Usual cruiser stuff in Bonaire

July 17, 2007 Tuesday

Sunday we played dominoes with the regular cruiser crowd.  There really are not that many cruisers here in Bonaire.  There are only 40 moorings available for the entire island.  The moorings are aligned in 2 lines.  Everyone wants on the outer moorings because if you are on an inner mooring and westerly winds hit, then your boat will be pounded  close to the seawall.  The inner moorings should only be used by smaller boats.  All the outer moorings are now filled but there are still several inner moorings available.  So that gives you an idea of how few cruisers there are here in Bonaire.  There is also a marina, but hardly anyone goes into the marina unless they are leaving their boat for a flight home.  The marina is directly across the road from a salty pond and the mosquitoes are horrendous in the marina; mosquitoes are not bad out here on the moorings.  So, anyway, mostly the same people play dominoes each Sunday.  A young woman named Sarah who is visiting  SCOTT FREE won; this was the first time she had played.

Then we attended the Pot Luck dinner on Sunday night.  Again, a small turnout; probably because the announcement was made too early in the day and most people had not yet turned on their VHF radios.  I made crab cakes with tartar sauce and haticots verts (slender green beans).  We had a very large bag of these green beans left over from the French islands and I wanted to get them out of the freezer.  There was a small turnout at the dinner so now Bill and I will be eating green beans every night this week.  Good thing that we like them.

Yesterday we did a small bit of grocery shopping.  Being a Dutch island, there is lots of gouda and edam cheese to be found; but they do not sell cheddar here.  Don’t think either gouda or edam will substitute well in cooking for dishes that normally call for cheddar, American or Monterrey Jack.  The Dutch prefer extremely bland food.  

We have not yet found any place on Bonaire that sells fresh fish; so, of course, that is what I wanted to cook yesterday.  Not to be had; only frozen fish in the supermarket and we did not trust that.  Bonaire is the first island we have visited that does not have a fresh fish market near the sea.  We watch a local guy go outside the moorings every evening and hand fish, but he is the only fisherman that we have seen.  This is just too strange.  Surely there must be a fresh fish market somewhere and we simply haven’t found it yet.  The guide books don’t mention one.  How can there be an island without fresh seafood for sale?

Make & Mend Day got off schedule when we left Isla Margarita on a Thursday.  Last week we did it on Monday and this week we are doing it on Tuesday.  Since our youngest son Aaron and his family will be flying down to visit us in a couple of weeks and will be arriving and leaving on Tuesdays, I think we will just temporarily change to Tuesdays for Make & Mend Day (laundry and making water). 

Such an exciting life we live, huh?

Note to fellow boaters:  anything with rubber in it will disintegrate on your boat.  Of course you all already know that if you have ever kept a rubber band onboard for any length of time at all.  I have a cheap Timex watch that has a rubbery type watchband.  It separated right down the length of the watchband during our last overnight passage.  (I only wear a watch during overnight passages.  I don’t care what time it is otherwise, but on night watches we each have a routine that we follow every 15 minutes so I need a watch then.)  Not hopeful that this glue repair will hold but Gorilla Glue has worked on everything else we have tried, so it is worth a shot.  Heck, sometimes it seems like Gorilla Glue would repair a broken rudder!  Stuff seems indestructible.

Okay, since I brought it up:  our routines during overnight passages.  Whoever  is on watch follows this routine every 15 minutes.  Like all other cruisers, we do not sit at the helm during our watches unless traffic is nearby or the weather is severe.  Sitting at the helm behind the windshield and dodger can get quite warm and still.  More than 99% of the time we sit back on the cockpit cushions on a Sport-A-Seat braced against the mizzen mast on the high side.  This affords a clear view all around the boat and places the watchperson out in the wind.  This helps greatly to avoid feeling seasick during black nights – a little wind on your face.  We each wear a watch.  Every 15 minutes the watchperson gets up and turns on the monitor to verify position on course and make any necessary course adjustments, turn on the radar (usually kept in standby mode overnight in order to save battery) and verify no targets or track those that are nearby; and check the trim of the sails and any changes in wind direction.  Doesn’t do a bit of good to look at the water because if something is ahead of you (like a tree trunk or flotsam), it would never be seen on a dark night.  Every hour or so of your watch, you usually get a bottle of water or hot cocoa or tea or whatever.  Bill also likes a few chocolate cookies or cracker snacks.  For some reason you always want to snack more when on watch at night by yourself.  Maybe to relieve boredom? 

That’s what we do.  Would love to hear from other sailors as to how they pass the time during night watches.

Arrived in Bonaire (again)

July 12, 2007  Thursday

Sunday we cleared in with Customs.  Immigration is closed on weekends so we did the Immigration clearance at the Police station.  The guide book says that if you clear in at the Police station rather than the official Immigration office, then you are supposed to check in with Immigration within 2 weeks.  But I wrote on the Immigration form at the Police station that we want to stay in Bonaire until October 5; the police officer stamped the form and gave me a copy; and he stamped our passports for entering Bonaire.  He did not tell us anything about also needing to go to the Immigration office within 2 weeks.  So in our opinion we are cleared into Bonaire until October 5 and do not plan to visit Immigration at all.  Others we know have had problems with the Immigration officers; so since we have a form with an official stamp on it that says we will be here until October 5 and our passports are also stamped, we see no reason to possibly complicate matters by visiting the possibly contrary Immigration officers.

Sunday afternoon we played dominoes; only 6 of us showed up to play the weekly dominoes game.  Bill & Carol of S/V HOPE and Louise & Gary of S/V LULU were the other players.  LULU is a 61-ft Oyster; a lovely boat.  We had met Louise & Gary last year here in Bonaire.  They are a couple of born and bred New Yorkers who have been cruising since 1999.  I especially appreciate Louise’s sense of humor.  She writes a column for Blue Water Sailing.  Her cruising logs can be found at www.aboardlulu.com if anyone is interested in reading yet another sailing log.  Michelle of BLUEPRINT MATCH also dropped by.  Great to see that they are back on their boat.  Paul & Michelle and their 2 young children left BLUEPRINT MATCH here in Bonaire last November while they returned to Florida to work for 6 months.  Now they have replenished the cruising kitty and are delighted to be back out cruising again.  They also plan to go to Cartagena in September, so we should be seeing again.  Michelle told us about several boats that we know planning to make the passage from Curacao/Aruba to Cartagena in late Aug/early Sept.  If the timing works out right maybe we can be part of their flotilla through the Colombian waters.

Sunday evening we attended the Taste of Bonaire.  This was rather blah-blah-blah.  Just the same old Taste of Anything format; a lot of local made costume jewelry and a few food booths.  We didn’t hang around there very long and went to dinner with Tony & Heidi of WORLD CITIZEN.  Bill ate way too many ribs as Sunday is all-you-can-eat rib dinners.  I opted for what they consider to be a Greek salad.  It did at least have feta cheese in it so I guess that was their tribute to the Greeks.  But it was drenched in a sweet dressing and had no kalamata olives, so definitely not my idea of a real Greek salad.  Funny how our standards have changed while living in the Caribbean because I was perfectly happy with my “not-so-Greek” Greek salad.  (Oh, but we will definitely visit Niko-Niko’s while we are in Houston during December for a taste of real Greek salad and those wonderful Greek potatoes.)

Monday we vacuumed the entire interior of our boat.  There was a constant grit blown into the boat while we were in Isla Margarita.  This dust has been bothering both of us but we delayed cleaning it thoroughly until we got away from all that dust in the air (WE HOPE!!).  Monday night we went out to dinner with Gary & Louise of LULU and John of TANGO.  John is batching it while his wife is visiting home for a few weeks.  We walked to three restaurants before finally finding the fourth one that was open and not serving a buffet.  Neither Bill nor I like buffets.   I had the best grilled tuna dinner with a fresh tomato/basil sauce.  By far the best tuna I have ever tasted.  Bill opted for the sesame coated tuna with soy-ginger sauce.  We thoroughly enjoyed visiting with Gary & Lou.  John had to leave early because his dog was on the boat all alone.

Tuesday we walked around town, ate ice cream and visited the grocery store.  Exciting, huh?

Wednesday night we went out for pizza with Tony & Heidi.  Again, an enjoyable evening.

Today we awakened to a hard rain with lots of wind and some lightening.  Thank goodness!!  Everyone has been wanting a good solid rain to wash all this reddish-brown Saharan dirt off our boats.  All the rigging is coated with the red dirt.  Every time it has rained, it has rained so little that it just causes tiny rivulets of red-brown water to make a mess all over the topsides.  This morning’s rain was heavy and long enough to wash away all the dirt.  After the rain stopped we got out and I held the dinghy while Bill washed the sides of the hull down to the waterline.  Much easier now that it has a fresh coat of wax from our recent haul-out.  Cleans right up.  I stand in the dinghy and hold onto the toerail of BEBE while Bill uses a brush on a broomstick and a bucket of fresh water mixed with Joy dish detergent to wash the sides of the hull.  Our fresh water hose is just long enough to reach the entire length of the boat so we can rinse the sides with fresh water.  We should do this daily because it is great exercise for the midrift.  But that would use a bit too much water even for our high-capacity watermaker.

Bill is not feeling well.  Too many ribs on Sunday night; too many sesame seeds on the tuna on Monday night (and way too much wine); and too many onions on the pizza last night.  This is the first time that his Crohn’s has acted up since we moved aboard more than a year ago.  Guess he will have to start watching his food intake more closely.  Right now he says he will never eat on this island again, but I bet he changes his mind about that once the pain stops.  There is a cruiser cocktail hour and book exchange in about an hour, but doubt we will attend.  Bill is supposed to go diving with Tony tomorrow.  Hope he gets to feeling better so that he doesn’t have to cancel.

July 14, 2007  Saturday

Bill feels all better and he did go diving with Tony on Friday.  Bill said it was just “peaches.”   I’m glad he got to try out his new BCD.  Now we know it works fine in case he needs to make another emergency dive on another fouled prop.   Hope Bill gets the opportunity to go diving often while we are here in one of the diving capitals of the world.  I don’t share his enthusiasm about diving so he must find others to go with him.  Tony dives almost every day so maybe Bill can tag along with him sometimes.

Tomorrow is the weekly dominoes game.  There will also be a cruisers’ pot luck tomorrow night.  Pot luck is different here in Bonaire because there is no grill.  The restaurant in the marina is closed on Sundays and the owner graciously allows the cruisers to use his table and chair facilities for a pot luck, but there is no grill available to us.  Normally at a pot luck you bring a dish to share with everyone and you bring your own meat or seafood to grill.   Since there is no way to cook your own meat there and providing meat or seafood for 20+ people would be a bit expensive (not to mention a lot of darn trouble to cook on your boat and haul it down to the pot luck), there is no telling what foods will be served at a Bonaire pot luck.  Often it is all vegetables.    Plus, they meet for drinks at 6:00 p.m. and don’t eat until 7:00 p.m.   Obviously any hot food you bring down there at 6:00 is lukewarm at best by 7:00.  So it is never a hot meal.  I plan to bring crab cakes and a large dish of green beans.  Both of those can be served room-temp.  After all, the main purpose of this event is to socialize; the food is secondary.

Isla Margarita to Bonaire

July 5, 2007  Thursday

Isla Cubagua, VZ

10.49.903N; 064.09.730 W          Sailed 24 miles, Average speed 6.86 knots

We left Porlamor, Isla Margarita, about 9:30 this morning.  Had a gorgeous downwind, down-current sail; and anchored at Isla Cubagua atbout 1:00 this afternoon.  Winds were 27-30 knots but they were from behind us.  We were sailing flat and smooth with poled out genoa and preventers on both main and mizzen.  Perfect sailing conditions.  Didn’t even notice the high winds until we furled in the sails and turned crosswise to the wind to enter the anchorage.  Then it was like:  Man! Where did all this wind come from!

Winds have continued to stay in the 30 knot range all afternoon.  We are really pulling on the anchor snubber line.  Winds are supposed to die down during the night and should be about 20 knots tomorrow.  So we are expecting another great downwind sail to Tortuga.  If we are enjoying the sailing we might just continue on to Bonaire and not stop in Tortuga tomorrow night.  We will make that decision tomorrow evening.

I have had a slight fever all day and slept a lot.  Hoping to sleep a lot more tonight and that I will feel better tomorrow.  Bill is on his own for dinner tonight.

There have been a couple of armed robberies at Cubagua over the past few years.  Advice is to lock yourself inside the boat at night, and that is exactly what we plan to do when it gets dark.  With our loud alarm system and flashing bright lights, we really are not the slightest concerned about a possible robbery.   The only structures on this island are a dozen or so homes of fishermen.  But it is only about 15 miles from the western end of Isla Margarita and that is where robbers supposedly come from.  At any rate, we aren’t worried about it at all.  Besides, we are flying our very large “we have guns onboard” flag, a/k/a the USA flag.  Funny, absolutely none of the boats that have been robbed that we have heard or read about were American boats.  All have been European boats; the last one was from Iceland.  The native inhabitants of the Eastern Caribbean and coastal Venezuela believe that all USA boats carry guns.  Fine with us if they believe that.  Just encourages them to target other boats instead of us.

Isla Cubagua was the first European settlement in the Americas.  It happened because Christopher Colombus saw some natives with pearls.  Within a year, two adventurers, Christobal De La Guerra and Pedro Alfonso Nino, discovered the source of the pearls to be the pearl beds off Cubagua.  In 1492 fifty fortune hunters arrived and founded Nueva Cadiz on the eastern side of the island.  They took Indians as slaves and forced them to dive for pearls.  They worked them so hard that hundreds of Indians died.  At the height of the pearling industry Cubagua pearls provided Spain with a wealth almost equal to the gold transport from the Inca lands.  In one year alone Cubagua exported 820 pounds of pearls.

In 1520 a force of 200 well-armed Indians attacked the town and forced the Spaniards to leave.  The Spaniards came back in force and rebuilt the town stronger than before, fortifying their houses against attack.  A fort was also built over the mainland to secure a water supply.  After a few decades of heavy exploitation the supply of pearls decreased and new beds were sought in Coche and Cumana.  On Christmas Day in 1541 an earthquake and tidal wave destroyed Nueva Cadiz.  Now Cubagua is uninhabited except for a small research station and a few fishing camps.  Pearl fishing has been prohibited since 1962.  And the Europeans think the Americans are bad about butting into other countries.  They literally raped the Americas of natural resources and murdered thousands upon thousands of Native Americans simply to gain wealth.  Do as I say and not as I do (or did).

Off the northeastern tip of the island there is a partially sunken car ferry.  This ship caught fire and the cars it was carrying began to explode.  It was quite a fiery site.  Advanced divers can dive on this wreck and see the cars still inside the ship.  It is far too windy to do this today.  We would have liked to snorkel this area as there are supposed to be something called basket stars and large star fish.  We are quite familiar with large star fish of all colors, but we have never seen anything called a basket star.

July 6, 2007 Friday

Pta. Arenas, Isla Tortuga, VZ

10.55.518N; 065.25.450W           Sailed 77 NM; 10.5 hours; average boat speed 7.33 knts

Today was our first experience sailing with double headsails.  We used both headsails for about 2/3 of the passage from Cubagua to Tortuga; then the winds shifted slightly more to the north; so we took down the starboard headsail and left the port headsail poled out with preventers on the mainsail and mizzen.  There also were following seas for the first 2/3 of the passage, but about the same time that the winds shifted more northerly, the swell also changed to be off our beam.  Still, it wasn’t too rolly and we made very good time.  There is normally about 1 knot current in your favor when sailing westward along the outer islands of Venezuela and that seemed about right today.

The double headsails are supposed to be used in winds not to exceed 20 knots.  We were right at that limit all day.  These poled out double headsails are designed to be used when the wind is more or less directly behind the boat, a point of sail that normally cannot be sailed.  Using both headsails made for a very comfortable ride with the following seas.  We both could do that for weeks.  It is a very flat and fast form of sailing and makes cooking and doing regular boat stuff very comfortable.  We hope to do much more of this type of sailing when we reach the South Pacific.

Putting up the second headsail was quite an experience.  Like everything else, it will be easier the next time since now we know how it works.  Our forestay has 3 tracks; most boats have only 1 track.  Ours has the normal genoa installed in the port side track.  The starboard headsail goes into the starboard track and locks into place at the top of the forestay when the sail is hoisted fully and correctly; then we insert a “mouse” into the center track and hoist it to the top of the forestay to release the starboard headsail when we are finished with it.

First we had to remove the second headsail from the foredeck sail locker and bring it to the cockpit.  We had to flake it so that it would feed upward correctly.  Then we carried the flaked sail back to the bow.  Bill fed the sail into the starboard track on the forestay while I hoisted it up with a halyard on the mainmast.  Neither of us could tell if it had clicked into place at the top of the forestay.  Bill gave it a couple of really hard yanks and we assumed that it was clipped into place, so we tightened the sheet and poled it out to the starboard side.  Wrong! 

It was not clipped into place correctly at the top of the forestay and within a couple of minutes it started to come down.   I released the tension on the sheet and went forward to help Bill try to contain the sail as it lowered down onto the foredeck.  About 4 feet of the foot ended up in the sea for a moment, but we managed to get the entire sail back onto the deck.

Second attempt.  This time Bill again fed the sail into the track and I hoisted it up with the halyard.  By the time the sail was at the top I was too weak to pull it hard enough to make it clip into place.  Bill decided that this time we would put the halyard onto a winch and give it a turn or two to make certain that the darn thing was actually clipped in place at the top of the forestay.  Our instruction book says to do this part by hand, but it did not work the first time we tried doing it by hand so we felt that a winch was in order.  It worked perfectly.  The sail stayed up this time and we truly enjoyed sailing with the double headsails for about 7 hours.

Then the winds shifted too far north (starboard side) to allow us to continue to use double headsails.  The instruction book said to turn toward the wind until the wind was on the beam before dropping the sail; this should make the sail drop onto the deck instead of into the water.  We tried this once, but something wasn’t right – not sure what, but something wasn’t right.  So I turned the boat back to the original course and we started the dropping procedure all over again.  Bill sent the mouse up the middle track until it was almost to the top of the forestay.  Then he moved as I turned the boat toward the wind to move the wind up to the beam,   I also let out 5 meters of the sheet so that the sail would have no outward tension as it came falling down.  I hit autopilot and went forward and stood down inside the starboard deck sail locker and pulled the sail down while Bill pulled down on the opposite side.  This time it worked perfectly.  The sail came down smoothly and was easy to stuff down inside the sail locker.  Flaking it and stowing it in the sail bag will have to wait until we are in lower winds in Bonaire.  According to the weather forecast, we won’t be using the double headsail configuration during the rest of our passage to Bonaire.

As we passed the south side of Tortuga near the western end, we saw many large power boats – all lined up and anchored stern to the shore behind a small area of reef.  I wondered if the rich Venezuelans who own those boats brought them up here themselves for the weekend, or if they had their captains bring them up and they will fly their little planes up for the weekend (probably with their bimbos – sort of like deer hunting back home).  There is a small airstrip on virtually uninhabited Tortuga.  The rich Venezuelans fly up for the weekends.  Wouldn’t surprise me a bit to learn that they might also send their boats up for their weekend use around this beautiful isolated island.   This also explains where they might be staying for the weekends.  Bill and I had been talking about this earlier today.  The guide books say that the rich Venezuelans like to fly their airplanes to Tortuga for a weekend getaway.  But there are no hotels, resorts, villas or even plain homes for them to stay in.  So we wondered where they slept.  Open camping certainly did not seem to fit the social profile for these guys.  The nice large power boats anchored on the south side answer that question nicely as they would certainly provide a level of comfort to which these guys are accustomed.   It is supposed to sometimes get “interesting” for sailboats anchored at Playa Caldera at the northeastern end of Tortuga.  Their tall masts are in alignment with the small airstrip.  The guide books say that the rich Venezuelans drink too much and it gets lively when they are taking off to return to the mainland at the end of the weekend.

We had planned to anchor on the northwest side of Tortuga tonight near Pta. Tamarindo.  But the winds were blowing like mad and were still coming too far from the north.  So we tucked in and anchored next to a Venezuelan fishing boat just off Pta. Arenas on the true west side of Tortuga.  There really isn’t much shelter from the winds and there is a bit of movement, but not nearly as much movement as there was back in the anchorage at Porlamar during tide changes.  We will only be here one night so it really doesn’t matter if we move around a bit as long as the anchor holds.  And our anchor always holds.  The Buegel anchor by Wasi is a wonderful anchor and we would recommend it highly.

The spot where we are anchored is positively gorgeous.  There is a long beach of sand that is so white and fine that it looks like sugar.  The water is clear and sparkling.  A perfectly beautiful place.

Time to cook dinner and then enjoy much needed showers.  It was a good day.

July 8, 2007 Sunday

Kralenkijk, Bonaire, Netherland Antillies

12.09.315N; 068.16.796W           Sailed 187 NM, 23 hours, average boat speed 8.13 knots

We arrived in Bonaire at 8:00 a.m.  Tony & Heidi on WORLD CITIZEN had saved us a mooring by tying on a fender yesterday afternoon.  So we are on an outside mooring in the middle of the mooring field.  No anchoring allowed in Bonaire, anywhere, any time; must take a mooring or go into the marina.  We prefer the mooring rather than the confinement of a marina.  Tony came out in his dinghy and assisted Bill with tying off the lines for the double moorings.

We left Tortuga at 9:00 a.m. yesterday, so our 187 mile passage took a total of 23 hours.  The trip was just plain wonderful.  We did have to motor sail for about 5 hours when the wind died down so low that our boat speed was only 6 knots.  Bill did not want to go that slow so we motor sailed.  The winds picked up and we sailed without engine for the rest of the trip.  The overnight part of the passage was especially nice.  We passed a total of 5 large ships but they were all at least 2 miles away so no problem.

At one point our GPS started giving us an alarm.  It did this 3 times before we figured out what that was all about.  Apparently the previous owner had set the GPS to alarm if the boat speed exceeded 11 knots.  And, thanks to the 2+ knot current, we did exceed 11 knots several times!!!!  We have never sailed so fast in any boat.  Not sure what our top speed was because we were busy trying to figure out the alarm thing instead of watching the speed indicator, but it was over 11 knots for certain.  The hull speed on our boat should be around 11 knots so we assume that is why that alarm was set.  But we felt no instability and had no inconsistencies in steerage, so it was fine to hit those speeds in the favorable sea conditions.  Could be a totally different story if we had been surfing down big seas in a storm.  But we were in almost flat seas and consistent winds.  It was great.

Already found out that several friends are here in Bonaire.  Looking forward to meeting up with them.  Time to go do the Customs/Immigration clearances.  Will upload a few photos later.

How we got here

July 4, 2007  Wednesday

Happy Independence Day to all in the US.  Enjoy your day off work.  Hope you all find a good way to celebrate.  We have cleared our of Venezuela today (takes all day long with an agent) and we plan to leave tomorrow morning towards Bonaire.  Haven’t decided if we will do a straight sail or stop a few times along the way.  At any rate, we probably will not have internet access again until Monday or Tuesday so don’t expect any blog updates until at least Tuesday.

Someone posted on our message board asking how we prepared for cruising.  The basic steps were as follows:

1. Went on large tall ship cruises
2. Bill took a few sailing lessons
3. Read a lot and learned a lot about boats and sailing
4. Bareboat chartered with more knowledgeable sailors
5. I took a few sailing lessons
6. Bareboat chartered solo (just the 2 of us, many times)
7. Bought a boat; put her into charter; and sailed her 8-9 weeks per year for 5 years
8. Bought a boat more suitable for living aboard comfortably and cruising safely
9. Took classes and obtained our USCG Captains licenses (OUPV) for up to 100 tons
10. Bill attended training specifically for our model diesel engine
11. I attended Offshore Emergency Medical training
12. Bought a lot of sailing guides and charts
13. Sold our house and everything in it except basic clothing
14. Moved aboard and sailed away

Not to bore all those who already know all this; here goes:

For Christmas 1983 I gave Bill a 10-day vacation aboard a Windjammer tall ship called the FLYING CLOUD.  Bill was working himself to death back then and I wanted him to have a restful vacation away from all telephones.  So the Windjammer cruise in the British Virgin Islands seemed like the perfect vacation.  I have always been plagued by severe seasickness.  But the Transderm Scop patch was newly available, so I was willing to give it a try.  Needless to say, I was still seasick even with the patch (even in the no-motion sailing waters of the BVI!); but Bill had a wonderful time.  One afternoon he looked over the rail at all the small sailboats around us and said that one day that was what he wanted to do.   He was hooked on sailing even though we really hadn’t even sailed yet.

For the next several years or so we went on a Windjammer cruise at least once annually.  From Antigua south to Grenada twice on the MANDALAY and in the St. Martin/St. Barths/St. Kitts/Nevis/Saba/Statia area on the POLYNESIA.   We may have also done the FLYING CLOUD again, can’t remember for certain.  These tall ship cruises were great fun but after a few years we began to feel that it was time to move on to a bareboat charter.  So Bill made a deal with friends who sailed.  We would provide free airfare for a bareboat charter if they would teach us how to sail.  Bill also took a few private sailing lessons on Galveston Bay prior to our first bareboat charter.  We chartered with our friend listed as captain and us listed as crew for at about 4 times; each time out of Charlotte Amalie in St. Thomas.  Then we were ready to start bareboat chartering on our own.

I finally took a few private sailing lessons by the same teacher that Bill had used on Galveston Bay.  Cannot say enough positive things about Bob Marlin; he was a wonderful sailing instructor.  Bill’s sister, Helene, also took a few sailing lessons from Bob Marlin.  We were ready to charter by ourselves.  Helene joined us as crew on our first solo bareboat charter; this time out of Road Harbor in the BVI.  We all had a great time; didn’t sink the boat; made it to where we wanted to go; and didn’t hit another boat.  So our first solo bareboat sailing adventure was a success!

The next year we again chartered and Helene tagged along.  Another couple joined us for one week (a disaster because the wife became a prima donna the instant she boarded the boat).  Our daughter-in-law, Kristina, joined us for the second week.  The Christmas Winds arrived in the BVI during Kristina’s first week on a sailboat.  It was great fun sailing down the Sir Francis Drake Channel with the dinghy surfing along sometimes 8 feet higher than our cockpit!  Oh, by the way, I was still getting seasick every time I stepped on a boat.  But it was fun regardless.

 Then we started chartering boats with just the two of us.  That is when our sailing knowledge began to be firmly established.  Once we had a 32-ft boat in 12 to 15-ft seas and winds over 25 knots.  It was really fun because we were heading downwind.  Shortly after that charter trip we purchased our first boat, a Beneteau 463, and placed her in the charter fleet with Moorings in BVI.  We sailed either our own boat or a similar boat for 8 to 9 weeks annually for the next 5 years.  Once we went to Tonga and sailed a 463 there for 10 days; our first South Pacific sailing experience. 

The Beneteau was scheduled to leave the Moorings fleet during the summer/fall of 2005.  We decided that we would refit the boat and move aboard to cruise the Caribbean for about 5 years.  We anchored in St. Martin in March 2005.  We were there to put a deposit on a dinghy and outboard motor.  We planned to move to move aboard in early 2006 to begin cruising the Caribbean.  As luck would have it, we anchored right next to the boat that we now own.  The story of that original encounter is reflected in the early postings on this blog.  Not wanting to go into all those details again, it can suffice to say that we purchased the 2003 Amel Super Maramu 2000 and she did not need any refit before we moved aboard to start cruising.

Bill had already arranged his employment contract to terminate on April 28, 2006.  We listed our home for sale in early July 2006.  The house sold within 24 hours and the purchasers leased the house back to us through April 30, 2006.  Man, did that work out perfectly!

We had 3 garage sales over the following 8 months, clearing out 36 years accumulation of “stuff.”  It is absolutely amazing how freeing it is to get rid of your “stuff.”  We never want to go back to that lifestyle.  The less you own, the better.  You honestly do not need or really want all the things that the media have convinced you that you cannot live without.

During the final months prior to moving aboard, we each attended Captains license classes and passed the tests.  We each hold a Captains license for vessels up to 100 tons, and can carry 6 passengers if we chose to get into the charter business or the yacht delivery business.  This is commonly called the Six-Pack ticket; proper name is the OUPV license. 

Bill also took a 4 day class for diesel engines; working specifically on a 100-hp turbo Yanmar engine, which is what we have in our Amel.  I attended an Offshore Emergency Medicine class to learn how to treat emergencies when there will be no help arriving anytime soon.  This is quite different than what would be taught in a First Responders course, where you learn only how to stabilize a patient for short term because help will arrive or be available within a couple of hours.

We arranged all our finances to be handled online or automatically.  We set this up several months prior to moving aboard so that we could test to see how well it would work for us.  We are happy to report that this has worked extremely well so far.   Our wonderful daughter-in-law, Kristina, is kind enough to handle what little snail mail that we require and the extremely limited banking that must be done manually.  She has been a Godsend.  Don’t know what we would do without her help.

So, that is how we prepared to move aboard a sailboat.

It isn’t possible for everyone to obtain the USCG Captains license because they might not have the hours of sailing experience required.  It was easy for us because we had owned the Beneteau in the charter program and we had sailed her so frequently by ourselves.  The hours added up quickly and we each easily met the requirements.  If someone is contemplating cruising and does not already have the hours required for a Captains license, then we would strongly advise attending several ASA courses.  These are available all over the country.  And we would very strongly recommend bareboat chartering in various locations at different times of the year so you can experience sailing in varied locations and varied weather conditions. 

Once you have done that, buy a boat and go!   Don’t try to have the boat perfect before starting out.  No boat will ever be perfect.  They are boats, after all.  They are supposed to constantly need something fixed or improved.

As all the sailing books will tell you, the hardest part is letting go the dock lines.

June 28, 2007  Thursday

A quiet day at anchor.  We never even got off the boat.  Bill spent most of the day cleaning up both computers.  We also took turns hand-washing the cushions on the saloon settee and seats.  These are ultra-suede and clean up very nicely.  We took the cushions up into the cockpit and cleaned them with a brush and Woolite and Clorox 2 non-chlorine bleach mixed with hot water.  They look so nice now.  I recently spent several days on my hands and knees scrubbing the blue fiberglass floor lockers with Soft Scrub with bleach and a stiff brush.  The floor lockers cleaned up several shades; Bill didn’t realize that there had been so much dirt build-up until he saw them clean again.  Those floors really looked dingy but now they are a bright blue again.  We have agreed that no one wears shoes down inside the boat any more because shoes track in too much dirt from the docks and dirt roads.  Today we also washed all the little back pillows that we use in the cockpit.  We have been leaving them in the cockpit overnight lately and that was a dumb thing to do because they were getting slightly mildewed.  Those will now go back to being brought downstairs at night.  We both feel better when everything on the boat is all nice and clean.

Tracking our DHL shipment now shows that it has cleared Customs this morning.  But it is supposedly still sitting on the mainland in someplace called Maiquetia. 

Mañana. mañana, mañana.

Bill also got the Spanish tutoring program off the old computer and put it on the laptop that we now use daily.  A little late to learn much Spanish for our time in Venezuela, but maybe I will pick up a little Spanish by the time we reach Cartagena.

We have decided that as soon as we receive the DHL shipment (new outhaul for our mainsail) that we would like to sail down to the mainland and visit Laguna Grande and Laguna Chica in the Golfo de Cariaco.   We want to see Laguna Grande but we are also ready to get on to Bonaire.  We have seen and done all of Isla Margarita and it is time to move on ----- if we ever receive that darn DHL shipment.  All of our friends have already sailed on either to the outer islands, the mainland or to Bonaire.  There are not that many moorings in Bonaire and we want to arrive before they are all filled.  Anchoring is prohibited everywhere in Bonaire.  That is how they keep their coral alive and pristine.

July 3, 2007 Tuesday

Finally!! We finally received our DHL shipment today!  I was beginning to feel like we were being held hostage in Venezuela by DHL.  Also, a several more boats arrived yesterday; one of which were our friends Ed & Linda on DREAMTIME.  We had to go to the DHL office to pick up our package (tracking had shown it on the delivery truck for 2 days but it wasn’t getting delivered), so Ed & Linda shared a taxi with us and then we all went out to Sambil mall for shopping and lunch in the cold air-conditioning.  (More beautifully presented delicious sushi for me!) This is Ed & Linda’s first visit to Venezuela so we were sort of showing them the lay of the land.  Linda was very glad to find this nice mall.  Like most men, Ed could not care less.

Back to the boat this afternoon and we installed our new mainsail outhaul.  Bill came up with a few improvisations that enabled us to really tighten the outhaul before he did the final whipping.  This time we feel like the outhaul is correct.  Of course, we won’t know for certain until we sail with it in some heavy winds; but it certainly seems tight and correct.  Bill also had ordered new lines for the mainsail traveler and both car travelers (most boats do not have these but we do).   Now that this project is complete we must decide if we want to clear out tomorrow or wait until Friday.  Thursday is a holiday here---VZ Independence Day---and government offices will be closed. 

We need to plan everything right so that we arrive in Bonaire on a Saturday or a Sunday, so this will require a bit of planning concerning sailing times between here to Bonaire or alternatively from Laguna Grande to Bonaire.  Don’t want to arrive during the night and don’t want to arrive on a weekday.  If you arrive on a weekend then you simply visit the police station instead of the Immigration office.  Immigration officials there can be a real PITA, so informed cruisers all try to arrive on weekends.

An observation about the supermarkets here.  They employ easily 6 to 7 times the number of employees that the same business would employ back in the US.  Many of these employees just stand around and talk amongst themselves all day.  Many of them have the job of watching shoppers.  One would assume that shoplifting is a major problem throughout the Eastern Caribbean and here in Venezuela.  There will be a “guard” at each end of every aisle in the supermarkets.  And you must check any packages or backpacks at the door; you are not allowed to carry anything into a store except a small handbag.  We were a bit taken aback by this at first but now we are used to it and ignore the “guards” like everyone else.

A few other observations while on a shopping trip yesterday, the sunglass kiosk in the supermarket tells something about the wealthier shoppers.  They carry name brands like DKNY, BC BG, Vogue, Fendi, Police and Ray Ban.  Those are some fairly expensive name brands to be selling in a supermarket kiosk.  And the liquor babes!  Bill loves watching the liquor babes.  These are very good looking young women dressed in very tight black pants and low-cut tank tops.  They work in the liquor and wine department at the supermarket, and they are very attractive.  We have not figured out exactly what work they do in the liquor department.  All we have seen them do is stand around and look beautiful.  Maybe that is all that is required to bring more men into the liquor section.  Not really sure how it sells more liquor because these women really do nothing except stand around.  What a job.

We always enjoy a great lunch at the supermarket restaurant; for a cost ranging from $3.98 to $6.58 for both of us.  Can’t buy food and cook your own meals for that price.  The soup yesterday was called Sopa de Res.  Our dictionary says that res means animal.  So, they were serving animal soup.  We opted not to try that particular delicacy.  Bill had huge servings of black beans and rice, and I had a Caesar salad.  We both had a soft drink.  The total was $3.98.  Gotta love it.

A few more observations.  One is that some of the Europeans on the bus from the marina to the supermarket are the worst people in the world about not tipping.  And most of them have apparently never discovered deodorant.  This is especially true of the German cruisers.  We cannot believe that they can’t tip the young man who boxes their groceries and loads them into the truck and then unloads them at the marina.  You are only requested to tip this guy 2500 Bolivars per person; so 5,000 per couple.  At the current rate of exchange, that is a whopping $1.43.  This young guy must buy his own boxing tape and black markers to mark the box.  Tipping him $1.43 for his boxing and carrying services is dirt cheap.  And these cheap-ass cruisers are stiffing him on the tip.  What trashy people.  I am proud to say that we have not seen one American ignore the expected tip.  I’m sure there are cheap Americans too, but we just haven’t seen any acting quite that cheap.

This observation is about the homes of the poor people on the main boulevards.  Someone (Chavez government?) has built pastel colored facades in front of these homes.  These are attractive and have white doors and window sills, etc.  This is obviously done to hide the poorest of the poor.  But when going down the street in a bus or taxi you can often see inside some of the open doors.  The level of poverty exhibited through these open doors is shocking.  Some of these are worse than the worst living conditions that we have seen in Mexico.  They have nothing but dirt ground and pieces of tin strung together as a partial shelter.  Stones on the ground make a “stove.”  No plumbing of any kind.  These people have no hope of rising above this level of poverty.  Contrary to what the media in the US says, Chavez is good for the poor people.  He is providing them with free medical care and unbelievably inexpensive medications; price controls on all basic foods; and all government workers and military just got a 30% increase in wages.  No wonder they re-elect him.  Bill says that democracy is not for all countries, especially one like Venezuela.