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Larry's LogBuenas dias. We finally made it to Venezuela. Getting back to the boat after seeing the Guardiacosta, we both just relaxed. We had been up for most of 24 hours and just wanted to recuperate. I don't know why, but I felt very sick, with a bad headache and upset stomach that only cleared up the next day. We were safe in the anchorage though and could afford to just take it easy. The wind did, however, start blowing making it rolly. I think it was a small tropical wave that came through since it rained and got uncomfortable for a few hours, but that night was calm again. Since we couldn't stay too long, Diane got up early the next morning and listened to the weather and it sounded like it might get a bit rougher over the next few days. We both felt better but not 100 percent so we didn't do much and stayed on the boat. I took some pictures from the boat of the anchorage and worked on my logs. The night had been pleasant with a nice breeze but we had to get used to not having an air conditioner again. At least the batteries were good with the wind generator keeping them topped off; the wind was about 10 - 12 knots. The only work I did that day was check the engine, add a little water to the coolant overflow tank and hook up the workaround wire for the voltage regulator. Since I had replaced the ignition switch and the wire from the switch to the regulator, I couldn't imagine why the regulator started acting up again. At least I had an easy way to get around the problem. Most of the day I just read the magazines we had gotten in our mail back in Trinidad. We decided to leave on Wednesday since the forecast sounded OK. Tuesday though, we went to shore finally to explore the small island we were anchored behind. Our friends on Kristali had said to definitely go up the sand dunes and walk across to the other side of the island. OK, after beaching the dinghy and tying it to a small tree, we started our hike. The sand dunes were beautiful but steep and we both had a hard time climbing up with our "sailor's" legs, but we eventually made it and the view was really nice. We walked across to the windward side and it was a beautiful beach, totally deserted with dunes all around. We saw lots of Frigate birds, since there's a colony that nests in Los Testigos, and walked around a bit. We also saw the remnants of a small sea turtle shell that had washed up. After about an hour taking some pictures, we started back and saw a fantastic, bright green lizard just lazily walking across the sand. I thought he would run but he seemed just as curious about us so I got closer and took some good shots. He finally did get a bit nervous but didn't run, just ambled off. Going down the dunes was a lot easier than going up and we launched the dinghy and went over to the other beach where the fishing camp was. We looked for a good place to land, avoiding a small reef, and went ashore. We met a fisherman who was very friendly and we talked to him for a bit. When Diane asked why he wasn't out fishing today, he said because of his head. Diane asked if she could give him any aspirin but he said, "No gracias", it was just a bit too much rum the night before. We all laughed and so Diane and I walked along the much bigger beach there. We then walked across the island again, past the small salt pond, past the hundreds of small crabs occupying the thousands of holes. The beach on the other side was also very pretty but the garbage that washed up was really disgusting. We later found out that much of it was from Trinidad, and we could see that many of the plastic bottles did have the labels of the brands bottled in Trinidad. I may have mentioned that the last time we went in through the Boca, we saw lots of floating trash. I felt really bad that these islands and the Caribbean were being polluted this way. People we met later said that the windward side of Bonaire also had a lot of Trinidad garbage on it. We went back to the boat and after lunch, cleaned the waterline. It was really bad since we hadn't cleaned it while in Trinidad. While Diane did the waterline, I dove to clean the prop and shaft some more and also clean the through hulls. Most were not too bad but one was almost completely blocked by barnacles. After doing those, I helped with the waterline. We finished, but without doing much of the bottom, although except for the keel, it wasn't too bad. The paint I had used last year was doing a pretty good job but it was coming off on the keel. We had plans to redo that in Puerto La Cruz. We then hoisted the outboard and dinghy and got ready to leave the next morning. The boat was still basically "in travel mode" so it didn't take much effort to get ready. We left Los Testigos on Wednesday morning at around 7am. It was a very nice day with just a few trade wind clouds and winds at about 15 knots from the East Northeast. Since we were going south southwest, it was hard to hold that course, dead downwind, with the swell so I went into the wind a bit more; it also helped since I was sure the current would set us to the northwest. Diane wasn't sick at all but then again, she had used the Scopolamine patch and the motion was basically OK. The wind started to lighten at around 11am and I was glad I rigged a preventer line to keep the main from banging. We finally got into Porlamar, Margarita at around 3pm, covering the 50 miles in 8 hours, motoring the last 3. I think we must be the only boat to run out of wind in this area! Anchoring in 10 feet of water, we were right near our friends on Kristali. We had been in email contact and knew they were there. They came over a few minutes after the anchor was set and we had a great reunion. They had sailed down from St. Croix, stopping in Isla La Blanquilla, to the north of Margarita, before coming into Porlamar itself. They had been there for a week and done some re-provisioning before heading to Isla Tortuga and then Los Roques and Los Aves, other islands off the coast of Venezuela. After they went back to their boat, I rigged a bridle since many people had said that Porlamar was a very rolly place. I could see that many people had 2 anchors out, with one at the stern to keep the boat into the waves rather than freely swinging to the wind. Steve had also rigged a bridle, as it was easier to setup and take down than putting out a stern anchor. As it turned out, we really didn't need it since the swell was pretty calm while we were there. The next morning, as I was putting on the sailcover, I discovered two problems, one minor and the other major. The minor one was that the first reefing line was badly chafed and had to be replaced. No problem, I had spare line to use. The other problem was that the bolts that held the boom vertical on the end cap near the gooseneck had sheared. I originally thought the boom could pull out, but that later turned out to not be the case. Still, it had to be repaired or we couldn't use the mainsail. I suspect that the bolts sheared from the trip to Margarita, when the main started slatting, even with the preventer rigged. We had originally said we would go shopping with Steve, Connie and Mike but I decided that I needed to try to fix the boom before doing anything else. So Diane went shopping while I worked on the boom. The first thing was to figure out if I needed to take the sail off in order to work on it. Luckily, I saw that if I held the sail up using a line under the last set of the sail slides, I could just remove the last 2 slides and then take the tack off by removing the pin. After muscling that off, I held up the end of the boom with the main halyard, eased the hydraulic vang and worked on taking the boom off the gooseneck. Again, luckily it came off after I eased the vang some more, since the vang puts pressure on the gooseneck as well as holding the boom down. I also put another line under the boom so the forward end wouldn't drop once I got the bolt out. Once the front of the boom was free, I could move it back so I had room to work. The next job was to try to remove the end cap so I could see what damage was done inside. The cap is held on by 9 stainless steel machine screws that screw through the boom and into the end cap. Of course, the boom is aluminum, as is the end cap. It could have been a nightmare, with the stainless steel screws impossibly corroded into the aluminum, but they came out with just light pressure. The man who fixed this problem last, Charley Loader of Triangle Rigging in Bermuda, did a good job when he replaced the end cap. I believe he used Lanocote on the screws to make sure they would come out again. Anyway, I got the end cap off and looked at the damage. The heads of the bolts had sheared, leaving the large pin connecting to the gooseneck without support in the horizontal axis. It was still strongly held in the horizontal axis by another pin inside, so the boom could not have pulled out of the gooseneck. Still, it was a bad situation. There were 4 bolts that sheared; leaving the ends screwed through the aluminum. After removing the lock nuts easily, I tried turning the first of the bolts from the inside using locking pliers. The first one came out fairly easily, only taking 10 minutes to screw all the way in and remove from the inside. The next 3 took almost 2 1/2 hours. The aluminum next to the stainless fasteners had indeed corroded and it was almost impossible to turn them. I used various types of penetrating oils and sprays but still had to get the pliers so tight it required both hands in the fashion of a weight lifter to then be able to turn the bolt about 1/16 of a turn at a time. Still I was glad when I could turn them at all. On the third bolt though, I thought I would try to drill out the recalcitrant screw. It was impossible to get the drill to stay on the stainless bolt and when it slipped onto the aluminum, it would, of course, start cutting that very easily. So I had to keep trying to get the remaining bolts out using the pliers. Eventually, after much swearing and some blood, they were removed. After removing the bolt remains, the rest was relatively easy. I cleaned out the threads on the aluminum (chased them) and put everything back together. I used a really good anti-seize compound, called Tefgel, which I hoped would prevent a repeat of the fiasco of removing the bolts. I also used it when putting in the 9 end cap bolts. I then just reversed the process to get everything back together. Diane came back just before I was finished and she helped by putting the last gooseneck bolt back in while I held up the boom. The only thing that remained was to replace a plastic spacer that prevented the end cap from touching the stainless steel pin holding the boom into the cap. It had cracked but I didn't feel it was too critical. Now all that was left was to change the reefing line. That would wait until tomorrow. |