't imagine the stink!). The other is to put the conch in the freezer and the other boiling. We were not sure which one we would use and talking about it with Wind Shear someone mentioned that the snail was all muscle so the idea came up giving some muscle relaxant. Sid ground up some Flexeril. Mixed it with a little water and filled the conch up with it. An hour or so later the conch started crawling out and a couple of hours later it was so relaxed Sid just pulled it out of there. So the conch mystery is solved. We definitely did NOT eat the relaxed muscle!

Drinking tip for cruisers:
When to drink your Martini on deck or in the cockpit? When you see white caps appear in your martini glass and vodka waves are sloshing up the martini glass wall like waves crashing onto a beach, it's time to retreat into the cockpit and continue enjoying your martini there!

Cayo Herradura, Isla Tortuga

We were tucked in safely behind the fairly small reef and enjoyed watching waves crash onto the reef with roaring sounds. Around cocktail time we picked up Rob and Debi, Captain Jack stayed on the boat, and went over to the reef sat or stood in waste deep of crystal clear water, watched waves crash onto the reef just feet from us but where we were the water was calm, just beautiful. The tide was on it's way out and on some corals fairly big sea urchins were halve way out of the water and a at some spots parrot fish were rolling on the surface while we sipped on some ice cold cocktails.
The next morning Captain Jack gave the crew off and we ventured over to the mile and mile long beach. It was a bit tricky to get ashore with the occasional shore breakers, but we managed without getting soaked, which was a different story when we went back. We walked a couple of miles along the pristine white sandy beach to an area with a rocky shoreline where the rocks were as flat as a table and canyons were cut out between them. They were only about 4 feet out of the water and it was spectacular when 6 foot waves rolled over them then the water cascading back into the ocean brining the rocks to view again. I could have watched this for hours. I found some good size sea escargots which made a yummy dinner. Sid found foot prints of cats with babies in the sand but never got to see the cats. He also ventured into the shrubs and found some of those bright pink pepper looking berries which grow in a cactus, yummy.
Unfortunately the following day Captain Jack decided it was time to leave for Trinidad and it was sad seeing them hoist anchor and slip out of our view as the sun was getting ready to come up. We truly had the most wonderful time with the Crew on Wind Shear in the last three months. We will miss them and hope their stay in Trinidad is short and sweet so that they can catch up with us again soon.
We pulled anchor a few hours later and motored to Cayo Herradura 3 miles further west and yet another beautiful anchorage. Cayo Herradura is the most favored of the Tortuga anchorages. The island is one mile long of mostly fine white sand. At the north end of the beach is a fishing camp and as we anchored all the pangas left and started laying nets around the island. The water here is of the an incredible turquoise blue color like somebody painted it. The contrast of the light blue water against the white sand and the dark blue ocean water behind it takes your breath away. A nice breeze is blowing keeping us cool. Oh yeah, Pizza tonight, life is good!

Isla Palanquinos

Wind Shear arrived on a weekend and so did a few more boats but coming Monday we were all alone again. Wind Shear who sat in the Redonda Marina for over six months working hard on the boat, are just as happy to be here and are finally relaxing. Captain Jack was especially excited when we finally went ashore to explore the beautiful beach. He's a pretty short guy but outran us all. The swells in the mean time have subsided and made it for a very pleasant walk, except for speedy Jack. At the end of the beach we all put our crocks back on, except for Jack, yes Jack's special, and hiked across the sharp coral rocks which are all black like the sun had burned them all. We were following the cliff and watched as the water turned from blue shades into all kind of green shades and then we noticed hundreds of big size chitons sticking to the rocks On our way back we harvested some and cocked them up as soon as we got back to the boats. The same day I noticed the local fishermen, called them over and ordered some lobster for Wind Shear. Captain Jack and especially Debi couldn't wait to get their teeth into some lobster. Two days later the boys came back with 5 lobsters of almost 8 kilos total, 5 nice red snappers, three for Wind Shear 2 for Paradise which will be fried up in butter and garlic, yummy. The crew of Wind Shear has never cleaned any lobster so I went over to their boat and taught them how. It was too funny when Debi tried first. Her arms weren't long enough to stay away from the spiny, still moving lobster and I think her screams could be heard on the other side of the island. Rob took to it like pro and Captain Jack as always let his crew do the dirty work. Most people toss the head and legs of a lobster overboard not realizing what a good meal they can make. So later on that day Captain Jack invited us over for cocktail and lobster legs Debi had prepared for us, what a treat. We were so full that our dinners were postponed for the following evening. Here is what I do with the head (by the way it works for shrimp the same): I place them on a baking sheet, bake at 400 for 40 minutes, place into a big soup pot or pressure cooker and make the most wonderful stock. The stock then can be frozen for later use. I freeze the stock in packages of 1 ½ cups each to that when I cook rice I bring broth to boil and add one cup of rice to it, cover and simmer over very low heat for 20 minutes, remove from heat and let steam for 10 minutes. Just before serving I add some fresh Parmesan to it and voila the best Risotto you have ever tasted. Captain Jack was happy I taught his crew well so now he's all set with more gourmet dinners onboard his ship, boy he sure rules his boat.

We spent one more day and showed Captain Jack and Debi the mile for mile long beach with all the trash. I forgot to add that this breach is on the windward side so all the trash from Puerto La Cruz area will get stuck here. I was really amazed as I saw the 60 foot tree trunk including roots 180 degrees turned around on the beach, wow.
Rob staid behind doing some chores, Captain Jack really runs a tight ship. We ended the stay with another fun Boccha Ball game on the beach, which Rob again won then watched the sun disappear on the horizon before heading back to our boats, having dinner and settle in for the night.

At 10:30 am the anchors were lifted and Wind Shear with Paradise left Paradise for another yet even prettier one. The northern shore of Tortuga is surrounded by some rocky cliffs between pristine white beaches as we motored along the coast. It was only a little over 7 miles to Los Palanquinos which is a mile beyond Punta Ranchos an offshore reef with a few rocks sticking out. We're tucked in behind this beautiful reef which is painted with all the blue colors imaginable which reach to the fairly close white sandy beach. I'm sure we'll have some re-matches of Boccha Ball games, can't have Rob win all the time, now can we?!
Not even anchored 30 minutes a fishing boat came by an offered us lobster. Debi jumped on it like hot cakes and Rob and Captain Jack are drooling already.

Lobster and Cheese Fondue

I3 boats had anchored amongst us and everybody seemed to have a great time and so did we watching them. Amazingly for how much Venezuelans like to party with very loud music it was very quite here. Valentines Day we had an early dinner with a bottle of champagne and a Swiss Cheese Fondue, now life can't get any better. Following night we feasted on lobster so after 4 days of doing absolutely nothing we decided it was time to venture ashore to walk the good food off. By now everybody had left again and we had this Paradise to ourselves. We walked along the beautiful beach surrounding our anchorage of the finest coral sand. I thought for sure with the high waves that had crashed on shore over the weekend I would find tons of shells. All I found were little smooth clams of pure white and also some very small pieces of the most beautiful white coral which are perfect for making pendants.
The following day we headed across the isthmus to the most beautiful mile after mile long beach where the water was clear and in all shades of blue. Big rollers hit a shoal that protected the beach from the shore break that was further along.
Where the sand stopped and the flat lands of the island started was the biggest eyesore we've ever seen. We must have walked 2 miles along this gorgeous beach to realize that it was all polluted with piles and piles of trash, mainly plastic bottles. There also was a huge tree including roots that had washed ashore, would be a pisser to run into something like that at sea as it was at least 60 feet long. At this point we had seen enough trash and slowly headed back. Sid had fun, he had a goal to pick up every single flip flop he could find in the trash pile and strung them up on a long line and pulled them behind himself. You should have seen the pile he had when we got back to were we had started. The flip flop string was at least 8 feet long. Sid then assembled them above the beach and we counted 120 of them and he was very proud to have left a little flip flop memorial and I'm sure many will wonder "What the Heck"!!!
Later in the afternoon that day we took a couple of cocktails ashore and played boccha ball as the sun sank to the horizon. We plaid 3 sets and I beat Sid big time on each game, guess we have to have a rematch soon. I have to add we were very sore the next day from all the walking and exercising.
The weather has been great and the nights down right cold. After sundown we both put our sweater or jacket on and sip on hot tea, well I am, Sid thinks the rum helps too. Night temperature is around 75 and water temp is a cold 72 degrees, brrrrrrrr,
February 19th our buddies Captain Jack and his Crew Rob and Debi on Wind Shear anchored next to us and will spend the next two weeks with us before they are headed to Trinidad and us to the Roques.

Playa Caldera on Venezuuela's outer island Tortuga

Alarm was set for midnight and what a surprise to see our neighbors Debi and Rob on Wind Shear already sitting in their cockpit waiting for us to get up. They wanted to send us off. We sure had a good time with them, especially Manuela with Debi on all the shopping trips. They are planning to finish up their work and follow us in a couple of days. At 00:30 we left the dock and headed into the dark night. We had no moon but the bay was lit with the light of the city and we coasted out of the bay. As we entered the cut between Isla Boracho and Chimana Grande a current chopped up the water and after we had passed Boracho the back wash swells had left. We had about 13 to 17 knots of wind the whole trip and a 6 foot swell unfortunately on the beam and Manuela wasn't feeling to good. Sid did the first watch and never really got any sleep. It took us 10 hours to get to Isla Tortuga where we anchored in 10 feet of water in Playa Caldera on the north eastern tip of the island. Caldera is a one mile long half-moon beach with white sand and sand dunes. From the anchorage we can see the large reef across the beach where a little fishing village and airstrip which on the weekends is a busy little place bringing in tourists for the day from Caracas.
We were anchored for about one hour when a dinghy approached us. It was two Venezuelan Coast Guards and wanted to see our papers. We were surprised about that as nobody every told us there was a station here. They were very friendly and wrote up the paper work in the dinghy. Then he wanted to see if our flares were up to date. So one came aboard and followed Sid down below. After all was done they sat with us in the cockpit for a beer, invited to visit them at the station on the island and told us that we could stay one months here and also one months in the Roques, wished us a good time and left. There was only one other boat here, we had the place to ourselves. With the sunset the warmth of the day disappeared and it got down right cold that we made some hot toddies. We needed blankets for the night as it was 75 degrees, wow, we went from summer into winter LOL.
Early I woke up to what I thought was the daily power outage when the AC would turn off, but then realized with a huge grin on my face that the refrigeration pump had stopped, we were not on the dock any longer but in an most beautiful anchorage. We didn't do anything but relax all day and watched as one boat after another arrived. Venezuelans don't anchor their boats, they park them, not one boat sits the same way. It is the weekend of Valentines Day and on the 15th Carnival starts, therefore this placed will be hopping.
Planes flew in and out all day long and we had fun watching all the boats park. The good thing is they all will leave on Tuesday again. So here we are enjoying Paradise in and on Paradise and are waiting for our buddy boat Wind Shear to arrive.

Emotional Departure

Saying good-bye to all our friends was hard, especially our family Jim and Jenny on Three Keys, Darren and Rocio, and Chris and Luima.

Jenny arranged a fun get together with Jean and Xiomara, the ex-crew of Maremares. We had a blast and Xiomara brought her sister. I think she was glad she didn't meet us prior as she had a huge hangover the following day. Jim brought all his Halloween stuff out )well it's Carnival here), we had so much fun our faces hurt the next day, plus some of us had ratones in our heads (yep in Veniland you don' get hangovers, you get mice or rats in your head).













Darren and Sid helped Jim AKA "Mayor of Maremares" to get "rid" of the last evidence that the Maremares Crowed ever existed: the BBQ which got us together for so many wonderful evenings and parties. We'll dearly miss this time. It was kind of hard for us in the last few months to visit Jim and Jenny, sitting in the living room of their rental house instead of under the Tree of Knowledge where we bonded and shared our life stories. Three Keys is for sale, Jenny is leaving Venezuela for good in March and Jim will do so in May. This is the end of the Maremares Gang or the Gringo Sailing Community.















Paradise is sparkling from bottom to the top of the mast, provisioned and ready to set sail. We are showered and ready for a cocktail, then for a nap. Alarm clock is set for midnight when we'll sneak out of the harbor and set sails for new unknown adventures. This will be a very emotional departure.
PS: main Provitions:

Farewell Venezuela

Wow already again 3 weeks gone since our last entry. Amazing how time goes by when you’re busy. Sid finished all the varnish and has just a few little odd jobs to do. I moved my sewing machine away and hopefully for a long time. We just need to clean up now, provision and pick a good weather window to leave Venezuela for good. Been busy catching up with all our friends and last week we were so busy we had a dinner every night, we are fooded out (yeah, yeah I know I made this word up). It’s been an interesting 3 weeks, especially to see how the President here is brining his country to it’s knees, every day there is something new. Two years ago he closed RCTV so they went on Cable and actually did better then ever before. Now El Presidente told them that if they don’t air his messages on TV that he will shut them down again and so he did. The students are again protesting against him taking away their freedom of speech and in the first demonstration many students got either killed or injured by his militia and Chavistas. I have to add that the Students are peaceful demonstrators it’s the goonies Chavez sent out after them that cause the problems. He already threatened to take drastic measure if they don’t stop demonstrating and I believe he will. The day after he devaluated the Bolivares, he threatened to take over any stores increase prices. Exito is one of the lowest priced stores kind of like a Wal-Mart with third world products and most of all French owned, was taken over by the Government only two days after his threat (the French owner also lost his Casino). It shows again that he is taking over one foreign owned business after another. This is the end of Exito and it pissed off a lot of Venezuelans including Chavistas. He also took over three more banks. Whenever I go into town I have to take a taxi and I tell you every one of them is complaining about the president and they all shook their head when they admitted voting for him twice. They all are disappointed that he deceived them and is taking away their rights and making their life miserable. There is no quality to life here anymore. One week ago Debi and I went to the Central Market and as we stood at one of the butcher’s stalls he kept telling us “NO HAY!” which mean “I don’t have” so I started pointing at some pieces of pork he repeated and whatever I pointed at he said the same while serving customers. We got the picture he refused to sell us anything. In the course of walking through the rest of the market we saw nothing but hostile looks towards us, we felt really uncomfortable and left the market. I’ve shopped in this market once a week for the last three years and never had this experience. Then when we went to one of the pharmacies we usually buy from they told us we had to have a doctor’s note. The items we bought we just bought one week prior with no problem. The other pharmacy had no problem selling the meds. I wonder what he told them all on his 6 hour Alo Presidente TV show which is aired every Sunday. Now when he devaluated the BS he did it with two prices 2.60 for essentials and 4.30 for non essentials, get this pickles and Whale sperms are on the essential list, cheese and ketchup and so many more things are not. The prices at stores have skyrocket and a can of corn or green beans is now over 2 dollars. Shopping here now is as expensive as in the States if not more.

I told you last time about the rolling power outages, we should have it every Tue/Thus/Sat from 15:00 to 17:00 not to mention that we loose wifi and water when the Marina loosed their power from 9:00 until noon. Of course the times don’t work, they shut the electricity off any time they want and mostly every day and the power never comes back on time. Now imagine when there is no power there is no traffic lights functioning either so the chaos is real in town and the protests of the students are not helping either. Just good we can go shopping via dinghy but the shelfs at the grocery stores are emptying fast as Chavez is stopping imports. The other day I was at the store buying laundry detergent and noticed that the price had doubled, next to me a middle aged Venezuelan woman was in shock and with tears in her eyes she told me that she cannot afford to by soap anymore, broke my heart.

Venezuela has 13 power plants of which only 7 work at the moment, actually 2 or 3 only half way the rest are broken and two more are on the verge of breaking. Chavez threatened the workers of the plant on his Alo Presidente show that if they don’t’ repair the plants he will be forced to have 12 hours a day power outages. He knows that he has to fork the money up. Heard rumors that he did pay but the money disappeared, yeah right. It is sad to say that it’s time to leave, we still love Venezuela but it is time. Currently there are 3 American, 2 French, 1 Italian, 2 German and 1 Dutch boat left in Bahia Redonda and they all are leaving as well. This will be a hard week for us as we will have to say goodbye to all our wonderful friends and to leave them behind to a not very promising future. I cannot imagine how they feel having all their rights taken away as Chavez promised a few days ago he will go faster now to turn his country to his communistic dream.

We also had a security guard obviously a Chavista giving us a hard time, so they had to let him go as the resident condo owners, mainly foreigners felt threatened by him. Also a security guard in the marina had to be fired because he was not doing his job plus steeling. We caught him peak into our cockpit, he claimed he wanted a glass of water. A few days later he came back and asked for food, the next day one boat found one of our towels in his cockpit and the two of his cockpit cushions gone. The guard slept in his cockpit using our towel for a blanket then he took the cushion, one was found floating in the water. One month ago I caught him peaking into our window at night. Some bumpers have been stolen off boats as well. Maremares had a dinghy theft and so did a guy we know at his house.

I wished we could leave this country still as a Paradise and not overshadowed by all the sadness now, we always will treasure the good time we had and the many wonderful Venezuelan friends we made and we wish just the best for all of them, but most we hope that on the long run they will win the battle against their tyrant dictator. It will be a long recovery to restore the country to what it was.

Christmas and New Year

It took no time to settle in and in no time we were busier then heck. Sid helped Jim fixing his jet engine of his dinghy which took many days and many hours, but I know the guys had fun, they always do.

I taught Jenny and Rocio how to make Swiss Christmas Cookies and we had a blast. Here in Venezuela the Christmas Tradition is making Hallacas which is a family affair and takes two days. I had to laugh as Rocio after 6 hours of making cookies stated that cookies are harder to make than Hallacas and take way too much time, but she did like to eat them. It was a really great day to hang out with the girls

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In Switzerland and in Venezuela Christmas is celebrated on the 24^th as well so I invited Rocio to come over for dinner since Darren was still in India

working. We had a very quite and nice dinner. Lobster baked over with Béchamel Sauce topped with Parmesan appetizer followed by Chateau Briand and for Desert we met all the other cruisers around the pool and exchanged cookies. We had a lot of fun.

The 25^th we were at Jim and Jenny’s and enjoyed the traditional turkey dinner with loads of deserts. New Year was a bit quite, who ever was left in the marina met in front of Ann’s Mini Mart at Bahia Redonda. Everybody brought an appetizer and whatever they drank. Around 9 most disappeared and so we were only Debby, Rob (Wind Shear), Sid and me left to toast the New Year in with 3 bottles of Bubbly. For that we went up to the potluck area which has an incredible view over Puerto La Cruz’s coast line and also to El Morro. We were a bit confused about when they really celebrated Midnight as Chavez set the time back about a year ago by half an hour, some started the fireworks our time the other’s at what we call Ego Time. In any case we couldn’t believe in how many fireworks we saw at one time for over one hour, there were hundreds of them it was unbelievable.

Jenny organized a New Years Brunch at their house on the first so there was more good food and drinks and we were going to look forward to starting a diet, yeah right.

One week later Ann asked me if I would cater her Birthday, but of course, I couldn’t say no she does so much for the cruising community. After a lot of planning shopping and two days of cooking we celebrated her Birthday with almost 40 people and all had lots of fun.

We are seriously thinking about dieting now especially since Sid broke the beach chair, he claims it was rusted out, but I’m not so sure, then he broke the second one too, still claming it was rusted out. Actually they were but a little fun is always good.

After all the partying we’re busy again with boat chores. Sid’s doing some varnishing plus lots of odds and ends including dropping things in the water like a Swiss Army knife. Frankly I think he got tired of watching the varnish dry so he made himself a little challenge catching Swiss Army knifes with a magnet LOL. I’m busy again with sewing projects, zipper on stack pack broke that will be a huge cumbersome repair and we probably need some extra help to get that big pack including sail across the sewing machine. Plan is to be out of Venezuela by the end of January, life is still good for us and we feel no dangers, we still feel as safe as we did as ever before being in Venezuela. Too many bad rumors are keeping the cruisers away. Although the Venezuelan President is taking over more and more and life for the locals is getting harder then ever. The cost of living has gone up so much, all the prices at the stores have tripled in the year we’ve been gone. We now pay US prices for most things and prices keep climbing. El Presidente just devaluated the Venezuelan Bolivares from 2.16 to 2.5 for food and 4.5 for anything else. All locals panicked and ran to the stores buying up all electrical household goods from TVs to stereos, microwaves, blow driers, you name it, these stores have empty shelves. They say the prices of these things will go up more. Chavez will also start rolling black outs of at least 4 hours per day in big cities, instead of fixing the problem he punishes his people. He also threatened to seize any store rising prices and has done so to over a dozen stores. We believe this is all happening in Caracas as we haven’t seen or heard anything here. He’s loosing his popularity and even his supporters are getting more and more angry with him. Actually we just had a knock on the boat and the marina employee brought us a schedule of rolling blackouts, it’s not just in Caracas anymore it’s starting here too. From tomorrow on every 48 hours the power for us will be off from 15:00 to 17:00 at the docks and the Marina and condo building from 9:00 until 11:30. Anna Merced who works at Kaiglas office just told me that during these ours she can’t open the office and therefore is not getting paid either. She also said that all the products have gone up already she will not be able to buy her shampoo anymore which by the way was the cheapest one. She also said that the speculation is that the BS will go up to 8 for our exchange, Kaiglas office is not changing anymore and she thinks that nobody will change at that rate. Guess we have to watch our BS now. Rob just bought two one gallon bottle of water which two days ago he paid 20 BS today he paid 24. I guess it’s time to think about leaving, the party is starting to come to and end. I feel so bad for the people here.

Merry Christmas

We wish you all a very Merry Christmas and may the good times and treasures of the present become the golden memories of tomorrow.

Wishing you lot of love, joy, good health and happiness for the New Year.

Sid and Manuela

Let me catch you up on our trip to Puerto Rico:

We had barely time to square our boat away before leaving on Scirocco. Joe needed us to help him get Scirocco ready for the trip to Puerto Rico. Sid worked hard fixing this and that and provisioned as I was the cook onboard. It was a hectic time but all got done.

We were a crew of 5 the owner and another couple Udo and Melanie who actually are the previous owners. Poor Melanie was sick the entire trip to St. Croix due to contaminated water. The boat tanks were filled with local tap water which is unsafe to drink and there is no water filter onboard. On her day of arrival she drank about 12 glasses of that water for dinner. The owner had filled extra jugs with that water which before departure we emptied and filled with filtered water. In St. Croix we had to get her immediately on IV at the local hospital.

Sail from Puerto La Cruz to Isla Balanquilla new GPS did not work as it was hooked onto the old antenna. Sid had suspected that and brought our handheld, good thinking. Main was not pulled up because it was dark and we had the most miserable motor sail with only the staysail up and no one managed to sleep or rest. We rested in Blanquilla for one day and enjoyed swimming along a beautiful beach with the clearest water in every blue shades, except for Sid he was left behind with owner fixing things. For the 330 mile trip to St. Croix we did pull the main up and what an unbelievable difference it made. The weather was just perfect 15-20 knots of wind and about 4-6 foot seas and the boat just trucked along. What a difference waterline makes, on Paradise it would have been an uncomfortable not to mention 4 days underway instead of the 2 ½ days on Scirocco. Sid and I did the first watch and kept an eye on a squall line headed our way. We were ready for it but as the cloud was over us the wind completely shut down and after the cloud had passed it took about 20 minutes for the wind to fill in again, weird. We had an easy and uneventful watch to the contrary for Joe and Udo they had a close encounter with a freighter (one mile distance). Not being used to the cruising life it was a bit stressful for them. Then later on they had to battle a squall with at least 30 knots of wind. During night watches when Sid checked on the boys they were both asleep in the cockpit. He made some small noise to wake them.

Sid was doing all the navigation which caused a lot of frustration for him Joe and Udo did not trust him and would question the course he had charted, and they would argue. The entrance to the anchorage in Christianstead is quite confusing and there are too many red and green buoys, and then stress level went up, the depth was only at 8 feet and the keel was at 7 ½. Just as we anchored the engine made awful noises and had to be turned off manually. Sid had his hands full in the 3 days we were in St. Croix. The boom vang broke, we also had major battery problems which in St. Croix were exchanged with new batteries, alternator fan belt broke, pully for alternator came off, waterpump fan belt broke. We also had a diesel leak which filled the bilge, plus Sid had to climb the mast as well to check the wind instruments which were toast.

Then of course poor Melanie spent the first day at the hospital with an IV in her arm and doctor said her illness was from contaminated water.

Since it was a weekend we only could check in via phone but had to visit the office the following day, which Joe forgot to do. Except for Sid and Joe we jumped ship and walked through the beautiful alleys of Christianstead with wonderful galleries and stores, not to mention a fun board walk with yummy restaurants. One ocean front bar caters to cruisers. That’s where we caught up with Butch on Tropic Bird and Cathy on Chill and finally the last afternoon Sid managed to join us for some fun.

The sail to Culebra was great and uneventful until we arrived at the channel marker to our anchorage were Sid’s navigation skills were questioned again and the suggested channel was ignored, poor Sid. All I can say about this is that I know now how boats end up on reefs, scary.

Udo, Melanie and I ventured off through the streets of the little town on Culebra, while Sid was fixing this and that again.

We left early the next morning for Sapodilla which was half way to Salinas. We had to motor sail as the wind only blew at 8 knots. The water was calm. Sapodilla is nicely protected by a huge reef but it is a fairly shallow anchorage and poor Udo not used to shallow water as we are was holding the wheel white knuckled as we drove in only 9 feet of water. Joe finally told us that the depth meter was off by two feet. We had a refreshing swim a nice dinner and a calm restful night.

Our last leg to Salinas was on Thanksgiving’s Day. There was only a slight breeze and the motor was working over time. I was down below cooking up a storm. Turkey was in the oven, green beans and corn was ready, so was the sweet potato dish and mashed potatoes. I was just finishing with prepping the salad when all hell broke loose. Sid smelled the engine over heat and when he checked he noticed the coolant was gushing out of the engine. The engine had to be turned off manually again, the water pump belt which was 3/8” should have been 1/2inch broke which in turn caused the alternator belt to come off and over heated the engine. Just a good thing Sid smelled it or it would have wrecked the engine. There still was a battery problem even with the new batteries. You should have seen poor Sid’s head the whole entire trip whenever he had to fix the engine he would hit it on this or that, his head looked pretty banged up and scared. He eventually managed to fix the engine and we motored into the Salinas estuary. The water in this estuary is all about 10 feet deep and shallower at parts and I’m sure many occasions we dredged through the mud. We for sure did heading into our slip as we very slowly moved and the depth sounder showed 6 feet. First thing the following day was to rent a car and all of us had to drive to Ponce to check in with Immigration since Joe forgot to do so in St. Croix.

Prior to leaving Puerto La Cruz we questioned Joe why he chose Salinas and told him that he would not like it there, so did other cruising friends and he did hate it. Joe is a very difficult person to be around and we really wanted to jump ship, but just didn’t have in our hearts to just leave Joe here in a place he hated and offered to help him get the boat to Fajardo, where he had stayed for several years. We left the following day for another two day trip. Udo and Melanie parted here and went on a sightseeing trip before fliying home. We motored the 45 miles in two days and were glad for this trip to be over. We finally were able to buy a ticket back to Venezuela, had no problem finding a flight to Miami for the 4^th, but Avior was fully booked for the entire month of December and luckily there were two seats left on the 13^th.

The two days we had left in Puerto Rico we rented a car and just had to drive to Guavate with wonderful restaurants selling succulent roasted pig called “lechon”. The drive was spectacular and it was tough again to make a decision in which restaurant to eat. We pigged out! The following day we drove to the El Yunque rain forest, another must, and enjoyed the tranquility. El Yunque offers many water falls, wild orchids, birds and fauna. At mile marker 11 is a pull out with food and refreshment. We were just going to get a beer when a friendly guy with a New York accent handed us a teaser of pinchos (kebabs). It was so delicious we had two orders each and had a blast talking to him. He had just moved to this beautiful island with his Puerto Rican wife and for his father in law until opening his own restaurant in Fajardo. With the delicious pinchos he serve us we don’t see any problems for him not to be successful. So when visiting this beautiful national park. Don’t forget to stop here for pinchos and ask for directions to his restaurant.

On our last day we took Joe out for an early dinner at a great Mexican restaurant then drove to the airport for our flight to Miami. We sure did have a difficult time with Joe and were glad it was over, but we did leave still as friends.

It was nice to see the friendly faces of Dale and Sandy “Snow White” as they picked us up at the airport. It was already late in the evening and despite it we talked way into the night to catch up. Their friend Karl from Germany was visiting as well and when Dotty showed up the following day they had a full house. Molly (their dog) was so cute, after all these years she still remembered us and gave us a special greeting, what a cool dog. It felt so good to sleep in a comfortable bed and was even nicer to relax for a few days. When Dotty found out we were visiting she didn’t hesitate to jump into her Cherokee plane and flew from Naples to the Keys to visit. We had such a good time Sandy, Dotty and I drank 3 bottles of champagne the first afternoon and Dotty even decided to spend an extra day with us. The following day the girls drove to Duck Cay to visit her house. What a beautiful location right on a canal with a narrow mangrove breakwater then the ocean, just beautiful, why they don’t live there is a puzzle to me.

Sid and I drive drove her back to the airport but before she left us she took us on a flight over the Keys. That was so kewl we circled many times around Key Largo to take some good pictures of Dale and Sandy’s houses. Then on the way back to the Homestead airport she let me fly, now that was too kewl. Check it out on You Tube “Flight with Dotty”, go to or click link below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46FjR0FbG7I

After that fun weekend the shopping started, we had a huge list and thanks to Dale and Sandy for lending us one of their cars it was easy getting around. I tell you though there is a lot of driving to do in the Keys, everything is far apart. We shopped pretty much everything on the list plus some stuff not on the list and twice had to go back to the Thrift store to buy an extra suite cases.

Just before we left Venezuela we received an email from our sister ship San San that they were in Marathon. GR found us via the Ericson web site and we’ve been email buddies for a while now. It was great to finally meet him, his wife Jessica and swab Gia face to face and exchange hints and tips about our boats. What a cute family, we hope to meet them somewhere in remote anchorages. And get this, there was another Ericson 36C in the anchorage.

Next to shopping and visiting we had a great time with Dale and Sandy. Early mornings we exercised to a Denis Austin tape, (except for Sid) and then went for an hour or so walk through the neighborhood. What a beautiful place and you should see their enormous house, just beautiful. In his yard Dale built a cute pond with 2 box fish, a nice size grouper, lady fish and get this at least 20 good size lobsters. I had fun watching them. Best time was just before sunrise or sunset as they walked in line behind each other through the pond, wow. Dale and Sandy just finish building their new house, oh man, what an incredibly awesome house. You should see the kitchen, it’s enormous with an elegant built in marble table seating at least 8 people. The master bathroom took my breath away. The shower and toilette are each surrounded by the most beautifully etched glass wall that was curved. The etching was an incredible underwater scene. The house also comes with a wonderful view over the entrance to the canals in their neighborhood and the Atlantic ocean. We watched a colorful sunset on the roof terrace with some more champagne.

We felt really bad that our visit was so extended but the 10 days went by fast and on our last night the yearly Christmas Boat Parade was held and we enjoyed watching it from their friends resort and met many of their friends.

We had a wonderful time and Dale and Sandy were the most gracious hosts. Dale and Sandy we can’t thank you enough.

When we finally arrived at the Avior counter there was not one passenger checking in. Really strange but then maybe we were just too early. But then again we were told that they were booked solid for the months of December, after all we had bought the last two tickets. When we finally sat in the plane and the doors locked we were dumb founded, there were only 20 passsenger in the plane, go figure!

Jim picked us up but first we had a little tail gate party at the airport as he had ice, beer, rum and coke ready for us. We had fun in the parking lot for quite a while until the mosquitoes started to eat us. It felt so good to step on Paradise and sleep in our own bed. It’s been a long month which put as behind schedule. Instead of celebrating the Holidays at anchor in the Roques we’ll be spending it here with out Venezuelan family.

Venezuela is slowly changing for the worse as Chavez puts an end to the good times. There are no cruising boats left a Maremares and at Bahia Redonda where we are there are only 3 American boats, one German and about 10 French boats left. Could this be the end of cruisers in Venezuela?

We have a few varnishing and sewing projects to do then we also will leave this beautiful country for good. We will miss all our Venezuelan friends and hope that they will be able to live a good life as Chavez is taking more and more away from them including freedom. Our heart goes out to them.

By the way I posted the first part of our Grenadine adventure with film and photo stories. Don't miss the turtle film. To view go to or click link: http://turtle-express32.blogspot.com/

and scroll to bottom of report. Enjoy!