Isla Margarita again our posn. 10.57.26N 63.49.99W
Chaser 2
Yvonne Chapman
Thu 4 Sep 2008 10:21
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We've been in Isla Margarita a week now posn.
10.57.26N 63.49.99W, anchored in the large bay of Porlamar together with Chris
and Tony aboard Waylander and probably about 70 other cruising
boats.
It's our 3rd or 4th visit to Margarita, but it does
have a charm of its own, it's a bitty scruffy through lack of investment in the
area, but the counryside is nice and the duty free shopping is good. There are
two or three good bars and restaurants along the seafront all are good cruiser
hangouts, where we can meet old and new friends travelling through the
Caribbean.
We've done some stocking up of hard to get things
and some wine and rum. We're now planning to leave and return to Mochima before
moving away maybe west for a while.
One evening the four of us went to the Sunset Bar
for a beer and a bite, the food was excellent and the beer good too, though we
moved on to the rum while waiting for a band to play.The rum was good too! as
Chris found out. The band started playing, actually they were quite good, we had
another Cuba Libre or two and Chris ordered a plate of home made onion rings, I
think by this time she had forgotten that we'd eaten. They were nice though, we
ate our way through them before ordering another drink. We had a good night, it
was time to head home, so we said our goodbyes, dragged Chris off the table (not
really) and found our way back to our dinghys, via a couple of muddy holes.
The last few days have been very still in the
anchorage, no wind and very hot. This evening about 4pm we were reading a
book in the cockpit and thinking what to prepare for dinner and suddenly
the wind started to blow from nothing to 25 knots then 30kts, from the
West! It was like someone switched the wind on, I think more boats
dragged their anchors than ever before. It even woke Chris up after
the night before, great way to get rid of a hangover! Chris blamed it on the
cheap rum, quantity or quality I ask myself, but we know don't we!
We had during the past day or so made a canvas
water catcher that we'd slung over the foredeck, the collected water is then
piped away to our water tank. Because we were facing East and the wind blew
from the West our water catcher suddenly inverted and became a Spinaker, thus causing us to sail over our anchor.
We removed it but I think that probably our anchor was directly underneath us
and as the wind caught Chaser beam on we blew about 40 or 50 metres
until our anchor chain tightened. By this time we were probably being blown at 2
or 3 knots which I assume broke our anchor free. Once that happens at that speed
it is unlikely to rebed itself. So we started the engine and wound in the anchor
and searched for a safe to spot to re-anchor in some strong winds and pitching
seas.
Come midnight the sea calmed back down and the wind
dropped to about 12 knots. I checked the weather on the internet and although
not mentioned earlier in the day was now called Invest 94, this I believe means
its an area of disturbed weather and under investigation. That night, after it
left us (maybe 100 miles away) it became a 'Tropical Depression' and by the
morning became Tropical Storm 'Gustav', later that day (Yesterday), it was
Hurricane 'Gustav' and is now a catogory 1 Hurricane and forecast to be Cat 3
after passing Cuba tomorrow.
This was a large area of low pressure, we only felt
it brush past because we are so far south, (thats one reason why we are here).
But, it shows how quick these things (albeit unusual) can develope. Normally
they start off the coast of Africa and cross the Atlantic to the Caribbean, but
this one really started here. Nevertheless no harm done although it teaches you
not to become complacent even this far south. Only one of the boats dragged onto
the beach here and that was only because he unluckily had taken his starter
motor to bits and therefore couldn't start his engine.A fishing boat pulled him
off.
Our Waeco freezer has stopped working, it isn't
repairable due to its stupid design, so we'll take the good bits off and dump
it. We don't really need a freezer and they are so power hungry too trying
to reduce our normal room temp from +30 degreees to -18 degrees, its constantly
on.
So we moved on to Mochima along with
Waylander, where we will say our goodbyes.
SI850368.JPG SI850370.JPG SI850374.JPG SI850376.JPG These pictures were sent with Picasa, from Google. Try it out here: http://picasa.google.com/ |
