November, 2005 -- Waiting for Weather in Margarita

We got away from Puerto La Cruz on Tuesday morning, October 25, and arrived in Porlamar, Margarita two days later after an uneventful trip. We traveled with buddy boat, "Hello World", and David and Kate, a lovely Scottish couple, who are world-class professional photographers. On our first afternoon out, the water got quite rough outside the islands, so we decided not to go all the way to Mochima for the first night, stopping instead in a very calm anchorage in the Caracas Islands. We had never anchored there before because we were told it was not safe, but even though we two boats were absolutely alone, we had a quiet night. We slept with one eye open, but never had any unwelcome visitors. We were startled when our satellite phone rang late at night with a call from home about the death of Orma's aged Auntie Beryl. Isn't it amazing that we can be in contact with the world outside even though we are in the remotest location.

The next morning we left at the crack of dawn and sailed to Cabaugua Island, where we anchored with several other boats, and again had no problems. On Thursday morning it was an easy motor trip (4 hours) to the anchorage at Porlamar, Margarita.

Porlamar is not one of our favorite places. The anchorage is very open to the swells, making for unpleasant rocking and rolling. After three uncomfortable nights, we moved closer to shore where it is a bit calmer, although the swells still come in and the boats roll around. We put out a stern anchor and pulled the boat around to face into the waves, changing the rolling from side to side to rocking back and forth, which is slightly more comfortable. There are about 150 boats in the anchorage, about half of whom are habitual cruisers and hang out here more or less permanently, since it is a cheap place to live and they don't have to pay anything for moorage. A number of live-aboards from Luperon whom we met five years ago have migrated down here. The good news is that a couple of enterprising fellows have set up a wi-fi business and we can get unlimited internet access on the boat! Amazing!!

We dinghy ashore to a guarded dinghy dock at Juan's Marina, where we can get a taxi into town. There are boats that deliver water and fuel, and laundry service is available. Marina Juan orders fresh bread that can be picked up at his little building in the middle of a big dirty field. Margarita is supposedly a tax-free port, and it has lots of shopping areas to help pass the time and use up our last bolivares. As well as the old downtown area, Orma has found some great shops and an absolutely lovely new supermarket in a beautiful big mall.

Along the shore there are many high rises and condos. It looks a bit like English Bay from a distance, but on closer inspection many of the buildings are unfinished and/or abandoned. The huge hotel complex in the picture is completely empty except for a security guard and whatever squatter can get by him. The metal stairways down the outside are falling apart and almost completely rusted away.

As we cleared out of Venezuela in Puerto La Cruz, we are now here illegally. More bad news is that the weather forecast for the next week shows that the winds and waves will be too high for traveling east. Who knows what the following week will bring. We had hoped to just spend a night or two here before continuing on. On this weekend last year we had amazingly calm weather for traveling east from Bonaire back to PLC. We hope we haven't missed the weather window this year. It is a rule of thumb that easting should be done in September or October. We have been looking forward to getting to Grenada to visit with our friends Pam and Chas (ex-Night Owl) who have built a home there after losing their boat in Hurricane Ivan last year. We have flights home booked for December 8 out of Grenada.

We have been watching some kids playing on the beach out in front of us. There is a huge sailboat -- maybe 100 feet long -- looks like it could have been an ocean racer -- lying on its side in shallow water. It has obviously been there for some time. Kids climb up to the high side, grab onto a line hanging from the mast, and swing out over the water. Looks like fun!

We are enjoying our new dinghy. We gave Chicklet (the old one) to some friends from the church in PLC who have two young teenagers and just moved to an apartment on the canals. We wish we could have brought it home, but we definitely do not have room for two dinghies! The new Caribe (9-foot light) is much nicer than the old dinghy. It has larger tubes for a drier ride, seems to go faster with the same motor, and has a flat floor which is much more comfortable and convenient. No more wet grocery bags and slippery footing on the sloping floorboards. Caribes cost less than half as much here as they do at home, so it seemed to make sense to buy it before we left Venezuela.