|
Home Port Our Logs The Crew Calendar Favorite Links The Boat Photo Album Route and Charts Miscellaneous Stuff |
Larry's LogWe motored out toward the Boca, the entrance to the Caribbean Sea, and finally cleared the passage between Monos Island and Trinidad at about 6:30pm, a little bit later than we had wanted but not bad. I had a single reef in the main and the full jib up in about 15 to 20 knots from the Northeast with the seas up to 6 feet. But this time, we were going downwind and down current so although the motion was a little rough, once we cleared the confused waters near the Boca, the motion really wasn't too bad. Unfortunately, even though she had taken Sturgeron, Diane's stomach didn't agree that the motion wasn't bad. She got pretty seasick fairly quickly. She had wanted to take the first watch but asked me to take over at around 9pm. She rested in the cockpit and I watched while the autopilot steered. I didn't set up the windvane because I knew it would need some adjustments and it would be hard to do for the first time in the dark. As it turned out, it would have been a waste of time anyway because the wind started to get light at around 10pm and by 11pm we were motoring with the main sheeted in hard and the jib furled. You can't use the windvane if there's no wind. It turned out that, except for the first 3 hours, we motorsailed the entire way to Los Testigos. Our initial heading was 315 magnetic so we would clear the Paria Peninsula by about 5 miles and then I adjusted our course to 309M, directly to the islands. We saw a few ships that night, one that I had to change course to avoid, but other than that, it was a very uneventful passage. Diane even started feeling better after she had rested below for a bit, so at around 5am, I went below to rest for a few hours. By that time, the wind had almost disappeared and although there was still some swell, the motion was very easy. The only problem that night was that the voltager regulator started its old trick of cutting out and stopping the alternator. This was the same charging problem I noticed in Martinique. I had replaced the ignition switch and tested it while in Trinidad, but evidently, either the wire was bad or the switch was faulty. I had already changed the wire once so I wasn't sure what was wrong. At least I had an easy workaround - I had left the "jumper" wire in place from when I rigged the original workaround. All I had to do was disconnect the regulator's on/off wire fom the ignition switch and connect the one from my "direct to the battery" switch, but I couldn't do it while the engine was hot. It could wait though. I got up around 7:30 and the islands were well in sight. The breeze had picked up so I eased the mainsheet a bit to get an additional push but just kept the engine on. We arrived at the channel between the two main islands and decided to anchor at Playa Tamarindo, near Testigo Grande. We would have to visit the Guardiacosta on the little island across from that but thought that the channel was calm enough so we could just use the dinghy to go across. Anchoring at about 9:30, we ate breakfast (bacon and eggs) and got everything ready to go across to Isla Iguana and check in. I launched the dinghy, put the engine on and we started out. Of course, by that time, the wind had picked up and it wasn't so calm anymore but Diane didn't want to re-anchor so we went over by dinghy anyway. Getting there wasn't so bad since it was downwind but we knew coming back would be a different story. We landed the dinghy on the beach since the dock was full of fishing nets and stuff. Getting ashore and Diane asked directions from several people, practicing her Spanish. We eventually found the "office", a set of small buildings at the far end of the village. A nice young man escorted Diane to the right place, and I met her as I walked up the little stone path leading to it. He then got the officer and he was very nice also, checked our papers and gave us 3 days to stay, more if the weather turned bad. Los Testigos isn't an official entry point but they let you stay for 2-3 days before heading on. Diane continued to practice her Spanish while the officer looked at our papers and wrote down the pertinent information. We thanked him and the young man who also helped and headed back. We did get wet on the way, and launching the dinghy was a bit of an adventure since he wind kept blowing the boat back onto the beach. Thank goodness for our new 15 hp engine; it would have taken much longer to cross with our old 5 hp and we would have been much wetter. We got back to Destiny around noon and just collapsed. But "Bienvenidos a Venezuela!" |