Christmas in Central America

Mikes passage notes.
As Meggie swings quietly to her anchor in the beautiful Island of Guanaja, Honduras, Kylie and I are not only overjoyed about what a picturesque and remote place that we have sailed into but also about the fact that we have just sailed clear across the Caribbean sea via two stops along the north coast of Jamaica. The first stop at Port Antonio and then a rough as hell 96 Nautical mile overnight run west ward to Montego Bay.
Curacao to Honduras via Jamaica was a total distance of 1145Nm, or 1315 road miles, or 2175km. This was in less than a month. The passage from Jamaica to Honduras wasn’t quite as easy going as Curacao to Jamaica was. We certainly saw the seas many different faces during our 4 nights and 4 days at sea. We left Montego Bay in the evening only to find a rough and confused sea due to the wind blowing against a counter current, nice start eh!, but once off shore and away from the coast the sea settled into its own rhythm. The next night brought something unexpected as we had to motor sail in less than 10 knots of wind for 12 hours. The third morning we watched uneasily as a giant dark and nasty cloud bank gained on us, constantly increasing in size and gaining strength until we were surrounded. Inevitably the system caught up to little Meggie and unleashed its fury. It was noon and we were 300Nm off shore. We quickly dropped the pole and secured the Yankee (outer head sail) to the bow sprit, as we were running down wind at the time. We then altered coarse, broad reaching to the north west, this tactic helped us not to loose any miles but would also keep us on the outer fringe of the storm system. This was an exhilarating hour or so as we had 25 - 30 knots of wind and a favourable current. With sails reefed right down Meggie carried 7 - 8 knots and once hit 10 knots of boat speed. Soon the seas grew too large and we were forced to bare off, running before the wind heading west, southwest once again.
It was not long until we were running under double reefed main sail alone trying not to sail too fast and keeping things in control. The system lasted all night and by 2:00 am the seas had grown to a height of one full story, that’s 10 feet or so from trough to crest pushed by 25 - 35 knots of wind. Oddly enough, we felt like someone was watching out for us because there was often a clear patch of sky right above Meggie. All things considered, Kylie and I were rather comfortable, often saying the odd ”holy S*%!” look at the size of that one eh! . You cant expect to get perfect weather while passing through the middle of the Caribbean sea. But this was no problem, it was nothing more than a rough night at sea, and above all a great chance to test ourselves and our little boat in the big tank. Meggie s hull design is very impressive, her (reserve buoyancy) and raked transom allowed her to lift her bum to each passing wave as it roared and hissed white and phosphorescent sea water towards her. She then cut and flared the waves away with her mid ships and bow section as the waves over took us. She never let a single wave enter the cockpit only a little spray. Timmy, our wind vane also did a great job of steering, only occasionally needing a little help to bring her back on coarse in the gusts and on certain waves. (this may have been my own fault as I didn’t switch to the heavy weather vane) It is extremely difficult and tiring to steer in those conditions. The rest of the passage was fairly moderate with 20 knots and comfortable sailing allowing us to catch up on some sleep. We made land fall on Tuesday afternoon in beautiful Guanaja. Very happy to be in Kylie made a nice curry dinner and we finished off the last of our Jamaican red stripes. The only tragedy was no fish were caught.
Mike.

Hi everybody. This is Kylie now. So there is no need for me to go into any detail about our sail to Guanaja. I was really glad to get here. Not only does this mean no more longer passages until we leave Mexico for Florida and that’s only 250 miles, but we are now in Central America which is ours to discover.
Our last day on the sea, we were pushing Meggie as we needed to get into Guanaja before dark as you have to enter between reefs and it‘s not somewhere you want to mess around in the dark…if we hadn‘t of made it, it would have been another night at sea going nowhere!!!! We sailed her hard and entered through the cut in the reef around 4pm and we were both in awe at how beautiful this island is. We had no expectations upon arriving in Guanaja, we thought we would stop briefly and then carry onto Roatan. What a pleasant surprise Guanaja is and we are in no rush to leave. We anchored at the town, which I have to tell you about.This town must have started with a few buildings on a small island and as it grew the houses and stores were built upon stilts over the ocean floor. So as you wander the street you cross over canals and little bridges. Now I don’t want to mistakenly paint a picture of Venice, because it isn’t anything like Venice, not nearly as pretty, but as equally unique. Once we had finished checking out the town we carried onto a well protected anchorage, El Bight in time to hunker down for the approaching cold front. We haven’t had to deal with cold fronts since we were in the Bahamas over 2 years ago, so this was interesting. We were confined to Meggie for 2 days as the cold front passed, but it was a chance to catch up on some sleep and some cleaning up. In the time we were anchored at El Bight we were attracted to (the only) bar there. A bunch of excellent people were at the bar consisting of Germans, Americans, Hondurans and some Canadians and we were immediately drawn to these people and to this island. They invited us to a low key pot luck Christmas dinner/party, so we decided to stay! We’ll probably stay through New Years too, we love it so much. We met an American, named Gar from Alaska who has been here for 10 years and maintains some hiking trails, so he took us on a 5 hour hike to the highest peak in Guanaja, Michael’s peak standing at about 1400 feet. The views were unbelievable and because Guanaja is covered in pine trees, it really felt like we were hiking at home, except it was MUCH hotter and one other difference is of course there is NO SNOW!!! Heehee. Most of the pines were destroyed in the devastating Hurricane Mitch, 10 years ago. The cat 5 hurricane slammed Guanaja for 2 whole days! However the landscape has come back amazingly with new pines thriving well.
From El Bight, we sailed up to Grahams Cay, a whopping 2 miles east and as we dropped the anchor all alone in 7 feet of gin clear water, the sun displayed the numerous shades of blues and greens that surrounded us. Grahams Cay is protected by a barrier reef that is host to beautiful live coral and numerous fish, turtles and our new pets that hang around our boat…squids. The Cay also has an awesome little resort on it, very low key but very beautiful. An open aired bar that sits on the beach surrounded by palm trees and beautiful blue water as a little Spanish music plays in the background….awesome. The bartender is happy to give us free water, free ice, free laundry wash and free internet…what more could a cruiser ask for?
So now we are just hanging out, enjoying our surroundings and getting ready for our big pot luck on Christmas day. At least we’ll be together this year and if we can’t be with family, we’ll be surrounded by new friends.
We want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and we hope the new year brings you nothing but good fortune, good health and above all absolute happiness!
Feliz Navidad,
Kylie, Mike and Meggie
PS...some animal buddies...

Go Meggie Go! (Mike's sail log, with excerpts from Kylie)

Last we left you we were waiting to make the big jump from Curacao northward to Jamaica, just shy of 600 nautical miles. Well, we were certainly glad we gave the first favourable weather window a pass, as Hurricane Paloma thrashed its way out to sea, beginning to form just west of us in SW Carib. Paloma hammered Little Cayman and Cayman Brac as a strong Cat 4 hurricane just skirting Jamaica then hammering Cuba with a 25 foot storm surge. Finally she weakened over Cuba with her remnants dispersing through the Bahamas. Before we get into our run north, I should mention that we endured some exciting weather events in the ABC islands. Not only did we get a trade wind reversal at 2am while in Bonaire on a mooring ball (which isn’t protected AT ALL from any westerly winds)and only 1 boats length away from the shore where the waves curled before hitting the beach and climbed up onto the street in some spots. The best part was that I had taken the starter motor apart to clean up a bearing and then repaint the motor which seemed like a good idea at the time.
”Not“. Meggie was thrashing to the seas that raced in from a thousand foot depth to a mere 16 ft shelf in front of us. Kylie and I discussed whether to hoist reefed main and stay sail to claw our way off the now lee shore and out to open water but we had no room to lose…if we screwed up, we would lose Meggie. So at 4am, in the pitching surf I half climbed into the engine compartment and reinstalled the starter. Fortunately (well sort of) the paint was still tacky and stuck to my fingers, which made it easy to hang onto. Shortly after I finished, the wind eased off for a bit only to regain strength at first light still out of the southwest. The marina was full for the Regatta but luckily Kylie’s smooth talk`n got us a spot squeezed between two other boats. Perfect. We realized after we had docked that the force from the thrashing, broke Meggie’s snatch block (that wasn’t in use…just broke from the force of the mooring lines) we use on the end of the bowsprit for our anchor rode. Another boat that managed to find a spot in the marina, had a souvenir attached to their bow…both mooring balls and both lines sat on the deck of their bow. The force of their thrashing actually ripped the mooring lines, balls and everything! It was quite the event! Numerous other damages were reported, but nothing compared to the damages that Hurricane Omar inflicted only a week later.
By the time Omar came through, we had sailed to Spanish waters, Curacao where we weathered the winds from Hurricane Omar that passed 60 miles north of us. The anchorage is packed with boats from all over the place, and with designated areas to anchor, the anchorages resembled somewhat of a sardine can. We saw the wind reach 40-45 knots and not knowing what to expect from Omar as he still hadn’t veered north, we upped anchor (which was tricky: with no windless and 35 knots sustained winds, with a 64’boat about 20’ off our bow). Along with our good friends on Tyee and 2 other boats, we moved to a better anchorage (non designated anchorage…any port in a storm!!). We dropped our storm ground tackle, and were very relieved to be anchored on our own, away from the herd of all the other boats. So once happy with the holding we were able to get some sleep (I did at least…Mike here) as the wind screamed through the rigging for 2 days from the west. Yearly hurricane patterns would suggest that there is almost no chance of the ABC islands being hit. Aruba has gone 100 years without a hurricane, but guess what….times are changing.
On a lighter note, we spent one last day wake boarding and then sailing with the Tyee gang before they hauled her to fly home to Revelstoke B.C. The next day I had a great windward run with Harke who is from Holland on his custom 44 aluminium boat, Serendipity. We spent many evenings sharing many dinners and many drinks with new and old friends (funny eh, we have old friends out here now). We were so happy to see our “young cruiser” friends Kim and Scott on Anthyllide again. It was great catching up with them and fun to compare stories. We also met our old friends from our days back in Ol'St. David's, Grenada...Pete and Rosie on Green Coral. Pegasus (Maria and Mike from Amsterdam) whom we had met briefly in the Eastern Caribbean had a new crew with them this time we met….their daughter, Madelief was born just 7 weeks before we arrived in Curacao.
We were fortunate enough to cross paths with many new and interesting cruisers from all over. Our favourites: Cooee 2, Spanish Stroll, Mermaid of Carriacou and Tinto. Unfortunately we all point the bow off in different directions, but we hope we all cross wakes once again some day. So until then, we wish you fair winds and following seas.
Mon Nov 10th 11:20, we got under way.
Meggie’s Log. This is a log (summary) of our passage north. We thought you might find it interesting to see what it’s like underway.

Monday, Nov. 10th, 2008:
Noon: coarse to steer 310M, favourable current, S/E wind 14Knots, barometer 1010mb, conditions light, clear sky, sail set, all white canvas. 2hr of spinnaker.
Remarks: (from Mike)
Perfect conditions, quartering seas and wind, great to be underway, and on a new adventure.

Midnight: coarse to steer 330M, windward bow current, E wind 15-16Knots, steady bar, moderate conditions, clear sky, sail set, full canvas, reef main.
(Noon to Noon run 121nautical miles)
Remarks:
Fast through the night, 2 ships seen, we feel good, beam seas and wind, flying fish landing on deck, Dolphins swimming with Meggie at midnight until 2:00.

Tues. Nov. 11, 2008:
Noon: coarse to steer 340M, beam on current, N/E 16Knots, steady bar, getting rougher, patchy cloudy sky, sail set, full, reef main,
Remarks.
Caught 1 mahi mahi, Kylie seasick, she couldn’t eat the mahi dinner I made (her favourite), fast sailing, rolly and rough confused seas.

Midnight: coarse to steer 340M, beam on current, N/E 16+Knots, steady bar, 6ft seas, patchy clouds, sail set reef mizzen, reef main, stay sail
(Noon to Noon run 138 nautical miles)
Remarks.
Holding more north that west as N/E trades are forecast when we close on Jamaica, no ships seen , quiet night, more late night dolphins. And flying fish rescues, Great sailing, Kylie only sick for 6 hrs (this is Kylie...I didn't barf! Made and ate beans for dinner)

Wed. Nov. 12, 2008:
Noon: coarse to steer 315M, quartering current, N/E 16Knots, 1015mb, moderate conditions, sun/cloud, sail set main, mizzen, yankee,
Remarks:
Another small mahi, half way point, 2 ships seen, averaging 5.75-6 Knots boat speed, come BIG fish…the ice is lasting well.

Midnight: coarse to steer 315M, current strong, N/E 15Knots, steady bar, moderate conditions, clear sky, reef main, reef mizzen, stay sail.
(Noon to Noon run 140 nautical miles)
Remarks:
Nice clear night, fast sailing, spotted 1 ship, no dolphins and less flying fish?


Thurs. Nov. 13, 2008:
Noon: coarse to steer 315M, strong current, E/NE, 17Knots, larger seas, clear sky, sail set, reef mizzen, reef main, stay sail on the pole.
Remarks:
lighter wind forecast has us running fast down wind at 6-7+ Knots wing on wing with 105 square foot stay sail, reduce main and mizzen…go figure, I don’t know why but seas are inconsistent, average 6ft but some up to 8+. Oh well great fun Meggie’s running free, and steering is in the hands of Timmy the pilot who is in the groove.

Midnight: coarse to steer 315M, current not as strong, N/E, 13-14Knots, calming down, steady bar., moderate/light conditions, patchy cloud, sail set, full main, full mizzen, yankee on the pole.
(Noon to Noon run 126 nautical miles)
Remarks:
Closing on Jamaica, light wind tonight, still sailing well, encountered a strange ship with “ET” type lights on it…no radio contact, squall off the Haiti coast forced us to get the pole down quickly and reef at 4:00 in the morning

Fri. Nov. 14, 2008:
Noon: coarse to steer 305Mag, slow current astern, N/E 10 Knots, steady bar, light conditions, clear sky, sail set, spinnaker, mizzen stay sail spinnaker set in mains place, full mizzen.
Remarks:
Jamaica in sight, very light wind, calm seas, dolphins every were you look, 40miles left, landed nice mahi…smiled at us (looked like he said "hey suckers...I'm going to jump back in the water in 2 seconds"), then jumped out of the cockpit and back in the water.

Arrival: Fri. Nov.14, 2008 Location: Port Antonio, Jamaica. 21:15. Motored the last 40 miles took 9 Hrs. Oh well. Entered at night (broke golden rule…but it’s a good entrance, good lighting, full moon, light conditions, no reefs)

In the morning we were greeted with smiling faces saying “Welcome to Jamaica, mahn…Welcome to paradise!!!!”And indeed it is a paradise. We’re on the NE corner of Jamaica where tourism is less prevalent than the rest of the island, and where cruising boats are almost nil (we’re the only one, except for 2 others who have been here for 6 months). We are very happy with our run across the Caribbean Sea and are happy with our little boat’s performance…man, what a great boat! We will hang out in Port Antonio until we get a decent window to head to MoBay (Montego Bay) before sailing the 500nm passage to Guanaja, Honduras. We hope to be underway sometime next week, but unfortunately the weather is looking a bit unsettled. Merging cold fronts coming from the north will keep us tucked away in Port Antonio for another week at least (but we’ll take the cold fronts over the hurricanes any day!)
We will leave it there for now, and will write more on Jamaica soon. We hope everyone is staying warm up north…believe it or not, but it’s a little cooler here in Jamaica too (only about 84F/30C)!
Until next time…We check ya later, mahn.
Mike and Kylie

Heading north bound

We've been in Curacao for almost a month (wow...that went fast). Anyway, we've been waiting for the hurricane season to end, provisioning Meggie, doing some jobs on her and getting her ready for some longer passages. All looks good and it looks like we might actually get out of here on Monday, November 10th. Hurricane Paloma should be long gone by then and it looks like a good window to Jamaica.
So...next time we talk to you we'll be back in the land of Rasta's mahn.
Until then...
Kylie and Mike

Out Island Paradise

So I guess I should begin by saying…sorry! When we arrived in Bonaire on the 1st of October, we had numerous emails with the subject, “WORRIED”. We told some people we would be out of touch for about a month, but obviously we should have told more, so we’re very sorry! However….we had an in-cred-ible month!
I have to first say Congrats to the new babies that have arrived in our world. We are very happy for all the new parents (and some second timers!).Ok…so I guess we left you in Medregal. Well…we’re back in the water, in case you didn’t catch that memo. We launched Meggie with dread as we thought she would leak like a sieve after sitting on the hard in the tropics for 2 months, but to our delight, she didn’t leak a drop. We were outta there. We headed to Cumana (the closest city) to provision the boat for a month, checked out of Venezuela and tidied up a few last minute details and we were off. Our first stop was Tortuga, laying 70 miles northwest. We had an uneventful night sail and arrived in the early morning hours and were met with gin clear water. We had forgotten how blue the water could be, and to top it off a beautiful white sand beach lined the turquoise waters. We rested up and moved to a reef enclosed anchorage, where you could snorkel off your boat and catch your dinner. One overcast day we sat in the anchorage and watched a storm pass north of and watch waterspout clouds try to form, but luckily they couldn’t quite touch the water (Thank God). Then we saw another funnel form one day in Los Roques…not a sight you welcome, but cool to see. We stayed in Tortuga for about a week, just playing with the fish and once we had a decent weather window we moved to Los Roques, Venezuela. We had a screaming over night sail of about 85 miles flying wing on wing the whole way, and by morning the wind was up to about 20 knots, so Meggie was flying. We entered the narrow cut behind the reefs and again were met with the most unbelievable blues you could imagine (I’ll probably write that a lot in this blog). Oh and on the way…we caught a perfect size mahi mahi. So we dropped the hook and had a great mahi lunch and then a great mahi dinner!
Los Roques is a protected marine park, so no spear fishing here, but the reefs are so alive with enormous fish swimming about feeling very safe in their protected environment. Los Roques’ eastern end is an enormous reef, with little islands and sand bars tucked safely behind it.
Sailing behind the reef means lots of wind, with only a small wind chop and no ocean swell. So we enjoyed meandering along in the perfect blues and finding a different anchorage alone every night, unless you wanted to be with people. We decided to anchor right behind the reef so we could check out the sea life, and we met with 3 Canadian boats whom we knew of. So we got more acquainted with these Canadians over a beautiful mahi dinner that Rene on Gypsy Blues had caught on their way from Tortuga. So John, Lucie and their 2 boys Theo and Simi on Tyee 3 a great family from Revelstoke, BC (whom we’re still travelling with), Chris on Spy Glass (a single hander from BC) and Rene and Cheryl on Gypsy Blues (from non other than Barrie, Ontario whose cruising grounds are the North Channel and Georgian Bay!!!!!). Great company, great food, great scenery…who could ask for more.
While in another anchorage we were able to catch up with another friend on Seredipity. Harke (from Holland) and his crew Joyce (from the US) were kind enough to host many dinners aboard Seredipity and as always great times were had by all. This was Joyce’s first experience cruising and it was fun to watch her taking it all in.
Los Roques isn’t quite as remote as it once was. Huge Venezuelan mega yachts cruise here on the weekends and holidays and there is one island that hosts quite a few posada’s, restaurants and little shops. At this point in our little adventure in the out islands we were pretty low on fruit and veg, flour, eggs etc…so the little grocery shop was a much needed stop.
Up until this point I was making pancakes from scratch, baking bread (that’s right mom…I was baking bread), baking morning sconces and trying to come up with different recipe’s to include our dwindling supply of food.
After a quick restock of some fruit and veg we headed to the central and western Roques. All anchorages were beautiful but Isla Cayo de Agua was the nicest in our opinion. Beautiful beach, protected anchorage, great diving, lots of turtles and of course great company with the new addition of Mustang Sally. Cayo de Agua has a little island that sits off it where you can see wild flamingos meandering about…pretty cool.
I’m going to sound like a broken record. Basically all the anchorages were beautiful, and the reefs were bursting with live coral, and an abundance of fish (all types of species…too many to count, and of course no underwater camera!), the beaches were white sand with numerous beautiful shells littering the shore, and an unbelievable array of blues I’ve ever seen. The water more clear than the Bahamas, dare I say.
We finally left the marine park of Los Roques and arrived in Aves de Barlovento where we wove our way through the reefs to the end anchorage behind the big horseshoe reef. The difference in the Aves is that you can spear fish!!! We geared up one day and dove on the outer reef in search for dinner, only to be chased back to our dinghy by a 6 foot barracuda (ok, maybe he was only 4 ½-5 feet but he looked unbelievably big under the water). Normally barracudas linger a bit, but don’t usually bother us, but as I was confirming my find of a nice sized grouper I felt searing eyes on me and I turned around to be face to face (well probably about 8 feet away) with this nasty looking monster. I’m a bit of a freak when it comes to barracudas as it is and I had wandered pretty far from the dinghy and Mike was half way between, so I had to pass the monster to get to Mike who was chasing a snapper ready to shoot. I bolted….turned around and he was following…like closely. I tugged on Mike’s fin and made funny gestures with my hands and yelled into my snorkel, but he already saw him behind me. I headed for the dinghy with Mike hot on my tail and launched myself into the dinghy (similar to the move that Mike made when he saw the reef shark in the Bahamas)…I looked back and Mike was turned to the monster with his spear aimed and ready to shoot and the barracuda was about 5 feet from the tip of the spear and coming strong. With a swift move, Mike turned and launched into the dinghy just as the nasty beast swam past the ding. AHHHH….We’ve never experienced such an aggressive barracuda before, and we did not like it. So we went back to Meggie and had spaghetti. That night we encountered for the first time in a long time a pretty good 40 knot squall that lasted for quite awhile (always in the early morning hours). It’s always a little scary even though we’ve had our fair share of squalls to deal with in the past, and being anchored with reefs all around isn‘t a comforting feeling, but Meggie held like a champ.
A cool thing on Isla Sur (Aves de Barlovento) is an shrine-like-leave-your-mark for sailors/cruisers who come upon this island. So Meggie’s name written on piece of coral sits amongst the others who have passed through this beautiful part of the world for years to come.
Aves Barlovento was great, but we were anxious to see Aves de Sotovento (20 miles west) and then carry onto Bonaire, so we up anchored and made the short hop to Sotovento.
We anchored off a white sand beach….again, and the next morning the gang on Tyee 3, Mike and I headed out to find dinner. At this point our shelves on board were looking pretty skinny, but with the help of some flour (and my new found baking skills…HA) and some long lasting cabbage, and of course rice and pasta we were doing ok, but fish would top it off nicely…but even better would be some lobster!
So by 8:30am we were in the dinghies heading out for the hunt. Probably the most diverse and alive coral I had ever seen yet was found in Aves Sotovento…absolutely unbelievable. I couldn’t even begin to name the different types of coral or the numerous species of fish, it was astounding. So armed with lobster snares and spears we searched the reefs for some sort of dinner and were not disappointed .
For two nights we were treated to a lobster/snapper dinner for 6, but only after being in the water from 8:30am-2pm for 2 days in a row. Believe it or not…it was exhausting (I know…tough life, huh).
So by the 1st of October our water tanks were almost empty, our fruit and veg had been eaten, the canned goods gone, all dry goods finished and our rum and beer depleted so it was time to leave the serenity of the out islands and finally say goodbye to Venezuela once and for all.
We arrived in Bonaire and headed out for a much welcome burger and fries dinner with an accompanying cold beer or two and a side of cold water with ICE!!!
What an incredible month. We really are spoiled to see and experience such amazing places as the ones we’ve just spent the last month in.
So, with our shelves somewhat stocked again, we plan to hang in Bonaire for a bit and take in some of the sailing regatta and then make our way to Curacao (only 35 miles away now) to prepare ourselves and Meggie for our 600 nautical mile sail to Jamaica at the end of the month. Bonaire is also beautiful and is considered the diving capitol of the Caribbean. We feel very safe again in Bonaire, and also felt safe in the out islands which is a nice change to always worrying about safety and security in Venezuela.

So anyway, not a lot to write about in this blog, but so much fun was had.
I’ll try to do a quick blog before we leave for Jamaica, so people know when we’re going and so I won’t get any “WORRIED” emails when we arrive in Jamaica! All the same, thank you all for your concern.
Cheers,
Kylie and Mike

Sailing on the hard, doesn't work!

Oh wow, where to begin. So much to tell, but I don’t want to bore you with a novel so I’ll do my best to keep it relatively short.
Ok, Mike left you all with our arrival in Venezuela. Since then we made our way to the mainland, landing in Cumana before venturing east in the Gulfo de Cariaco to Medregal village where we planned to haul Meggie to replace the transom. We left Porlamar, Margarita at a good time, because numerous reports of theft and armed boarding’s among other incidents began occurring shortly after we had left. We were thankful to be out of there, but were concerned about our friends who were still there or who had just arrived.Venezuela is a wonderfully diverse country, but it comes with it’s risks if you want to explore it. I could get into the politics of Venezuela here, but it could take a separate novel to write about that, but while we hear we are learning from locals and travellers about the different aspects of this country, and the potential she has. As Mike puts it “If we didn’t expect some risk when we left on this adventure, then we should have stayed at home.” and he is absolutely right, and we are so glad that we came to Venezuela as the country side and people are incredible and our experiences so far have all been good ones. We left Porlamar and headed to Isla Coche for a few days and enjoyed the long white sandy beach and watching the numerous kite boarders that take advantage of the howling winds and flat seas. From Coche we made our way to Cumana, where we planned to stop to pick up some marine items in town before heading to Medregal. From Cumana we headed across the Golfo to Laguna Grande where we had planned to spend a couple of days. As we approached we were awed by the beauty of this anchorage. There are different water ways to choose an anchorage in which to stay, and any one you choose you will be hidden from all the other boats as the landscape is made up of big foothill like mounds covered in red clay like dirt creating an Arizona landscape feel. It’s breathtaking. We weaved Meggie through the waterways to the very end and dropped the hook in 11 feet of water in a little lagoon. I had mentioned before about the security issues in Venezuela, and it’s smart to anchor with at least one other boat, and unfortunately Mike and I tend to travel on our own and no one was with us nor were there any other boats in the Lagoon. We felt like we would be safe, but you just don’t know. So…we stayed for the day and had a nice lunch and at around 3pm made the call to head the last 15 miles to Medregal. We would come back to Laguna Grande on our way west.
As we came out of the anchorage the seas were flat and the wind was calm.We motored our way along the north coast of the Golfo and were met with sudden splashes in the water, then more, then more….Hundreds of dolphins were escorting us down the Golfo to our destination. They played at Meggie’s bow and rudder and showed off by leaping in the air. It was quite the show. They stayed with us for over an hour!!!It was unbelievable…they were everywhere. It was the most extraordinary sight…we had so much fun watching and trying to touch (but never did). Finally with about 3 miles to go, they disappeared. What and escort.
The next day we went ashore to find out about hauling Meggie. We spoke to the owner Jean Marc and it looked like Monday was the day…perfect. We were anxious to get started on our work as Meggie’s transom was looking worse everyday. Monday came and by 10am we were on the hard. The haul out went smoothly and the 3 Spanish guys took their time making sure the slings were perfectly placed and sure everything went just right.
With Meggie placed on her stands, Mike went to town tearing the transom off and by 5pm, he had the transom off and was ready to fit the new planking. It’s a long process of explanation of the new transom, so pictures will have to suffice (see at end of blog). By the 8th day (including 2 rain days) the transom was perfectly fitted and prepped for varnish. While Mike was doing the transom, I tore the boat apart and cleaned every inch and then wiped every part with bleach and anything that could be laundered, was.
Once the transom was ready for varnish, I applied 11 coats and once that was finished Mike proceeded to put the rudder and self steering back in place. We sanded and prepped then painted the topsides. We sanded and prepped the keel in preparation for antifouling and we were ready to go back in, but the lift was not! During our second week out the motor on the lift quit. We never thought it would affect us as we still had about another week worth of work. Well it did affect us. The motor had to be taken in for a full refit and believe it or not, we are still on the hard!!!! We were ready to go back in on July 28th and it is now Aug.10th and we’re still on the hard. Apparently, the motor is coming back on Monday or Tuesday and we’re hoping and praying we can get back in by the end of next week.It’s not a great position to be as our little wooden boat is drying out in the tropical conditions. We were already watering Meggie 3 times a day to keep some moisture in the planks. Needless to say, we’re a teeny bit disappointed!
Knowing we couldn’t get in the water when we had wanted, the boat was safe (at least from theft) so we arranged to have numerous people water Meggie for a week and headed inland.
We’re in the middle of nowhere so we had to arrange our departure and arrival to coincide with the little bus that goes weekly to Cariaco (the closest town…about 45 minutes away). So we left on a Saturday and bought our bus tickets to the city of Valencia, a 12 hour bus ride away. We couldn’t leave until 5pm, so we wandered around Cariaco for most of the day. We boarded our bus at 5:45 and headed on our overnighter to Velencia. We were warned that the buses were cold and that they have a contest to see who can get their buses the coldest, but we thought “We’re Canadians…we can handle to cold!” Either we’ve been in the tropics too long, or the bus was really freakin’ cold, cause we nearly froze. Thankfully we knew we were headed to cold climate and brought the appropriate clothing. We arrived in Velencia at about 6am and bought our tickets for the 12 hour bus ride to Merida, our final destination in the Venezuelan Andes. Unfortunately our bus didn’t leave until 11am, so we hung around the not so clean bus station until 11. We finally boarded our final bus and again it was really really cold.
After a long, but beautiful drive we finally pulled into the station in Merida at about 11pm. We caught a taxi and headed to find a Posada. Luckily we found one in about ½ hour and crashed for the night. In the morning as we gazed out our balcony we were met with the gorgeous view of Pico Bolivar, the highest mountain peak in Venezuela. We couldn’t wait to get acquainted with this area. Merida is a university city, and it seems as though the Government has put some money into the city, as the old buildings are in pristine condition. It was a breath of fresh air. Merida is considered “The Ecotourism capital of Venezuela”, with that in mind we were ready to get some hiking in, and with the surrounding Andes mountain range, the outdoor activity is endless. We decided we would ride the cable car to the top of Pico Humboldt, over 5000 metres high,(over 15,000 feet) then we would descend one stop to about 4500 meters (about 14,000 feet) to begin a 5 hour hike to the mountain village of Los Nevados which sits amongst the valleys and peaks of the Andes mountain range, or as some people say “ In the middle of nowhere”.
While we were waiting in the line up for the cable car, we met a great Dutch guy named Jeroen or “J” (which was easier to say). We asked him if he was going to Los Nevados and he replied “What’s Los Nevados?” So we told him of our plan and before we knew it he was off getting some boots and a pack to come with us.
Our hike began at noon, and after about 45 minutes of uphill hiking we were hit with the realization that we were at over 14, 000 feet high. Coming from 2 years at sea level, I could definitely feel the altitude and had to consciously slow down to keep from loosing my breath. J was feeling the same effects, but Mike plodded along as always. It was more an interesting sensation than anything, but after about 1 hour of uphill we began the gradual downhill to Los Nevados which sits at about 9,000 feet and once on the downhill I couldn’t notice the altitude. We hiked at a leisurely pace as the scenery was breathtaking. Mike and I have done lots of hiking in the Rocky mountains and although similar at 14,000 feet everything is covered in snow in the Rockies, but here everything was green with low sweeping valleys filled with mountain flowers.High above the green you could see the tips of the rocky mountain peaks and white streams of water cascading down into the valley’s below. It was one of the most dramatic and beautiful places I’ve even seen.
In the late afternoon sun, we approached a little village on the slope of the mountain.The village’s red tiles roofs and white stucco walls shone in the descending sunlight making the most spectacular view. We arrived after about 5 hours of hiking and found a little Posada at sat and marvelled at the unbelievable view from out side our room. Los Nevados is among the most tranquil places I’ve ever been. So quiet and serene.We enjoyed a good meal, a nice hot shower and a good nights sleep. The next day we poked about the village, chatting with locals and relaxing in the hammocks and taking it all in before leaving in our jeep to head back to Merida. We jumped in the jeep at about 1pm and began our 4 hour trip back to town…I’d heard it was quite the trip but I thought “”How bad could it be”.
Ok, let me tell you this…people who drive hummers and SUV’s in the city have NO idea what 4x4 is for. This “road” to Merida is about 10 feet at best with a cliff face to your right shooting straight up, and a cliff to your left plundering 2000 feet straight down and the road itself armed with 2 foot gully’s and valley’s of it’s own.I’ve never been on such a crazy road, even in Morocco which held the award for craziest roads and drivers. But our driver was a pro and handled his old jeep without any problems. It’s a good thing he didn’t speak English cause the “Oh my God’s” and the "holey s@%t" coming from me probably didn’t help things much. Mike and J on the other hand LOVED it…they were talking tires, motors, gears etc…It was fun nonetheless!
Finally we found paved roads that led to Merida and before we knew it Los Nevados was only a memory.
So after a couple more days, it was time to head back to Medregal and our boat. We boarded the long bus back and will leave out the dirty bus stations, long waits and cold buses. We arrived back at Meggie pleased to see she had been well looked after in our absence and please to also see our friends on Mustang Sally had arrived.
So, we’re just waiting now and are anxious to get in the water. We can’t wait to get to the out laying islands of Venezuela, but are remaining patient for now.
So, in a nutshell that is the last few weeks. It’s hard to include everything, but it gives you an idea of what’s been happening.
Hopefully next time you hear from us, we WILL be in the water! Oh and….I was incorrect in saying my article would be in the August issue of Cruising World…it’s the September issue! Also, Mike has an article that will be appearing in “All at Sea” a Caribbean based magazine, YAY.
Until next time,
Ciao
Kylie and Mike