October 24, 2006
Tuesday
Playa Caldera, Isla
Tortuga , Venezuela
10.57.319N, 65.13.608W Sailed
57.9 NM
We are in a beautiful horseshoe shaped anchorage with
gorgeous white sand beaches. There are
less than a dozen boats anchored here.
We plan to stay here only one night, so are not bothering to put the
dinghy into the water so that we can explore the beaches; it is too far for us
to swim into the closest beach. Just a
beautiful place with the sound of light surf breaking on the beaches. Should sleep well tonight.
There were at least 17 ships anchored or moving slowly just
off Puerto La Cruz when we left this morning – all waiting for their turn to
fill up with Venezuelan crude oil. BTW,
when reviewing our clearance paperwork yesterday, Judy discovered a minor
detail that the US
might like to know. The US Virgin
Islands are not really the USVI; the Port Captain of Puerto La Cruz considers St. Thomas to be in the Virgin Islands, West
Indies . We thought that was
a bit funny and so typical of this particular close-minded little man.
The passage here took 8 hours at an average speed of 7.15
kts. It was a pleasant sail for the first half of this passage, close hauled
with winds of 18-20 kts off our starboard bow in 4-6 ft. seas. Then the wind died down and clocked a bit
forward, but we were still able to motor sail for the third-quarter of the
passage. Then the wind died down to
only about 3 kts and was straight on our nose, so we furled in the sails and
motored the final quarter way in flat calm.
The last half of this passage was not pleasant in any
way. Only good thing about it is that it
wasn’t raining! It was a beautiful sunny
day with very unusual white and light-grey clouds as far as we could see. Judy saw one cloud formation that looked like
it belonged in a Star Trek movie. Wispy
clouds formed up together to form the shape of an acorn or top and began
spinning counterclockwise very rapidly.
Would have worried about a water spout forming except that these clouds
were high in the sky. This formation
spun rapidly for about 5 minutes and then dispersed. They then re-formed into the same shape, but
about 4 times larger; and began to spin rapidly counterclockwise again. That lasted several minutes and then it all
dispersed again. Really weird looking.
This passage was unbelievably rolly for such flat seas. We have a gauge at the helm that indicates
the degree of roll that the boat experiences.
We were constantly rolling 15% to each side, with a 20% roll about every
fifth time. Could not understand why we
rolling so much in such flat seas. Try
doing that for four hours and see how it makes you feel!! Judy was wishing we had some plain saltine
crackers. Bill wasn’t feeling any too
spiffy either. But neither of us
actually got seasick; just did not particularly enjoy the passage. (BTW,
provisioning note to those sailors thinking of heading to the southern Caribbean : we have been looking for plain saltine
crackers for at least the last 8 islands/stops.
Not to be found down here.
Crispix crackers are the closest you can find.) It is not a good idea to sail with an empty
stomach because it makes you feel more seasick; luckily, we had a loaf of
French bread aboard that we shared for breakfast/lunch.
Judy took a rotisserie chicken out of the freezer for
dinner. She has ten of them vacuum
sealed in the freezer for days such as this.
It is hot and a little rolly even here in this very protected anchorage,
so cooking does not sound like such a great idea. We can pop a couple of potatoes into the
pressure cooker for five minutes; heat the chicken in the microwave; add the
stir-fried green beans that we saved from the marina pot luck dinner last night,
and we will have a nice dinner with little effort and without heating up the
galley too much.
A side thought: public
nudity is illegal in Venezuela . This includes women in topless bathing
suits. Some of the Europeans apparently
have a bit of difficulty with this concept.
There were warnings at the marina in Puerto La Cruz that they must adhere
to Venezuelan law and keep their tops on.
And that they absolutely could not shower naked at the open showers next
to the pool; those showers were for rinsing off only. Funny to us that it became such an
issue. Seems like a simple sign in
Spanish, English, French and German out by the pool should have solved the
problem. But some of the Europeans
couldn’t seem to grasp the concept that their exposed flesh was offensive to
the locals, as well as illegal. Sort of
like wearing shorts in a Muslim country.
Cruisers and travelers need to be sensitive to the local customs and act
accordingly and not act like they do back home.
On our final approach to Isla Tortuga, a catamaran named
Evensong crossed directly in front of us.
They had left the marina an hour or so before us and were going to the
same anchorage. We had watched them all
day, crossing back and forth across our route.
They would be 15 degrees off our port bow for awhile and then meander
off to be 10-20 degrees off our starboard bow, then be on the same course
directly in front of us. We could not
figure out what in the world they were doing, as they were not tacking on this
straight course. Near the top of Tortuga where we would both turn west to round the reef
point before entering the anchorage, they again crossed our path, directly in
front of us. As soon as they crossed
our path then the guy started frantically motioning for us to watch out for the
fishing line he was trailing. What poor
seamanship! He is the one who should
have been watching out for his fishing line; he is the one who cut across in
front of us. Glad we have a line cutter
on our prop shaft so unobservant captains like that can’t make their problem
become our problem. We suspect that he
never even realized that he had crossed so closely directly in front of us. Maybe he was taking an afternoon nap. Before some of you send us emails to tell us
that we were the give-way boat in this situation, we know that. But we would be required to yield
right-of-way to the catamaran, not his trailing fishing line. He was not displaying any of the day symbols
to indicate that he was fishing or trawling.
Just poor seamanship.
The stars and the sound of the surf made for a beautiful
evening. We sat in the cockpit and
listened to an old Simon & Garfunckel cd.
Old farts that we are!
October 25, 2006
Wednesday
10.59.450N, 65.22.830W
Sailed 12 NM
This morning a French couple came over to our boat in their
dinghy, just to visit. They also own an
Amel; neither of us remembers their names or their boat name. The conversation was very limited because the
woman spoke only French and her husband spoke only very limited English, but we
managed. They purchased their boat new
in 1998 and did a five-year circumnavigation; said they wished they had taken
ten years to do it. They completed their
circumnavigation in the Mediterranean, but he said that the Med is not a good
place for sailing; so they sailed over to Venezuela and have stayed in the Caribbean ever since. They sail to wherever interests them in the Caribbean and then leave the boat in a boatyard in
Puerto La Cruz while they fly back to France to visit for several months
each year. We will likely end up doing
something similar in five years or so.
Today we moved to a tiny spit of an island at the northwest
end of Tortuga , named Cayo Herradura. This is a lovely spot, totally flat and
narrow, with a bit of reef off the south side.
There are a few temporary fishing huts constructed on the north end of
this little island. They look like they
would be washed away in a high tide.
This is the prettiest spot we have seen the Tobago Cays up in St.
Vincent & the Grenadines .
S/V Sealoon arrived in Playa Caldera late yesterday
afternoon. They had left Puerto La Cruz
early Monday and sailed NE to Isla Cubagua to pick up a boat part that a friend
delivered to them from Trinidad. They
said they had a nice downwind sail from Cubagua to Tortuga . Goes to show you what a difference a
different angle of sailing can make on the same seas. We rolled all day with current across our
beam and were uncomfortable; they coasted downwind with the current and had a
great sail.
There was no wind today, so we didn’t even attempt to raise
sails; just motored the whopping distance of 12 miles. This is a better location to leave from when
we head to Los Roques tomorrow night (weather permitting). Sealoon also moved to this anchorage,
although they plan to spend a few more days here than we do. Today was Nicola’s 14th birthday. We took the dinghy over for swizzle, wine and
snacks. Judy had a birthday card for
Nicola and also gave her a computer game as her birthday present. There was a gorgeous sunset with large blue
vertical streaks as we were in the dinghy going back to Security. Tried to take a photo, but it didn’t show up
very well.
October 26, 2006
Thursday
Cayo Herradura, VZ
We awakened to a gorgeous day but within a few hours the
winds had clocked to the infamous westerlies so common in this part of the Caribbean . The current mostly runs toward the west and
southwest; so when the winds blow from the west then this creates large rolling
seas or steep choppy seas, depending on how long and how strong the winds blow
from the west. This made the lovely
anchorage not so lovely anymore as we rolled from side to side for most of the
day. We both tried to sleep as much as
possible in preparation for the passage to Los Roques tonight.
October 27, 2006
Friday
Francisquis, Los Roques, Venezuela
11.57.615N, 66.39.074W
Sailed 96 miles
We left Cayo Herradura at 5:45 p.m. yesterday and sailed all
night, arriving here about 9:15 a.m.; total trip 15 ½ hours, averaging 6.2
kts. We could have made this passage
faster but chose not to. In fact,
shortly after heading out we realized that we were going too fast at 8.5 kts
and would arrive before daylight; so we reefed the sails and slowed the speed
down to 6 kts. You definitely want to
arrive here in bright daylight as there are reefs and coral heads literally
everywhere and you must pick your way through them. Also, all the charts are off by as much as
one-half mile, both electronic charts and paper charts. You really must eyeball your way around here.
We opted to enter through the northeast entry point. There were two entry points farther south
where you enter through the reef and then proceed northward between two very
long reefs. But those entrances had
heavy waves breaking and we didn’t see any reason to risk entering there when
this entrance is broader, deeper and safer.
We first moved over to El Gran Roque to anchor there, but it was too
busy and did not appeal to us. Neither
of us wanted to be anchored where small power boats are zooming all over the
place between the anchored boats. So we
upped anchor and moved to Francisquis.
The entry to Francisquis is a little tricky between coral
heads and shallow sand and then around two patches of coral heads and two small
reefs and dodging a couple of half-mega-yachts (what we used to call the
“doctor boats”); but it is nice and calm once you get settled in here. We are anchored behind a large reef, facing
the open sea. Really beautiful view but
the water is too deep to be clear and there seems to be a lot of small clumps
of sea grass floating around us. So far,
Judy is a little disappointed in Los Roques.
It was hyped by other sailors as being just wonderful. It is pretty and very different, but very far
from Judy’s definition of wonderful.
Maybe it will get better when we move to another island tomorrow. There are dozens of tiny islands in Los
Roques.
The passage last night was uneventful. Judy spotted four falling stars and Bill saw
another one. There was a bright slip of
a moon until it set about 10:30 p.m.
Then it was stars only for the rest of the night. It is funny how the seas seem larger at night
and the winds sound louder than during the daylight.
You just have to have faith in your boat that she can handle
whatever happens at night because you cannot see a darn thing. This was the first night passage when we
tried to stick to a specific watch schedule.
Judy was on watch from 8 p.m. until 1 a.m. and Bill was supposed to
sleep so that he would be rested for his watch from 1 a.m. until 4 a.m. Of course, he could not get to sleep. Twice he came running back up to the cockpit
to see what we had hit when there were loud bumps. Like mentioned previously, you cannot see a
darn thing at night on the open sea and no moon. So we have no idea what we might have hit;
probably small pieces of wood or tree limbs, but could have been something as
small as coconuts. Who knows.
Now that we are anchored and showered and fed, it is time to
kick back and rest all day. Neither of
us got much sleep last night. Judy began
to feel slightly queasy late in the night and didn’t get back to normal until
after the sun rose and we could see again. Cannot imagine how we are going to be able to
do this for days and nights on end as we get farther west. We must to learn to sleep during these
passages.
October 29, 2006
Sunday
We haven’t moved, except from one side of this anchorage to
out in the middle when space became available as boats left yesterday
morning. We were hoping to get away from
the flies as we got farther away from shore, but it didn’t help much. The flies are driving us crazy. And Judy is being eaten alive by noseeums
(tiny, tiny, tiny mosquito-type insects).
We have two noseeum/mosquito hatch screens. Bill put these two screens over the forward
hatch and the hatch over the forward head.
Then he taped cheesecloth over the doorway to the front part of the
boat, and we slept in the forward vee-berth last night. No new bugs got into our little protected
area, but Judy is miserable today from the itching bites that she got Friday
and Saturday.
To all those people who said we would LOVE Los Roques: you
didn’t tell us that we would be swarmed by flies and blood sucking
insects. So far, this place is
definitely not in our top ten favorites.
The water is quite deep, right up until you reach extremely shallow
water. It immediately goes from forty
feet to five feet, so you need to be very careful where and how you
anchor. We are anchored in ten meters. If the winds switch to westerlies then we
will be dangerously close to the shallow area.
Last night and today we have had strong winds from the east. We had hoped to move to another anchorage
today and try to get away from these flies, but the wind is pretty strong so we
likely will just stay put.
S/V Sealoon arrived here yesterday morning. They said that Cayo Herradura became so rolly
that they were rolling rail to rail, so they came here earlier than they had
planned just to get into a calmer anchorage.
S/V Unplugged just hailed on the VHF and they should be here in a few
hours. That just leaves S/V Do It! and
S/V La Gitana that should be on their way here.
All of these boats were leaving Puerto La Cruz within a day of when we
left, so they will probably arrive here shortly. We will not pair up with any of them, but will
continue to run into one another as we all proceed farther westward. All of the other boats plan to visit Cartagena and we hope to head straight across to the San
Blas Islands of Panama ,
weather permitting. If we decide to follow the others to Cartagena , then we will
need to contact our insurance company.
The waters of Columbia
are forbidden by our policy, but we can pay $200 and get coverage for that area
if the weather prohibits us from making the direct passage.
BTW, after we got out into open water the other day, we ran
our watermaker for the first time since we replaced the membranes, the end caps
and bobbin and both pre-filters. It is
great! It produces water that is just as
good as any bottled water that we have ever bought and better than some. Prior to replacing the membranes, our TDS
meter was reading about 460 to 490. That
barely meets the World Health Organization’s standard level of 500, and exceeds
the US
standard of 300. Our watermaker now
produces water that tests 95 to 97. And
it tastes very good. That is quite a
relief. Note, we do still filter our
drinking water as it comes from our water holding tank to our kitchen
sink. Wouldn’t want to risk something
growing down in that water holding tank; so our drinking water is filtered to
remove any cysts, etc.
One nice thing about this anchorage is the people watching –
especially for Bill. Small power boats
and large day-sailor catamarans bring visitors for day trips from El Gran Roque
to the beaches in this anchorage. Bill
thinks he has found perfection of the female form in a Venezuelan beauty
attired in a tiny red bikini.
We enjoyed a glass of wine and several hours of friendly
conversation in the cockpit of S/V Sealoon, along with Tom and Colleen of S/V
Unplugged.
October 30, 2006
Monday
Crasqui, Los Roques, VZ Sailed
12 NM
11.53.1012N, 066.44.5405W
S/V Sealoon, S/V Unplugged and S/V Security decided to move
to the nearby island
of Crasqui
The first squall wasn’t too bad and we stayed on course with
poor range of visibility. But the second
squall was a solid 40 knots winds, bringing large rolling seas and zero
visibility; could not see more than 10 meters past the edges of our boat in
each direction. As this squall
approached we heard our friends who were well behind us talking on the VHF
radio about the 40 knot gale, so Judy checked our compass and the nearby
islands in every direction. She
determined that if the squall moved to our location that we would be safest to
turn to a course of 310 magnetic and ride it out; that would take us away from
any islands or reefs. And that is
exactly what we did about 5 minutes later when the squall reached us. It didn’t last long as it was moving faster
than we were, then we reversed our course and headed back to where we were
headed in the first place.
Crasqui is a lovely anchorage; beautiful long beach with
ultra-fine pure white sand and lots of shells.
There are a few dwellings ashore.
It is a very quiet beach and so far we have not noticed any
insects. We were all very tired of the
flies at the last anchorage.
Judy made a cake shortly after we arrived and we brought
some to share with our friends on the other two boats. Nicola seemed to really enjoy her still warm
slice of “Hot Milk Cake.” Then we all
went for a walk on the beach. It was a
very pleasant afternoon.
Anchored next to us is yet another couple that we met in
Trinidad, Pat and Mike on S/V Private Affair from London .
Seems we are all following the same path on about the same schedule.
October 31, 2006
Tuesday
Crasqui, Los Roques
We planned to leave today for the passage to the Aves but
weather prediction is better for tomorrow, so we have delayed for one day. We went for walk on the gorgeous beach and
saw what looked like a sea gull nursery.
There were hundreds of baby sea gulls standing on the end of the beach,
all facing into the wind. There was only
one adult sea gull present, sort of like a bird day care center. We both got a little too much sun; and came
back to the boat and vegged out the rest of the day with our books.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Your comment will be posted after we confirm that you are not a cyber stalker.