having a clean bottom at 10.28.64N 64.11.11W
Chaser 2
Yvonne Chapman
Wed 29 Aug 2007 02:47
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It so much nicer when you have a clean bottom, Chris and Tony on
Waylander slip through the water far easier than we do. We that is
Chaser has a dirty bottom, it certainly slows us down. Hallberg
Rassey's are a little quicker than us especially under motor but it was more
noticeable today motoring in calm seas.
We did have a good sail from Blanquilla to
Margarita, the sea was quite calm and for much of the way we had some good wind
especially when it came round on our beam a little. Calm sea, 15kt to
18kts of wind and 8kts boat speed, beautiful!
We didn't want to sail overnight, so we anchored
off the west coast of Margarita. It is said by some that its a don't go there
place, but it seemed fine to me and everyone you speak to has a different story,
anyway we had no security problems and didn't feel at all insecure. Until the
anchor dragged that is.
We dropped the hook quickly because a storm was
coming through and of course, we didn't want to get wet. I tugged on it it was
fine, but the wind was temporarily coming from the west. When the storm passed
and the wind turned east, I thought I'd retug the anchor, all I did was to
loosen it and come 10pm when it was howling again and pxxxing down it dragged.
We looked out and could see us moving past Waylander Yvonne grabbed the
keys, I started the engine, looked round and as if we moved sideways our bow was
very close on Waylander, I dropped into reverse quickly to ease us
away. Fortunately we didn't touch, apart from anything else it would have been a
little embarassing being anchored in a bay 3 miles long with no boats apart from
us two. The anchor reset, we got into some dry clothes and had a bit of a
sleepless night as the thunder and lighting continued. I think we were in
thunderstorm alley. Next morning we rose, listen to Eric on the shortwave for
the weather forecast then upped anchor and made for Cumana.
We did catch a three nice Barracuda on our
way to Margarita, which we carefully handled, in fact we waited until they were
dead before we touched them, big nasty teeth, but do they taste
good!
We caught nothing while motoring to Cumana in flat
calm waters, zero wind and blue sunny skies. We arrived in this quaint marina
with a lovely warm welcome from the manager of Marina Cumanagoto. Once settled
in we four walked around to the office to
register and pay for the night stop, this amounted to just over 4 euros for the
night including electric and water, the manager even gave us vouchers for a free
welcoming rum punch at one of the local bars or restaurants.
Our plan was to fill up with fuel, stay a night,
and leave the following morning. It is a nice place and we were tempted to stay
another day and it appears we have to, the gas station had run out of fuel
anyway, so we had to wait for a delivery the following day, which didn't happen,
though it has just arrived, so it would appear that we can buy some at 0730 hrs
tomorrow, we'll see. It's incredibly cheap, you can buy one hundred litres for
just over one euro, one euro! Petrol is about 50% more expensive. Unfortunately
in Venezuela, many gas stations aren't allowed or won't sell to foreign flagged
vessels, but they do here in Cumana, they say.
We had a good lunch in town today after visiting
the local fruit and veg market, although it sells everything. Lunch for Chris
and Tony was a giant bowl of soup containing meat, potatoes, yams, sweetcorn etc
and Yvonne and me had chicken breast with noodles, salad, and plantain. We had
two beers and two cokes and a jug of water, all together the bill was 42000
bolivars that's about 8 euros for all of us. I like it here!
In town was a couple more temptations, one was a
Yamaha outboard 15hp 2 stroke for 1000 euros, I saw an excellent real crossbow,
but I wasn't allowed that. A can of pepper spray, had to have that for 7 euros,
but the best buy so far had to be a motorbike. 125cc, brand new, 2,780,000
bolivars, about 500 euros! Tony and I are thinking how we
can buy a couple of hundred and sell them in UK!
So, tomorrow we could leave to Puerto de la
Cruz, we'll wait and see, but it's not a bad place to be hold up
in.
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