We had barely time to square our boat away before leaving on Scirocco. Joe needed us to help him get Scirocco ready for the trip to Puerto Rico. Sid worked hard fixing this and that and I provisioned as I was the cook onboard. It was a hectic time but all got done.
We were a crew of 5 the owner and another couple Udo and Melanie who actually are the previous owners. Poor Melanie was sick the entire trip to St. Croix due to contaminated water. The boat tanks were filled with local tap water which is unsafe to drink and there is no water filter onboard. On her day of arrival she drank about 12 glasses of that water at dinner. The owner had filled extra jugs with that water which before departure we emptied and filled with filtered water. In St. Croix we had to get her immediately on IV at the local hospital.
Sail from Puerto La Cruz to Isla Balanquilla new GPS did not work as it was hooked onto the old antenna. Sid had suspected that and brought our handheld, good thinking. Main was not pulled up because it was dark and so we had the most miserable motor sail with only the staysail up and no one managed to sleep or rest. We rested in Blanquilla for one day and enjoyed swimming along a beautiful beach with the clearest water with every blue shade, except for Sid he was left behind with owner fixing things. For the 330 mile trip to St. Croix we did pull the main up and what an unbelievable difference it made, after all it’s a sailboat. The weather was just perfect 15-20 knots of wind and about 4-6 foot seas and the boat just trucked along. What a difference waterline makes, on Paradise it would have been an uncomfortable not to mention 4 days underway instead of the 2 ½ days on Scirocco. Sid and I did the first watch and kept an eye on a squall line headed our way. We were ready for it but as the cloud was over us the wind completely shut down and after the cloud had passed it took about 20 minutes for the wind to fill in again, weird. We had an easy and uneventful watch to the contrary for Joe and Udo they had a close encounter with a freighter (one mile distance). Not being used to the cruising life it was a bit stressful for them. Then later on they had to battle a squall with at least 30 knots of wind. During night watches when Sid checked on the boys they were both asleep in the cockpit. He made some small noise to wake them.
Sid was doing all the navigation which caused a lot of frustration for him Joe did not trust him and would question the course he had charted, and would argue. The entrance to the anchorage in Christianstead is quite confusing and there are too many red and green buoys, and then stress level went up, the depth was only at 8 feet and the keel was at 7 ½. Just as we anchored the engine made awful noises and had to be turned off manually. Sid had his hands full in the 3 days we were in St. Croix. The boom vang broke, we also had major battery problems which in St. Croix were exchanged with new batteries, alternator fan belt broke, pully for alternator came off, water pump fan belt broke. We also had a diesel leak which filled the bilge, plus Sid had to climb the mast as well to check the wind instruments which were toast.
Then of course poor Melanie spent the first day at the hospital with an IV in her arm and doctor said her illness was from contaminated water.
Since it was a weekend we could only check in via phone but had to visit the office the following day, which Joe forgot to do. Except for Sid and Joe we jumped ship and walked through the beautiful alleys of Christianstead with wonderful galleries and stores, not to mention a fun board walk with yummy restaurants. One ocean front bar caters to cruisers. That’s where we caught up with Butch on Tropic Bird and Cathy on Chill and finally the last afternoon Sid managed to join us for some fun. (Butch and Cathy left just a few days before we did and since Butch is an old buddy of ours I invited him over for dinner. He already arrived pretty drunk and when dinner was served he was asleep. I fork fed him then he passed out again. So I took some nail polish and decorated him and of course took a few pictures. This happened once before when we stayed at the house so it was even funnier that it happened again. Wait till you see the photo story at end of this newsletter).
The sail to Culebra was great and uneventful until we arrived at the channel marker to our anchorage were Sid’s navigation skills were questioned again and the suggested channel was ignored, poor Sid. All I can say about this is that I know now how boats end up on reefs, scary.
Udo, Melanie and I ventured off through the streets of the little town on Culebra, while Sid was fixing this and that again.
We left early the next morning for Sapodilla which was half way to Salinas. We had to motor sail as the wind only blew at 8 knots. The water was calm. Sapodilla is nicely protected by a huge reef but it is a fairly shallow anchorage and poor Udo not used to shallow water as we are was holding the wheel white knuckled as we drove in only 9 feet of water. Joe finally told us that the depth meter was off by two feet. We had a refreshing swim a nice dinner and a calm restful night.
Our last leg to Salinas was on Thanksgiving’s Day. There was only a slight breeze and the motor was working over time. I was down below cooking up a storm. Turkey was in the oven, green beans and corn was ready, so was the sweet potato dish and mashed potatoes. I was just finishing with prepping the salad when all hell broke loose. Sid smelled the engine over heat and when he checked he noticed the coolant was gushing out of the engine. The engine had to be turned off manually again, the water pump belt which was 3/8” should have been 1/2inch broke which in turn caused the alternator belt to come off and over heated the engine. Just a good thing Sid smelled it or it would have wrecked the engine. There still was a battery problem even with the new batteries. You should have seen poor Sid’s head the whole entire trip whenever he had to fix the engine he would hit it on this or that, his head looked pretty banged up and scared. He eventually managed to fix the engine and we motored into the Salinas estuary. The water in this estuary is all about 10 feet deep and shallower at parts and I’m sure many occasions we dredged through the mud. We for sure did heading into our slip as we very slowly moved and the depth sounder showed 6 feet. First thing the following day was to rent a car and all of us had to drive to Ponce to check in with Immigration since Joe forgot to do so in St. Croix.
Prior to leaving Puerto La Cruz we questioned Joe why he chose Salinas and told him that he would not like it there, so did other cruising friends and he did hate it. Joe is a very difficult person to be around and we really wanted to jump ship, but just didn’t have it in our hearts to just leave Joe here in a place he hated and offered to help him get the boat to Fajardo, where he had stayed for several years. We left the following day for another two day trip. Udo and Melanie parted here and went on a sightseeing trip before flying home. We motored the 45 miles in two days and were glad for this trip to be over. We finally were able to buy a ticket back to Venezuela, had no problem finding a flight to Miami for the 4th, but Avior was fully booked for the entire month of December and luckily there were two seats left on the 13th.
The two days we had left in Puerto Rico we rented a car and just had to drive to Guavate where wonderful restaurants sell succulent roasted pig called “lechon”. The drive was spectacular and it was tough again to make a decision in which restaurant to eat. We pigged out! The following day we drove to the El Yunque rain forest, another must, and enjoyed the tranquility. El Yunque offers many water falls, wild orchids, birds and fauna. At mile marker 11 is a pull out with food and refreshment. We were just going to get a beer when a friendly guy with a New York accent handed us a teaser of pinchos (kebabs). It was so delicious we had two orders each and had a blast talking to him. He had just moved to this beautiful island with his Puerto Rican wife and for his father in law until opening his own restaurant in Fajardo. With the delicious pinchos he served us we don’t see any problems for him not to be successful. So when visiting this beautiful national park, don’t forget to stop here for pinchos and ask for directions to his restaurant.
On our last day we took Joe out for an early dinner at a great Mexican restaurant then drove to the airport for our flight to Miami. We sure did have a difficult time with Joe and were glad it was over, but we did leave still as friends.
It was nice to see the friendly faces of Dale and Sandy “Snow White” as they picked us up at the airport. It was already late in the evening and despite it we talked way into the morning to catch up. Their friend Karl from Germany was visiting as well and when Dotty showed up the following day they had a full house. Molly (their dog) was so cute, after all these years she still remembered us and gave us a special greeting, what a cool dog. It felt so good to sleep in a comfortable bed and was even nicer to relax for a few days. When Dotty found out we were visiting she didn’t hesitate to jump into her Cherokee plane and flew from Naples to the Keys to visit. We had such a good time Sandy, Dotty and I drank 3 bottles of champagne the first afternoon and Dotty even decided to spend an extra day with us. The following day the girls drove to Duck Cay to visit her house. What a beautiful location right on a canal with a narrow mangrove breakwater then the ocean, just beautiful, why they don’t live there is a puzzle to me.
Sid and I drive drove her back to the airport but before she left us she took us on a flight over the Keys. That was so kewl we circled many times around Key Largo to take some good pictures of Dale and Sandy’s houses. Then on the way back to the Homestead airport she let me fly, now that was too kewl. Check it out on You Tube “Flight with Dotty”:
After that fun weekend the shopping started, we had a huge list and thanks to Dale and Sandy for lending us one of their cars it was easy getting around. I tell you though there is a lot of driving to do in the Keys, everything is far apart. We shopped pretty much everything on the list plus some stuff not on the list and twice had to go back to the Thrift store to buy an extra suite cases.
Just before we left Venezuela we received an email from our sister ship San San that they were in Marathon. GR found us via the Ericson web site and we’ve been email buddies for a while now. It was great to finally meet him, his wife Jessica and swab Gia face to face and exchange hints and tips about our boats. What a cute family, we hope to meet them somewhere in remote anchorages. And get this; there was another Ericson 36C in the anchorage.
Next to shopping and visiting we had a great time with Dale and Sandy. Early mornings we exercised to a Denis Austin tape, (except for Sid) and then went for an hour or so walk through the neighborhood. What a beautiful place and you should see their enormous house, just beautiful. In his yard Dale built a cute pond with 2 box fish, a nice size grouper, lady fish and with at least 20 good size lobsters. I had fun watching them. Best time was just before sunrise or sunset as they walked in line behind each other through the pond, wow. Dale and Sandy just finish building their new house, oh man, what an incredibly awesome house. You should see the kitchen, it’s enormous with an elegant built in marble table seating at least 8 people. The master bathroom took my breath away. The shower and toilette are each surrounded by the most beautifully etched glass wall that was curved. The etching was an incredible underwater scene. The house also comes with a wonderful view over the entrance to the canals in their neighborhood and the Atlantic Ocean. We watched a colorful sunset on the roof terrace with some more champagne.
We felt really bad that our visit was so extended but the 10 days went by fastand on our last night the yearly Christmas Boat Parade was held and we enjoyed watching it from their friends resort and met many of their friends.
We had a wonderful time and Dale and Sandy were the most gracious hosts. Dale and Sandy we can’t thank you enough.
When we finally arrived at the Avior counter there was not one passenger checking in. Really strange but then maybe we were just too early. But then again we were told that they were booked solid for the months of December, after all we had bought the last two tickets. When we finally sat in the plane and the doors locked we were dumb founded, there were only 20 passengers in the plane, go figure!
Jim picked us up but first we had a little tail gate party at the airport as he had ice, beer, rum and coke ready for us. We had fun in the parking lot for quite a while until the mosquitoes started to eat us. It felt so good to step on Paradise and sleep in our own bed. It’s been a long month which put as behind schedule and we missed spending the Holidays in the Roques.
It took no time to settle in and in no time we were busier then heck. Sid helped Jim fixing his jet engine of his dinghy which took many days and many hours, but I know the guys had fun, they always do. I taught Jenny and Rocio how to make Swiss Christmas Cookies and we had a blast. Here in Venezuela the Christmas Tradition is making Hallacas which is a family affair and takes two days. I had to laugh as Rocio after 6 hours of making cookies stated that cookies are harder to make than Hallacas and take way too much time, but she did like to eat them. It was a really great day to hang out with the girls. In Switzerland and in Venezuela Christmas is celebrated on the 24thIndia working. We had a very quite and nice dinner. Lobster baked over with Béchamel Sauce topped with Parmesan appetizer followed by Chateau Briand and for Desert we met all the other cruisers around the pool and exchanged cookies. We had a lot of fun. The 25th we were at Jim and Jenny’s and enjoyed the traditional turkey dinner with loads of deserts. New Year was a bit quite, who ever was left in the marina met in front of Ann’s Mini Mart at Bahia Redonda. Everybody brought an appetizer and whatever they drank. Around 9 most disappeared and so we were only Debby, Rob (Wind Shear), Sid and me left to toast the New Year in with 3 bottles of Bubbly. For that we went up to the potluck area which has an incredible view over Puerto La Cruz’s coast line and also to El Morro. We were a bit confused about when they really celebrated Midnight as Chavez set the time back about a year ago by half an hour, some started the fireworks our time the other’s at what we call Ego Time. In any case we couldn’t believe in how many fireworks we saw at one time for over one hour, there were hundreds of them it was unbelievable. as well so I invited Rocio to come over for dinner since Darren was still in
Jenny organized a New Years Brunch at their house on the first so there was more good food and drinks and we were going to look forward to starting a diet, yeah right. One week later Ann asked me if I would cater her Birthday, but of course, I couldn’t say no she does so much for the cruising community. After a lot of planning shopping and two days of cooking we celebrated her Birthday with almost 40 people and all had lots of fun.
We are seriously thinking about dieting now especially since Sid broke the beach chair, he claims it was rusted out, but I’m not so sure, then he broke the second one too, still claming it was rusted out. Actually they were but a little fun is always good. After all the partying we were busy again with boat chores. Sid was doing some varnishing plus lots of odds and ends including dropping things in the water like a Swiss Army knife. Frankly I think he got tired of watching the varnish dry so he made himself a little challenge catching Swiss Army knifes with a magnet LOL. I kept busy with more sewing projects, zipper on stack pack broke that was a huge cumbersome repair and we needed some extra help to get that big pack including sail across the sewing machine. We still felt safe being here but the Venezuelan President is taking over more and more and life for the locals is getting harder than ever. The cost of living has gone up so much, all the prices at the stores have tripled in the year we’ve been gone. We now pay US prices for most things and prices keep climbing. El Presidente just devaluated the Venezuelan Bolivares from 2.16 to 2.5 for food and 4.5 for anything else. All locals panicked and ran to the stores buying up all electrical household goods from TVs to stereos, microwaves, blow driers, you name it, these stores have empty shelves. They say the prices of these things will go up more. Chavez also promised rolling black outs of at least 4 hours per day in big cities, instead of fixing the problem he punishes his people. He also threatened to seize any store rising prices and has done so to over a dozen stores. We believe this is all happening in Caracas as we haven’t seen or heard anything here. He’s loosing his popularity and even his supporters are getting more and more angry with him. Just as I was writing this we heard a knock on the boat and the marina employee brought us a schedule of rolling blackouts, it’s not just in Caracas anymore it’s starting here too. The very next day, the power outages started every 48 hours the power for us is off from 15:00 to 17:00 at the docks and the Marina and condo building from 9:00 until 11:30. Anna Merced who works at Kaiglas office told me that during these hours she can’t open the office and therefore is not getting paid either. She also said that all the products have gone up already she will not be able to buy her shampoo anymore which by the way was the cheapest one. She also said that the speculation is that the BS will go up to 8 for our exchange.
Amazing how time goes by when you’re busy. Sid finished all the varnish and had just a few little odd jobs to do. I moved my sewing machine away, hopefully for a long time. We just needed to clean up, provision and pick a good weather window to leave Venezuela for good. Been busy catching up with all our friends and last week we were so busy we had a dinner every night, we are fooded out (yeah, yeah I know I made this word up). It’s been an interesting 3 weeks, especially to see how the President here is brining his country to it’s knees, every day there is something new. Two years ago he closed RCTV so they went on Cable and actually did better then ever before. Now El Presidente told them that if they don’t air his messages on TV that he will shut them down again and so he did. The students are again protesting against him taking away their freedom of speech and in the first demonstration many students got either killed or injured by his militia and Chavistas. I have to add that the Students are peaceful demonstrators it’s the goonies Chavez sent out after them that cause the problems. He already threatened to take drastic measure if they don’t stop demonstrating and I believe he will. The day after he devaluated the Bolivares, he threatened to take over any stores increase prices. Exito is one of the lowest priced stores kind of like a Wal-Mart with third world products and most of all French owned, was taken over by the Government only two days after his threat (the French owner also lost his Casino). It shows again that he is taking over one foreign owned business after another. This is the end of Exito and it pissed off a lot of Venezuelans including Chavistas. He also took over three more banks. Whenever I go into town I have to take a taxi and I tell you every one of them is complaining about the president and they all shook their head when they admitted voting for him twice. They all are disappointed that he deceived them and is taking away their rights and making their life miserable. There is no quality to life here anymore. One week ago Debi and I went to the Central Market and as we stood at one of the butcher’s stalls he kept telling us “NO HAY!” which mean “I don’t have” so I started pointing at some pieces of pork he repeated and whatever I pointed at he said the same while serving customers. We got the picture he refused to sell us anything. In the course of walking through the rest of the market we saw nothing but hostile looks towards us, we felt really uncomfortable and left the market. I’ve shopped in this market once a week for the last three years and never had this experience. Then when we went to one of the pharmacies we usually buy from they told us we had to have a doctor’s note. The items we bought we just bought one week prior with no problem. The other pharmacy had no problem selling the meds. I wonder what he told them all on his 6 hour Alo Presidente TV show which is aired every Sunday. Now when he devaluated the BS he did it with two prices 2.60 for essentials and 4.30 for non essentials, get this pickles and Whale sperms are on the essential list, cheese and ketchup and so many more things are not. The prices at stores have skyrocket and a can of corn or green beans is now over 2 dollars. Shopping here now is as expensive as in the States if not more.
I told you last time about the rolling power outages, we should have it every Tue/Thus/Sat from 15:00 to 17:00 not to mention that we loose wifi and water when the Marina loosed their power from 9:00 until noon. Of course the times don’t work, they shut the electricity off any time they want and mostly every day and the power never comes back on time. Now imagine when there is no power there is no traffic lights functioning either so the chaos is real in town and the protests of the students are not helping either. Just good we can go shopping via dinghy but the shelfs at the grocery stores are emptying fast as Chavez is stopping imports. The other day I was at the store buying laundry detergent and noticed that the price had doubled, next to me a middle aged Venezuelan woman was in shock and with tears in her eyes she told me that she cannot afford to by soap anymore, broke my heart.
Venezuela has 13 power plants of which only 7 work at the moment,actually 2 or 3 only half way the rest are broken and two more are on the verge of breaking. Chavez threatened the workers of the plant on his Alo Presidente show that if they don’t’ repair the plants he will be forced to have 12 hours a day power outages. He knows that he has to fork the money up. Heard rumors that he did pay but the money disappeared, yeah right. It is sad to say that it’s time to leave, we still love Venezuela but it is time. Currently there are 3 American, 2 French, 1 Italian, 2 German and 1 Dutch boat left in Bahia Redonda and they all are leaving as well.This will be a hard week for us as we will have to say goodbye to all our wonderful friends and to leave them behind to a not very promising future. I cannot imagine how they feel having all their rights taken away as Chavez promised a few days ago he will go faster now to turn his country to his communistic dream.
We also had a security guard obviously a Chavista giving us a hard time, so they had to let him go as the resident condo owners, mainly foreigners felt threatened by him. Also a security guard in the marina had to be fired because he was not doing his job plus steeling. We caught him peak into our cockpit, he claimed he wanted a glass of water. A few days later he came back and asked for food, the next day one boat found one of our towels in his cockpit and the two of his cockpit cushions gone. The guard slept in his cockpit using our towel for a blanket then he took the cushion, one was found floating in the water. One month ago I caught him peaking into our window at night. Some bumpers have been stolen off boats as well. Maremares had a dinghy theft and so did a guy we know at his house.
I wished we could leave this country still as a Paradise and not overshadowed by all the sadness now, we always will treasure the good time we had and the many wonderful Venezuelan friends we made and we wish just the best for all of them, but most we hope that on the long run they will win the battle against their tyrant dictator. It will be a long recovery to restore the country to what it was.
(For Photos and Film scroll to end)
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