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19. day - 28/10/2006 - Today we bought a lot of food in a good stocked up supermarket. |
20. day - 29/10/2006 - Today we checked our engine. The starting battery was flat, we charged it.. |
21. day - 30/10/2006 - We cleared out from Venezuela. Clearing out is not as simply here due to the bureaucracy. A local guy does it for 60,000 bolivares however, thanks for our French neighbours in the shipyard we could do it for 350 bolivares. We invited them for a Hungarian dinner (we cooked pörkölt) for the night. We had a good chat with them as well and they shared with us their Caribbean life experiences. . |
22. day - 31/10/2006 - It is good to see the Rotor back on the sea. We finished every major work on it so the travellift came and put it back to the water in the afternoon. However we had a little problem around the starting batteries. We have to buy a replacement somewhere. We did not want to stay for the night at Navimca because couple of days before local pirates stole some dinghies and outside motors from the boats anchored here. So we sailed to Cumana Marina. Geza’s slogan is KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid!) but it was not true regarding the batteries. It took him for a while to replace it.
The Rotor is registered under Hungarian flag. That makes a bit of confusion among the locals as they think we are Italian, however the Hungarian flag is the other way around. . | | | | The 2 colored antifouling | On the travellift | Back in the water | | | | | | |
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23. day - 01/11/2006 - , Cumanagato MarinaGeza replaced the batteries. The motor goes well now. The gasoline is very cheap here therefore we refilled our tanks. Geza was mounting the windvane when a Canadian man asked his help about it. Geza gave him some useful advices how to use it. For our surprise the Canadian man told us “thank you very much” in Hungarian. Through a delightful discussion with him it was cleared out that he had a Hungarian wife.
The Marina looks like a small oasis in a desert protected by guards carrying huge shotguns. There are multiplex cinemas and a shopping complex either.
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24. day - 02/11/2006 - We started our journey on the Rotor with the first morning light. On our way dolphins, pelicans and flying fish followed us. The dolphins enjoyed the early morning light as they played around us for a long time. I tried to make couple of pictures of them however it was not easy because when I got ready the camera they disappeared and when I was not ready they were just there. Finally I could make couple of good pictures.
We used the big jib for sailing, as the wind was not very strong. We arrived to Tortuga at around 10 pm. Although the moon was full we could not see the reefs so we did not risk navigating among them, therefore we anchored the boat near the island where we thought it is safe and enough depth for anchorage. We were also using the GPS and computer to track our position on the electronic charts (which were off and put our current position in the middle of the island), however the radar showed us the true picture in the night so it did not cause a big problem. |
25. day - 03/11/2006 - After a bad night (caused by strong winds and waves) a pleasant morning. Isla Tortuga is gorgeous. It is a low and dry island with beautiful beaches and brilliant watercolours. We reanchored by its associated island, which looks like a half moon from bird’s eyes view. We were swimming a lot in the afternoon. The sand was white because of the dead reefs and water was clear. No tourists at all, only the yachts stop on their way between Venezuela and Bonaire.
Geza made a chance to call an English flagged sailing yacht called “Do It” on VHF radio. He knew that they were cruising around the islands. Geza met them before twice on his Caribbean journey. For our surprise they replied our call and they were towards the same bay in Tortuga. Ruth and Agnus the owners of “Do It” invited us for a chat party in the evening, which was really great.
Did you know?
There were number of pirates activity reported by the International Maritime Organisation in Venezuela and Cumana was included in it.
Tortuga used to be infamous about its pirates activities in the 17. Century, however today it is free from any pirate activity and very safe from tourism perspective. |
26. day - 04/11/2006 - Early in the morning we raised our anchor and sailed towards Northeast.
Interesting: the magnetic North is not the same as the true North due to the magnetic variation which is around 20 degrees (huge) on the Caribbean. I found it when I switched from GPS navigation to compass navigation.
The biggest variation is at the Bermudas, which is around 30 degrees.
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27. day - 05/11/2006 - Although our cruising permit has matured in Venezuela, on our way from Tortuga Island, Venezuela to Bonaire, we decided to make a brief stop in Las Aves. Las Aves is made up of a horseshoe reef that gives shelter to two islands and a few smaller cays. The name Las Aves comes from the large number of birds that make the islands their home in the mangrove forest.
Despite the extensive reef, navigation in good light is fairly easy as the deep water is plenty deep (very blue), the shallow water is very shallow (very green) or sometimes it is brown if the reef is covered by plenty of plants and moss so it is easy to tell the two apart (deep or shallow). However, this was our first reef navigation so we worked our way through the reef carefully to the anchorage place. Geza was on lookout from the ratlines and checked our position with the pilot book (cruising guide), I was driving and checking the depth with the fish finder (the fish finder is so useful in these circumstances).
After a brief tour to get familiar with our selected anchorage, we dropped the Beast (around 110 pounds) in 10 feet of water. We set the anchor and then kicked back and relaxed after our 142 nautical mile passage from Tortuga (1 nautical mile is equal to 1.15 state miles).
Boobies!
The bird life here has to be seen to be believed. They perch in the mangroves by the hundreds, maybe thousands. The majority are various species of booby, but there are also other seabirds (such as frigate birds, pelicans and herons). From the anchored Rotor we could hear a wonderful chorus as they argue over branch rights and feed their young.
We took the dingy and explored the shoreline with our cameras. The birds were very curious and they were not very scared at all when we passed them so close.
Since we had so closely inspected the boobies, they must have decided to do the same to us. They swarmed over our heads for about 20 minutes. We enjoyed the encounter immensely.
On our way we could see also lots of hermit crabs.
| | | | | A squall passed by | | | | | The redfooted booby | | A cute booby chick | | | | | | |
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