Back aboard
Chaser 2
Yvonne Chapman
Thu 24 Jul 2014 18:06
After 6 months in Spain we are now back aboard Chaser in Tech Marine
Oriente, a marina in Puerto La Cruz, Venezuela. Chaser was on land for the 6
months and when we climbed aboard all was ok. We always worry that there
could be some unwanted visitors like cockroaches or weather humidity would
create black mould, Trinidad is bad for that, but all was good.
We've been here 4 weeks now, taking it easy but also working on Chaser,
first is to check all our systems are working, depth sounders, GPS and
Radar, check our batteries are still good, they're 10 years old now but
still hanging in there. Check our solar panels and watermaker and very
important our gas solenoid. We also bought new blades for our wind generator
in the US, James brought them back for us when he finished the 2013 Americas
Cup. These blades are bigger and better so hopefully they'll put a few more
wigglies in our batteries than the old ones. We've been changing the
original light fittings for LED's, making new covers for things, new
electronic timer for our home built freezer etc. We've also acquired a new
scuba tank and a new propane tank which all needs testing and connecting.
Venezuela is a good place to get some of these things, scuba tanks and gas
tanks are cheap to fill, just mustn't get them confused. Today we have
bought some diesel, a guy comes round and fills our spare containers.
Chaser's tanks are full but we like to carry as much spare on deck as
possible. Getting fuel for a foreign flagged boat is still difficult, it's
always possible but the government doesn't seem to have a special system for
tourists like in Trinidad for example. The locals there have one price and
foreigners another. Here the price for 100 litres is about 5 pence, so
basically free. This guy charges 100 times that price which seems excessive,
he went away with a smile on his face, but even so for us 100 litres cost
£5, actually it's about £4.50!
I Spain we spent a lot of time with our family, James,Rob, Susie and Evie,
especially Evie. She is growing up fast and we enjoy her company. Taking her
to school became a regular exercise but now she stays for school dinners
which makes life easier for all. We took her to Mojacar, a small village in
the south of Spain during the winter for a long weekend break. The hotel has
an indoor pool and she loves to swim. This year we didn't get time to visit
any friends in the UK, but we did manage to fly to Gran Canaria and stay
with Jon and Kate aboard their boat 'Aries', it was good to see them again.
We managed a few barbeques at our house, Rob loves a Barbie, though we never
got round to going clay pigeon shooting. James was out of work for part of
our time there, so we or he, started renovating our old Citroen Mehari. So
now we are separated again for a short time, Rob and Susie in Spain, we're
in South America and James somewhere in the Arctic Circle.
While we've been in Spain there has been a lot of publicity about shortages
of basic products in Venezuela, but it seems to be the supermarkets that
don't have the goods. In the market we can get everything, meat, washing
powder, flour, sugar, milk etc, all the things that are rarely available in
the supermarkets, and, if the supermarkets do get a delivery of one of those
items, there are giant queues. The market is great, we can stock up and take
off. Boat parts and electronics are a different story, can't get those in
the market and many boat shops have little stock.
Of course its the government that causes all the problems in this country.
Ironically, the people that benefit from this left wing dictatorship are the
rich and the foreigners,ie. anyone who keeps their money or income in US$ or
Euros. The poorer Venezuelans can't do that so they feel the price rises and
get poorer and poorer, yet these are the people that vote for the regime.
Also 40% of the working population work for the government one way or
another. If they don't vote correctly they lose their jobs. No jobs no food.
Inflation they say has been between 25 and 50% per year. The government
subsidises basic foods flour milk etc.Three years ago we paid 6 bolivares
for 1 litre of milk, at the time around 75 cents for us foreigners, now the
price is around 40 Bolivares per litre, which is 7 times the price in 2011,
but for us with the current exchange rate its around 50 cents, so it's
actually gone down in price, for us! Thats the same for most items, 2 litres
of coca cola is around 40 Euro cents for us, we pay 3 times that in Spain.
Marina fees too are now around 2 euros per night.
And because of the four different exchange rates it causes many problems
with international companies, airlines etc. The official rate is 6.3
Bolivares to the dollar, everybody knows including the government it should
be 63, a 10 fold devaluation, but political dynamite, but it will happen or
the country will go broke despite having the largest oil reserves in the
world.
Enough of the politics, must be getting stir crazy sitting in the marina
waiting to go sailing. Our plan is to leave with our friends Jaco and
Christelle aboard Songerie, but they need a visa to enter Bonaire and
Curacao and they keep getting delay after delay. Our plan was to have Jacos
50th birthday in Las Aves, delay moved that nearer to Isla Tortuga, but a
further delay means we stay here until further notice. We go to Mochima this
weekend on a busmans holiday just to get away for a couple of days.
So thats all for now, hopefully we'll be sailing the first week in August
weather permitting, good fish, Lobsters and squid, yum, can't wait, then
onto Bonaire and Curacao for September.
These pictures were sent with Picasa, from Google.
Try it out here: http://picasa.google.com/
