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GRENADA AND GRENADINES Part 2

Sunday, December 27, 2009

To just watch Album/Film scroll to end


We had a great and smooth sail back to Grenada and hunkered down in True Blue Bay the southern end of Grenada. True Blue is a fairly small bay and due to lots of moorings from Horizon Yacht Charters there was no room for us to anchor. Although just before you enter the bay is a little bite that leaves enough room for 2 to 3 boats and so we anchored there. This turned out to be the perfect spot as we were protected from the south easterly swell and best of all we were by ourselves.

I took Tika immediately to the vet. They tried to take blood from here but didn’t succeed and since it was Friday they told me to come back on Monday. Then they told us that the result would be in by the end of the week.

In the mean time a fisherman placed a fairly good size net behind our boat and left it there. The next morning when he came to check on it he brought a beautiful spotted eagle ray to the surface and had to cut it out of the net it was so entangled. I called to him to let this beautiful animal go, but of course he just laughed and ignored me. To our surprise he didn't pull in the net but left it there and took off again. The following afternoon we noticed that something else was caught in the net so I went snorkeling and to my horror I saw another spotted eagle ray entangled in his net. I pulled the poor animal up and tried to free it, it was so entangled and impossible to get him free. Poor thing had already numerous scars from the net and was bleeding. I also noticed a huge spike just before his long tail started and thought to myself that there was nothing for me to do after all I didn't want to get stung by it. I did pet it and was amazed on how soft the skin was.

Since we had to wait one week for Tika’s results we decided to head to Clark’s Court Bay to catch up with Diane on Jabulani. While there Jane on Cheetah II organized an Oil-Down trip. Oil-Down is a national dish the guys usually cook. It's a one pot meal with ingredients from chicken to pig tails, salt fish, bread fruit, green papaya, yam, pumpkin, green bananas, Callaloo leaves, turmeric they call saffron and coconut milk which was made out of grated fresh coconuts. We all participated in getting this wonderful dish together. Layer and layer of all the goodies went into the pot which then was cooked over an open fire. The whole village showed up for the oil down and all they ate was all the many deserts all the cruisers brought. I think the place was called Saint Davids and was up the mountains overlooking the east coast of Grenada. It was amazing what grows there, cinnamon trees (they used the wood for the fire), star fruit or five finger fruit they call, mango, papaya, coconut, allspice, bananas, sour sop or guanábana, okra, carrots, all kinds of herbs and many more things I don't remember.

One of the daily morning routings was to go for a walk with the girls, tough walks over many steep hills but the scenery was worth getting sore muscles over it.

One of the first evenings we heard a distress call on VHF about a boat that had run aground on a reef, which was just around the corner from our anchorage so we jumped in the dinghy to offer help. We couldn’t believe our eyes when we saw Nora a 45’ Halberg Rassey high out of the water while breaking waves crashed into the boat slamming it up and down onto the reef. I better let Sid tell the story as he was one of the helpers:

There were two men on board and about an 18’ inboard dinghy attached to a line on the bow and trying to pull the boat across the reef. We went over grabbed another line and also tried to pull with our dinghy, for about 20 min. we were making little headway the boat needed to heel over farther. There was about a 10 knot wind blowing so I asked the two on board to put up the sails, it took a few minutes to do so but it heeled the boat and got some weight off the keel. The two guys were struggling to stand on the boat now that the boat was heeled over about 45 deg. The owner was attempting to use the engine, when smoke came from the cabin. Lucky it only over heated and was not a fire. I climbed aboard to help with more lines. The boat was now making leeway across the reef only about one foot in 5 minutes but you could see the boat was moving. Another dinghy came to help and we put an anchor line onto a halyard and took it out about 100’ and set it, we also took out the main anchor line out about the same. The anchor line that was on the halyard heeled the boat more but the main anchor from the bow would not set and we ended up dragging it across the reef. We tried to set it several more times, but it just wouldn’t. Then another 22’ boat with two 45hp out boards came to help, we put another tow line on it. Now we have been trying to get this boat off the reef for about an hour and a half it seemed that the boat was making some leeway across the reef. We had about 10/12 knots of wind thankful for only about a 2’ wave coming in and two boats pulling and heeled over with sails up and an anchor line out from the top of the mast. The boat was only inching along and now it was getting dark. There were three of us on the boat with the owner. The owner was in bad shape He had fallen several times his left knee and right elbow were swollen twice there size he had also hit his head. You could see he was in shock, he could not speak English and most of us helping did, that made it hard to communicate, but he was able to get across to that his injuries were bad and also that he had a bad heart condition. At about that time we heard a loud bang, the line from one of the boats broke he came over to the boat and we told him about the owner, we talked the owner into going to the hospital and told him we would stay with the boat. He was in bad shape as we had to almost lift him from the boat into the other boat while rocking with the waves. We were going to try and set the main anchor again when we heard another snap this time the line on the 22’ boat pulled his cleat out. Now it was totally dark it was looking like the boat was not coming off the reef. The three of us were making plans to take shifts and stay on the boat to keep off looters. We started to pickup lines and get ready to put out the main anchor again. All three of us were on the bow and as I looked forward I saw the channel marker moving towards us, we were still heeled over, I yelled “We’re sailing!!” and we were headed for the marker. Man, were we surprised. We ran back to the cockpit and one of the guys grabbed the wheel. I told him to turn the boat into the channel and down wind, as he did that the boat came up right and was in deep water about 30’ deep, and we were moving about 6knts. Then I remembered that there was still an anchor attached to the top of the mast I let the other guys know and told the guy at the wheel to turn back up into the wind and the other to let out the sail. I ran forward and put out the main anchor and let it run free, it stopped the boat, we were lucky that we got the boat turned in time and no tension was put on that anchor line on the halyard. We were anchored in the channel, not taking on water, so we started to clean up. The guy that took the owner to the hospital came back (he’s the owner of Palm Tree Marine) with one of his mechanics and was surprised to see that the boat was off the reef. He had permission from the owner to work on boat and try to get it off the reef. All he had to do was change the impeller on the raw water pump and he put it in the marina. It took about 4 hrs to get the boat off the reef and you could see that it had drug about 75’, and only minor damage to the hull and bent the rudder and a few lifeline stanchions that says something for Halberg Rassy. We went over to the marina to see the boat the next day and the owner was there, patched up but happy he still had his boat. He could speak very good English. He was just in shock and was unable to at the time. He thanked us for our efforts and also for getting him to the hospital. He told us that he was coming down the channel toward the marina at about 5 knots and was looking at his chart plotter when he lost sight of the channel marker a minute later he saw the marker and he was on the wrong side of it. It was too late he went onto the reef. His chart plotter was on during the rescue and he showed us where the boat hit the reef and the course it took across the reef and the anchoring in the channel. This was quite an experience. I was happy that we were able to help and hope that if anything like that happens to us that there will be someone around to help us.

I tell you not a dull moment in and on and around Paradise as a couple of days later we were finally able to access email and received an urgent message from the vet that Tika had an acute urinary track infection and had signs of kidney failure and needed to be on antibiotics ASAP. The following morning we moved to Prickly Bay to pick up her meds.

By the way while at Prickly we did two months worth of laundry because in Carriacou you can only get laundry washed by a service at 35 EC a load, which is 13 US$, ouch. Also our salt water pump acted up, although the pump was running but no water came out as I was cleaning conch. So I jumped over board with a wire hook, dove under to the through hull and while Sid blew air into the hose I stuck the wire up into it and couldn’t believe my eyes as I pulled a big fish head out of the hole. Guess he was hungry for conch. The pump worked great again.

Sid’s foot was getting better until he stubbed his toe for the second time not just that he also stepped on a bee with that foot ouch. We used to make jokes about his Polish background until I read a book about meaning of names; his name meaning “Troubled and Bruised”, too funny.

Tika did her two weeks of antibiotics and during that time she worsened. She was not herself at all, listless, drinking water excessively, didn’t eat much, couldn’t get comfortable in any position, spacey and we knew she was in pain. The new blood work showed that her Kidney reading bettered from 59 to 38 but kidney problem can not be reversed and she had lost 400 grams in the two weeks which is a lot for a little kitty like her. We were just waiting on her urine test before we made a decision. We also hadn’t been able to sleep in our bed for two months since that was covered with a plastic tarp and we had to place a litter box on the bed as she could not make to the one in the bathroom. The doctor of course was optimistic that with a special low protein diet and medication she could live a bit longer with the kidney condition. The problem was she didn’t like the new food as she is a very picky eater. Also giving her meds was a torture for all three of us and not to mention last this special food and meds can only be bought at special places and are not available in most countries we are going.

Next to taking care of Tika we moved back and fourth from anchorage to anchorage according to her vet appointments. The anchorages are so close together it really isn’t much of an effort to move and gave us an excuse to run our water maker. Doing so we met many new cruisers, got together for dinners, met them for happy hours at restaurants, took part at the weekly Clark's Court Marina potluck, especially the Karaoke which was always loads of fun Cynthia and I kept the place up until at least midnight singing our hearts out and eventually got other cruisers involved in it. I'm sure the boaters in the marina had to put ear plugs in to be able to sleep. We also caught up with Audrey Page Allaine and Dennis we had met in Venezuela last year. What a nice and fun couple, we had them over for dinner on Paradise along with Mike and Cindy on Minx and had a wonderful evening with loads of cop stories Dennis and Sid told us. We hope to catch up with them in many more anchorages to come as they headed west towards Panama.

Jane on Cheetah 2 organized a ladies day, we went to a very beautiful resort on the beach with a beautiful hike a cooling swim in the ocean and I don't think I've ever laughed so hard in my life, it was a fun day. There were other things to do like boat stuff, provisioning, rain shuffle, soaking Sid's foot as he stubbed his toe again, yes he did it again!

Tika was not getting better and we knew she was in a lot of pain we finally had to make a decision. On October 1st we said goodbye to our little cruising companion who gave us nothing but unconditional love. “It's just a pet” a lot of people would say but the void in our hearts was so great, it hurt so much to not have Tika with us anymore, even Paradise was not the same, she was my buddy.

The crew in and on Paradise started a new chapter in their lives. I for once felt like running away, just running away. As the hurting slowly went away Paradise was ready to set sail and go back where we had left off, the Grenadines. On October 10th we pulled anchor sailed back to Tyrrel Bay in Carriacou. The seas were calm even when we sailed across the part where strong currents rule the waters between the islands and where the underwater volcano Kick'm Jenny lies, the wind came out of the SE with about 12 knots and we had a wonderful motor sail (making water) towards Carriacou until about 8 miles from the island when a squall, a huge squall at that dumped a lot of water on us, soaked us to the bones and took the SE wind away and turned the until now calm water to a lumpy chop. I think the changing current helped as well, but the wind now was coming right on the nose and we had to tack back and fourth to make it to Carriacou, not without another squall drenching us.

Safely anchored in our old spot in Tyrrel Bay we relaxed and let our minds spin, where to go next.

We spent one night then headed around to Sandy Isle. 7 boats were at anchor and from what we noticed on the flags all were French plus one German boat. Our first anchor attempt got us a bit too close to the German boat so we pulled anchor set it again but this time a French lady came screaming out on deck that we could not park there, so we pulled again and went behind them where we heard her baby cry, great. After we had settled in we called Minx on the radio as we knew they were at Union Island, but hadn’t been able to get in touch yet via VHF. This time they responded to our call. Mike brought up the fact that northerly swells would start coming in and remembering that Chris had mentioned the same a few days prior we pulled anchor as fast as we could, drove over to Hillsborough, launched the dinghy, Sid dropped me off ashore, I rushed to Immigration then Customs to check out, rushed by the bank to get some money out of the ATM from there down to the beach to buy some fresh conch (6 for 30 EC = 11 bucks), whistled out to Paradise where Sid was waiting to pick me up again and exactly 20 minutes later I was back onboard Paradise. This was by far the fasted check out any where. We pulled anchor and headed the 7 miles across to Union Island. There is always a current running so we hugged the Carriacou coast to the end then set course for Clifton and made it there with no problems. We tried to sail but only managed to do so for about 10 minutes, the current set us off course so the engine helped to keep us on course. Since it was a weekend the custom and immigration offices in town were closed so we had to walk to the airport which on our last visit we were told is a long walk. We had to laugh as after 5 minutes walking we arrived at the airport. Checking in was as easy as in Hillsborough and 10 minutes later we were on our way back to the boat. Again we pulled anchor and headed to the south side of Union Island and set anchor by Frigate Island next to Minx. It was a happy reunion with a wonderful BBQ rib dinner aboard Minx, ending up drinking a half bottle of her home made Grand Marnier, wow that was yummy. The following morning I went ashore with Mike and Cynthia to walk their dog Ashley. Frigate Island is attached to Union Island through a long and narrow sand spit surrounded by a reef. Many years ago a French company started to build a marina here but ended up bankrupt and leaving the unfinished marina as it was. In the years to come weather destroyed the unfinished marina and all that is left is rusted out seawalls between the two lagoons and reef. It makes for a nice walk along the water, good for shelling. I forgot if I ever mentioned that I started collecting beach glass to make jewelry, Cynthia got me started with something else, seeds, natural seeds we find along beaches, she then polishes and makes the most wonderful natural seed necklaces. During that walk we noticed this kewl little pool in the mangroves with a reef that we could swim though to the windward lagoon and later in the afternoon we took our dinghies around and snorkeled in that same pool. It came out that it looked more attractive than it really was, but Ashley had a great time swimming amongst us. Ashley really is a cool dog, you should see her when they noodle behind their boat every afternoon. Ashley sits on her own mattress in the water watching us noodeling around her.

Minx joined us for dinner and she presented me with one of her beautiful necklaces, thank you Cindy. Dinner was wonderful as I cooked the conch into fritters, yummy and desert was putting the fishing light out and we all enjoyed watching all the fish that were attracted to the light. This anchorage is full of turtles as well, we saw many of them pop their heads out of the water and we were hopeful to see them on our next snorkel.

The turtles turned out to be on the shy side we saw them surface around the boat, but as soon as we were in the water there was no evidence of them. We did some great snorkeling by Frigate Island and on the outer reef with Mike and one evening after 8 we snorkeled Frigate Island for lobster. Night time brings them out of their hiding as they feed at night and are easily spotted by dive light as it illuminates their eyes sparkling almost like little diamonds. We saw many of these delicious creatures but unfortunately they all were very small, the tail would have only been the size of a big shrimp and that’s way too small. We did encounter a huge moray eel which was on the prowl as well.

The following day October 13th we had a nice Birthday celebration for Sid aboard Paradise with guests Cynthia and Mike. Dinner was wonderful and started with appetizer of lobster bits, baked over with BĂ©chamel sauce and Parmesan (yes we did get two lobsters which was just enough meat for an appetizer) presented on flat scallop shells, followed by wonderful pizza ala Minx, Spaghetti Carbonara Paradise style and for desert a Rhubarb crisp ala Manuela. We were so full every body vowed not eating for at least two days, well that vow was all forgotten the next day.

Cynthia and I ventured ashore to explore Ashton which is a very small town on Union island I don’t think any tourists ever come here other than cruisers. Every third house was a grocery store of some sort which sold only the essentials. I had to laugh at the one store with the biggest sign “Variety and Grocery Store”, so we went inside to find only old clothes and behind the counter a shelf was just below the ceiling which had 6 cans of sardines and two cans of tuna for sail = THE GROCERIES of course they were heavily dusted and too high up to reach. What we also noticed and I’ve been noticing in all the Grenadines and even Trinidad, pretty much every store has one if not two big posters of Obama on the walls. The locals were just super friendly and we had chats here and there and before we realized it, it was past lunch time, time to go back and feed our hungry men.

Cynthia had a dental appointment in Grenada and so they finally left Paradise alone in this beautiful and quite anchorage, the only visitors where the turtles. Unbelievably on October 16th we had our first thunderstorm of this hurricane season which missed us by one mile. This really had been a good year with mild tropical waves and this one was by far the wildest. We did get a lot of rain and each squall had high winds of 35 knots and in just one squall we collected enough water to fill our sun shower and even add about 15 gallons into our tank not to mention that mother nature cleaned Paradise of all the salt and dust, she sparkled.

It was time to head on as we are getting to the end of our stay in the Grenadines but not before we visit the beautiful Tobago Cays once more. Besides, Sid’s toe finally felt good enough to get going again. Sid jumped into the dinghy, hooked the engine up on the hoist, I hoisted the engine up onto the bracket, then Sid hooked up the dinghy on the davits and whoops he slipped on the dinghy floor and his big toe slammed into the transom of the dinghy. It hurt so bad I even had tears in my eyes. So his toe was back to being battered and bruised again. But we did move the next day and motor sailed the 9 miles to the Tobago Cays. Just after we had rounded the corner of the northwest side of Union the water turned into a washing machine and we had an almost 2 knot current with us pushing us into the oncoming swells, a mess and we were sure that we would have a wild ride all the way. But then we remember that last time on arrival we had the same effect and realized that it is a local condition with the currents wrapping around the north side of Union and sure enough the further we sailed away from the corner the calmer it became. Luck was on our side as we got lifted by the wind and never had to alter course until we arrived at the north end of Mayreau the wind did that for us. From here it was a short 2 mile hop to the entrance of the Tobago Cays were we anchored in our old spot and as the day went along charter boats joined us but left before sunset leaving us alone in this colorful and scenic place. We watched a movie after dinner and after that noticed some big fish swimming around the boat so Sid hung the light into the water. We never got to see the big fish but a shadow we thought was a turtle came closer and as it was just few feet away from Paradise we realized that our visitor was a baby manta, wow, how kewl is that.

While Sid was soaking his smashed toe in hot salt water I jumped into the salt water and snorkeled the reef behind us which was full of fish, I've never seen so many in one spot, I was literately surrounded by hundreds of fish from all shapes and colors, just amazing. Then of course I had to swim with the turtles again, but this time without my camera. I found groups of up to 6 turtles in one spot all munching away on the sea grass a sight I will never forget. Next to all the fish and turtles I spotted a good size sole and cuttlefish, how lucky could I get.

Remember the little bird that came to visit us here last time flying down below surprising Tika? I wondered if she would come and visit us again and had some bread crumbs ready just in case. She never came until the last morning I had just opened my eyes wondering about that little bird and there she was sitting on the life line in the cockpit watching me sleep. I got up and moved the bread crumb dish to the captain’s seat, while she flew to it and munched away for at least 10 minutes, she even cleaned up the crumbs that fell on the floor. When she was all done she looked at us before flying off with a loud chirp, I guess she said “thank you”.

The weather was really benign and lasted until the end of October and so we decided to take the opportunity and head back to Grendada, shop for two days and then head for the Testigo Islands in Venezuela before the Xmas winds start up again. We had a great sail back to Clifton on Union Island, spent one night there, checked out the following morning pulled the spinnaker up and sailed back to Hillsborough, Carriacou to check into Grenada again then sailed over to Paradise Beach and dropped the anchor below Nan and Mike Hatch's house. They were surprised to see us again and on the following day we were invited for a swim in their beautiful infinity pool and lunch overlooking all the Grenadine Islands in the north. We had a great time and it was really good to see them again. Unfortunately we were on a run and left early the next morning and again sailed the whole way to Dragon Bay. After the 12 years of cruising for the first time we felt like we actually do own a sailboat LOL. Dragon Bay is by far the most tropical anchorage in Grenada and still my favorite. Unfortunately the swells do roll in and on the second day a wind chop made it so uncomfortable not even the flopper stoppers could help, so we pulled anchor and motored to the next bay south to a calmer environment. But first we snorkeled the point between the two anchorages which is Grenada's best snorkel and diving spot. Really?!!! There is really not much there so they had to do something about it and placed statues under water. Some were female statues lying in a circle in the sand in about 14 feet of water. For the divers they have an actually tour that takes you through some canyons where now and then a statue is positioned. One is a statue on a bicycle, the other one sitting at a desk with a type writer and a face with a hat. Kind a weird but then I guess if the snorkel area is not good, just add a bit of excitement to it. We spent two nights in Grand Mal were it was calm compared to Grand Anse where all the anchored boats rolled from side to side. Eventually we moved over there as well to do some provisioning and then leave. Shows again that plans are written in sand at low tide. Bernie an old friend we met in Trinidad last year but missed this year as he had to take care of his mom in the States, called us on the radio. Also Diane on Jabulani was still here, we thought she was in the States by now and Cynthia on Minx was still waiting for her teeth to arrive so we decided it was way worth it to postpone our departure to spend some more time with Minx for another round of karaoke, have Bernie over for dinner (by the way he is the guy who is one of the ham radio stations who sends our emails out to you, thanks Bernie) and help Diane to get her boat into the marina before she leaves for the States. It turned out to be a wise decision as a lot of rain lingered between Grenada and Margarita.

First we had Diane on Jabulani over for dinner she cooked, yes she brought dinner to us and it was wonderful. The following morning early we helped her to get her boat into the Marina. The good thing was that Sid’s toe was all good again but then helping Diane getting the dinghy aboard Sid pulled a back muscle and oh well was on his back for four days. We did move back to Clark’s Court Bay to spend some time with Mike and Cynthia on Minx that was as always a lot of fun. On Halloween we all dressed up and joined the Hash House Harrier Halloween run, well only Mike went on the run, the rest chickened out instead we sat around the pool bar and enjoyed cold brewskis. Before the night ended Cynthia and I drove the dinghy over to Clark’s Court Bay Marina and did a last time Karaoke together, what a blast. Hurricane season was officially over and only a few left over tropical waves were still out there to dump some needed water on us to keep the boats sparkling and refilling our water tank and sun shower. In Prickly Bay we had Bernie on Transition over for dinner who left for Trinidad the following morning. We checked out a day later and sailed into the sunset towards Los Testigos in Venezuela.

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

When I returned Sid was not lying on his back as he had said he was rummaging around the boat and then he fixed our running light. So here we were wondering what we would have for dinner since I didn’t catch fish, wondering how that frigate bird would have tasted. Just kidding!

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

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

After Scott Free left we were surrounded by just French boats which are known for running around naked on their boats and this morning as I was enjoying my coffee and bacon and eggs breakfast my neighbor got on deck and stood there totally naked saluting the morning, so I turned around and was facing my other neighbor’s boat and ohmygosh, noooooooo pleeeeease don’t bend over!!!!!!!!! Too late!!!!!! There went my appetite!

You would think after the Grenadines we would be used to it by now. And then when a young French couple shows up you think ALL RIGHT it’s a big disappointment as the young and good looking ones don’t walk around naked, oh well. Actually it’s the guys who are showing off on deck the women are more modest.

Time’s up the three days were over and lifted anchor and to sail to Margarita.

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

So here we were again in Puerto La Cruz and this time tide our lines in a slip at Bahia Redonda. Not too many cruisers are here anymore as more and more cruisers are leaving Venezuela for good as Venezuela is changing for the worse. In the mean time the visas for cruisers and boat has been changed to 3 months. Even the boat is only aloud now to stay 3 months used to be 18. Although we also found out that it is only Puerto La Cruz, if you check into Porlamar or Cumana you get 6 months. I was right when two years ago I said we have about two more years of good cruising in Venezuela. Hugo is doing a good job in ruining his beautiful country. Power and water outages on a daily basis and he blames it on his people. But I don’t want to go into that it’s too depressing.

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

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

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


© Copyright Manuela Olshefski January 2006. All rights reserved.