3 Sept 2009

A WORST CASE WAY TO WAKE

by Bruce Parnham, S/V RPhurst

Thursday 3 September 2009, at about 4:00pm and lasting for about an hour, was the kind of excitement no one ever wants to see. No matter where you live you never want to be awakened by the smoke alarm. The normally active anchorage at Porlamar, Margarita, Venezuela was disrupted by a disaster in the making.

Jack, who had not been feeling well for a few days, was taking a nap in the middle of the afternoon and was awakened by his smoke alarm. He got out of bed, opened the cabin door and found the saloon filled with smoke and the beginning of flames. He shut the door and escaped through a deck hatch, thinking clearly enough to take his air horn and a bundle of important papers, that are always kept together, with him.

He sounded the air horn as soon as he was out, which was heard by Alberto on La Creature, who quickly picked Jack off the burning deck and kept him in the dinghy until more help arrived. Someone else saw the smoke pouring from every hole and put out a distress radio call to the anchorage. Within minutes there were several people on their way to help, some with fire extinguishers, others with buckets, yet others with cameras, still others circled watching the activity with interest.

More than half of the people trying to put out the fire were the local fishermen. Yes, the same fishermen that so many cruisers curse and fear as pirates, speedsters and drunks. They all worked very hard to put out the fire and are to be commended for their bravery and action. They did ask for compensation, in the amount of six dollars each, for the time they worked, as I am told is a local custom, as strange as that may seem. I could not see everyone working so I am sure I have missed several people that are not mentioned here, for which I apologize to those missed. It is hard to imagine the cruisers alone could have extinguished the blaze without the help of the fishermen.

I was on my way to shore, which is in the opposite direction from Arabella, who was burning, so I did not see what was happening. When I was told about the fire, I returned to my boat, grabbed a bucket and went to help. For the next hour I was standing in my dinghy, dipping buckets of sea water, then handing them up to a local on deck who threw the water on the fire, down the hatches and anywhere that looked like it might burn, then pass the bucket back down to be refilled. Phil of Ibote and others were doing the same thing on the other side of Arabella. The Jack, Robert of Iwi and Fabrice of Kewani were on deck, in and out of hatches working below, with the smoke and heat no one could stay below for very long. Everyone was doing their best to save her.

The policia marino boat carrying the officials, after dropping off Port Captain Senior Bolivar and a young policeman on deck, turned circles around the inferno, and kept some of the many parogues at a distance. There is something incongruous about a young cop, wearing his uniform, gun and handcuffs, standing in billowing smoke and throwing water from buckets onto a fire he could not see, he is to be thanked. The Port Captain also managed getting all of the fishermen paid for their time, adding to the list the names of each of the officials in the police boat.

By the time I arrived the entire cockpit was ablaze and smoke was pouring out of every hatch, dorade and vent, all converging into a huge plume of thick, dark black smoke billowing and rolling into the bright blue sky. The flames very quickly gave way to the water being thrown on them, but the hot spots did not want to die so easily and needed many additional douses with water. The fire extinguishers from several cruising boats were also discharged and must have been of some value.

The cockpit portion of the inferno was so intense it burned off the mainsail, UV cover and even melted much of the boom. Everything aluminum in the cockpit and around the stern was melted, including the self steering gear and wind generator. The entire binnacle mounted instrument array was gone, not a sign. The heat did not penetrate into the lockers enough to explode the propane tanks, but this was a legitimate concern for everyone that was close to the area. The interior was a chard and gutted mess, that which was not burned, was very wet.

Among the confusion of bodies on deck each trying to find a flat place to stand, out of the smoke plume and heat while still having access to a place to throw the water and the mixing of all the voices, many in Spanish, some in English, all trying to get the attention of someone else, mas agua aqui, more water here, get that out of the way, the scene was chaotic.

One real surprise was when a small explosion sounded, while everyone was looking around to find it's source, a small fire type light and plenty of smoke was coming from the bow of one of the parogues that was tied alongside. After a couple of buckets of water were unceremoniously dumped on the fire to extinguish it, I investigated, wanting to know what was incendiary in that boat. I found what I believed was Jacks flare launcher, which was later described by Jack to be his, I suspect it was picked up inside the boat, then dropped into the parogue, setting off the firing pin device and launching the flare. Jack commented later that many items disappeared from the interior of the boat. Some of which were seen being distributed among the fishermen as they were leaving. One noticeable item was a red lightweight jacket, which was seen to be worn by several helpers.

As the fire first destroyed the electrical system, none of the pumps were working, consequently all of the water that was being poured into the boat, stayed in the boat. This was about the time the local fire department showed up. They do not have a boat, so they hitched a ride, bringing no equipment at all with them. The locals then decided the boat was sinking and wanted to pull it into shallower water, the last of the flames were being extinguished as they dragged up the anchor and pulled with a fishing boat until the sail boat grounded on the bottom. Then set two anchors to hold her in place.

Two cruisers, Trevor of Norgal and Lars of Arubean Princess, offered to stand watch on the boat all night to discourage looting. During the night Arabella did not seem to get any lower in the water so there did not appear to be any water coming in anywhere and she was floating nicely in the morning.

If all of this is not enough, Jack's deflatable was tied behind with the outboard mounted. The heat of the fire was enough to destroy the tubes of the dinghy, which then let the outboard go underwater. It was towed to the Port Captains dock and stored there for the night. They were going to soak the motor overnight in fresh water and Charlie of Aeolus was successful in getting it cleaned out, dried and running the next day.

The fire may have been the result of using a recently aquired bread machine, which required running the engine for electrical power, all going through the inverter before powering the bread maker. Earlier Jack had noted the battery connections had gotten warm.

Today, right now, put down this magazine and go check your fire extinguishers, the needle should be in the green, do you have one by each the companionway, the galley, engine compartment and your cabin. At least twice per year you need to take down the extinguisher and shake, rattle and roll the cylinder to loosen the powder, which will cake to the bottom or sides and will not spray. When rolled along the edge of a table it should not be weighted on one side, but roll evenly. Do you have smoke detectors, they sense fire long before you can. People die in fires, so please don't be one of them.

Now the official headache begins as Jack had planned to leave for a trip to visit friends and family. He will not be allowed to leave Venezuela until arrangements are made for the hull.

The formerly beautiful Arabella seems to be a total loss, she was a beautiful 1987 Hans Christian about 45 feet in length and maintained in pristine condition by her skipper of four years. Cris Robinson, an insurance surveyor, from Puerto La Cruz, Venezuela, arranged by his carrier seemed to agree. She now sits on the hard at Chacachachare awaiting her fate.

 One of the worsts sounds you will ever hear, is the sound of swimming, when it stops.

 Jan Berkey joined my in St Martin, for a leasurely sail down the islands. She was a newbie and wanted to see it, and do it, all the first day. Having spent much of her life raising kids and plants, especially flowers, she was quite familiar with them. She did not buy my story that all green leafy things, regardless of height, that have colorful things hanging from the branches, are call Geraniums. I tried to teach her but she was quite resistant and always wanted to call them names like Bouganvillia, Orchids, Flamboyant and so many other weird terms.

 We visited St Barths, Statia, St Kitts and Nevis before moving on to Montserrat, where we were anchored right next to Oleander, with Prince Charles and Camilla on board and watched while they enjoying the beach.

 Slowly we moved along the island chain before going east to Antigua, where we enjoyed the festivities of Classic Week. Lots of fun, parties, friends and of course the racing. Those classics are wonderful and Jan took a real interest in what was going on.

 Jan had always dreamed of being a reporter or travel writer, so at every opportunity, she would interview people to learn their take on life, while taking endless pictures of the exotic places she was seeing.

 We did Guadeloupe, the Saints and on to Dominica, where Jan found the rain forests breathtaking, the water falls refreshing and the people very friendly.

 Jan seemed very happy to be meeting the other cruisers along the way and would ask endless questions. She wanted to know it all, and right now. Everyone was happy to answer her questions and to help guide her along on her adventure into discovery.

 When we arrived at Martinique, I had another crew joining us. Pat arrived on Wednesday 21 May and we moved the boat to Fort de France. By Friday 23 May, Jan was dead.

 We had spent much of Friday in Fort de France, checking out the stores, finding Internet, getting some provisions and just looking around. Jan discovered when she checked her bank that her income tax refund had arrived and she was quite pleased. We all went back to the boat for lunch and Jan asked if I would take her back to shore for the afternoon. We arranged to meet her on the dock later.

 We all had dinner together, then watched a movie. Jan had seen it before so went out on the bow to watch the moon come up. After the movie I went to the bow and talked with her for a few minutes. She mentioned that she wanted to go swimming, which I replied that she had been drinking and swimming would not be a good idea. She simply replied that she is a good swimmer, which she had proven several times.

 When I went back to the cockpit, a splash could be heard. Jan soon swam to the stern and was laughing and splashing around. She did a few laps around the boat, then began swimming out and back in several different directions. When she came back to the boat I suggested that she has had enough fun and should come back onboard. She merely stated that she would come back when she was ready. It was during the next swim away from the boat that the sound of swimming stopped.

 I grabbed the large spotlight and looked in the direction of the last sounds. Then jumped into the dinghy to go looking. After an hour of making many ever increasing circles I returned to the boat and called the French Coast Guard, who took the information, asked several questions and said stand by.

 When they had not called back a couple hours later, we went to bed, with a plan to be up at sunrise to check the area again and when nothing was found, I called the Coast Guard again. They took the same information and gave me directions to the police station and told me to go there to make a report.

 The French police were thorough and efficient, they interviewed Pat and I numerous times, together and separately. Divers searched the area around the boat and nothing was found, but Jan's body was seen floating, by a French Army helicopter, and she was recovered by an Army boat on Saturday afternoon.

 This began a week of lots of questions, our passports and the ships papers were seized. I contacted the person Jan had written in her passport and he notified the family. The US Embassy became involved and everyone was very professional in their efforts.

 After an autopsy was performed it was determined that the cause of death was accidental drowning. At that time our passports and the ships papers were returned.

 Take a lesson here, when having someone on board, get contact information, even for someone you know, and strongly discourage any swimming after drinking.

Grenada to Margarita July 2007

I am now in Margarita, Jenny has been crewing with me for two months and flies out tomorrow. The plan is to do nothing for awhile, but clean up the boat, do some minor maintenance and catch up on my reading and emails.

The 90 mile, downwind, down current, overnight passage from Grenada to Testigos went quite well. I put up the spinnaker as we left St Georges, Grenada just before sundown and took it down as we approached Los Testigos a couple hours after sunrise. The wind was light, only 10 to 14 knots apparent so slight wave action, but with a favorable current we made good time. Some French boats left St Georges at the same time and a mixture of five other boats, including Drumbeat and Dreamtime, left Prickly Bay a couple hours before I did. I stayed in radio contact with the ones I previously knew all the way across and we all arrived at about the same time and anchored in reasonably calm water, close to an idyllic cut between the islands where wind driven water passes over a cut of shallow water.

The first day in Testigos was very laid back. As I get very little sleep on the first overnight I was ready for some reading, napping and doing little, if anything.

The second day I went with some of the other cruisers to explore one of the small islands I had not walked before. Given the sea ravaged coastline of eroded volcanic rock, carving deep grottos where the waves crash and echo, it is indeed a rugged place. During times of larger waves I am sure the caverns spout and the surrounding rocks show evidence of having been washed and puddled over the millennia. Finding our way through the cactus and brambles, I often wondered if we would see bier rabbit, was challenging, often finding ourselves in a box canyon of sorts, retrace our steps to find another way through. The local goats do not seem to have much of a problem, but then they have a much lower center of gravity.

In the afternoon we moved our boats to another anchorage that is closer to the larger attraction of Testigos, the beaches where the Leatherback turtles, the largest of the sea turtles, come ashore each May, June and July full moons to lay their eggs. Security is always an issue, so we decided to split the four boat crews into halves and go on separate nights, to avoid leaving the boats or the dinghies alone.

On the way to the next anchorage a problem that I had been ignoring raised its vicious head and said ignore me no longer. Actually I had intended to take care of that as soon as I was anchored, really I did. One of my engines had been cooling with about half water for the past few times it was run, indicating a problem, but it seemed to be alright if I kept the revs down to half throttle. The other engine had stopped cooling all together the last time I used it, so I did not want to run it at all, or at least only a few minutes. Still, I felt a move of less than two miles albeit into a full knot or more current, in wind of only ten knots, would not be a problem, yeah right, any problem that is not addressed, suddenly becomes a big problem. Remember, expect the unexpected to happen, at the most inopportune time. Well as I left the first anchorage I set the headsail to do part of the work and limit how much I needed to run the half cooling engine. About half way there the wind switched to right on the nose, which is always normal, and increased to twenty seven knots. With one good engine I need full power to motor into that much wind, without a current against me. Being less than a half mile from where I wanted to go, standing still running the half cooling engine at half speed, I started the non cooling engine. It would be alright as long as it contained cooling water, which it did. Anyway, the slow movement held me back for longer than I had hoped, the non cooling engine overheat alarm came on which required shutting it down now, and the other was still not up to the job, I stopped, dropped the anchor and realized, dumb shit, fix it now before you damage something. After putting impellers into both engines I was cooling again and ready to move. Except now I had one melted muffler, so that engine could not be used. Just another lesson, do things when they need to be done, not when you want.

I offered to shuttle the other two crews ashore just before sundown and watch over the boats at anchor until they called for a ride home, which was 0130. From the small beach access a challenging walk up a sand dune, as vertical as any black diamond ski run, with loose, deep and slippery sand that grabs at your feet and shoes as you struggle up its slope before it levels out on the top of the dune. This dune has been built over thousands of years of outflow from the Orinoco River in South America. The sediment is carried to the face of this island, where the current swirls and the sand particles drop out, the waves bring the sand to the beach where the wind carries the sand up onto the dune, now a couple hundred feet tall. This also offers the turtles an excellent place to lumber up the beach on the gradual incline of the windward side to lay her eggs above the high tide mark.

The teenage female turtles will return to nest on the same beach where they were layed up to ten times per laying cycle. The males will never come ashore after that frantic race to get from the nest, through the horde of feasting sea birds, to get into the water where the ravenous fish await them. I have been told that fewer than two out of a hundred hatched will survive the first few hours.

At sexual maturity, about fifteen years old, the female turtle will be about four feet long, nearly three feet across and more than seven feet from end of flipper to end of flipper, weighing more than three hundred pounds, all on a diet of jellyfish. The largest found by man was a male that weighed in at two thousand pounds. She needs to use her front flippers to drag her huge body out of the supporting seawater, to begin her twenty to thirty minute trip over the soft sand to a place where only she can decide to dig her nest. Digging with her front flippers to disguise her body with sand, then using mostly her hind legs to dig the hole for the nest, before laying a hundred or so eggs takes another thirty minutes. Then she will cover the nest, smooth the sand, then dig another hole next to the last, cover it, then move to dig another, cover it and then dig another. This is thought to be a form of camouflage to protect the nest. She does a lot of resting while all of this work is going on. She will then drag her eggs lighter body over the sand and once again into the sea. The survival of the species assured until the next moon.

On the night I did the shuttling three turtles came from the sea to lay their eggs, on the night I observed only one came out. Still a very impressive display of Ma at work. The young turtles will hatch in about fifty to sixty days to begin their race to the sea and relative safety.

Rescue at sea

I left Testigos for the fifty mile, downwind, down current trip to Margarita. This time, given the wind angle and expected heavier wind I put up main and headsail. The heavier wind did not happen but while sailing along during the first hour I observed a sportfishing type stinkpot maneuvering in what appeared to be fishing a school of baitfish. They were doing large circles about three miles north of me and appeared to be using a lot of power because the boat was doing a lot of smoking. During the following half hour or so, the erratic movement continued but seemed to slow and the amount of smoke increased, so I got the binocs to take a closer look. It was now that I saw flames on the deck. Fire is one of the most concerning problems that can happen to any boater. It denies you the boat, takes away all of your safety equipment and causes you to abondon ship when it may not be convenient, but so does sinking. Now it was good that I had set main and headsail because I did not need to take down the spinnaker to change course, which I did immediately, reset the sails for the new course, started the engine for greater speed and once on course I called friends back in Testigos on the VHF radio to request that they contact the Coast Guard to advise of a vessel in distress.

It took me nearly a half hour to cover the distance between us, and during that time I was advised by the friends in Testigos that a fast fishing boat had been dispatched and was on the way, they should have no problem finding the wreck as it was now a billowing plume of thick black smoke. I had Jenny fill small water bottles, take some pictures, get a retrieval line ready and told her what to expect when we found people in the water, we were as ready as we could be. Just so far away.

As I approached the burning hulk I continued looking for people in the water or on deck while I reduced sail and was prepared to heave to for picking up victims. Given the intensity of the inferno I did not expect to see anyone on deck, but they could have been hanging onto lines connected to the hull, they were not. As the wind was light, less than fifteen knots, the sea swell was mild, perhaps three to five feet. Heads are very difficult to see at any distance in those conditions. My plan was to get close to the wreck, a couple hundred feet, then turn into the wind, thinking that anyone leaving the boat would not drift as quickly as the boat, which was driven down wind. Once I was certain no one was near the boat I turned into the wind, keeping an eye on the water ahead I began to see debris, fuel cans, loose life jackets, sadly with no one inside of them. I continued motoring into the wind watching ahead and to both sides for any sign of life in the water. Then, a hundred yards ahead, a cluster of small dots that I knew were heads of people began bobbing above the tops of waves, one of them was even waving. I still had no idea how many, but that did not matter. This was when I first saw the distant fishing boat coming from Testigos, so more help was on the way, I also saw another cruising boat that had altered course and was approaching from a mile away.

I maneuvered as close as I could to the closest head and he swam to the boat, Jenny then threw the float and line to the next and he was pulled in. They had not been in the water that long and seemed to be in pretty good shape, but readily drank the water offered. The fishing boat coming from Testigos continued getting larger, but still a long way off and another could be seen approaching. One of the first two men took the throwing line to the bow and was ready to begin helping the next guy aboard. It was clear they all spoke only Spanish, and I was able to ask the first one aboard, 'quanto personas' Spanish for how many people, to which he replied quatro. We now know that all four were nearby and in sight.

The third guy aboard seemed to be injured and was very slow coming up the swim ladder. The second fishing boat had now arrived and was searching the area. Then as I motored toward the last man in the water, who did not seem to be participating in his rescue only laying back in his life jacket, not swimming or waving, he was found by the fishing boat and hauled aboard. The fishing boat motored over to us and two of the ones I had were transferred to the fishing boat, the last jumped into the water to swim over to the fishing boat and was hauled aboard. With lots of waves and gracias, they headed for Testigos and the safety of dry land. Just another shitty day of fishing in paradise.

The time spent during the rescue would have an adverse affect on our time left to get to Margarita. We still had 47 miles to go and less time to get there. As the wind was not as heavy as expected we put up the spinnaker and took down the rest of the sails. This increased our speed by nearly a knot and would be enough to get us there in daylight. Given that we were still nine hours away it was time to get back to the book, a Dean Koontz thriller, as if I needed more excitement today. A bright sun and fully charged battery from motoring during the rescue I started the watermaker to put some water into the tank for my time in Margarita.

By the time we had approached to within five miles of Margarita the wind began to die. This is kind of normal and I needed to replace the power spent running the watermaker, so we started the engine, took down the spinnaker and motored the last five miles, anchoring with a half hour of daylight left.

Now safely anchored in Porlamar it is time to catch up on so many things, varnish, reading, emails, get my six month overdue annual letter for last year finished.

2006 Venezuela to Antigua and back

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year for 2007 and welcome to another year in the travels of your friend on RPhurst.

Sorry this is so late, things just happen that way while cruising. This has been a very different year for me as it included a trip back to the states, my first since 2001. Fact is, I traveled more distance on land this year than I did by water the past two years. I have never been able to figure out how to make the boat jump over land, so I used airplanes, trains, buses and cars. As this year has two very different segments, cruising and family, I will write separating the two. In that way those that are interested in the cruising do not need to read about family and vise versa.

Don’t forget that all of these letters back to 1999 are posted at http://rphurst.blogspot.com, if you wish to read them. I still have not figured out how to add pictures to that site, but I am trying. If anyone can help with that it will be very much appreciated.

Cruising
The year saw much of what has been seen before, Grenada to Antigua and back to Cumana, Venezuela. I spent four months going north and two heading back south to Grenada, then south to Trinidad, then crossed to Margarita, then to Cumana to put the boat to rest. I enjoyed nine guests including crew, family and women. It was a laid back sailing year with short moves and staying in one place for a longer time. It also only covered a bit over a thousand miles. R Phurst was put on the hard for five months, the longest she has been out of the water since 1997, she was due to dry out and needed some TLC.

Grenada Island Tour
In early January I continued with crew of Jan and saw the arrival of Rim we then did an island tour of Grenada. It was all day and we saw a waterfall, which probably has more water over it in the rainy season, a chocolate factory, a traditional rum distillery. We found Nutmeg, Cocoa, Banana, Breadfruit, Papaya and huge Mahogany trees, along with the Bamboo, vines, tropical flowers and heavy undergrowth of the tropics along with the remaining destruction from hurricane Ivan.

Most places I visit have something to see while doing a land tour. Each of the drivers, tour guides or street hustlers wants to show you the sites of their country, at a fee of course. Some have been exciting and informative, others boring and dull. Grenada offers so much to see that it really can not be done in a day. My next crew, Rim, has arrived and will be with me for a month, leaving from St Vincent so this is a chance for him to see the island.

We arranged with Dave, a friend of Jan’s friend, to drive us around, tell us the tales and explain the things we do not understand. Dave and his wife Jackie are Brits, have settled into Grenada and opened a guest house. Try www.guesthousegrenada.com for their web site. As a sideline to the guest house Dave also takes his guests for a tour of the island. As there were only three of us it does not warrant using one of the maxi taxi, a full size van with seats for sixteen. Dave has a four seater which will work out just fine.

We began at about 0900 and the first stop was Annandale falls just up the hill from St Georges. During the rainy season there is a large amount of water pouring over a rock ledge and falling fifty feet into a deep pool. During the dry season there are local boys wanting to dive off the ledge so you could get their picture, for a fee, of course. The walk down to the falls is lined with plantings that represent many of the flora of the island, all tagged for easy identification. We then drove through the hill land, called a rainforest but not nearly high enough for a true rainforest. Still it has spectacular views of the valleys and the sea. The damage from hurricane Ivan is still evident, with broken trees and views not previously available now open.

At the top of the spine of hills is a crater lake. Next to the lake are the remains of Grand Etang, buildings used to provide all the services tourists require, tee shirt, drinks, souvenirs and guides to show you the way around the well established trails in the area. All of these buildings were heavily damaged by Ivan and are only now being repaired. The old caldera of an ancient volcano now filled with water. It is said that when volcanic activity occurs elsewhere in the island chain that bubbles emerge through this lake. It also serves as a backup water supply for St Georges.

Next we moved on to the Chocolate Factory, or should I say the processing plant. It is housed in an older house, occupying four of the rooms. The locally grown cocoa beans are roasted, then ground, then sifted to recover all of the broken pieces of chocolate, which are all put into a rotating oven that melts out the chocolate, then separates the cocoa butter. The next step is to mold the warm chocolate into bars and cool by placing the molds into an air conditioned room. Their product is dark chocolate and baking chocolate, depending on the content. Everything is done by hand to preserve the most jobs possible and most of the power, for lights and motors is solar powered, the heating is done by gas.

We then went on to Grenville, the second largest town on the island. It is also home to one of the Nutmeg processing plants. The Nutmeg trees were so damaged by Ivan that none of the plants are open and it may be ten years before Grenada recovers from that damage. Nutmeg was the number one agricultural income producer for Grenada and Grenada was the number one producer of Nutmeg in the world. During the drive we saw several small plots of banana, mango, papaya, breadfruit trees as well as huge Mahogany trees. Bananas are another of the mainstay cash crops grown here and recovers in only one year.

We next drove to the River Run Rum Distillery. Here the old methods of production are still used. They grow their own sugar cane, harvest it by hand, squeeze it using a water wheel driven press, boil the molasses using the dried spent sugar cane stalks, hand ladle all of the liquid through the heating kettles, then giving in to technology use a gas powered pump to move the boiled liquid to the fermentation vats.

After fermentation the liquid is again boiled, this time using wood for the extra heat needed before going to the still, where steam heated vats heat the liquid boiling off the alcohol. The result of all of this is seventy percent alcohol rum, far stronger than you ever hope to drink. The distillery is so into creating jobs, not economy, that not only is the initial process done by hand with local products, ie, water and fire product, the final product is drained from the still by hand into an Igloo cooler, poured by hand into the bottles, passed to the next person who will place the cap, pass to the next for the label, pass to the next person for the customs seal, pass to the next person to place into the cardboard box, pass to the next person for the tape to hold the box closed. To be sure all of the liquid is accounted for in taxes, the Customs officer is a frequent visitor, to inspect and measure tanks and check the shipment papers.

Every step of the process, other than the one gas pump, is done the way it was done a hundred years ago and with the thought in mind to keep as many jobs as possible. The emphasis is on the workers and the product, not the profit. Free samples were offered at the end of the tour, they do not need to worry about anyone overindulging on the samples, the stuff is like lantern fuel, but the locals enjoy it.

Our next stop was a couple of beaches on the windward side of the island, something cruisers rarely see. The one place we avoid more than anything else is a lee shore, where the wind is trying to drive us into the rocks or onto the beach.

Our next stop was Sauteurs, it’s claim to fame is Carib Leap. When the Europeans were trying to exterminate the resident population of the fierce indians that defended their land so well. After having been driven to the north end of the island by the soldiers with guns the Caribs were trapped. Preferring to die than to be taken into slavery they jumped, men, women and children, off the high bluff to die where the waves crashed against the barren rugged coastline.

The drive down the leeward side of the island is calmer, the roads are much improved and it is more densely populated. We had a great day, saw much, learned a lot, have memories and a few pics.

Jan left from Grenada and will be missed, she has been with me off and on for seven months, is great crew and a nice lady.

Grenada to Union

Rim, from VA, arrived in January, carrying my new inverter, then he and I left St Georges Saturday to move out to anchor in cleaner water so we can clean the propellers and the bottom of the boat. Without doing this before a passage the boat will be very slow indeed. A lot of marine growth and dirt attach to the boat while in dirty harbors. After getting everything cleaned up we moved to Halifax Harbor, a bay just a few miles north along the coast of Grenada. Early the next morning we were ready to make the jump north to Isla Ronde. The coast of Grenada can be challenging because from about 2/3rd the way up; the west coast begins to angle east. The prevailing wind is northeast, this means the wind wraps around and blows right down the coast toward the south then joining with the wind that goes over the top of the island to make for higher than normal wind strength. To further make this passage more difficult the west setting current does the same wrap around thing and contributes to the slow going. Last year we needed to turn back because we spent so much time tacking into high winds that we did not have time to make our destination during daylight.

This time we had about the same strength winds, twenty five to thirty knots. We were not able to hold the course needed to make Isla Ronde but we were not so far off that we could make up the distance later in the day by tacking. The sail was wonderful from a sailing perspective, moderate wind up to thirty knots with one reef in the sails, moderate waves up to eight feet, a contrary current and we still made our destination before noon. Isla Ronde is an unpopulated, dry chunk of rock, right next to an island under construction, that means an underwater active volcano, called Kick em Jenny. We stayed two nights to enjoy some snorkeling, doing small projects and relaxing.

The third morning we left for Carricou, the middle size island of Grenada. Tyrell Bay is one of those meeting places for cruisers and the bay can have nearly a hundred boats at anchor. The water is swimable but just. The island is very sparsely populated and provisioning is difficult. We took the local bus into Hillsbourgh for checkout.

Next we will move to Union Island, the most southern island of St Vincent, to clear in before moving out to the Tobago Cays, which I feel are the best sit spot in all of the Caribbean. The Tobago Cays are an area of shallow behind a barrier reef, very much like an atoll. Hundreds of boats sit for days, to weeks to months there. The government of St Vincent has initiated additional charges for boats to stay at anchor there and are planning to put in moorings. This will nearly kill the cruising boats going there, so hurry.

Scaramouch

The Tobago Cays are a very busy place, with hundreds of boats; each plying for anchoring spots close to the reef for their crews and passengers. This can make for some uncomfortably close encounters with boats swinging at anchor and the ever present danger of one of them dragging.

The Cays are made up of half moon shaped Horseshoe Reef, behind which there is lots of room for boats to set their hooks and enjoy the unencumbered wind blowing from Africa and the lack of swells broken by the reef. This is as close to being inside of a South Pacific barrier reef as you will find here. Snorkeling in the shallows behind the reef is pretty good, the water is cleaner than most places, the coral heads growning behind the reef are doing well and the fish life is interesting, expecially the nurse sharks that come in to sleep under the coral heads.

Everywhere you go with a sailboat the greatest worry is not storms, pirates or governments. The greatest worry is the charter boats, at anchor or underway. They are often crewed by people with vast knowledge and skills but sometimes they are not very knowledgeable or raw beginners. One of the cheap entertainments for all cruising boats is to watch the charterers anchoring. Rarely do we need to worry about the professionally crewed charter daytrip boats, safely operating the boat is their livelihood.

Watching the eighty foot Scaramouche, a locally built, wooden, tourist day tripper boat, anchor a hundred feet in front of me was worrying. They should have at least a hundred feet of rode, which is the chain or rope connection between boat and anchor. Their anchor was not very substantial for such a large boat, had only about twenty feet of chain all of which could be lifted by two deck hands by hand. They first anchored too close to a sailing catamaran which caused them to raise the anchor, which is how I knew that two guys could lift it. They re-anchored in front of me. I felt that these guys do this all of the time so they should know what it takes to hold the boat.

Spending some time reading I felt and heard the crunch at the same time. To hear the crunch, or feel the bump separately is not so bad, when you hear and feel it at the same time it is trouble. I ran outside to see the side of Scaramouche’s hull; angled across my bow. I ran forward to fend the monster off my home, which really means pushing myself away from him. About this time the charterers ran to the gunnels to see what was happening, they were six feet above me and could only look. When I had successfully pushed myself away from them, the crew had their engine started and were beginning to back away. I looked up and saw that their substantial steel bowsprit was overhanging my boat by several feet and aimed at my shrouds, the wires that hold up the mast. There was much yelling on the Scaramouche as the crew realized what was going on. I pushed as hard as I could, they stopped backing up and we cleared my shrouds by an inch or two. If their bowsprit had caught my shrouds my mast would have come down. As they were pulling away I was able to get a picture of them still very close to me.

The crew assured me that they would return after re-anchoring to assess the damage and contact the owner. While they were re-anchoring I jumped in my dinghy to check my damage, get some pics of it and run over to their boat to get a pic of the mark on their boat before it could be washed off. I recall the time in Port Suez when I was hit by a delivery captain on a brand new eighty foot stink pot. He simply told me that he had no money and left. The crew did come over, called the owner to whom I spoke and we agreed that I would return to Union Island.

The damage to my bow looked more than superficial. I quickly emptied enough of the forward locker to see all the way to the bow, sure enough I could see daylight. If light can get through then surely so can the sea. I knew this was going to need repair before I could go on, I would find latter just how damaged it was. We picked up anchor for the short sail back to Union. Martin met us in the anchorage, viewed the damage and suggested that he have a local do the repair. I insisted that I inspect the inside of the forward locker for fiberglass damage, which would cost considerably more to repair. After closer exam I did not find that the structure of the boat was damaged, R Phurst is a very strong boat.

The following morning Martin had arranged dockage where the repair could be done and Lorenzo, a young Frenchman that works on repair of the charter fleet, arrived and hopefully we will have repairs finished in a couple of days. Lorenzo showed up the next morning as promised, Martin showed up later to make sure everything was going as planned. The hole was widened to remove all of the broken fiberglass and filler. It appeared the filler had been broken for sometime, but the glass was still intact.

After a few days Lorenzo had the hole covered, a gel coat layer covering all, so we were ready to head out again.

Bequia

Most of the areas down here have a web site to inform tourist of the area. Yes, the best pictures are used. Port Elizabeth and Admiralty Bay are the same place. Admiralty Bay is the body of water and Port Elizabeth is the town at the head of the bay. Some say it is the best natural harbor in the Carib. Yes, the island is quite small, very hilly and the people are friendly. The locals do not allow the locals to beg, something that is overdone in Kingstown, St Vincent and no one is hustling you constantly. Except when you go into the produce market, run by Rastafarians who use very high pressure techniques to sell you far more than that you want and inflate the price to extract as much as possible out of your pocket, they could sell used cars in any country. It is one of the tourist attractions, I do not appreciate the tactics. Small cruise ships stop here and haul a hundred stuffed pocket tourists ashore to spend a frenzied few hours dropping as much cash as possible.

Bequia is also a haven for cruisers and charterer as well. With no marina facilities everyone is at anchor. There are small tender boats that bring water and fuel, pick up and deliver laundry, bring ice or bread. You do not even need to launch your dinghy, the water taxi will haul you around on demand. The chandleries are the best between St Lucia and Grenada along with three sail lofts for repairs.

You may recall that it was Bequia where I crossed my own path to finish my circumnavigation. Dean, one of the long term cruisers that inhabits Bequia, coincidentally also from MN, was one of the last I saw when I left nine years earlier and he was the first I saw when I returned. He came over to the boat to see if I was still on it, and we talked for awhile when he asked where I had been. When I replied once around the world, he remarked that he was still in Bequia. It was here I met Carole, a Brit woman who works as a nurse on a traditional sailing Barq out of England, the ship takes handicapped passengers for ocean sailing. She needed to meet the ship in Antigua, so we agreed that she would meet me in St Lucia and we would sail to Antigua.

We still had a few days before Rim was to fly out so we sailed to Wallilabou, the bay where much of Pirates of the Caribbean was filmed. He took lots of pictures to show his daughter back home. We spent a couple of days wandering around the film set, and I reconnected with some local friends that live in the area. I do not think Rim was very comfortable around the locals.

When it was time for Rim to leave, we sailed the boat to Kingstown, I needed to provision anyway, so he made arrangements for a taxi early the next morning. After dropping him on shore I moved to Young Island Cut to wait for Arden, my next crew. Once he was aboard we crossed back to Bequia, during which Arden learned a little about steering a sailboat, for a few days before heading north. Once again we stopped at Wallilabou for the tourist visit to the movie site. There I met friends Buddy and Ruth on Annapurna, I had not seen since Thailand. The sailing community is quite small so you keep running into people you have met in other places.
St Vincent to St Lucia

The passage to Sufriere, St Lucia. was a great sail. After spending extra days with cruising friends I have not seen since Thailand, Arden and I did the thirty five mile passage across the Lucia Strait. We set off at 0900 and arrived at 1600. Expecting higher than normal tradewinds I set the sails with one reef before we left. Then followed the coastline of St Vincent to the north end before breaking off the coast into the wind and swell. The sailing was great with winds in the high twenties. we were able to hold a heading higher than we needed and still have a good ride in the six to eight foot seas.

We had one small cloud pass by, bringing winds in the mid thirties and some rain. With that higher wind I was forced to either turn away from the wind to lower its speed or reef during the higher wind. I elected to turn away from the wind, this caused us to loose some of the heading we had been saving for just such a circumstance. All of this passed after about forty minutes and we were right back on course again.

I was surprised that on arrival only one boat boy was trying to sell us anything. They are usually quite overwhelming around Sufreirer and the Pitons, especially wanting to pick up the mooring for you, something I can do myself.

St Lucia is the home to the pitons, twin, ancient, exposed, volcanic cores standing side by side, rising thousands of feet in the air. They really are a grand site. The whole of the area on the southwest side of St Lucia is a marine park, requiring use of moorings. A Park Ranger comes by each evening to collect the fee.

The water at the base of the Pitons is wonderfully clear, the snorkeling great and all in all a nice place to spend a few days. Arden was not one to go walking so he pretty much stayed on the boat. We moved to Sufrierer where Arden would catch a bus to the airport.

The next passage was to Rodney Bay on the northern end of St Lucia, where Carol joined me. We were on short time to get her to Antigua on time to meet the ship she was working on the return to London.

St Lucia to Antigua

I only stopped long enough to sleep in Martinique and Dominica, then arriving Antigua for Carole to meet her ship, Tenacious, and wait for Jill and Chuck. I had a tour of the ship, met the crew and had a grand time.

Again Jill, my niece, and Chuck, her husband, joined me, this time in Antigua. The week always goes way too fast but we make the best of it. We did sail all the way around Antigua, stopping at a few sheltered places, did lots of snorkeling, then dropped them off a mile from the airport before continuing to Jolly Harbor on the west coast of Antigua.

We had a bit of an overlap between the departure of Jill and Chuck the arrival of Jacco and Danielle, a young Dutch couple that would be with me for a few weeks. As they were all about the same age that worked out very well.

As we were sailing around Antigua far ahead in the distance we could see a large super yacht stinkpot turning strange corners, heading different directions, then turning to go yet another direction. The wind was steady from the east at mid teens, the swell was three to five feet, I felt they were training a new driver, or testing some electronics.

The closer we closed on them I could see a much smaller stinkpot running around in the swell. It was then I began to suspect that they were chasing something in the water and when we were about a mile from the big stinkpot I saw the spray from a whale. The second time it sprayed it was apparent it was heading in our direction and away from the stink pots. I assume they were using the small one to herd the whale close enough to the large one that the pampered did not need to get out of their seats to see the whale. These whales swim very slowly, less than ten knots, so the powerboats had no problem keeping up with it.

When it passed within a hundred feet of us we could clearly see the namesake hump of it's back, the small dorsal fin, the white of the pectoral fins, the white underbelly. It was not a huge Humpback whale, only about forty feet, but what a sight. I had been certain that I had seen one, on the distance, on the last move but could not tell the size or species, I thought it was a pilot whale.

We moved the boat to Nonsuch Bay on the east side or Antigua, another of the wonderful sit spots in the Carib, again hidden behind a barrier reef that breaks all of the swell, the bottom is sand, the water clear and warm, the wind uninteruped by any land this is a wonderful place to sit. Now it is filled with kite surfers.

This was also the place where I met Connie, one of the many internet women I talk with, but one of few that actually shows up. She and her sisters were staying at an all inclusive resort and I was able to spend a small amount of time with her.

Shark caper

After Jill and Chuck left we moved to the reef on the south coast of Antigua for some snorkeling. The Dutch kids were snorkeling on the reef and started yelling that they saw a shark. Then they said the shark was in a cage, I thought, oh sure, they just want me to get into the water. When I put on mask and fins, then swam out to see, yes there was a shark in a fish trap. It was just a young nurse shark. I swam back to get the dinghy and a line, we lifted the fish trap, tied it off to the dinghy, dragged it back to the boat, lifted it with the davits, cut a hole in the trap and released a three foot nurse shark, it did not even say thanks. We do have pictures to prove it.

















Diversion to Guadeloupe

I had been talking with fellow cruisers Peter and Eileen from Max Grody on the SSB radio and learned that a Norwegian couple, Ricci and Andreas from Impetus, who were last seen in Thailand were visiting in Guadeloupe. I was so very close I just had to go see them. The day we needed to go to Guadeloupe there was no wind, it was as flat as a mirror. It was so flat that I could see some debris ahead of us and as it got closer it turned out to be two Humpback whales sleeping on the surface, then the always entertaining antics of the dolphins were a delight.

I have not been to Guadeloupe before, other than the small town check in point on the northwest coast. The whole of the north end is solid reef, the French seem to have removed a path so boats can get through to the north coast, where a delightful anchorage is found. We found a bus to take us to where we needed to go, Port de Petre, found the friends and had a great day of catching up over lunch and lots of stories. When it was time for Jacco, Danielle and I to leave there were no more buses so we ended up thumbing a ride back. Danielle as quite pretty and was able to speak some French, so she was a real asset.

The next day we sailed back to Antigua to resume our course north. We intended to go all the way to St Maarten, which was northwest, but first stopped at Barbuda, the sister island to Antigua. Barbuda is off the beaten track, is very sparsely populated, remote, low, has a large saltwater marsh that is filled with birds and has some of the best beaches I have seen in a very long time.

I spent all of one day taking the dinghy seven miles down the coast, then walking five miles to get to the road and finally into town where I could check out, then while walking back a truck stopped and gave me a ride to very nearly where I needed to go. We then moved the boat to the west side of the island to get ready to move to St Maartin. While we were sitting on the west side of Barbuda, fully protected from the easterly wind of the trades, the wind switched to the northwest, did someone tell the wind god that we wanted to go that way. Now we were on a lee shore and it was getting rough, there was nothing to do but sail back to Antigua. Jacco and Danielle left from Antigua.

Trip south from Antigua to Grenada

During the two month trip down island I stopped at pretty much the same places, I had no crew to wait for and being slightly short on time I did not spend as much time at each.

Grenada to Trini

My friends Dawn and Irv always make things welcome in Grenada. My time was spent chasing parts that would be needed later during haulout in Venezuela. I like Grenada, it has most of what cruisers need, the government is not too rigid and while costs are high, no higher than the other islands. There is a regulation that foreigners need to leave the country from time to time. As Irv was building his house in Grenada, the second actually, Ivan took the first, he was way overdue to leave the country. So I suggested that as I was going to Trinidad, he could go with me, have a short sail, be out of the country and satisfy the regulation. He agreed but when I went to check out, the immigration guy spotted the time period and said, I want to see this guy. The interrogation was short and we were soon stamped out of the country.

We were set to leave St Georges just before sundown, Irv was steering, he is a house boater from Canada. I wanted to be away from the island before dark, because the first few miles are over shallow water and the waves can be rather confused, it is better with light. Once we hit deep water the chop ended, the swell began, I put Otto to work and life is good. We had a wonderful passage, even the Mouth of the Dragon was not too bad. We checked into Trinidad and Irv arranged a flight back to Grenada.

I stayed in Trinidad for a few days, picking up more of the stuff that I could not find in Grenada. Even the right size belts for the engines are not easy to find in these places. There are a couple of good stainless welding shops and I made good use of those, even made a new muffler for the compressor engine.

Trini to Los Testigos, then on to Margarita

I have not had two more pleasant back to back passages in some time. I left Trinidad at 1700 on Tuesday 11 July, just before sundown. With the exception of the the Mouth of the Dragon at my exit point from Trinidad, yes it is even called that on the charts. Believe me, the old guys called this one right. The condition is caused by the northflowing, one knot, North Equatorial Current, which sweeps up the coast of South America, dragging the outflow of the Orinoco River north with it. Trinidad is only about fifteen miles off the coast of Venezuela and there are three more small islands of Trinidad located in those fifteen miles like teeth in a dogs mouth. This means that there are narrow gaps between the islands to allow this flow to move. Add to that the easterly trade wind driven waves meeting this flow, a choppy and confused sea is created during slack tide. Add to that the additional change of the tide by the passage of the sun and moon and when all things conspire in the right direction, up to three knots of current, this area is indeed interesting. Five foot standing waves, confused patterns, or not pattern at all, just a continuous lump from every direction all at once. At least it only lasts a few miles into open water.

Once out of this area and just before sundown I was able to set the spinnaker for the ninety five mile passage to Los Testigoes. The local logic is to not pass to closely to the north coast of Venezuela, so the rhumb line is contoured around the land to stay at least ten miles off. After that it was smooth sailing, clear skies full of stars and cool, I even needed to put on a tee shirt. The easterly trades were in fine shape and blowing from the southeast at fifteen to twenty knots, this means low teens when you subtract the boat speed of up to eight knots. While Otto steered, I wandered around, ate continuously, listened to an audio book being read, Third Degree by James Patterson, ate some more, listened to some music, watched for ships and approaching fishing boats, then at 0540 sunrise the Testigos Islands were in sight and right on course. At 0930 the anchor was down and it was time to relax.

I was very tired so I had not planned to do anything strenuous, put away the sailing gear, picked up a book, then spent the day reading, napping, feeding myself and getting a slight sunburn while I napped.

I had planned to do some Leatherback turtle watching while I was here. There were several in the sea on approach. Testigos is a known place where they come ashore to lay their eggs in huge holes they dig in the sand. During previous stops here I have walked the shore and seen the tracks they make, while lumbering up the steep sand piles. The tracks look like giant farm tractor tire tracks.

The place I chose to anchor was not so good. Each day a few local fishing boats would come in to anchor, eat, sleep, play loud music and do the things that young boys often do. I did not feel that this was a good time to leave the boat unattended for extended periods of time. Especially after dark. There will be other times and I will put my boat closer to where other cruising boats are anchored. It really is a shame that trust is something that can not be given outright.

Saturday morning I left Testigos at 0600, set the spinnaker for the forty eight mile passage to Margarita. Again the easterly trades did their thing, perfect conditions, Otto steered, I read and by 1600 I was anchored in Porlamar, Margarita. As I know the guys that have the wireless system I called and was able to hook up at 1700, what a deal.

I will spend a couple weeks here, try to get some dentist and doctor things done here, will also try to ferry across to Cumana to check out the haulout plans. Then move to Cumana in time for the June 15 haulout and the flight back to the states for my 40th HS class reunion.
Family portion

As the family portion will not be so interesting for most of you, I will put that at the end of this letter, you can skip the boring stuff if you wish.

So here I will begin with the September 20 return to the boat.

Work yard

The highlights of the yard were, poor workmanship, a wireless internet that rarely worked properly, some wonderful friends, a litter of puppies to care for and watch grow, a real doozy of a cold, as well as getting my work done, which included the removal and reinstallation of one of the engines so that I could rebuild it and finally launching again.

My worst fear was realized when I returned to the boat, that the boat would not be in the secure yard while I was gone, it wasn’t, but that was also minimized when I discovered that yes, it had been broken into, but it must have been by a very young person. The things that I can see that are missing are my collection of foreign money, an amount of local money, a couple of sweatshirts and long pants, all of my bottles of Rum and all of the lockers were searched. I will not discover all that is missing until I look for something and not be able to find it. If it had been someone else, the outboard motor, radios and electronics would have been gone. I guess this is the least of what could have happened.

This year my to do list was longer than normal partly because the boat has not been out of the water long enough to do much of this work. After two months of dirt, repairs, swearing, sanding, pulling wrenches, painting, spraying and polishing I launched on Tuesday late afternoon. The list included rebuilding one of the diesel engines, remounting the hydraulic steering, regalvanizing all of the ground tackle, repairing the places where large boats felt I had a bullseye painted on me, numerous scratches and dings, repainting the boot stripe, new floorboards for the showers in both heads, replacing most of the running rigging, replacing the dinghy, which then required fitting all of the hardware from the old one, and last anti fouling paint.

I needed to get the damage done by the Scaramouch repaired. Lorenzo had done his best but his skills are best kept for the local fishing boats. I hired a guy, through the yard to do the fiberglass repair. He rarely showed up, when he did it was late, did not do good work and took far too long to do the first half of the work. I am not very good with fiberglass, but after I let the guy go I did the next half of the fiberglass repair, it took me three days, it took the other guy over a week and he did a shitty job. If I am getting a shitty job I could just as well do it and not have to pay the excessive price the yard was charging.

Regalvanizing your ground tackle is one of the jobs that needs to be done from time to time to keep them rust free. As the yard had promised other people that it would have theirs done, but it was still laying in a pile, I did not want to trust them. I called the people in PLC that do this work, they will even come to Cumana to pick up, but are not allowed into the yard. Now I know why the other stuff is still laying in a pile. I walked the yard to see if anyone else had anything they wanted to have done and when the truck arrived we had ground tackle from four boats to load.

Just before I arrived at the yard, one of the dogs had nine puppies, seven are still with us. Marlene and Mike from Drumbeat, the cruiser that had taken on the job of feeding the bitch and caring for the puppies, and her husband have gone to do some land touring, to Merida this time. She was desperate to find someone to take over the care and feeding of the new brood. I am such a soft touch, I do not agree with the whole process, but it does not take alot of time. The best thing that could have happened would have been to kill the pups on the first day. Now they will be fat, sassy, healthy adolescent dogs who no one has taught to hunt or scavenge for food. Within a few months of all of us heading out for the cruising season, these dogs are going to be skinny, sick and a hazard to traffic. I hate to mistreat any animal and this is mistreatment of these puppies. Still, I can not take it upon myself to dispose of them now, or not without agreement from the women that have been caring for family.

Well the dogs are doing fairly well, the pups are fat and healthy looking but clearly are filled with worms, coming out both ends. One of the other cruisers, with dogs, had some deworming pills, for larger dogs, but we broke one into four pieces, and made the puppies swallow the pieces, we shall see what happens. One of the other cruisers checked on the pups later in the day and there were piles of worms on the ground, guess the drugs are working. The result was within a day, the pups are running, playing, rolling on the ground and eating much better. There are only four pups left now, they are walking out the door with the workers now that they are getting larger. It will be difficult to leave them all behind, but I feel these pups will be too large for a good boat dog. Will see later.

I seem to be coming down with a cold, sneezing, runny nose, stuffed up, hope it does not last long.

One evening I was invited to another boat for dinner. It was another single man, Leigh, the Australian owner and builder of his boat Miquerida, another Australian couple, Ann and Keith on Ketchup 2, and myself. We had grilled chicken, it is a mainstay of diets here, lots of wine, which I sampled but brought my own drink, and some veggies to go with it. We had a good meal and great company. I will see more of Leigh in the coming year.

I am putting most of my time into rebuilding the motor I have taken out, tearing it down, cleaning the parts, repairing what needs to be repaired and painting what is left. The lack of tools is the hardest part. Finding a shop to do some of this is not likely.

At one of the mid Sunday afternoon gatherings a few people to play dominos. I have watched a few times but never played before. During the game , Ann, one of the wives asked her husband, Keith, to go back to the boat and get her a drink, what a guy, he went. He was back quickly, angry and broke up the game. Seems she was using water just before the game, but there was none, that is normal. During the game the water came back on, running out of the hose she had left open and was trying to fill the boat with water. They needed to go back and clean up the mess. Details, details, details.

At least my cold seems to be abating some, enough that I am able to keep up with my running nose and I am sneezing less. It will be good to have seen the back side of this. Most drugs have been available over the counter in Venezuela, but that is changing. There have been some government changes that do not allow purchase of everything. Still a Dr visit to get a prescription costs only twenty five dollars, not the sixty to ninty for you. There is little that is needed for the first aid kit. Now chicken soup is always good. With or without lots of pepper. There is no need to worry about sweating while sleeping, it is more how to stop or slow it down.

After the work was all done it was time to splash and head back for Margarita. The downside of that passage is that it is straight into wind and current, so it requires tacking.

Cumana to Margarita

The plan was to get into the water early enough to stop at the marina in Cumana for fuel. With a need to extend my cruising permit, which is allowed for six months on each period, I made repeated trips to the Port Captains’ office over the last couple of days, I finally had the paper in hand, but too late to get down for fuel. Good thing I had picked up enough while I was in the boat yard. Darkness fell as I was leaving the boat yard. When I tried to stop at Cumanagoto Marina, I was waved off by the security guard. As it is not concidered safe to anchor outside of this marina, I continued with the original plan to cross to Punta Araya to anchor for the night. I have been in there before so I was not too concerned about getting into there at night. Everything went well, the rebuilt engine ran the whole way, even at speed. I was very concerned about that.

The following morning I was lifting the anchor by six thirty and heading out. During the cooler hours of night the wind is slightly less, during the peak of heat during the day the wind will strengthen. The passage from Punta Araya to Margarita is only thirty five miles, but when it is into a twenty plus wind and a two knot current, it can be a challenge. I was not even around the corner to turn east before the wind began. It was a great sail, at speeds up to eight knots, even if it was into the wind, nice to have a clean bottom. Tacks of eight miles took me from one side of the channel to the other, the wind building all of the time. It peaked out at thirty three knots apparent. Half way through I needed to reef the sails because of the high wind. My arrival was really pushing hard on daylight, I had about a half hour before sundown when I dropped the anchor.

On arrival in Margarita, with the anchor down, I shut down the engine I had rebuilt hearing a substantial bump when I did. I knew something had fallen off the engine, and was reluctant to open the engine compartment to look. There on the bottom of the bilge lay the freshly painted damper pulley, the one that is supposed to be attached to the front of the engine, it is the one that drives the belts. So, what to do but drag out the tools and bolt it back on again.

I was hoping to find some type of American gathering here for Thanksgiving, but when I questioned that fact on the morning radio net, there were no replies. I guess it was all small private dinners. I had grilled chicken, mashed potatoes with gravy, steamed veg and half a can of cranberries, yummy.

I will be here about two weeks. The first crew of the year was supposed to be here now but wrote last week to cancell. The next is due in on Dec 3rd. We will take the first weather window, which should be right away, to make the 435 mile passage to St Martin. We will need to wait to see the wind direction and speed before we choose the route. There is a lonely rock, belongs to Venezuela, in the middle of no place west of Martinique, where I will stop if we can. It is so far from anywhere that it should have some lobster.

Margarita

I have been having all kinds of problems with my computer, just does not want to do the things I ask it to do. Robert on Iwe, who is also the wifi guy in Margarita, try www.wifimargarita.com, is a self done nerd and knows many things, came over to look and said I will need to get the reinstall discs and reinstall my operating system. The problem is that I have a pirated copy of XP Professional. I will try the radio net in the morning, perhaps someone in the anchorage will have them. Without much luck there, I played with the computer and was able to reinstall my old navigational program, so at least we will have one. It does not matter much, I still have the old fashioned way, paper charts. I have never been happy with these electronic charting programs, and perfer to use paper, guess I am a bit old fashioned.

Ken, my crew for the St Martin passage, arrived so I took him into town for a look around, first we needed to find money. Ken is a barrel of laughs, full of stories about his previous lives and is very good company. There are plenty of young guys on the street offering to exchange money. Only a fool would do that, it will always go badly. If they do not short count the money, or run off with yours, they will signal one of thier friends to meet you down the street. I took him to the store where I have done exchange before. The official rate of exchange is 2150 Bs to $1. the street rate varies from 2500 to 2900, which is what we received today.

Ken needed to call home, he has not received a reply to his emails, wanted to buy some gifts and he really does need to see some of the town.I needed to fill the freezer, load on beer and rum, fill all of my containers with fuel and all of the other last minute details before one can leave an anchorage.

I have been trying to answer the last of the questions from Lee Sails, the sailmaker in Hong Kong, for the sails, main and headsail, I am trying to have made. I hope to have them delivered to St Martin, while I am there. Once I get the final price I can wire the money to them and I will feel better about leaving for the passage.

While checking the online weather it is clear that tomorrow is not a good day to leave, Wednesday may be better, Thursday will be much better. So we shall see when this happens. I will check out tomorrow, so we can leave when the conditions are right.

Margarita to St Martin

The 430 mile, four day, three night passage went well. The wind was higher than expected, in the thirty knot range for the first forty hours, but more favorable in direction, much closer to east and sometime a bit south of east, as was hoped, instead of the normal north of east. The seas were as expected for the wind strength, six to ten feet. The wind dropped to the mid twenties and the seas reduced to four to six feet for the rest of the trip. We were always able to hold course and only needed to tack around the first two sets of islands leaving Margarita. The system that had altered the wind also had brought a lot of moisture, so we had intermittent rain during much of the passage and into the first couple of days in St Martin. At least much of the salt sprayed all over the boat has been rinsed off.

We left Margarita at 1500 on Wednesday the 6 December hoping for the wind to be on the beam or aft. That really never happened, but it was not hard on the nose either. All in all it was a good passage. Friends that left Margarita at about the same time, took a higher course to the wind, then stopped at Statia for a rest. We arrived here a day ahead of them. After their arrival I talked with them and they said they were tired of the bashing and crashing and wanted to rest, I needed to agree.

Our original plan was to make a stop at Isla Aves, the bird island, a Venezuelan island 280 miles north of Margarita. It is a small rock, in the middle of nowhere, populated by a couple of Venezuelan coast guard guys and thousands of birds. Given settled weather conditions I think that would be a good place to stop, with the conditions we had I felt it would not be a good anchorage, so we gave it a miss.

The new dinghy that had been purchased in Venezuela, was not exactly the same size as the previous. I did not discover the difference in the size until we tried to load it before leaving. I had noticed a difference in the mounting required and had made that correction while in Cumana and had mounted all of the old hardware. What I did not realize is that the length of the fiberglass portion on the new one was shorter. It did fit the old brackets but was just barely the same size, which allowed the dinghy to pass through center and go below where it should have been supported. This put pressure on the netting below. During our first year out, ten years ago, the same thing happened, during the first inclement weather we found that we could not keep the dinghy hanging from the stern arch, it needed to be in a set of solid brackets. The way we discovered this is that we moved the dinghy to the bow, tied it in as best we could but found that it settled down to the point of putting pressure on the netting, tearing it out. The same thing happened this time. The netting was totally ripped away from it’s lashings and was dragging in the water. That will be one of my jobs while here. The first time the dinghy fell below the boat and was run over, breaking it in half, this time I was able to avoid that.

After the first stormy couple of days everything settled back to normal into the wind sailing. We did not need to do any tacking, but the course was forty five to sixty degrees off the wind, comfortable but no downwind run either. The highest wind was 34 knots, which is not that much for this boat, it can be for unsuspecting crew. Once when we had three reefs in the sails, with wind around mid thirties, I told Ken that I have sailed this boat in 57 knots of wind with the same amount of sail up. That seemed to ease his concern.

Ken was limited help. I had believed that he knew far more than what he did know, which was nearly nothing. On top of that he resented being told things. I do not understand how to convey the information that needs to be known, either you know it or need to be told. It took awhile to just get him to take a watch while I could get some sleep. On the first morning I woke him, after his nine hours in bed, to take a watch, in the next three hours he woke me three times for one reason or another, one of them was legitimate, then said after three hours on watch that he was exhasted, so I stayed up and he went to bed for another six hours of sleep. The second night he did let me sleep nearly five hours. The next day was higher winds that did not allow much sleep. Finally about 0300 the wind had died to a point where I could get some rest, which was until about 0700. It was a restless passage.

When the dinghy bracket failed and I could see the dinghy was down on the netting, I hove to, which is to stop the boat, went to the foredeck to figure out what had happened and to get the netting out of the water, being drenched with each passing wave, Ken stayed in the cockpit, once when I returned for a knife, I mentioned that he might consider giving me a hand, to which he replied that he did not think that I wanted him out of the cockpit. He then came forward to try to help. We did get the dinghy secured as best we could, I guess it was good enough, it rode there the rest of the trip.

On our arrival evening I told him the coffee pot was ready, his coffee cup was out. I wanted him to pick up a book, sit in a corner and read until I woke. At 0630 he was doing laundry in the sink of his head, something that is not allowed in the first place, shaving, cleaning up and getting ready for the day. I got out of bed, put the coffee pot on, started my day, then blew up. I told him that he was being very selfish. I had just done three days with very little sleep, while he had plenty. When I asked him to sit still and be quiet so I could get some sleep he found lots of ways to make noise to wake me. This was not part of my plan. I was pissed.

I am now finding grocery stores, hardware stores, need to find someone that will do the sewing on the trampoline netting, alter the stainless steel brackets that hold up the dinghy, find a bank with an ATM, not that easy to do here, find propane, install some stove parts Ken brought along, then try to do some email and lastly, find some time to relax. I will also gather many of the supplies I need now and others I will need for the next haulout, the chandleries, marine hardware stores, are very good here.

Maggie

While in St Martin I was treated to a visit from an attractive woman that showed some promise for a return. We had exchanged emails a few years ago, then she got married, so that ended that, until recently she wrote to say the marriage did not work and was interested in finding if we have some compatibility. Our earlier exchanges had been very interesting so I was hopeful. She flew in and we spent ten days getting to know one another, did some sailing and looking over things on land. After a good dinner we spent New Years Eve lying on the trampoline watching the fireworks at Phillipsburg, the capital of St Martin, it was a good show. It seemed to go well. The problem is, I find that she is still married, which creates a problem for me, I just do not want to become involved with a married woman. We shall see how that works out. Some of the internet women have admitted to still being married, others I have suspected. As it turns out, she will not be returning.

This brings 2006 to an end.

Family

The reason for my return was that I emotionally wanted to reconnect with family and friends left behind and not seen for five years. The excuse used was my 40th high school class reunion. After making arrangements for RPhurst to be securely stored in the security area of Navimca Boat Yard in Cumana, Venezuela and air arrangements to fly round trip to Miami, I was ready to go. As I knew I would be doing a cross country trip to see everyone it made no sense to fly round trip into Minneapolis. It really is not that far from Caracas, Venezuela to America, a three and a half hour flight and I was there.

The plan was to spend three months in the states, three weeks in TRFalls, three weeks in Minneapolis, a couple of weeks in WI, a couple of weeks in Denver, a long week in LA, then back to FL for the return flight, all of which was not nearly long enough, but there you are. Being able to move around easily without a car, or a valid driver’s license, is not easy. I had made arrangements for Leslie to be pick me up at the Miami airport and we drove to Jacksonville, seeing some sights along the way, including the Kennedy Space Center and St Augustine. Once in Jacksonville I had a couple of relaxing days with a friend before flying into Minneapolis where I was picked up by my niece Jill and her husband Chuck. In company with another niece Rebecca, her husband Brandon and Josie the fur ball, we departed right away for the three hundred mile drive to my brother Ken’s home near my home town of Thief River Falls, MN. Well, we did need to make a stop in Little Falls to pick up some of Ken’s favorite sausage.

I had asked my brother to try to plan a family gathering for the first weekend, which was why the nieces were driving up in the first place, see how conniving I can be. We had a great cookout, with lots of pictures, great food and having the chance to reconnect. The cookout was also attended by my sister Nancy and her husband Tom Issendorf as well as her daughter Amy and kids. A great time was had by all. I was also able to get onto the internet to begin ordering parts I wanted to take back with me.

The following week I would go into town with Ken as he was going to work, then I would have the day to stop and see some of the people important to see and the following weekend was the reunion. For that I stayed at my sister’s house in town, it was just so much easier. Friday was the informal gathering at one of the local favorite bars. There were lots of happy faces, lots of talk and reminiscing, lots of trying to remember names of all those old people that resemble old friends. It is difficult to imagine how some of these people have aged, while I have kept my youth. The mind is a shame to waste. Saturday evening was a slightly more formal gathering, with dinner and a short presentation. I was asked to give a short talk detailing what I have done during the past ten years. The news of my shenanigans spread quickly so it seemed that most of my conversations were about me, instead of me learning what they have been doing. We graduated 211, Friday was attended by about sixty and Saturday about seventy, not all the same, so I was happy with the attendance and I saw most of the people that were on my must see list. Ken was in his last year of working for the railroad and was looking forward to retirement in January after 37 years of hard work and a couple of major moves.

I was pressed to fit in all of my friends, but the ones that must be seen are Rick and Kathy Nelson, Tom and Paula Greelis, and Don and Paula Adamson. Unfortunately I did not get to see the Adamsons, but everyone else was found and reconnected.
Ken’s family had planned a gathering in Minneapolis to celebrate Becca’s B-day for early July so I had a ride down there. The girls had arranged for a pontoon for a few hours tour of the Lake Minnetonka. The two sisters had spent part of the day decorating it for the party. Jean was invited and it was wonderful to see her. We all ate and drank while on the boat and then retired to a bar for more drinks and food. During the entire time I was there I was overfed and over watered, it seems that food and drink are part of our culture, which is why I gained twenty five pounds while I was there.

They left me at my friend Carole’s house. She has been a constant in my life during the whole time I have been on this trip. In all of the places I stayed I asked for a list of things that could be done around the house, partly to give me something to do during the day, but also to make a small contribution to my room and board. I understand that fish and houseguests get old after about a week, so if I can stay out of the way, do some work and sometimes have meals on the table, I may be welcome a bit longer than that. It was during this time that I met Sandy, an internet woman, that seemed very excited about joining me. We made plans, stayed in touch by email and four days before her arrival she cancelled. Life should not be this difficult.
Keith Mackenroth is certainly on my must see list while in Mpls. We had exchanged a few emails and had planned to get a few people together while I was there. I knew that he would not be going to the reunion, he has not been to any of them, but he keeps in touch with many home town people that live in the area. We were able to find several evenings to get together.

Another project that I needed to do while I was in the twin cities was to get my old sailing catamaran ready to move up to Kens. When Jean and I left on this trip the plan was to be gone about five years. I left a 27 foot sailing boat in the yard of a long term friend, John Nelson. Well things can get out of hand and it has now been ten years. The boat needed to get out of the weather and must be an irritation to John. Having been sitting for so long I knew it would need new tires, tubes and bearings all around, it did. At last it was ready to go and I hauled it back to Carole’s house with the plan to have one of the nieces’ husband take it up to Ken’s before snowfall. Well it was a good plan but Ma intervened and made it snow way too early. It did make the trip later without incident.

While in WI I also needed to see another old friend, Cindy James. We spent a few days relaxing around Lake Geneva before my heading toward Oshkosh by bus. Two of my best friends live in Neenah WI and also are on my must see list while I am back there. I met them while I spent three years working in the area. Tom and Jean Harvath as well as Jeff Syring, with new wife Margie, have been with me during some wild times and we have also spent lots of time at each others homes for layed back times. With difficulty we were able to make contact and a plan to pick me up at the bus terminal in Oshkosh, yeah the place where denim clothes are made. Tom picked me up and we met Jeff, Margie and later Mike Schnieder then went to a national gathering of pyrotechnics. The fireworks show broke a couple of records, most firecrackers in a ten minute timeframe, something about a few million and the largest string of firecrackers. It also included an aerial show that was outstanding. This is the organization to which practicing pyrotechnics belong and they get together in different locations to exchange ideas and new technology. I then split my time between their houses. One evening we stopped at my old watering hole, it was not the same, it wasn’t a grand place then, now it is a dive.

The next two stops did not turn out very well. I was supposed to meet an internet woman at each, the first had about two hours for me and the other did not appear very interested either. Some of these women will not make the step to join me for a short period of time, so if I am to meet them it will need to be when I am back there. This is such a difficult process I am about to give up, it is not worth the effort.
The next stop was Denver. I had high hopes of seeing my son Jim while I was there. I am told that he does not have email and the number I have goes to an answering machine. As I am rarely at a place where I can receive a call, that is difficult at best. While in MN I began calling him and leaving the number where he could call back, he never did. A family cookout seemed to be the best idea, so we planned one at my cousin Jans' and invited him on his answering machine and he was available to join us as well as cousins Val Duggan and Sherry Netteland. It was great to see him and all of the family again. The time I spent in Denver was split between an Aunt Bernie Netteland, the last remaining of her family and my cousin Janet Brookhart along with her husband Scott. I had a great time while I was in Denver.

Then it was time to press onto Los Angles to see my dad’s widow, Claudette Parnham and her daughter Jackie Duperon and her husband Robert. I enjoy their company and have stayed in touch with this extended family over the years and since my dad’s death in ’98 have made an effort to keep it that way. They live way out in the burbs, Robert works right next to LAX and drives 80 miles to and from work each day, in that traffic, I could not do that day after day. We spent a very relaxing time, again doing some home projects and trying to be helpful.

The time for the flight back to FL had come and I was able to spend a few days with a friend before heading for Miami for the return flight to Caracas. It was a wonderful visit, filled with friends and family so sorely missed over the years. Now to get back to the boat and the work that is needed before the next cruising season.

As normal, if you do not wish to see these, let me know and I will remove you from the list. If you enjoy them, let me know, worldcruiser1997@yahoo.com