|
Home Port Our Logs The Crew Calendar Favorite Links The Boat Photo Album Route and Charts Miscellaneous Stuff |
Larry's LogAnother lazy day. We went for a walk on the beach in the morning, around 11, going to the windward side again and saw some interesting reefs and some invertebrates clinging on the rocks near the tide line. I'm not sure but they might have been chitons - I got a picture so maybe I can find out eventually. We then walked along the beach facing the boat and met some local people there on a vacation. A pilot, he was a Venezuelan, born in Miami working in Taiwan, and was back to visit some family. They had lots of family with them but we talked for a while about Venezuela and its current problems. They invited us to their boat later and we accepted although later we felt a bit "out of place" since it was their family vacation. We continued our walk, took a short swim and went back to the boat, intending to go over for a little while around 5. Well, through a series of communications (maybe miscommunications) we finally went over but the boat was gone. Diane said they probably went to a different location to do some diving or snorkeling since that's what they came for and thought they would be back - oh well. Anyway, it gave me a chance to finish the book I was reading - for once I read something Diane gave me and liked it (I guess because it was about the Navy). Friday was another relaxing day with not much to do. We stayed on the boat in the morning and only went to the beach in the mid-afternoon. Walking along the beach though, was interesting; we passed one of the fishing shacks and the man whose birthday it was the other day was cutting up a Spotted Eagle Ray they had caught. They were going to eat it and it was certainly big enough for either many men or many meals. We felt a bit sad about the ray but realized that they had been doing this for many, many years and only took (for the most part) what they needed. Certainly the ray population wouldn't be affected too much by the loss of one individual. We also saw, a little further down the beach, the flipper of a small sea turtle that had washed up. Just the flipper and naturally, we didn't know what had happened, but assumed that some fisherman had caught a turtle. Well, they had to eat also and I think the turtle population isn't in danger either. One other unusual sight - an albino crab among the rocks at the north side of the island. We did see several species of terns as we walked down the beach. I believe they were Cayenne Terns and Yellow Billed Terns. We also saw some small samdpipers that I couldn't get close enough to see well, and of course the usual compliment of Laughing Gulls. We had also seen some Least Terns previously. We took a swim from the beach and then went back to the boat, in time for Happy Hour of course. Saturday was another lazy day at Cayo Herradura, our last for a while. The only thing we did was go to the beach around 3:30 and walked the length of the island. Of course, we had a swim after that and talked to the people from the 2 French cruising boats. They were on the beach also and came over to say hello. We talked for a while and found out that they were also going to Playa Caldera tomorrow but were then going back to Margarita; we were going to Puerto La Cruz after that. We got back to the boat around 5 and took the outboard off as well as the rest of the dinghy gear but just locked the dinghy to the boat instead of raising it. We would tow the dinghy to Playa Caldera and maybe go to the beach there to walk around and take a few more pictures. We would play that by ear, depending on how conditions were. Sunday, June 1, 2003 - welcome to the 2003 Hurricane season. There had been one very early hurricane already, in the Gulf of Mexico and one tropical wave that passed almost unnoticed in the Caribbean. The weathermen were predicting a slightly higher than average number of storms but we would be below the "hurricane belt" and safe, at least that's what we hoped. If you looked at the track of all the hurricanes over the last 100 years, you would see that they hit just about everyplace in the Caribbean, but they were less (much less) frequent below 12 degrees North. We moved over from Cayo Herradura in the morning to Playa Caldera. We left about 8am and got to Punta Delgada around 11 - not too bad considering the wind and current were against us. We anchored in about 11 feet of water and counted the planes on the airstrip - 9 were there. More planes than boats! We were going to go to shore but decided against it and just relaxed for most of the day after we anchored. We hoisted the dinghy around 3 and left it raised a bit to get air below and I got some things ready for the passage tomorrow. We had towed the dinghy from Cayo Herradura since the wind was relatively light although we had taken the engine and other stuff off the evening before. As usual, the wind picked up at night to about 15 to 18 knots from the northeast. It had been almost calm during the day, from the east. I got up early the next morning, around 4:15, and after making coffee, got us ready for the passage southeast. We were going to try to get to Cayo La Borracha but if the winds were too far southeast, we would go to the Isletas de Piritu, a little further to the west. We would make a decision while underway. I say I got up because although the alarm went off at 4:15, Diane didn't get up until almost 5:30. She was tired and the Sturgeron made her sleepy. We got underway around 6:15, so it wasn't too bad. The winds as we started were from the east at 8 to 10 knots, as they usually are that early in the morning. As we rounded Punta Delgada, the wind started to increase and as we cleared La Tortuga, it was 10 to 15 from the east-southeast. We stopped motor sailing and when I unfurled the jib, we started going around 6.5 to 7 knots, heeled over 15 to 20 degrees, a great sail. At that rate, we would reach La Borracha around 2pm. But it wasn't to last. The wind lightened and then lightened some more and eventually I had to furl the jib, tighten the mainsheet and motor. We motored for about 8 hours total at about 2400 RPM making 6 to 6.5 knots. At one point, I revved the engine to almost 3000, which is the maximum for the engine. I was told that this was good every once in a while to blow all the accumulated carbon deposits out. I ran it there for 15 minutes and then went back to 2400. We finally arrived at La Borracha at 3:30. Of course, the wind was picking up nicely and had backed so we would have been on a beam reach if it had been like that sooner. Oh well. The passage itself was pretty uneventful except our TV decided to leave its shelf and fall on the settee. I tried it after we anchored and it seemed to work OK. Now I had to figure out a better way to mount it. I had used some "TV Mounts", little plastic clasps with adhesive on the back - they had worked well for over 2 years but the adhesive finally had just let go. The only other excitement was seeing an oil tanker cross our bow at about 200 yards. He was going north northeast while we were going southeast. It was a valuable lesson in that he appeared on the horizon, passed us and was gone all in the space of about 30 minutes. The anchorage entrance was between two large granite formations and just after we came in, we went up to the small beach surrounded by reefs. We anchored in 13 feet of somewhat murky water and I let out about 65 feet of chain, the stern coming about 40 feet from the reef behind us. We set the anchor and watched closely as the wind started to howl down the mountain and around the barrier beach in front of us. Beyond the beach, we could see Puerto La Cruz, our next stop. Tuesday we got up around 6:30 and I started getting ready to leave, although all that had to be done was lower and tie down the dinghy. The wind had really howled until about 3am and then died. If I hadn't raised the dinghy a bit, it would have been stifling below. We got underway about 8:30 and I took some pictures before and during our exit. La Borracha was a pretty place but in a stark way - no greenery and very rocky with large granite formations rising up and then undercut by the waves. There was probably some good snorkeling there but we didn't get a chance to try. The wind was calm and the water flat as we motored to Puerto La Cruz. What breeze there was from the northwest, as sometimes happens in the mornings here. We got in and the dockmaster met us in his boat and showed us which slip we should go into. It was the easiest approach possible since it was straight in to the nearest dock. It was a med moor again but really not too much of a problem. It took us about 2 hours to get there and by 10:30 we were tied up. Tom, from Mima, was there with Clem, and Weedie (Plenum) also and they helped with the dock lines. The dockmaster took the stern lines and tied them to the mooring balls astern and we were set. Tom invited me to have a drink and we walked down to the bar/restaurant in the marina. Diane was talking to Janice, from Plenum, and other people so Tom and I just relaxed and had our drinks. When we finished, he went back to Mima and I went back to Destiny and started getting everything setup for the marina. We first hosed everything down to get the salt and the brown dust from Africa off. The dust was on everything, the rigging, lines, canvas; and it was really bad. The water ran reddish brown from the accumulated dust washing off. The wind had really pushed it into the lines making it tough to get off. I hooked up the electrical cord and we were set. Diane had made arrangements to go shopping with Janice, since we were out of a lot of supplies (we had been away from stores and hadn't spent any money in 26 days, I think it's a record!). Before Diane went shopping though, she helped me fold the mainsail. While she had gone to talk to Janice, I had gotten the battens out and taken the sail off the mast and boom. I wanted to wash it and clean the spars also so it was better to get it off immediately before putting the awning up. It took less time than I thought to get it unbent and then when she came back, we flaked it down and put it in the bag. She then went to spend some money. So while Diane went shopping, I continued with the boat. Weedie had come by to help me get the air conditioner on deck and I continued putting that together. I rinsed off the deck again from some dirt I had missed and then put the main in another bag I had - the first was a little thin and torn in spots. I also straightened up the lines and got the jib sheets ready to take off - I wanted to take the jib off, to wash it and check the furling gear but that would wait until tomorrow. Diane finally came back at 5 and after I helped her with the groceries, the said that Weedie and Janice had invited us to go dinner with them. I said I was really too tired so we just took showers (with lots of fresh water in the marina showers) and had dinner at the restaurant there. It wasn't bad although they were out if lots of things. We went back to a nice cool boat and just relaxed. The first full day in a marina and we were working almost non-stop. I was busy cleaning the canvas - all of it and I still didn't finish. I used a small amount of bleach and some very mild detergent to clean the acrylic canvas (Sunbrella). Using a scrub brush, I brought everything out to the deck and put it on top of the upturned dinghy and cleaned it that way. The amount of brown, Sahara dust was incredible. Doing the white pieces was amazing - they were initially dingy brown and although I couldn't all of it out, they were almost white again after cleaning. I didn't finish since you need to let the bleach stay on for 15 minutes before rinsing so it took a long time. Diane was busy doing some laundry and also made some phone calls. She made an appointment for me for the lasik eye surgery and also called our friend Giulio in Caracas. He invited us whenever we wanted to come and we said we would call again to make plans. Around 3:30 we stopped the cleaning and launched the dinghy and got it ready to go to the weekly Maremares Marina manager's cocktail party. We picked up Tom around 6 and went over. We had a very nice time and saw people who were still here from when we left last year. After the party, Janice and Weedie, and Tom and us went to a restaurant just off the canal on the way back and finally got back to the boat, after dropping Tom at Mima, around 10:30. We had a nice time. |