DAVE B's LOGS : Puerta de la cruz, venezuela

October 26, 2003

I know, I know, I don't write these journals as much as I should, time really flies when you are having fun...
Okay.....here goes...
We are currently back in Puerta La Cruz, Venezuela, at Bahia Redonda Marina. It actually feels like home, we spent two months here, June and July this year. Any who, let me fill you in on the Bonaire thingy.....
Incredible diving in Bonaire, dived on wrecks, reefs and caves. Bought used equipment very cheap and dived every day at least once some days four dives. Tydewi was on a mooring ball just off the town of Kralendjike, . .. The island was a desert with mucho cactus and hundreds of wild donkeys left over from the old days of growing salt, they run around wild and when you leave the grocery store the dumb donkeys stand right in the door way and won't let you get past them. They just look at you and go hhhhhhheeeeeeeehaaaa......big........did not want to mess with them so just walked around them when possible....Very, very expensive to stay here, food at restaurants and grocery stores four times more than Venezuela. Most food shipped in from Holland, except fresh vegies that came from Venezuela. Lunch out at a tiny restaurant, two hamburgers, fries, four beers, $40.00 Tried for a month to get refrigerator compressor fixed and had no luck....after a few weeks of trying to get it fixed I finally decided that these FOLKS from Bonaire are not really the kind you want working on your boat, thats when we decided to come back to Puerta La Cruz for repairs. The only reason Bonaire does any business is the diving, probably the easiest and best diving in the world, and thats how they make a lot of money.

While there we took part in a swim to Klien Bonaire. On a Sunday morning about 150 people swam to a small island about 2 miles from the main island of Bonaire. It was for a local charity, and Betty and I and some of our cruising friends decided to give it a try, you can use your swim fins and snorkle gear so we knew we could make it okay. The swim over was easy the current and wind pushed us over quickly, then we decided to swim back, thats when it got tough. Any way, Betty got tired and one of the boats following the swimmers picked her up, but I made the whole trip, and was exhausted. Still have rub marks on my feet from the flippers....total swim about four miles across the ocean....still have a lot of diving pics being developed here in Venezuela and will send them to web site as soon as possible, cool pics of wreck diving...monster fish right in your face...

Rented a van and drove to the north end of Bonaire, a large park that the government runs, pretty cool museum, mucho cactus and bad bad roads....spent the day driving around the park in rutted roads, but worth the trip.
The following week was Bonaire Regatta Week, a real disappointment. Mostly local boats and some from Curacau and Aruba, a lot of kids racing small dingys, and a week of loud music all day and night......do not come to Bonaire for the Regatta, come for the diving.

Left Bonaire October 14 at midnight, with Happy Ours, had about 90 miles to get to the closest port in Venezuela, Chichiriviche...Beat into 20 knots of wind and six foot swells all night, right on the nose, not a pleasant sail at all, had salt spray over entire boat and could not sail because wind was right on nose of boat, so motored into big swells. Got to Chichi at about 10 am the next morning and found my way through the fist pass then went aground trying to get to a calm anchorage that I did not really want to go to any way. Charts showed a pass of 15 foot of water, but we found only three foot....so stuck in the mud........she was supposed to be watching for shallow water on the foredeck, and felt responsible for us going hard aground, but it was really, really hard to see....any way, had a German boat, an English boat and Happy Ours pull us out of the mud with their dingys, took an hour or so and I was very happy to be floating again. We found a great place to anchor in 20 foot of water behind a beautiful island. Betty and I wrote thank you cards, attached them to a bottle of gin and gave them to each of the three boats that got us unstuck. Chichi is a very small dirty town, no paved streets, a few tourist restaurants and not much else, reminded me of Matamoros Mexico. The people were very nice to us, we ate in a wonderful restaurant on the beach, had filet mignon, called Lomito Centro here, and only cost $3.00 each for dinner and many cervezas. Great to be back in a place I can afford...

Next morning sailed to a placed called Morocoy National Park. It was only three hours from Chichi so we had an easy day, tried to get up into the park but shallow water was every where, and after going aground the day before I was in no mood to mess around, so anchored in 40 foot of water close to the mangroves. Saw many flamingos and red ibis at sunset.

Left the next moring at 8:30, next stop Puerta Cabella, about 35 miles away. Had no wind and again had to motor all the way. The only place to stay in Puerta Cabella is a small marina right in the heart of town. They only had a few spots open for us and it was tight, had to back into the very end of a small floating dock and drop my anchor for the bow tie down. It was tricky, but did not have a lot of wind, so no real problems, except Betty worrying about every thing....was nice to have electric and water for a change and really wanted to spend a few days here exploring the town, population about 150,000, pretty good size town. Checked into the country with immigration and customs for $25 and found out that if we stayed longer that three days would have to buy a cruising permit for $50. Said no thanks, we would leave within 72 hours.

Next moring early, a Saturday, Betty and I went exploring the town and the market place. It was great, nice people and very cheap prices, bought more stuff than we needed and returned to the boat about noon, on the way back met Norma and Bob, (Happy Ours), they wanted to get lunch in town, so we tagged along. Had a wonderful lunch in the old section of town that had been somewhat restored from the 1560's when the town was built by the Spanish. After lunch, Bob and Norma wanted to see the old fort, but since we were carrying bags full of treasure from the market, we decided to go back to the boat and see the fort on Sunday. Weeellll, Norma and Bob came by the boat a few hours later and told us they were robbed while walking down a lonley street. A couple of teen agers, 12 and 16 or so, broke a beer bottle in front of them and told them they wanted their money....Norma screamed and Bob said no way kid, and the kids ran away. Not sure how I would have handled it, but it worked out okay, no one hurt...but we did not go see the old fort the next day, who needs to see another rusty cannon anyway?

Left Monday morning for a short trip to a place called Ensa Cata, just a small protected bay on the coast. Very uneventful trip, no wind as usual, so motored about four hours. A small fishing village, a shine to Virgn Mary and that was it for Ensa Cata. Left the next morning for Puerta Carabellada, about 45 miles away and just east of Caracas's main shipping port of La Guiara. Took about eight hours and again no wind, sea swells up a bit and rolled and motored the whole way. Found that the marina we wanted to stay at was no longer in business, and anchored right behind a sea wall in about 15 feet of calm water. Was a little nervous being so close to Cararcas, but did not have any problems, watched a dad and four small boys fish from a small row boat and cheered when the little ones caught a fish, minnows actually. Did not get off the boat as no safe place to go ashore.

Left early the next morning, very early, about 4:30 am. Had about 90 miles to get to the next safe anchorage, Puerta Frances, or Puerta Corsaires. Again very little wind and no seas to worry about, once again motored all the way. Puerta Frances is where the French Corsaires would wait in a secluded harbor until the Spanish gold ships would sail past, then they would rob and plunder the baastards, aaarrrgh!! The coast of Venezuela from Chichiriviche to Puerta Frances is what was once called the Spanish Main. This was Spains safe water, until the French, Dutch, Portagese, and any one else with a ship and cannons figured out this was the best place to get Spanish Gold. I really need to get a cannon on Tydewi, Aaaaarrrrgh....!

It was a very calm and quiet anchorage, Betty swam and snorkled, found some Parrot fish and Purple Tangs close to shore. Left very very early the next morning, again at 4:30, for the island of Piritu about 90 miles away. Guess what, no wind, no big seas, could have water skied the whole way. Piritu is a very tiny island about 20 miles west of Puerta la Cruz and we got their about 3pm. Probably could have went all the way to Puerta la Cruz, but Betty wanted to snorkle and swim for the last time as we were going to be in a marina for a few weeks. It was very shallow but calm. Anchored in about 10 feet of water, the only view was the scrubby little island to our north, and to the south on the coast of Venezuela, the largest refineries in the world. Must have been about 20 super tankers anchored all around us, in deeper water of course. You could smell the burn off of gasoline and see the lights and flames all night, looked like daylight. But the water was pretty clean and Betty got some swimming in.

Left early next moring for Puerta La Cruz. Water was like a lake....pulled into Bahia Redonda marina about 11 am and was tied to the dock quickly by our old friends. They all remembered us and welcomed us at the bar, lunch was long and the cerveza was cold....(and cheap). The next day we were moved to a better dock with cable tv and an air conditioner for Tydewi..............it was 98 degrees when we pulled in, their summer is just starting down here. It really feels like coming home, at least we know it is a safe place and we feel very comfortable here. The marina manager and the owner were both at our boat welcoming us back. Betty is at the pool now, as I write this journal. It is really a beautiful place, and , and, and, it only costs about $150 a month for dock rent.

Not real sure right now what our plans are, we really need to come home for a while.....we miss everyone very much. We want to prioritize our trips into South America from here, Machu Pichu is first on the list of places we want to visit, pretty sure we can take a bus all the way to Peru, but am still a bit leary of Columbia, they are having election reforms and any time you have elections in S. America someone gets shot....but we are in a safe place that is very nice and we can afford right now and feel good about being back here. Also want to do the Amazon trip, dug out canoe and Waroe indians.

The trip, since we left here in July was wonderful, took us about 300 miles west through some incredible islands, then 300 miles back east again along the Spanish Main. We have about 2000 ocean miles under us now. We feel very lucky and proud that we were able to make this journey. Tydewi, Betty and myself did okay! The boat is still floating, and Betty and I are still in love.....stay tuned............