medregal village, haulout and Spain.

Chaser 2
Yvonne Chapman
Sun 15 Aug 2010 18:04

It's been a while since I wrote on my blog, I did try a couple of weeks ago, almost finished when my computer crashed, so  I lost everything. The computer expert says I didn't  integrate the power supply at source. (Plug it in!)
 
So lets try again.
 
We have had some difficult times, one way or another, problems in Spain, things not happening as they should. We wanted to try and sell a house and that was causing problems due entirely to the corrupted authorites in the town concerned, but I won't go into details. The final bad news was Yvonnes Dad was taken ill, so we said she should use our remaining US dollars to fly back to UK, then she could go onto to argue the problems with the house in Spain. We couldn't both go, US dollars are not easy to obtain in Venezuela, you can't draw from a bank like most other countries.
 
Yvonne flew out on June 1st, and she is still there! Her Dad was in hospital when she arrived, but he came home after 4 or 5 days, he is ok now. Yvonne then flew to Spain to visit Rob and Susie and our grand daughter Evie Marie. While there attempting to solve the house selling problem. One delay after another and buyers backing out because of the bribery and corruption. Finally the sale is completed and Yvonne is due back on 18th August, except that our daughter Susie has been taken ill and is now in hospital with head and neck pains. The doctors have apparently completed many tests, for the serious things Menegitus, tumors, etc etc. and they have all proved negative, so thats the good news. All in Spain have been suffering with a severe virus and sickness.The doctors now think the virus caused Susie to violently vomit which badly pulled a muscle in the neck. It will take a time to heal, but hopefully that is all the problem is. The update is Susie is back home, all is ok, it is a pulled tendon in her neck, she'll survive.
 
So all being well Yvonne flys to the UK to check on her Dad then from London to Madrid and onto Caracas on 18th.
 
So you may think me being alone for three months, I would have plenty of time to write on the blog etc, but with the worries of Spain and UK I haven't had the enthusiasm to do too much, apart from the maintenance of Chaser, the house and garden, cooking and cleaning, fixing the car, generator, shopping, washing, and feeding the baby. a womans work is never done!
 
So, the news here in Venezuela, well, Medregal village and the haulout yard are moving from strength to strength, the restaurant has new tables and chairs, flat screen TV just outside the bar area, (in time for the world cup too). many of the rooms needed repair etc and that has been done. The trailer for the haulout of multihulls is complete. Jean Marc now has his original Toyota 12 seater landcruiser back, and, last week bought a 9 metre Pinero boat that can seat 15 with a fly bridge and two 115HP Yamaha outboards.
 
His plan is to have the car for tours into town and or local sightseeing. That is more for the cruising people because the hotel guests have generally got their own car. The boat will be used for touring up and down the Gulf of Cariaco, beach barbeques or shopping trips for hotel guests and anyone interested. Jean Marc is himself a happier person too, and our old dispute with him has been forgotten.
 
Unfortunately there have been few cruising boats visiting this year, everywhere has been quiet, Grenada, Trinidad and many of the Islands. This is mainly due to the financial crisis that supposedly hasn't been too bad, but in actual fact has hit all countries worse than stated, America probably harder hit than anyone. Consequently fewer people taking time out sailing.
 
Venezuela has the added disadvantage of receiving bad publicity from foreign countries. Much is propaganda, and travel companies are being advised by Foreign Offices not to visit or avoid certain areas because of high crime rates and murders.
 
Well, Venezuela does have its problems, and the current government appears to do little about it. The US has similar problems too, but there are no adviseries not to visit the States. So it is political. The crime rate in Venezuela is high, but most of that happens in the slum areas especially in and around Caracas. For the sailing community that is here or anyone reading this thinking of coming, there really isn't too much to worry about, no more than in any other Isalnds within the Caribbean.
 
Prices are still quite reasonably for us foreigners, because of what is called the black market or parallel exchange rate. Hence the reason why you cannot draw money from a bank. The bank would give you 2.6 Bolivares to 1US$ where as now the parallel rate is giving 8 bolivares to 1 US$. Everyone who knows the system changes money this way, even I'm sure the government. The government does not allow venezuelan people to buy many US$ in a bank, Anyone who buys abroad or imports has to pay in dollars. Hence the existance of a blackmarket rate.
 
For the local people prices are rising quickly, but that rise is wiped out for us foreigners because we have dollars.
 
I have just left the Gulf of Cariaco and Medregal village for Puerto De La Cruz, a marina for a change. The sail was quite good, though had to motor half the way, one of the good things is you can sail all year in Venezuela. It is hurricane season now until November but often any serious weather coming across from Africa sucks the wind out of this area. The weather forecasters have been saying this year will be a bad one regarding named storms.So maybe this will bring a few more boats our way, it would be nice to meet a few new cruising people.
 
To run through the fotos, (may not be in this order) Evie our Grandaughter is growing fast, here in her Spanish football gear during the world cup, and with her Mum in the Moors and Christians fiesta in Moraira. We have a new photo on Google earth taken Feb 14th 2010, showing our house,  and Jean Marcs, (the owner of Medregal  Village) when you look close you can see Chaser laying at anchor just offshore.
 
It has been Sardine season, here we see the local fisherman who laid there nets just astern of Chaser. They trawl their catch then circle their nets, dive and tie them closed so the fish are trapped. They then use a second net within the circle to bring the sardines to their boats. They fill the boats so full they  barely have their gunwhales above the water. The sardines are taken ashore to awaiting trucks for market. Sometimes though the bigger fishing boats come to buy the sardines,'live'. In the photo you can see the second net has been dragged over to the larger boats and they lean in with wicker baskets to scoop out the fish. They seem to take about 20 baskets of live bait fish each.
 
And, our latest crew member, Captain Ron, he fell out of a tree, and a neighbour asked if I wanted him. He was about 5 weeks old in the foto, and they found him when he was 2 or 3 weeks. They hand fed him and I took over from them. He is very tame, whether he'll stay that way we'll see. I still have to feed him now, he can eat a little himself but e dribbles most, but hopefully he's getting the hang of it, hand rearing a parrot is a pain..The last photo is Jean Marcs'new boat! Not bad, I hope all works out for him now, it has been a bad couple of years.
 
So all for now, hopefully we'll soon get to do some sailing and diving. Our friends from Tradewind return in October, so it will be good to see them again, our plans to visit them in UK didn't work out.  Hopefully the next blog will have some more of our sailing adventures, though we won't be going as far this year as we had previous years. We also want to travel more inland, Venezuela has a lot to offer, and South America, well it's huge, Peru would be good to see.
 
 
Fair winds to all

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