San Antonio
Chaser 2
Yvonne Chapman
Sat 18 Oct 2008 21:00
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Medregal Village in the Golf of Cariaco is a quite
place, not much goes on here, no discos, cinemas that sort of thing, though we
did hear one of the locals bought a DVD player recently. Unfortunately he didn't
realise he had to have a tv to watch the movie!
Come the weekend we can jump on a bus (a VW van
bus) to town or we can sail up to the end of the Golf, anchor and get a bus from
there. This week though something different was arranged, a local guy who has a
Pirogue, ( wooden open fishing boat) said he would take us across the other side
of the Golf to the town of San Antonio for a small fee. A group of us got
together for the 6 mile trip, there were 9 on board with a 40hp outboard so it
took 20 mins or so to get there. It was a great trip though, much better than a
claustrophobic bus ride. San Antonio too was a beautiful town, only small but a
lovely coastline and new promenade, clean and safe.
In the photos you can see the coast at different
locations and some local guys cleaning fish we bought in
the market. The onlookers are waiting for the scraps! In the brick building
is a chicken seller, not seen one of these before, if you look on the wall in
front of the man, you can see some metal funnel shaped things. The chicken goes
in head first, live, then it's killed and the blood drips down the wall as you
can see. Behind him is a chicken plucking machine, no idea how that works, it's
like a washin machine drum with loads of clips stickin out, I assume
you bung in the bird, switch in on and it pulls out all the feathers. The end
result are on the counter wrapped in polythene, fresh and perfect, next time I'm
there I've gotta watch.
The last photo is the ugly duckling, first black
pelican we've seen.
After an enjoyed trip by all, the plan was
for the guy to do a regular saturday run, to either San Antonio or
Margaritar a little further down the coast. Unfortunately he left his boat out
in a storm the other night and it sank. This is his first boat, it was given to
him by the government together with a brand new 40hp outboard. The government
despite many failings does some good things too! providing fishermen with a boat
and outboard is one. Anyway, he tied it to the dock in shallow water, but the
wind got up from the west as a result of Hurricane Omar 200 miles away, but
because it was tracking west or northwest instead of the normal east or
northeast, we had westerly winds, only to 30 knots but the westerly swell ran up
the golf and as the waves broke in the shallow water, together with the
rain, it tended to fill his boat up.
A couple or hours later when the weather calmed the
lads on shore dragged it out. We're in Cumana at the moment so I don't know if
he dried the engine out in time for todays run. It's a Yamaha 40hp two stroke,
so it shouldn't have been a problem, they're bullet proof, not allowed those in
Europe now though, too much polution they say, that and the fact once you get
one of these you never need another! One of many strange facts of Europe and the
US, like antifoul paint. We, small boat people can't use the good but cheap
antifoul paint because its got too much tin or copper or some such pollutants,
we have to buy the 200US$ a litre stuff with the fancy trade name that the
treehuggers say doesn't pollute, It's a wonder they allow it to kill the
barnacles! Maybe it does some good? Ships though with hulls the size
of two football pitches can use the cheap stuff, maybe it's because they throw
so much other crap and oil into the sea a bit of tin/copper poisonin' wouldn't
notice, synical me.
Went out and bought a travel cot for Susies baby
today, it's a bit like my first portable TV, weighed half a ton but because it
had a handle on top it was called potable! It is a nice one though, all the
extras and strong too, should last years, in fact, Susie being quite small and
Billy not bein' the tallest guy in town, it may last the little one till
he or she is about 12!
We should be off to Isla Margarita tomorrow at
dawn, for a 2 or 3 day stay, do some duty free shopping, some 2 euro rum, check
out some prices for our new project before returning up the Golf sometime next
week. Chris and Tony on Waylander arrive back in Venezuela on the 3rd so
hopefully we 'll meet before we haulout on the 24th November.
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