Chaser's last sail of 2013

Chaser 2
Yvonne Chapman
Sun 8 Dec 2013 19:40


Our last sail of the season. After Susie and Evie departed from Puerto La
Cruz (PLC) we refuelled, recleaned and retidied Chaser. It's surprising how
an extra one and a half people can affect the normal routine of storage etc.

An unwelcome guest jumped on the bimini which with their sharp claws and
huge appetites does not do our boat any favours, they're not house trained
either, so he was shooed away rather quickly.

We met up with Jaco and Christelle from Songerie again, as well as Peter and
Sylvia aboard Tradewind. Tradewind was soon to leave though, they had to
clear out of Venezuela for a 45 day period and they were due back to UK to
move house, so not much time together. Jaco and Christelle came with us to
Isla Tortuga, our last sail before hauling and flying back to Spain to visit
our family.

Tortuga is beautiful, we have been there many times though maybe not so much
in the future if the governments plan come into effect. They intend to
develope this uninhabited island. Probably one of very few virgin islands
left in the Caribbean. The government intend to develope it for tourism
purposes. They say they intend to spend 1.5 million pounds sterling. The
figure is obviously purely fictitious, the infrastructure alone would cost
more than that before a brick is laid. Still we shall see. In the meantime
we enjoyed our 8 days away from the marina in PLC. This time we first
anchored behind the reef called Palenquinos, snorkelling and spear fishing.
After a couple of days we moved to Cayo Herradura in order to have access to
a beach for a couple of fish barbeques and beach fires while watching the
sun go down, accompanied of course with the customary 'sundowner'. We just
chilled out for a few days, swimming. spearfishing, snorkelling and reading.

Near the end of our stay we move anchorage to Islas Tortaguillas, we hadn't
anchored there before but it was very nice and we will return hopefully
again. It is also an easy place to leave from in the middle of the night,
especially this night being quite moonless.

Just before daybreak we threw out our fishing lures on the end of our rods
of course; why I don't know because we dragged them all the way back without
catching a thing. Jaco and Christelle left before us, they were about 6
miles ahead, it would appear they caught the only fish out there.

We did have a good sail though, the wind was less than forecast (unusual)
allowing us to sail at nearly our top speed. We arrived back in PLC around
16.00hrs, time enough to put the sails away before dark at 17.20hrs. Then
time for a rum.

Now we are preparing Chaser for hauling on Tuesday 10th here in PLC,
normally we haul in Medregal village, a better place to haul although less
convenient for the airport, but this year we didn't have time to get there
and the Chaser prepared. We had Christmas presents to buy in PLC and some
boat parts which we cannot do in Medregal. So maybe next year we return. The
cost in TMO marina to haul out and store Chaser in a secure area for six
months was around 500US$ so we cannot complain about that.

We fly to Caracas on Friday 13th, stay overnight in La Parada Posada, then
fly out from Caracas to Madrid the following day. We have arranged a train
from Madrid to Alicante and then James or Rob will pick us up.

We plan to be in Europe for 6 months this time, so no sailing adventures
there.

Until next time.

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Try it out here: http://picasa.google.com/

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