Isla Tortuga our position 10:59.45N 65:22.87W
Chaser 2
Yvonne Chapman
Sun 22 Nov 2009 22:10
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Everyone was surprised by the amount of food we
provisioned aboard for our offshore two week cruise. Six adults and a baby, I
always explain that if one eats one tin of beans for breakfast and one for
dinner, and nothing else, we have to carry 12 tins per day for 14 days, 168 tins
of food. So you can imagine, 6 beer thirsty adults, means at least 300 bottles
of beer assuming some drink juice, wine or rum! We had a case or two of rum and
sufficient wine onboard already. We carried beef, and hot dogs, 4 dozen eggs, a
few kilos of potatoes and plantains, flour to make bread (daily) water we make
with our desaliniser, plus we carried spare drinking water and tank water in
jerrys. We had tins of meat, tuna, beans, peas etc aswell as a few kilos of rice
and pasta and cheese.
Apart from the food we had 7 peoples luggage
and clothes etc, Evies toys the new windsurfer mast and sails together with our
inflatable sailboat and Evies rubber ring.Chaser ll is spacious though
and we all managed to fit in comfortably. Rob and Berny had the forward
cabin and head, Susie Billy and Evie the aft cabin and head, Yvonne and me slept
in the saloon or cockpit depending on the weather and shared the aft
head.
So, we left the Golf of Cariaco accompanied by
herds of Dolphin, our plan was to anchor in a bay just outside Mochima, snorkel
and have lunch, which we did, then sail down to the village and anchor for the
evening and take maybe a last meal ashore. The village of Mochima although
beautiful was closed or at least it appeared that way. We got ashore about
1730hrs but everything was closed or closing, the 3 restaurants too. So back
Chaser ll for a BBQ.
Yvonne and me woke at 0400hrs to prepare for the
sail to Tortuga, its about 70 miles so a good 12 hour sail and we wanted to get
in before dark. We arrived in good time though catching and missing a few fish
on the way. So fish for dinner. We anchored off Playa Caldera for the first
night, then morning we dinghied ashore to the beach, it was weekend so very busy
with motor boats from Caracas and Venezuelans that fly in, in their private
planes. Later that day we sailed 10 miles west to Cayo Herradura, a small Island
north of Tortuga. It was Sunday so still busy, but one by one they upt anchor
for their trip back to Caracas and we were alone with maybe 3 other sailboats.
The water was beautiful with white flour like sandy beaches, which you could run
naked on all day long, not that we did but you know what I mean.
We spent a couple of days here, we hadn't planned
on that but the wind was too strong for our sail further offshore to Los Roques.
There was 25 knots sustained for much of the time and coming from east or north
of east which wouldn't have been comfortable. Evie though was a diamond she
loved the water and she loved the sailing, and apart from one or two teething
problems was always happy, aslong as she had food and drink. Our inflatable boat
is a great toy, for children and adults, a great way to learn to sail and have
fun. Can be rigged as a windsurfer too. We spent the time swimming, walking and
diving for shells and Conch.Then when the weather was rightish we left for Los
Roques around Midday, not the best time to leave, its about 100 miles so it
meant 12 hours of night sailing but thats the way it was. The night sail was
uncomfortable though, Billy and Berny a little nervous, not having encountered
rough weather at night before. They asked if we'd ever sailed in worse
conditions, we have though, a lot worse, but when there are seven on board at
night moving from the cockpit to below decks one can lose track of where people
are, so we said in the cockpit they must wear a lifejacket and clip on their
safety line. It's a normal procedure for Yvonne and I but I think it added to
their nervousness. Later during the night though the wind turned a little and I
decided to sail to the western end of the Islands thus allowing us a totally
downwind sail using our Twizzle rig (two head sails ) and no mainsail. That made
the trip faster and more comfortable, we arrived at day break hoping for a
restbight in the lee of the islands but it didn't happen and we were a little
disapointed, grey skies and grey water. We travelled north then East to find an
anchorage to rest up and have lunch, by which time we'd rested, the sun came out
and the water turned turquiose, more next
time. IMGP0234.JPG IMGP0216.JPG IMGP0236.JPG IMGP0239.JPG SI851888.JPG IMGP0290.JPG These pictures were sent with Picasa, from Google. Try it out here: http://picasa.google.com/ |
