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Diane's DiaryJuly 15 Monday Well, we left Margarita around 10am this morning. Kristali had left about an hour before us. I really liked Margarita. The only drawback is you can't swim in the anchorage nor run the water maker due to the water pollution. Also, boat security is definitely a problem. The dinghy must be raised & locked every night as thefts occur on almost a nightly basis. Marina Juan where the dinghy dock is located has a guard to watch the dinghies because there had been so many thefts. Marina Juan doesn't pay him at all; the guard just relies on tips. If Connie hadn't told us to tip him I wouldn't have known about it. He also takes the garbage & helps put your groceries in the dinghy. So, the local gets a job & the cruisers have their dinghy watched; a win-win situation for both. Anyway, we had to charge the battery since we weren't getting much wind for the generator in Margarita. We only put the jib up as Larry was a little afraid of the problem with the gooseneck & wanted to look at it some more before we used it. So, we motor sailed & arrived around 1:30pm- around 2pm by the time we had the anchor down. It was really blowing in the anchorage- the wind was up to around 25 knots. We both wanted to get together but because of the high wind, we would need to put the engine & gas tank on so both of us didn't want to do it. Instead, we just stayed & relaxed on the boat. A local fisherman did come over to us- he wanted rum- we understood him but said we didn't speak Spanish. If he had asked for water or milk for the kids he had with him, we probably would have given it to him. However, we don't believe in giving anybody things because it starts a precedent where they expect this from other cruisers. Also, they have had dinghy thefts from here & the nearby island of Coche & who knows if it wasn't a fisherman scoping us out to see what we had? Anyway, we had so much electricity we watched a video tonight. We both didn't get a good night's sleep as the mast was squeaking badly all night. We both woke up around 3am- I finally got back to sleep but Larry stayed up until around 5am. We both went back to sleep for another hour & then got up. July 15 Monday Kristali left the anchorage very early this morning- around dawn as they had farther to travel than us. We left the anchorage around 7:30am. We had a very nice downwind sail for a while. You did notice I said "for a while"? The speed over ground was over 8 knots & we were having a beautiful sail. Then around 8:30am the wind started to die & the SOG dropped to around 5.4. We saw 2 different schools of dolphins but neither was interested in playing with the boat as they usually are. I think they were interested in eating! Anyway, around 1pm, the wind died altogether so we had to motor the rest of the way. We could have continued sailing but we wanted to reach the anchorage before dark. We would have gone directly into the marina except we were told by other boaters not to enter in the afternoon when the winds are up because of the cross winds trying to get into a med moored slip. So, we spent the night in this wonderful anchorage called Cienguenita on Chimana Grande. It was absolutely beautiful & we were the only boat anchored there. It was actually so small only 2 boats would have fit in there. I actually was very worried about piracy after all the reports we had about it. We even closed ourselves into the boat although someone could have gotten into the boat very easily. Anyway, I was definitely worried but nothing happened at all. It was very quiet; no wind & no bugs. July 16 Tuesday We left the anchorage after all the nets were over this morning around 9am before the wind picked up. The dockmaster met us in his dinghy once we were inside the breakwater & guided us to our slip. This is med moorings again- ugh! It's much easier with a side tie slip & there are some of those but we don't have one. But the dockmaster brought us some boxes to use to climb off the boat with so it doesn't seem as bad as the dock in Martinique where I had a real hard time. Welcome back to civilization - free running water & electricity. Nice marina & good pool - even better than Crews Inn. But on the whole, Crews Inn is definitely nicer though this is very good. The regular price per foot per day is .31 & .03/ft/day for electric plus 16% tax. The monthly rate is .25/ft/day plus all the rest. We actually got an even better rate when we said we were going to stay over the winter & got it down to .19/ft/day. So, the monthly rate comes to about $337. In comparison, the really nice 5 star marina here - Maremares gave us a rate of $382. They are a first-rate marina with free towels (hand washing towels is definitely the hardest part about hand washing clothes as it's very difficult to ring all the water out), cable TV, telephone & Internet onboard, gorgeous gym with sauna, steam & Jacuzzi & a gorgeous free form wave pool. They are definitely top notch & better than any marina we have ever seen in the US. They have a huge hotel complex & definitely cater to the rich Venezuelans. Unfortunately Maremares didn't have any openings even though at the time we arrived they were matching the prices of BR. Anyway, as a price comparison, CI with side to slips which are always more expensive, costs about $645. Without thinking of price, I would chose Maremares any day. Anyway, it is very hot here at the dock, as we are not facing into the wind. At night there is no wind so it's extremely hot on board. We spent the rest of the day giving our boat papers to clear in. We also walked over to CMO to see about leaving our boat in storage there while we go home. Unfortunately, we did not get a good impression of CMO. Several boaters have reported problems to us concerning their bill. Also, this is not a do-it-yourself yard & we want to do the little work we have ourselves to save the money. Fortunately, we met some people we knew on Plenum at BR who said they would watch our boat for us while we were gone if we wanted them to. We thought about it & decided to leave it in the water at BR & have Weedie & Janice on Plenum watch our boat while we were gone. July 17 Wed We went into downtown PLC today. The bus was only 200 B per person- about 10cents USD. A taxi is only about $2 so it's pretty cheap. We tried several banks ATM machines but couldn't get money out of any of them. Finally, someone told us to go to Banco Mercantile & we were able to withdraw the equivalent of $500USD. We wanted to leave several deposits for galvanizing chain & ordering a new dinghy while we were gone. We also needed money to get into Caracas. Anyway, we were in town from about 10-4pm. We had a pizza lunch, which was just OK. July 18 Thursday Very hot today & we are both really sweating as we try to get the boat ready to go back to the US on Tuesday. I hand washed laundry, as we don't want smelly dirty laundry to sit on the boat while we are gone. Larry worked on organizing & packing the boat. I was so hot & tired from doing the laundry that I took a nap this afternoon. We walked over to the Dinghy Hospital, which we heard had the best prices on Caribe dinghies made here in VZ. We decided to buy a 10" double hull dinghy with a bow locker so we gave them a $100USD to order one. I quit working around 4pm & went to the pool around 5pm. |