To just watch Album/Film scroll to end
We had a great and smooth sail back to
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
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
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
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
Safely anchored in our old spot in
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
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
The following day October 13th we had a nice Birthday celebration for Sid aboard
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
It was time to head on as we are getting to the end of our stay in the
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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