So finally Yvonne returned to me and Venezuela, I’d already sailed to Puerto De La Cruz, and holed up in the marina of TechMarineOriente. The price is good at 70 Bolivares per night including wifi, electric and water, thats about 6 euros or £5 with the current exchange rate. It is good to have the air conditioning running after a such a long time at anchor, especially in a Marina where the wind is light.

Yvonne returned with some welcome goodies, like Cadburys Chocolate, cheddar cheese, Serrano ham and money.

I have had my eye on a car that was for sale here in the Marina, it was owned by some wealthy Venezuelan guy that has houses all over and many cars in each, and this one he’d decided to sell. OK, it’s a bit ugly with genuine wood panel wallpaper stuck on the side, as they did on yankee cars back then. But, it’s reliable, like new inside, everything works and has only done 30,000km which the owner said is genuine. So we bought it. It must be the most comfortable car we have ever had and it’s big. One of the newer versions of the old muscle cars, Chevy a station wagon, 3 seats in the front, 3 behind that and two in the rear. You can get an 8’x4’ sheet of plywood in the back with the seats folded! For the car buffs it has the 5.7 V8 lump of a Chevy Corvette and does 0-60 in 9 secs. Yeah, it’s a bit thirsty, not too bad but petrol, 100 litres for about 50 pence and insurance at £90, so sod the expense.

Consequently Yvonne and I have left Chaser in the marina and driven back to our house, stayed for a few days, a few beers with friends and a good meal at Medregal Village and driven back to Puerto De La Cruz.

Here there has been an election, things can get a little heated they say in Venezuelan politics but that seemed to be more in the court rooms of the two main parties and on the TV. This was a vote for the seats in the general assembly. Like our bi-elections in UK. Chavez (our leader) is president until the general election in 2012, but this election showed his popularity diminishing rapidly. As a result he does not now have the majority he needs to carry out anymore, some would say outrageous policy changes. Below, you can see a foto of what some comedian built at the side of the road, a red PSUV T-shirt (Chavez party) with his suitcase packed. We had to stop and take a foto.

After hearing the election result we decided to take of sailing for a few days, it’s been a long time since we got away, in the breeze, sunshine, bluewater and tropical beaches.

Isla Tortuga is a low lying Island just a days sail away, there is nothing there apart from a small posada, (a guest house type of thing but not quite as comfortable) not here anyway. Unfortuantely it looked like  they’d had a bit of wind across the Island because most of the corrugated iron roof had blown off. They were fixing it but it’s a slow job, no shops here, so everything down to hammer and nails has to be brought in by boat, even petrol for their generators, all they have is fish and what they can scrounge off us cruisers. Talking of fish, on route we caught a Wahoo, it’s similar to a King fish and Baracuda. This one weighed maybe 30 pounds but we threw it back, we don’t have a freezer on board so we’d only get one good meal for us and Captain Ron and the rest we’d have to throw, shame they are really tasty fish.

After our arrival on the following day, we off loaded our dinghy and motored ashore, the beach is beautiful and we took a walk from one end to the other. The eastern end though was terrible, mosquitoes everywhere, we looked like we were doing a Irish Jig dance, slapping ourselves on our thighs, shoulders ankles and bums. We beat a hasty retreat back to the boat, and even there a night, a few of the bastards jumped aboard. Isla Tortuga is a low lying Island, no freshwater, lakes or lagoons for them to breed in but they somehow arrive there and were hungry.

The Island anchorage is protected from all angles of wind apart from the north. It rarely blows northerly which makes for a comfortable sleep. Unfortunately, the weather doesn’t seem to be running true to form. I know it’s hurricane season but hurricanes don’t come this far south. A weather system had developed though further north over Puerto Rico which gave North winds to us and a northerly swell. It wasn’t much, nothing dangerous just so uncomfortable, and because there was little wind it was hot, so with the rockin and rollin, the mozies (bastards) and the hot humid air it was not a good night. These things never last so tomorrow would be better. Wrong! A storm came, in the foto of our radar screen, which should be black, the yellow indicates rain, heavy rain if its bright yellow and we were in the centre as you can see. Fortunately the lightning was a bit further away. We don’t like lightning, you always feels a little vulnerable sitting on the surface of the flat ocean with a 60 foot metal pole stickin’ up in the air, kinda saying, ‘here, hit this’

We decided to head back but the wind turned southerly, (we were heading south) so we waited another day. The trip back was good, took about 9 hours, nice sunshine, calm seas, but little wind so we had to motor sail. We hoped to encounter our Wahoo again, but no luck this time, so on arrival at PLC we nipped out for some fried chicken takeaway, Yucca in a green sauce and coleslaw. We brought it back to Chaser and the ‘Captain’. He is 18 weeks old now so he can feed himself more or less but has become accustomed to eating what we eat. So that’s what he had too, he loves Chicken.

Our friends from UK arrive back to Venezuela on the 16^th Oct, they have their Nic 32 in Medregal village, we’ll pick them up from the airport in our new Limo, it’ll be good to see them again.

Susie and Evie (daughter and Granddaughter) arrive for a 3 week hol on the 27^th, can’t wait, we’ll meet them in Puerto De La Cruz, so Chaser will remain here until then. Shame our son can’t make it this time, but work is piling up for him and he cannot afford to turn it down, for him Summer in Spain is a slack time, Susies work is flat out, so come the end of this month she’ll need a break, (so she tells me). ------- We’re retired!

We hope to sail to Isla Blanquilla with Susie, more on that next time.

These pictures were sent with Picasa, from Google.

Try it out here: http://picasa.google.com/