A long time but now back on the water
Chaser 2
Yvonne Chapman
Sat 17 Sep 2011 20:55
friends and family that are asking 'where the hell are they?'
We flew into Caracas at the end of August and stayed with a friend overnight
in Puerto la Cruz. The following day we collected our car that had been
stored in TMO marina during our travels. The battery was flat but one of the
marina guys jumped it and we were on our way back to Chaser 2 in Medregal
Village Marina in the Gulf of Cariaco.
We stayed a week or so on land preparing Chaser for the water, it needed
antifouling again, and we applied 'Propshield' to the prop and shaft, (we'll
keep you posted on the value of that later in the year). It's a special
grease that you paint on the sterngear, its supposed to be so slippery
nothing can stick to it. We'll see, in PLC they seem to have the stickiest
of sticky things! On the road nearby Medregal we came across the brown guy
in the photo, sleeping in the roadside, or maybe it was dead. Looks like a
skunk to me with its hair dyed. Someone said it was a Palm Bear,maybe but it
looks just like a skunk.
So we were finally launched, and as usual had a couple of things to put
right before we could sail. The car too needed a new alternator and battery.
We decided to sail to a favourite haunt, Mochima village in Mochima National
Park. Travelling down the Gulf near Laguna Grande the waters were so clear
and blue, these dolphins were quite deep, maybe 10 metres, and you can see
them so clearly, as always there were 100's
We arrived in Mochima early and decided to go straight to the village
anchorage, it was good to see the presence of the Guardia Costa anchored in
one of the bays midway down the channel. They stayed all through the night
too, probably all week or more. Mochima is a safe place but there are many
anchorages that are secluded, and it is holiday time, also the Police and
Guardia are making a greater effort to ensure security is good. The village
is always safe of course, they depend heavily on tourism and don't want any
bad publicity. We dinghied ashore for a beer in our favourite restaurant and
to check if they were open in the evening. We had been to Mochima several
times open to find them closed. The owner explained his working hours, Peak
season open daytime and evening, except Sunday evening. Offseason Closed
Monday,Tuesday, Wednesday, open all day Thursday Friday and Saturday, and
Sunday till 6pm. We returned in the evening to sample a beautiful Parilla of
Squid, Sepia, Octopus, King Prawns and Mussels, this was all served with
fried bananas, (plantains) salad, and our choice French fries, or chips as
we call them. It was the best! Together with 2 rum and cokes, 4 glasses of
wine the price was 214 Bolivares, about 20 euros. We have to go again.
The following day we made our way to TMO Marina in PLC, we have some things
to buy, and some work to do on Chaser, varnishing, new Biminis etc. We make
take a tour inland and visit Peru and Bolivia. No definite plans yet. Many
of our friends return from UK and Sweden in October and we thought of a trip
to visit the Indian villages on the Orinoco, so all is in the air at the
moment, but it will be documented here.
These pictures were sent with Picasa, from Google.
Try it out here: http://picasa.google.com/
