Susies holiday with us aboard Chaser 2 in Venezuela
Chaser 2
Yvonne Chapman
Wed 7 Nov 2012 23:40
have spent the past few days restocking Chaser with food, drink, water and
fuel while awaiting our Daughters arrival at Barcelona airport in Venezuela.
She arrived miraculously on time, or at least only an hour late from Caracas
which is certainly unusual but a welcome relief..
Evie came out first a little bleary eyed, but her face was a picture as it
lit up on seeing us. She didn't know who to cuddle first. Susie and Billy
returned to the carousel for their luggage, then out to the car for the 20
minute drive to Chaser in Marina TMO, Puerto La Cruz.
The plan, such as there is when sailing was to spend a few days or a week in
PLC, do some shopping, visit some friends, feed the Iguanas, and enjoyed the
nightlife of the Paseo Colon downtown. And, we did all this, visiting an old
sailing friend Paul who lives in a beautiful part of the canal system near
the Caribbean Mall. He has a beautiful swimming pool too, so we packed a
cold box with beers and sandwiches, crisps and soft drinks and spent lunch
around the pool. We all had a good day. The dinghy ride too is enjoyable
although a little slow with 5 onboard.
The shopping mall at Plaza Mayor is a busy place with a family atmosphere.
The following evening we drove to the shopping mall and sat along side the
canals watching the boats and the sun go down while taking a beer and having
a meal. We had beers and 4 and a half good meals for for about 350
Bolivares, 20 pounds approx. Then of course it was off to the promised fair
ground, Evie had a great time but the jet lag was beginning to catch up, so
having done all the rides we made our way back to Chaser.
We checked the weather for a good day to sail to Cayo Herradura about 70
miles offshore. We departed at daybreak and our rods were trailing our
favourite lures, Billy managed to catch a nice Wahoo, which was fortunate
because this time Susie struck out. Enough fish for all for 3 days.
We arrived at 4pm enough time to square away the boat and take a sundowner
as we watched for green flash, no luck though. We stayed in Cayo Herradura
for 5 or 6 days, doing nothing much, just chilling out, relaxing, swimming,
snorkeling, diving, strolling on the beach. Evie now being a good swimmer
at 33/4 years with her new silicon mask and fins, was able this year to see
in real life some of her favourite fishes from the film Nemo. She hasn't
quite got confidence in the snorkel. She can use it but she talks too much.
We also have aboard a small inflatable sailing boat, Susie can sail, she has
a Skippers licence too, as do all our kids, though this vessel hardly needs
such bureaucratic things. Click on the link to see
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1pY3c6P-JE We hoped to have a beach
barbeque but there were a lot of mosquitoes this time. Seems, sometimes
there are and sometimes there aint. Two weeks later we had none.
Our evenings were mostly spent talking, drinking and doing pub quizzes, or
if Evie was awake we'd play bingo, with help she'd call the numbers, in
English or Spanish, she is bilingual now.
Like all holidays they are far too short and their time with us was nearing
its end. We left Herradura for Carenero a 48 mile sail west. The plan being
to anchor near a marina, dinghy ashore and get a cab to the airport.
We anchored Saturday evening amongst the mangroves adjacent to marina Bahia
los Pirates. The bird life here is amazing, the parrots chattering on their
way home from work, hundreds and hundreds of them. Herds of Scarlet Ibis
too, Ospreys and many others.
The following morning Yvonne and I dinghied to the marina to ask if it was
possible to enter, pass through their grounds to the main road to get a
taxi, not that day but on Tuesday coming. The manager told us that was no
problem at all, he even suggested we anchor Chaser in front of his marina so
he can keep an eye on it. He invited us to take a tour around the grounds
and said we can use the restaurants of which there are 5 and Evie can use
the childrens swimming pool. There were playgrounds too for kiddies. It was
a beautiful place to end their holiday, and a place it appears cruising
vessels are welcomed providing of course you respect their dress codes, (no
Speedos with a T shirt) etc and do not take with out giving, ie. Don't use
their rubbish facilities or dinghy docks, water, pool etc without buying a
few beers and patronizing the restaurants. I've seen a few cruising boats do
this. Here it would not be allowed but those that try give a bad rep to us
all.
We did have some good meals there too with excellent prices, either in the
restaurant or a takeaway depending when the restaurant closed for the day.
Come Tuesday all bags were packed, we all went ashore for a final swim and a
beer. Then back to Chaser to get changed. At midday we dingied over to the
restaurant for a snack meal while waiting for their taxi to arrive. The girl
at the reception desk had prebooked it and it arrived on time.
So we said our goodbyes to Susie Billy and Evie, not too sad because we will
see them again at Christmas when we return to Spain.
Our mission now to head back to PLC, try and meet up with some friends who
have just arrived back on their boat 'Tradewinds' and then sail slowly back
to Medregal Village where we haul for a few months.
The pictures below show just a few of the highlites mentioned above.
These pictures were sent with Picasa, from Google.
Try it out here: http://picasa.google.com/
