Trinidad - Coche
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The last days in Chaguaramas, Trinidad, are filled with activity. First of all, Nila is moving on board of Blue Bie. She is moving very light, bringing just a mid-sized bag. The move also involves a formal act with the local authorities: Larry, her former skipper has to write a letter, signing her off from her duties on board of Reva Nui and I have to write a letter, accepting responsibility for her. Nila and I celebrate this with a delicious ice-cream in the Café del Mar. Thereafter, I am doing last purchases for Blue Bie and Nila is doing some food shopping before we say good-bye to our friends and head to Chaguachacare – a small island close to Trinidad, which was home to a leper colony thirty-five years ago. The site is very impressive and makes you feel that the inhabitants moved out only recently – some furniture is standing there as they would move back tomorrow.
After a quite day in Chaguachacare, we set sail around 22.00h for Los Testigos, the first island group of Venezuela. Having just gone to sleep, Nila wakes me up and informs me about a boat with strange navigation lights. A few minutes later we hear a call on the VHF: “Ship in 10°56N, 62°02W – you are sailing a dangerous course, repeat dangerous course!” We return the call and learn that it is a seismographic ship with a 3 km long tow array! He indicates a course which clears his tow array. I am impressed, how professionally and friendly he handles the situation. Tonight is one of my first night watches on board of Blue Bie. Until now I slept with Blue Bie under the watch of radar and autopilot. Now we are going to keep alternative watches and I can watch the night sky and see two dolphins. Actually, I can’t see them in the dark night, but the phosphorescent water rushing along their bodies. A truly marvellous sight!
Los Testigos are very quaint islands, with an elevation of less than 1000 feet. They hardly get any rain and as a result cactuses grow rather than rainforests as on Trinidad. Nila starts to reorganise the kitchen – actually the whole boat ;) After a day on Los Testigos we set sail for Margerita, but are greeted by light south-westerly winds – where we are heading. These light south-westerlies occur regularly, but never last long. We decide to return to Los Testigos and leave the next day, when indeed the usual easterly trade winds re-establish. It is a beautiful sail in light winds to Margerita and Blue Bie slides with 7-8kn effortlessly along in 10kn of true wind. We eat breakfast under way, seeing the world passing by and catch a beautiful, 1.35m long Wahoo weighing about 10kg. Arriving in Porlamar, Isla Margerita, we feed quite some crews with it!
The anchorage in Porlamar feels special. Many boats and people have been here for a while. Life is cheap and many sailors can’t afford to sail and live somewhere else. Over time, their boats get less seaworthy, too, which shows! We use the low prices to do the provisioning, returning with 6 full cardboard boxes of food and to shop diesel, filling Blue Bie’s diesel tanks for a dollar.
Having recovered from a flue, we are heading towards El Yaque, Venezuela’s windsurf capital a few days later. I have spent many holidays here, dreaming about sailing around the world one day. It feels fantastic to sit in the beach bar and look out to Blue Bie, saying “Yep, I’ve done it!” The wind is very gusty for kitesurfing and the anchorage is very rough, too. After two nights, we lift the anchor and sail the 10 miles to Isla Coche. It is a fantastic anchorage in the lee of the island and a great kitesurf spot, since the island is barely 10m high. The island has nothing to offer other than a few resorts, lots of sand, sun and wind. But kitesurfing is great and we stay 10 days. I am kiting everyday and fall in the routine of kiting, eating and sleeping (10-11 hours a day!). A truly fantastic place for a kitesurf-maniac! Nila goes in the meantime beach wandering, collects shells, jogs and brings Blue Bie to unknown sparkle.