Isla Margarita our position is now 11.04.93N 63.58.57W
Chaser 2
Yvonne Chapman
Sat 18 Aug 2007 17:15
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Chaser left Los Testigos together, with
Chris and Tony on Waylander bound for Isla Margarita at 0700hrs. We had
both prepared our twizzle rigs for a good down wind sail to the
anchorage of Polamar where we would have to clear in to the country. It's
quite a busy anchorage with almost a hundred cruising and liveaboards there.
Juan Baro has an office on the beach, he makes life easy for us to clear in by
preparing and arranging the necessary paperwork, and there is some. He also
arranges a free bus into a giant shopping mall where you an buy all the goods
you need and the bus brings it all back to our dinghy dock.
Polamar is on the south side of Isla Margarita; it can
be a bit rolly and holding isn't too good, so after a couple of days we
Chaser and Waylander sailed around the other side of the
Island to Juan Griego a busy but charming fishing town. We sailed pass some
lovely beaches on the way one of which we holidayed at many years ago. We
dropped the hook in the bay in about 3 to 4 metres of water, Chaser
draws 2 metres so we have enough water under us even in a swell (just).
Margarita is a duty free Island and being summer and school holidays it
gets quite busy with tourists from mainland Venezuela as well as Europeans
and Americans.
Prices here are generally good, I suppose that's an
understatement, but because you deal in such large numbers (5000 Bolivars is one
euro), it always sounds like everything costs an arm and a leg until you get the
calculator out and realize it is quite reasonable. Last night was our wedding
anniversary so we had our first night in Juan Griego ashore in a charming
restaurant called El Muelle Viejo situated right on the beach overlooking our
two floating homes. We splashed out on a good meal, we were brought some crispy
garlic bread then Yvonne and Tony had a mixed seafood dish comprising of large
prawns, squids, octopus, mussels, clams, cuttlefish and some kind of fish
pieces. Christin had Calamares with salad and fries and I had a
gorgeous steak with two large prawns and two squids salad and fries. Between us
we had two bottles of wine and four rums with ice for desert. The bill came to
just over a quarter of a million Bolivares (270,000 B's, see what I mean)
out came the calculator, it is about 10 pounds each for a top quality
meal. Generally everything is quite reasonable, we paid 8000 B's for a ride
into town in a taxi about 5 miles or 20 mins, (2 euros with a good tip for the 4
of us) Petrol is 100 Bolivar a litre and diesel 70. Work that out at 5000
to a euro! Beer is between 1000 and 1500 in a bar and a rum and coke 3 to 4
thousand.Needless to say we are going to stock up a bit while we're
here.
Our intention was to sail to Blanquilla a small
deserted island 60 miles north of Margarita, but we have been watching a weather
system develope over Africa and it has now turned into a tropical depression
having some 50 knot winds in it. It could continue growing into a hurricane but
it does appear to be tracking north. Nevertheless we don't want to be anywhere
without shelter nearby so we'll wait and see what happens before moving from
here.
I'll keep you posted
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