1 November 1995 Isla Cubagua, Venezuela
A school holiday today, hurray! That Glenys is a slave driver. I spent most of the day creating a database in Excel to keep track of all my jazz songs on CD, in Band-in-a-Box and sheet music. I then joined the others snorkelling and shot a couple of fish to supplement the two small ones I got yesterday. If we have to live on my spear fishing, God help us!
When we were in Trinidad, I bought myself a pair of headphones. I hung them over the EPIRB over the chart table and issued dire warnings to the children not to touch them. The children have destroyed every pair of headphones that we have bought because they leave them lying about and they get stood/sat/ jumped on. While I was snorkelling, Glenys called me back in a mild panic, telling me that the engine compartment was smoking and it smelled like battery acid. After a few minutes of searching, I found out that the batteries in the EPIRB were leaking and the acid had dripped onto my nice new earphones. Exit one EPIRB and another pair of earphones! The weather at five o’clock was horrible with squalls all around us, so we decided to stay another day.
2 November 1995 Isla Cubagua to Playa Caldera, Isla Tortuga (Day 1)
It didn’t rain last night and it was very calm this morning. I now wish we had gone last night. I’m getting very tetchy and snapping at the kids – it’s definitely time to move on. We had breakfast and, with clear blue skies, we motored to Robledac, a village on the west coast of Margarita. It gets us ten miles closer to Tortuga and looked nice.
What a bloody awful anchorage – very rolly. We dismantled the dinghy and prepared for a night passage. By mid afternoon, there were rain squalls marching across the sky – this must happen every day and we’ve been suckered into staying for two days too long! We left the anchorage at five o’clock.
3rd November 1995 Isla Cubagua to Playa Caldera, Isla Tortuga (Day 2)
We only had about 15 knots of wind all night and just poled out the genoa. We slopped along at 3-4 knots with a bad rolling motion. It was a lovely night and we sighted the island at dawn. We anchored in 3.5 metres of water on hard packed sand amongst three other yachts. The anchorage is surrounded by a brilliant white beach, but it is a rolly one.
We relaxed until about ten o’clock when I assembled and inflated the cursed dinghy. We went for a walk around – very hot and a typical deserted island. Not many shells, so we went back to the boat. We had bean stew for lunch – we’ve not caught fish for two days!
We had a siesta to catch up on lost sleep and then Glenys and I went to check out the snorkelling. We arrived at a likely looking place when the outboard engine cut out. We dropped the anchor and I started to strip down the carburettor. I’d bought some new screwdrivers in Margarita to put in the tool kit for the outboard, but unfortunately the cross head screwdriver wouldn’t fit properly. I was struggling when (fortunately) another dinghy came around the corner and we thumbed a tow. Back on the boat, I stripped down the carburettor and put it back together and all was well again. I’m getting sick of this outboard – I want a new 15hp!
Still no fish, so we had soya mince spaghetti bolognese which was OK. We’ll have to get more of that when we get to Curacao, so that we don’t need to rely on my fishing!
The stereo system finally packed in and I tried in vain to repair it. I’ve got lots of jazz music, but no way of listening to it now that my headphones were destroyed two days ago. I’m a bit cross with myself because I half-heartedly looked at buying a new stereo in both Trinidad and Margarita but didn’t bother!
4 November 1995 Playa Caldera to Los Palanquinos, Isla Tortuga
We had breakfast and motored around to Los Palanquinos, which is a small crescent shaped reef about ½ mile offshore. We anchored in 4 metres of water with 2 other yachts about 100 yards away. This place has beautiful blue water and it’s fairly calm in the lee of the reef with the sound of waves crashing on the reef itself. We went for a quick snorkel before lunch and the wire loop on my spear gun broke.
This prompted me to get out a broken spear gun that Gareth had given me. I repaired both spear guns and gave my old one to Brett who is delighted with it. I taught him how to load it and we went spear fishing. I got 3 fish but Brett didn’t manage to get any. Fried fish balls for dinner.
5 November 1995 Los Palanquinos, Isla Tortuga
School work in the morning and then Brett was hopping about wanting to go spear fishing again. We went out for over two hours – I got 2 big 2lb Groupers, a 1½ lb Snapper and 4 small fish. Brett was very pleased with himself because he shot 2 fish, a Soap fish (which we tossed away after showing Mum and Craig) and a Grunt. He’s very sensible with such a lethal weapon and it’s just about the right size for him.
Glenys stayed in, typing her cookbook into the computer. She’s just started to use the computer, so it’s in great demand now with her cookbook, my memoirs, Band-in-a-Box and the boys playing games.
6 November 1995 Los Palanquinos to Cayo Herradura, Isla Tortuga
I’ve finally got my memoirs up to Cherbourg – at least we’ve left the country! Glenys forced us to do school work and then we motored to Cayo Herradura. This is a mile long crescent shaped island with fantastic white beaches – yawn! We had a quiet afternoon and then went for a quick walk on the beach before dark.
7 November 1995 Cayo Herradura, Isla Tortuga
School work in the morning and after lunch I took the boys to the beach to fly kites. Craig and Brett had bought some really cheap kites with their pocket money in Margarita. The kites were only 60p each and what a load of crap they were! Brett’s was manufactured wrong and wouldn’t assemble properly and Craig’s kept falling apart and then ripped. I gave up on their kites and got out my Peter Powell kite. It wouldn’t fly either and I tried to adjust the bridle. Two hours later, I gave up and went back to the boat for a beer.
I spent the evening formatting Glenys’ cookbook document for her. I couldn’t resist editing a bit of it and adding a few sentences. Glenys, rightly, got a bit shirty about me changing her book. I suppose it was a bit presumptuous of me.
8 November 1995 Cayo Herradura, Isla Tortuga
We did Lesson 20, which was a test. We then motored over to Los Tortugillas which are two deserted islands with a 3 metre deep sandy patch in between. We had to anchor about 400 metres from the north island because it shoaled to 2.6 metres. Once we had anchored, we stood and marvelled at the beautiful blue water surrounding us and (you’ve guessed) the incredibly white sandy beaches.
After fish sandwiches for lunch, Glenys and I went for a dive which was disappointing, with just broken, dead coral on sand. To make up for it, I shot two Groupers and two Snappers to stock up the larder. We then went for a walk on the gorgeous beach to look for shells but weren’t very successful. We motored back to Cayo Herradura for the night.
Glenys and I have two main topics of conversation at the moment – what are we going to do when we get back to the UK? And the design and equipping of our boat when we retire in 2010! The only ideas that we’ve had so far is setting up a company to distribute good quality melamine tableware and another company to import/export stuff to Portugal. It’s not very encouraging so far. It looks like I might have to get a “proper” job!
9 November 1995 Cayo Herradura to Ave de Barlovento, Los Aves (Day 1)
We got up at quarter to seven and started to run around getting ready to sail. When we left at quarter past eight, the wind was coming from our starboard beam, so we put away the awning and got the main out. About thirty minutes later, the wind had veered enough that I could pole out both jibs. It took us two hours to set everything up, take the main down and put the awning up. We collapsed with a well earned cold Pepsi.
We are heading about 10° too far south and only doing 4 knots but at least we’re in the shade. We must set up some sort of awning that we can use when the main is up. We slopped along all day and at five o’clock, I took down the awning, put up the main and we headed for Los Roques on a broad reach. We had only covered about 30 miles in nine hours so I decided to head for Los Roques which was 30 miles closer than Los Aves. Just before dark, the wind picked up to 20 knots and we romped along.
10 November 1995 Cayo Herradura to Ave de Barlovento, Los Aves (Day 2)
It was a beautiful full moon night and we made good progress. At midnight I plotted our position, (Thank God for GPS!) and decided to head for Los Aves again.
Glenys had a bit of a trauma with an oil tanker that either didn’t see us or didn’t care. She ended up waking me up at half past three for moral support. We changed course and ran downwind until the bastard had passed us.
At ten o’clock, we were 3 miles from Aves De Barlovenco, but had to head south to avoid a big squall. When the rain passed us, we dashed for the anchorage but got delayed by another squall that beat us to it. We had to hang about outside the anchorage for twenty minutes in the pouring rain waiting for enough light to find our way through the reefs. When the squall had passed, we made our way through the reefs and into the anchorage. We just got the anchor down before another 30 knot squall hit us, phew!
We had eggs, corn beef hash and beans for brunch and I put up the dinghy, managing to drop the adapter for the pump into the water. I put on a scuba unit but couldn’t find it. We waited for a gap in the weather and moved further into the anchorage away from the mangroves. Brett and I went spear fishing and I got 7lb of fish – 3 Snappers and 1 Grouper. Fish, fish, bloody fish for dinner. I’m starting to get aching finger joints, it’s actually quite painful and worrying. It’s probably the start of arthritis but it could be Ciguatera. At three o’clock in the morning, I worry about it a lot! Like you do!
11 November 1995 Ave de Barlovento, Los Aves
Glenys did schoolwork while I did some jobs. I finally got around to fitting the bilge pump that I bought in Bequia about 4 weeks ago. I also fixed a slight leak in the toilet pump – one of my favourite jobs! After lunch, we went out in the dinghy to the furthest point of the island where we picked up some nice shells off the beach. It’s addictive collecting shells; once I start I can’t stop. There might be a perfect nautilus shell on the next bit of beach...
12 November 1995 Ave de Barlovento to Aves Sotavento, Los Aves
I got up at half past six and just HAD to do our 94/95 Tax Return. It took me 4 hours to find the information and write a letter to Touche Ross. As soon as I had finished, we upped anchor and motored over to Aves Sotavento which was about 15 miles of rocking and rolling.
We had a big pod of bottled nosed dolphins join us. They came and played around the bow so we all gathered on the foredeck. The dolphins were obviously very pleased to see us and started to show off by doing tricks like swimming upside down and slapping their tails on the surface of the water. None jumped near the boat, but occasionally an exuberant dolphin would leap clear of the water about 100 metres away. The pod had babies and youngsters who came to see us with their parents.
We anchored off Long Island and immediately went snorkelling. The place looks good for diving with a drop-off about 100 metres behind Glencora. I speared 5 Grouper, so we had fish for dinner again. Glenys is sick of fish and I’m starting to fantasize about chicken! I filled 3 tanks.
13 November 1995 Aves Sotavento, Los Aves
Glenys and I went for a dive straight off the back of Glencora. Good dive until the end when we were harassed by a huge Barracuda. No lobster though. When we got back, we gave Brett and Craig a go with the scuba tanks. I want to get Craig used to clearing his ears. Craig came down with me for a couple of minutes, but his mask wasn’t on properly and we had to come up. Brett went down and was a natural at diving. He swam around by himself for five minutes and coped with the oversized gear really well.
We then motored through the reefs to the outer reef where we anchored, hanging off a sandy drop off. The anchor was in 2.5 metres and the boat was in 6.5 metres. After lunch we went snorkelling to look for lobster – we’re suffering from withdrawal symptoms! We saw not a whisker. We decided to up anchor and go somewhere else.
We motored our way through the reefs with me up the mizzen mast again and found a wonderful 4-5 metre deep sand shelf in the middle of nowhere. Just behind Glencora the reef drops away. Beautiful spot. We instantly went snorkelling for the elusive lobster. Eventually Glenys spotted one at about 5 metres and after a titanic struggle I wrenched the beautiful 3lb lobster out of its cave. Unfortunately, it was a female with eggs, so I had to let it go – fish for dinner again!
14 November 1995 Aves Sotavento, Los Aves
School work in the morning and then Glenys and I went for a dive before lunch. We saw 1 lobster in a 60 minute dive – we got it of course, 3½ lb. After lunch, we went for another dive at Glenys’ insistence. We saw 3 lobsters and took a huge 6lb one.
I wasn’t feeling too good on the second dive. I tried playing the clarinet when I got back, but gave up and rested in the cockpit. Glenys, bless her little cotton socks, made me a cup of tea which perked me up a bit. I must admit to feeling a bit guilty lounging about while Glenys cooked and dismembered the 2 lobsters. I filled 5 tanks. Lobster for dinner – yum, yum!
15 November 1995 Aves Sotavento, Los Aves
It was blowing 20-25 knots from about midnight, so we had a bit of a chop around the boat. We did half a lesson of school work until the sun was high enough to navigate around the reefs. It was with great sorrow that we left such a beautiful spot, but we must get to Bonaire. We went and anchored off Long Island and finished the school work.
After lunch, Glenys sorted through her tinned food, decided what to keep, what to bin and what she needs to buy. I worked out how much money we have left - it’s a bit depressing. We only have £18K in banks and investments and £15K in the Trust. I put £10K into an equity fund in April 1994 and over the past 18 months it has lost £1,500! All I can do is leave it in place and hope it grows again. Of our present total of £33K, we will only have £22K when we get back to Portugal – I’m depressed!
16 November 1995 Aves Sotavento to Bonaire
It blew 20-25 knots all night. I think that the bearing on the wind generator has gone because it seems to be making a lot of noise. We upped anchor, left the awning up, put up twin headsails and rocked & rolled downwind. The seas were quite high at about 3metres, winds 20-25 knots with the occasional squall. We dodged a huge squall and missed the rain, but still got 35 knots for about 10 minutes.
We were going along minding our own business when Glenys suddenly shouted “turn left, there’s a log ahead!” I grabbed the wheel and turned left and then saw a whale straight ahead. It was moving to the left, so I turned hard right and missed it by feet! As we went past, the whale turned on its side and looked at us with its huge eye. It then turned around and followed us for a minute before continuing on its way. We later identified it as 10 metre Sperm whale. Very exciting!
We arrived in Bonaire without further adventures and tied up on the north pier. I went and cleared in. I was extremely nervous because we hadn’t cleared out of Venezuela, but in the event, the customs didn’t want to see the clearance from the last port. It’s only countries that are small or Spanish speaking that seem to bother!
We left the dock and had problems anchoring. There is a very narrow shelf and then the bottom plunges off to 80+ metres. The holding on the shelf is awful – a thin layer of sand over broken coral. I eventually pushed the CQR into place and we then put out a second anchor. We then went for a beer. We were hoping to find a nice cheap “local” restaurant, but no chance - so, to the Boy’s delight, we ended up in the Kentucky Fried Chicken.
17 November 1995 Bonaire
We did some running about in the morning. It took Glenys an hour to get some money out of the bank. I went to the marina and found that we could get fuel and water. Our mail hasn’t arrived from Carol. On my way back from the marina, I spotted a vacant Marine Park mooring, so we rushed back to Glencora, pulled up the anchors and nabbed the free mooring. I feel a great deal more secure now.
Glenys went into town and bought some real food – steak and chips for dinner! I went to a dive shop and bought our diving permits ($10 US each). We went for a dive off the back of the yacht. The visibility is awesome! I filled 3 tanks.
18 November 1995 Bonaire
I woke up at half past six and just had to get up and write some faxes to our accountant, house rental agent and Carol to find out what is happening. I talked to Carol briefly on the phone and discovered that she hasn’t sent the mail again! God knows why – it’s so frustrating.
After lunch, Glenys and I went for a dive – very pretty but very similar to yesterday’s dive. My finger joints have been slightly painful for about a month now – I don’t know whether I’m straining them when I play the clarinet or whether it’s arthritis. Anyway, I got some anti-inflammatory tablets from the chemist today and some cod liver oil capsules! I filled 4 tanks and filled up with water and fuel.
19 November 1995 Bonaire
The mosquitoes are murder here, I had mosquito coils burning during the evening and just before we went to bed I put on the heater. I was still up at two o’clock, swatting mosquitoes, putting cream on bites and rubbing repellent on my body!
We did school work in the morning, (no weekends on Glencora). We had a quiet afternoon – I played the clarinet and finished Chapter 9 of my memoirs – we’ve finally left Falmouth!
20 November 1995 Bonaire
School work in the morning. Craig’s maths has suddenly become more difficult and he keeps bursting into tears when he can’t grasp a new concept. We did counting up in 2s, 3s, 4s and 5s which was hard and then they wanted him to fill in the sequence 29, 25, 21, --, --. This was too much for him. Sometimes the course requires inconsistent skill levels and he likes to do well at everything!
On the positive side, Craig has suddenly decided that reading is good and is actually reading comics and books by himself instead of just looking at the pictures. It’s a great breakthrough – he must have reached a critical level on the number of words that he knows.
Brett is doing well – his maths and reading are excellent but writing is still a problem – I think that it’s too slow for him! After crudités for lunch, (the boys love having “bits”), we went into the town, dropped off the laundry and did some shopping. The price of things here is extortionate. We had a few beers before we set off back and impetuously hired two scooters for tomorrow.
On the way back to the boat, we saw a pod of spinner dolphins in the channel between Bonaire and Klein Bonaire. We motored out to get close, but we only got within 50 yards and they went away.
21 November 1995 Bonaire
We picked up two scooters and had a terrific day out. We saw quite a few of the 15,000 pink flamingos that live on the island and saw the salt flats & salt mountains that are so important to Bonaire’s economy. We got fried in the sun and I swam back to Glencora to get some suntan lotion. Craig managed to knock a scooter over by jumping up and down on it – the damage cost me £15! After a very shaky start, Glenys got on really well and the boys loved it. We finished a fun day by having dinner at the dreaded Kentucky Fried Chicken.
22 November 1995 Bonaire
We did a bit of running about and a few jobs in the morning. After lunch, Glenys and I did a dive off the back of Glencora. The reefs are nice, but are all the same – a bit boring. I’m quite disappointed in Bonaire’s diving.
23 November 1995 Bonaire
Glenys did school work while I did a few jobs. I picked up our gas bottles and managed to get a second-hand water pump and impellor for the outboard which eases my mind somewhat. I got a fax from our housing agent saying that everything is fine at the house and the rent keeps rolling in. I got another fax from Paul Preston saying that the Inland Revenue will be issuing a residency ruling within the next month, so I’ll call him after Christmas. I hope to God that we get non residency and we can close the Trust down!
Carol (bless her) sent me a fax detailing all our mail, which I will sort out when we get to Curacao. We want to leave for Curacao tomorrow, but there is a low pressure area over Columbia which is showing signs of slow circulatory development. If it develops, we could get a SW wind here which is bad because we would be beating to Curacao. On the other hand, if we stay here, the anchorage would be a lee shore...
We went into town after lunch, I cleared out and Glenys did some shopping. In the evening, we went to the Club Nautico for a little Thanksgiving drink organised by Mo of “Motu”. We saw Stephan from “St Meloris” who we met in Hog Island last year.
24 November 1995 Bonaire to Spanish Water, Curacao
Miserable morning, rain and a hangover. I received a fax satellite picture and there appears to be no immediate problem with the low mentioned yesterday. We had to wait for half an hour while the heavy rain stopped. We dropped the mooring just as it started to rain again and motored towards Curacao in the pouring rain.
Thankfully, the rain soon stopped but we didn’t have much wind, so we motored all the way to Spanish Water. We only had a very small scale chart of Curacao so it was a little disconcerting approaching the island. We had a small pod of striped dolphins join us for a few minutes. We found our way into Spanish Water, which is a beautiful natural lagoon with only one narrow entrance channel.
We anchored and went over to “Kalida” to get a bit of local knowledge from Derek and Alison who have been here for two weeks. There’s a marina called Serafundi’s who look after the cruisers. You pay £10/week to become a member and you can send faxes and get free water there. They also hire cars, organise trips to the supermarket and sell cold beer. Anything you get from them is done by honour – you simply write down what you take on a list and pay at the end of the week.
25 November 1995 Spanish Water, Curacao
We caught a bus into Willemstaadt, which is the main town. I tried to clear in but immigration was closed. We wandered around the shopping area which has lots of shops like St Martin but more expensive. I managed to buy a new stereo for the boat for £45. It’s only 2W per channel, but is adequate for us; it has a CD input and two tape decks so I’m pleased with my bargain. The only problem was that it was 9V DC, so I have to connect it up to my computer PSU which was a bit of a fiddle but worked OK in the end.
To my great disappointment, we ended up having lunch in McDonald’s - I wanted to try out the local delicacies, but the boys won. There’s an amazing floating bridge across the river in Willemstaadt which is about 400 metres long. When a boat wants to enter the river, the bridge pivots about one end and swings open powered by engines on the other end. The bridge is built on boat shaped rafts and looks most odd when it is opening. I think the original one was a kind of ferry/bridge.
26 November 1995Spanish Water, Curacao
School work in the morning. In the afternoon we just messed about. A quiet Sunday.
27 November 1995 Spanish Water, Curacao
Glenys did school work in the morning, while I went into town to clear in. I managed immigration OK, but customs wouldn’t clear me in. They took my name and the boat name and said that their agent in Spanish Water would contact us to inspect the boat. I doubt it – there are boats here that have been waiting over a month! The only problem with this system is that I would like clearance papers when I clear out to Honduras. The customs said that they could provide this but it would cost me $15US – I don’t think I’ll bother!
While I was in town, I bought some leads and a microphone so that I can record the keyboard and me playing the clarinet on our new stereo. Unfortunately, the microphone I bought is uni-directional and doesn’t give a consistent level when playing the clarinet. I think that I need to buy a tie clip type microphone and clip it onto the clarinet. We went over to Sarifundi’s marina and registered with them. We booked a “Microvan” for tomorrow.
28 November 1995 Spanish Water, Curacao
Glenys did school work in the morning, while I wrote faxes to Carol and Oyster Brokerage. We’ve decided that we should try to sell the boat as soon as possible, maybe in Florida, maybe in the Azores or, as a last resort, sail the boat straight back to England in September.
At one o’clock, we picked up the Microvan and went into town. We did a huge food shop and then went to a couple of toy shops and the afternoon was gone! Steak for dinner.
29 November 1995 Spanish Water, Curacao
We declared today a holiday and didn’t get out of bed until half past nine. After breakfast, I put up the windsurfer and played all day in 18 knot winds – not quite enough for my 5.5m² sail (an eternal lament!) Glenys and the boys mooched about on the boat. Unfortunately, there isn’t a beach nearby.
30 November 1995 Spanish Water, Curacao
Glenys went off to a supermarket on a free bus from Sarifundy’s. I did a few minor bits of tidying up and rang around to get some oil and fuel filters for the engine.
When Glenys came back, we had a quick sandwich and then I went into town. I picked up my filters and then bought a clip-on Omni directional microphone to record the clarinet. Unfortunately, it cost £20 and Glenys thought that I was extravagant, considering that I prevaricated about buying a £25 Game Gear game for the boys. “It’s alright if you’re buying for yourself, but you’re really tight about other things”. It’s funny how the truth hurts!
We went to happy hour at Sarifundy’s, Glenys lost a contact lens and we had to go back to Glencora for dinner (which made her grumpy). I think she still hates me for buying that £20 microphone! (But it does seem to be good!)