Finally leaving Puerto La Cruz
Chaser 2
Yvonne Chapman
Thu 4 Sep 2014 19:24
Our friends Jaco and Christelle aboard 'Songerie' have been trying to get a
visa to enter Bonaire and Curacao. They are Namibian and need a visa for
most countries, even though they have Dutch heritage and are wanting to stay
a short while in the Dutch Antilles. After many days of waiting it finally
arrived. The following day just before dawn at the beginning of August we
departed for Isla Tortuga 60 miles north west. Cayo Herradura, a favourite
of ours is where we anchored for the night. We stayed only a couple of
nights because the weather window to Los Roques was good and we have been to
Tortuga many times. We caught a Dorado on our way to Tortuga so dinner
wasn't a problem, Jaco and Christelle caught a large Wahoo, and beautiful
eating fish.
We left Cayo Herradura at 1700hrs, so that we had a couple of hours of
daylight to get away from the island and any potential fishing net hazards.
Darkness came and we had a good sail, sometimes motor sail, but the sea was
quite calm, a little different to the time we went there with Susie and Rob.
As daylight came we put out the fishing rods hoping for another culinary
delight but no joy this time. Jaco's Wahoo from the previous day came to the
rescue, so dinner was not a problem.
We arrived in Francis quay before lunch and anchored for the rest of the day
and night. We were still in Venezuelan territory so our telephone and
internet worked while we were there. The following day we moved to Cayo
Sarqui, a few miles further west, we still had internet. Susie is pregnant
so we like to keep in touch and make sure all is good, not that we could do
anything if it wasn't but it was reassuring to keep in touch. In Tortuga
there is no telephone network and neither will there be from now on once we
leave Los Roques. We do though have a satellite communicator called 'Inreach
SE'. We can send and receive emails and text messages up to 160 characters.
This worked really well, so we could check on Susie daily and contact our
two sons and anyone else aswell. Rob is in Spain and he sent us weather
forecasts every couple of days for the area, so we new if we had to move on
or put out more anchor chain. Inreach also shows our position by dropping
'breadcrumbs' every 30 minutes. Our family and friends can watch our live
track on what I suppose is Google earth, and then see where we anchor at
night. Rob could therefore see exactly where we were and send a forecast for
that area. The Inreach also has an emergency button whereby we can send a
mayday by satellite and communicate if necessary with the rescue teams, our
position is sent automatically and accurate to with 2 metres.
Songerie had been in touch with Russell and Nataya aboard 'Be As You Are'
whom we had met last year in the Islands. They were in Los Roques so it was
good to see them again. Unfortunately they had to be back in Bonaire quite
soon, so after a couple of days we left Los Roques for Isla Barlovento in
order to do some spear fishing and beach barbeques. We caught a couple of
lobsters and shot some good snappers, Jaco is a good spearfisherman and can
dive deep, easily 20 or 30 metres. I can just do 20 metres, but thats a
return trip for me, 10 down and 10 back. Consequently the fish I shoot are
smaller than the ones he sees, mine you they look a lot bigger before I get
them to the surface. So on our wedding anniversary August 12th we left for
Las Aves.
These pictures were sent with Picasa, from Google.
Try it out here: http://picasa.google.com/
