Log 24 June to November 2008 Tragedy at Puerto La Cruz


We had a great time back home in Toronto. We stayed the first two weeks with Eileen and spent time visiting the kids and their various projects. We had finally been given interim possession of our condo in December after buying it back in Oct. 2004 and had just left it empty till we got home to have a look and decide whether to rent it out or not. The condo was a pleasant surprise with an outstanding view looking over the western harbour and Humber Bay. We had bought it off plans so we weren’t sure how it was going to turn out. We spent most of our time working with two of our children on their property project. It’s a pleasant walk up Spadina Avenue going through Chinatown cutting over through Kensington market and up through the lower annex to the house on Bathurst St. Nathan had spent most of the winter renovating the upper floor apartment and we helped him gut the basement and get his place liveable. The Rustic Cosmo Cafe had its 14th anniversary this year hard to believe seems like a lifetime ago especially with all the changes down on Queen Street West.
Deb helped Nicole relieve staff for summer holidays. Nick is still off teaching ESL in Japan. We delayed our return to Seacycle as towards the end of our stay we had two family members dealing with illnesses. Our best wishes and thoughts go out to our nephew Oliver. Sorry to all the friends we didn’t get a chance to see.


After getting way to comfortable in the new condo we flew out from Toronto November 7th at 6pm to Caracas getting there at 12:30 am with a connecting flight out to Barcelona at 6 am there didn’t seem any choice but to wait in the airport. All the hustlers were at the gates trying to shill you into taxis or ludicrous money exchanges so we just headed up the the cafeteria and waited it out, Caracas being no place to wander around at night. Landing into Barcelona early the next morning we couldn’t help but notice six Russian built Sukhoi fighter jets ominously lining along the landing strip. Another one of Chavez’s purchases with the Russians, a total of 24 jets and 50 helicopters, with the sellers getting the maintenence contract, somewhat similar to the communications satellite he just launched but with the Chinese running the show. It is very hard to believe that a country suffering with a crumbling infrastructure and so delinquent in adequate services would spend valuable resources on jet fighter planes and satellites. Andres the taxi driver picked us up and deposited us at Bahia Redonda where we were staying with Neriea for a few days and getting ourselves organised with groceries and a car for the five hour drive back to the Seacycle at Medregal.

At the marina we were greeted by Neriea and Gladys. A couple of hours later Sojourn, a sister ship Alberg pulled in. It was agreed to all go for pizza at six. At six Tom and Rose off Sojourn came to the boat to get us and meet Dan and Jamie. Earlier in the afternoon we had watched two boats leave for the eight mile sail to Isla Boracha staging for an early departure to Tortuga. This is a common procedure for cruising boats in crowded anchorages or marinas. Rather than deal with close quarter manuvoring in the dark and disturbing other vessels you just go anchor out if a suitable spot is available. We had a passing aquaintence with both boats, Chill a Beneteau crewed by Ken and Cathy, from the time they were active as volunteers in Wardrick Wells in the Bahamas and I’Lean, Steve and Gloria, from a time as neighbours in Tyrell Bay haul out for a few days two seasons ago. Just as we were leaving to go a frantic Mayday came across the radio from one of the two boats. Gloria from I’Lean was beseeching anyone with her mayday that Ken had been shot and they needed assistance. As you can imagine everybody listening was shocked and confused. Jaime quickly assumed the role of radio coordinator translating between the boats and the marina staff. At this point we all left the boat so Jamie could concentrate on translating and to look from the huge seawall at Bahia Redonda over towards Isla Boracha. By now the news had spread throughout the marinas, Dan went to the guard house and tried to make sure the bases were being covered from that end. There was nothing to do but wait.

After an hour Jaime came out and asked Dan to organise a dinghy to help bring in the boats. Dan got Tony from Hoof Beats another large Beneteau similar to Chill and then along with Geoff and myself we motored to the harbour mouth and waited. The women were on the one boat with a guard and Steve was bringing in I’Lean with Ken and one guard, heading directly back to the coast guard station while Chill headed back to the marina. The two boats made the channel mouth to the lagoon a few hours after the first call. With the dinghy on the back in davits obscuring the view
the people in the cockpit didn’t see us approach and were startled as we all clambered on board and assumed deck positions to help at the dock. In hindsight none was needed, Cathy probably running on instinct insisted on doing all her own fenders and lines handing off to us only when she was satisfied they were right. Gloria stayed in the cockpit with the guard while Cathy then brought the vessel to the side dock and the waiting crowd. Once the boat was tied Jamie and Cathy were taken in a local sailor’s dinghy back to the coast guard station. After handing off my bow line I left the boat and walked through the crowd and went back to Neriea. Jaime never returned to Neriea during the night, staying with Cathy who stayed up all night writing down every detail she could remember. Ken had been killed instantly. The gist of the story was that three men approached the boat, their second attempt at one that night after they had earlier spooked a Venezuelan powerboat which had left its anchorage dragging its anchor and picking up the owners niece who was swimming. Everybody had been on I’Lean going over the sail plan when the men came to the stern asking for water, Cathy on the scoop had been holding the dinghy off after giving them the water when one of them unexpectedly pulled a gun firing two shots at Ken and continued to fire until emptying his shots. Steve caught one shot in the rear while turning to yell for Gloria to get his gun. The three men having no more shots panicked realizing Steve was getting a gun and jumped out of their boat and swam away. Steve fired back into the dark and then drove his dinghy around making sure the bandits didn’t return to either boat. The coast guard showed up soon after.

Needless to say the whole boating community was in shock and nobody was sure how to act or what was appropriate. Rumours took over with everything changing hourly. I’Lean was tied up at the La Guardia dock since it was the crime scene while Steve was taken to the hospital for attention. By Tuesday we had seen little of Jaime who was doing everything he could to aid both boats with translations with the authorities while Bahia Redonda stepped in and provided an attorney.

As it turned out it took weeks for everything to start to be cleared up in the tragedy. On the Monday we loaded up on supplies and made a deal with Arnaldo to drive us to Madregal five hours away. We set off at 7am on the Tuesday; our only concern was to get to Sea Cycle tucked away at the remote Medregal Village on the north side of the Golfo. We weren’t sure if the roads were open since we had been told that the Chavistas had been blocking the road to the Araya just past Carriaco protesting for the upcoming state elections.

To be continued.....