Log 44O - Venezuela to Grenada

Written at: Hog Island, Grenada, Nov. 28, 2007

This log gets us out of Venezuela and up to Prickly Bay here on Grenada. We are still in Hog Island enjoying the easy living, good anchorage, our many friends and social activities. We have completed a couple of major projects. We finally have installed a new starter motor and solenoid. However, under the heading "Nothing is ever simple!", we had problems. Judy installed it with a fair amount of muttering and cursing, only to find out it didn't work! When the old one was reinstalled, it worked in its usual "will it or won't it?" after several tries, but at least it worked. As we had the engine running and would have to leave it on for an hour or so to charge up the batteries we decided to motor over the six miles to St. David's to have the new one bench tested. It worked OK when hooked up directly to a 12 volt battery. One of our leads must be defective, probably the ground, Craig suggested. Back to Veleda, replace the ground wire, and it worked! So now we have a starter that starts first time. But. The fuel gage on the instrument panel broke. OK, we bought a new one and it now works.

We have installed the display screen for our new radar, but have to wait for the mast bracket before we can install the scanner. We had to go into immigration a day ago to renew our passport stamps as Grenada now gives entry permission for only a month at a time. To renew we had to go to the government building in St. George's, and pay $25.00 EC each. Too bad we could not do so from the customs and immigration station in Prickly Bay.

Just now as we were getting ready to go over to Sea Witch for sundowners, the heads clogged up, and we spent the last 45 minutes taking it apart, replacing a valve and flushing it through with acid. Lots of fun!

All the best,

Aubrey

Log 44O - Venezuela to Grenada

Back in PLC after our enjoyable trip to Angel Falls, we did a bit more maintenance. (Remember, cruising gives you the opportunity to do maintenance in exotic locations!).

We went for a day cruise over to Chimana Grande, an island five miles across the bay from the marina. Puerto La Cruz is located in a wide bay, sheltered by arid but picturesque off-lying islands, mostly uninhabited, several of which are part of Mochima National Park. We anchored overnight at Cienaga on this island our first night in PLC, but this time went around the western peninsula to anchor in the more popular Playa el Saco (10 17.56N, 064 39.95W). There were twenty local power boats at anchor, and a few small ferries bringing locals over for the day, alongside a long concrete dock. At the foot of the dock is a small colourful shrine for the Virgin Mary. Such shrines are not uncommon along roadsides, in fishing villages, markets, and even in large shopping malls.

The sandy beach was lined with palm thatched umbrellas, beach chairs, and hundreds of sun worshipers enjoying a pleasant Sunday afternoon outing. There is a pavilion restaurant (open only on the weekends) specializing in fish and other seafood, another thatched gazebo overlooking the bay, and a washroom/change room for the convenience of the bathers. Up the hill behind the beach I could see over to the next bay, Cienaga, where we anchored the first night off PLC, with a dozen or so boats anchored there. Chimana Grande provides a lovely weekend escape for local boaters, especially Playa el Saco, but the beach and other anchorages are deserted during the week.

The hour long trip across and back gave us a chance to see how the new bimini reacts when sails are up and there is a bit of wind, especially from forward. Judy braided a long white lashing from each forward corner down to the hand rails to give added strength. We have yet to find out how secure it will be in a force eight gale, but the forward lashings and webbing straps on the after corners should make it quite sturdy.

We had tried to check out the previous Friday afternoon, only to find the customs offices are closed Friday afternoons, and we had to wait until Monday morning. Monday our papers were taken over to a travel agent at the marina who then sent them to the customs people for completion, to be returned in the afternoon. We got the completed documents midafternoon, assured by the agent that they were good for a few days transit out of Venezuelan territory without having to check in elsewhere such as at Porlamar on Margarita where we planned to spend a day or two en route to Grenada. We said our goodbyes to Jaimie at Venezuela Travel, who had helped us with taxis, money exchanges, and the trip to Angel Falls. As we planned a 72 mile overnight passage to Margarita, we left Bahia Redonda Marina at 1740 to clear the offlying islands shortly after sunset at 1800, and out into open water, after an enjoyable month at Puerto La Cruz.

The passage to Porlamar on Margarita was an upwind motor trip into light easterlies. One of the unusual happenings was the night time visit of a pod of dolphins from midnight to 0030. This was the first time we have seen dolphins playing around the boat in the dark, lovely but eerie! We saw half a dozen container ships and tankers, as the strait between Margarita and the mainland is a major route for merchant ships proceeding along the coast of Venezuela and over to Trinidad. We made good time, arriving at anchor in Porlamar (10 57.27N, 065 49.95W) at 0900, 73 miles in 15 hours, meeting our standard estimated speed of advance of 5 knots.

One of the reasons we wanted to go back to Porlamar was to see our good friends Dwight and Stephanie aboard Stephanie Lynne, now located here from Medregal Village. We met Dwight over a year ago in Montserrat, then again in Grenada, and now here in Venezuela. He is a former Canadian Navy engineering technician, very skilled in electrical, electronic and mechanical aspects, whom we wanted to work on our shore charger that was fried when Navimco boat yard on the mainland hooked us up to 220 volts. We thought we would have to buy a new one, but he was able to overhaul it, and it has been working well ever since. Thanks Dwight!

A couple of other things we wanted to get from Porlamar before we left Venezuela, were diesel from the town fishing and ferry docks, and a few packages of the delicious frozen ceviche, a spicy, cold, tomato based soup with shrimp and onions and a variety of tasty herbs, featured at Juan's Marina. We dinghied the mile or so over to the high concrete fuel dock, dodging three or four fishing pirogues idling below the pumps, passing up their own jerrycans, as the jetty was too high to go alongside and pass a fuel hose down. We managed to pass up two jerrycans, uncertain as to whether foreigners were allowed to get fuel at the local prices. However, the cans were filled and passed back down. We had a bit of trouble understanding the price for 35 litres of diesel; but sure enough, it was only 20,000 Bolivars total, or about $5.00 (6 cents a litre!). That was nice, especially considering that in Puerto La Cruz, we were ripped off, paying over 50 cents a litre, supposedly the international rate for foreigners. (Although as Judy is quick to remind me, it was still much cheaper than up island or back in Canada.)

Incidentally, the official exchange rate is still about 2100 Bolivars to the dollar (U.S. or Canadian as now in Nov/2007, the Canadian dollars is at par or higher than the U.S. dollar), and our first conversion using cash was at 3400 Bolivars to the dollar. As our one month stay progressed, the international conversion rates went up due to inflation in Venezuela and our last conversion before going to Angel Falls was at 4400 to the dollar, and now as I write this log the rate is over 5000 to the dollar!) Our dollar goes much farther in Venezuela than any other country we have visited, and that is one of the reasons why we plan to spend more time down here next hurricane season

The passage from Margarita to Grenada is a northeasterly direction, into easterly winds and an westward flowing tropical current off the mainland coast. We had been advised by several people that the preferred route is to go southeast from Margarita, along the coast at night towards Trinidad, then just before dawn, and the Gulf of Paria, turn NNE (north-northeast) to catch the easterly winds at a better angle in less adverse current up to Grenada. However, we had a good weather window of light winds with a bit of south in them, and decide to go straight up to Grenada, a 140 mile direct passage. We planned a dawn departure, and so went out for a fish dinner at a good shoreside restaurant with Dwight and Stephanie and another couple anchored nearby to use up some of our remaining Bolivars. On returning to Veleda, we got everything ready for sea before going to bed. I woke up at 0200 and realized the wind was down, and decided to leave then. I woke Judy and we weighed anchor and were under way by 0230, threading our way out in the dark between the other boats at anchor, then heading east around the east end of Margarita before heading northeast in a direct line for Grenada.

Night passages

During the night passages we displayed only our navigation port and starboard lights (although we are aware that we are in violation of the international regulations for lighting of vessels in doing so), as we were advised that such would make us look like a local fishing boat, as opposed to a yacht with its masthead steaming light as a beacon to any locals looking for a rich person to easily rob at sea. We had heard stories of individual boats being robbed at sea or when in isolated anchorages, but none recently and none from local cruisers we met while here in Venezuela. However such stories still raised our anxiety levels, and we take precautions such as only navigation lights during night passages in coastal waters, not spending more than one or two nights in an anchorage if we are by ourselves, and tucking into the inner bays of an anchorage so as not to be visible from passing vessels that might consider a single boat an easy mark.

We carry no weapons aboard and do not intend to. Rather we will stay away from dangerous areas, some of which are mentioned in the pilot. Two main countries we will bypass are Haiti and Columbia, although we have heard there are a few safe areas of Columbia to cruise and visit. Any assault or robbery will go through the cruising community's "grapevine" very rapidly. However as any story becomes distorted or amplified in the telling, after a while it is hard to know what to believe. We have felt quite safe throughout the West Indies, from the Dominican Republic down to Grenada, although a couple of stories have made their rounds regarding St. Lucia (in Rodney Bay) and Dominica. But, good isolated anchorages are hard to find.

Blowing bubbles?

We had an interesting example of our apprehension last winter when we were in Jamaica. We had heard of some of the lawlessness on that island. We were anchored by ourselves off Half Moon Island, a cay off Kingston, when at 0800 we were awakened by an open fishing boat with six or eight locals knocking on our hull. When we came into the cockpit they asked if we had any "liquor". Oh oh, we thought, is this a risky situation? We didn't want to just hand over our rum bottles, but offered them some beer instead. No, no, liquor! We couldn't understand their dialect, but they kept repeating "liquor". Then from their gestures to dive masks, we realized they were actually saying "liquid"; they wanted liquid soap for their dive masks as they were spear fishermen diving on the reefs, and liquid soap was a good way to prevent their masks from fogging up. No problem! We gave them a half cup of dishwashing soap, for which they were very appreciative, and they gave us a dozen or so small reef fish they had speared. It was a friendly encounter.

Anyway, back to our passage to Grenada. We motored all night, as we didn't want to waste any time, since we did not know how long we would have this calm favourable weather window. The next day we were able to motorsail, and to actually sail for several hours, as the easterly winds had some south in them allowing us to sail northeast. Shortly after noon I caught my first fish in over three months, a small 14 inch Little Tunny, sufficient for a meal. The second evening the wind worked up to a force six, about 25 knots from the southwest, allowing us to sail at hull speed for several hours. At one point we were being buffeted by quartering seas, some splashing into the cockpit. One splash hit Judy with something solid, and she saw a small flying fish flopping around on the cockpit sole. Too small to eat, and so we threw it back. With the wind southwest (a most unusual direction), we were on a run, and had to rig a preventer on the main boom to prevent an accidental gybe, but we were making good time. We dropped anchor in Prickly Bay on Grenada at 0630, a comfortable passage of 140 miles completed in only 28 hours, for an average speed of 5 knots on what many (including us) would have expected to be a hard upwind slog. As it was, next day on the radio net we heard a couple of boats which had left Venezuela only 18 hours after us, and had a very difficult passage. We were glad we left at 0230 when the winds were down and we had a good weather window.



Next log