April and May 2009


Left Bahia Redonda at 6 am motoring out into the bay and an hour later clearing Isla Borrachas headed north west for the Los Roques archipelago. We were scheduled to arrive early the next morning. We cleared the harbour west of Isla Borrachas around 8am but the seas were greasy and there was not enough wind to power through the roll causing the boom to fill and slack stressing the rig. The wind picked up but it was a sloppy ride and at 10 we decided to drop the main and the boom into the gallows and go with just the jib and mizzen leaving us with a much smoother ride. So many times we hear from the so called dockside experts how the traditional yawl rig is outdated but I’m sure in the circumstances they would gladly have changed places this morning. There had been some festering debate about the weather window amongst those who were heading out in all directions. Even though our route was all downwind our concern was about some chance of line squalls adding to the 20knots and 8ft seas already forecast. There was also a northern swell remnant
working its way through the eastern Caribbean and this can cause some uncomfortable sailing. Since a big part of the passage was overnight with little moon this didn’t seem like a good choice In the end the squalls looked like they were diminishing and the wind and seas looked like they were going to pickup later in the week so while not ideal the idea of waiting another week or two was not appealing. We decided to go.

By mid morning under a full jib and mizzen only we were moving along at 6.5 knots and around 1:00 pm the island of Tortuga came into view. This not the fabled buccaneer island of Tortuga made famous by Sabatini’s novel Captain Blood and Hollywood. That island lies twenty miles to the north of Haiti. We had no intention of stopping there but wanted to get as close to its southwest shore before altering course slightly to head towards the Roques. As we fell behind the island’s lee the wind died and shifted a bit so we raised the main and dropped the mizzen. It was
around this time that we discovered the solar regulator wasn’t working and we were not getting any electrical input. This is one of the problems with sitting in a marina comfortably tied to shore power for so long. We had checked the system before leaving and all seemed well but now there was a glitch, in fact the regulator seemed dead. I unhooked the solar from the regulator and rerouted the wiring around. Power gain was minimal compared to what we usually generated with the STTP technology of our regulator so we decided we would run the motor every few hours for power to keep the auto pilot and night lights from emptying the battery bank. Just before sunset we brought the boat into the wind, dropped the main, and raised the mizzen for our night time sail plan. Nautilus hailed us on the VHF and reported that their electronics including depth sounder, radar and chart plotter had crashed. We agreed to stay in sight at close quarters for the night.

As we left Tortuga and the protection of its lee the wave train changed and we started to experience confused seas. Normally we could have sped up a bit and this might have increased our comfort level but as it was we were going to arrive at the Roques too early for entering through the reefs. The rules are to have the sun as high as possible and preferably behind you to see into the water. This is where polarized glasses come in handy for seeing into the depths. It was a wet, rolly night and we got the worst of it several times as waves washed over the starboard transom and into the cockpit soaking everything. There was some freighter traffic but usually well south from us and all heading east. Around three am we spotted to the north a light flashing from the off limits military island of Orchilla. By the time dawn came the seas were in the ten foot range, whitecaps being blown into spindrift with the winds in the steady mid twenties, the odd seabird running in our slipstream.. We were cold, wet and tired but in good spirits especially as what we thought was a freighter turned out to be the lighthouse at the Roques southern entrance. At 8am we were off the entrance with Nautilus right behind
us and so we inched forward dropped sails and motored through the narrow entrance as it showed itself into the calm waters behind the reefs. After sorting out the proper channels we picked our way between the reefs and half an hour later we anchored behind the outer reef and began tidying the boat up. This was a beautiful anchorage, the water colours and visibility the best we had seen since the Bahamas and deserted except for a few large Venezuelan Sport Fishers transiting by. The next day two other boats we knew showed from Tortuga reporting the same sloppy passage. After seven days of exploring the cays and just hanging out we headed up to the main island to report in. Cruisers are divided on this because most are legally departed from Venezuelan waters. So one camp just ignores it and stays out on the fringes with the others going in to report. Stories doing the rounds had them telling you to push on after only a night. We figured we would check in and see as we didn’t want any legal problems and at least if a problem arose I would have my one good
righteous leg to stand on. Well they have a great system, for them, first they check you in to the park collect the fee (in our case 65US) and then tell you to leave within 24 hours. We pointed out we had paid for the 15 day permit but they said didn’t matter, leave. After some pleading and general chit chat invoking the world baseball series back in Toronto and the hospitality their countrymen were receiving there (Venezuelans had done well at the Skydome) they relented and said 7 days. Not wanting to look a gift horse in the mouth I said adios and vamoosed. The small town is very colourful, a regular beach colony just opening up to a small influx of tourists flown in on small planes from the mainland to their tiny

airstrip. Part of the deal was to turn our park forms into the coast guard before leaving the main island which was for us the next day. Well we had to go through the whole official process again with the same result. In the end we left the main island and never saw another official till leaving the Aves at the last Venezuelan territory. We ended up spending the next several days at anchorages around the group. It was Easter weekend and there were a lot of boats crowding the more popular anchorages. We spent our last few days at Aqua and Elbert Cay and from there we left
one morning jibing from broad reach to broad reach running down to the Aves. These are two large reef systems separated by twenty miles and each with a few small Cays. They are known for their reefs, wrecks and thousands of sea birds which use the island for a rookery. The reefs face to the east each in a large horseshoe and have collected a number of wrecks stretching back to the sixteenth century making them
well known widow makers. In 1678 a few crafty Dutch fisherman being pursed by a French fleet of seven warships, used their knowledge of the reefs to lure the fleet to its destruction saving the island of Curacao from invasion. The fleet is known to have had an auxiliary force of hired pirate ships that also ran onto the reefs. In 1998 some of the cannon were finally discovered by an American group lead by one of the Kennedy children. They were located when the stone ballast outlines of the ships were discovered by the expedition. Stone was used as ballast on out going voyages and replaced by cargo traded or pillaged for. The birds also provided quite the industry in Guano which was collected for its concentration of nitrates first by the Dutch and then the Spanish for export to the European market. The anchorages were deserted with only a couple of motor trawlers both of whom we knew from Medregal months earlier. They left the next day and Nautilus who was pressed for time because of airline flights tagged along. We had the anchorage to ourselves and then met Queimarla an Australian cat on their way home through the canal. We shared the anchorage and a couple of sun downer sessions till they left on a weather window for
a straight shot to Panama and then another set of boats passed through including Quest whom we knew from Christmas two seasons ago in Grenada. They too only spent a night before heading off to Bonaire. Finally around three and half weeks out and much of it by ourselves we figured we only had enough water left for a week so we moved over to the next island group of Aves where we went on to the coast guard and were politely greeted and given the same 48 hour notice again. By this time we didn’t care because that was our intention anyways and we finished up with two great days exploring the reefs and beach combing. Finally we pulled the hook and sailed off to Bonaire a thirty mile downwind romp saying good bye to Venezuela.

After an eight hour sail we came into sight of Bonaire sighting the north end first and then seeing the south end marked by wind mills and brightly painted salt towers built in the 18th century to guide the salt ships in. We rounded the southern end of the island and then worked our way up the lee side looking for the anchorage at Kralendjik where everyone must tie to a mooring ball with no anchoring allowed. Bonaire is one of the few places to get this right and have turned all of
their waters into a protected and regulated park to protect their environment. We stayed a week renting a car and driving around the arid island checking out the salt flats, flamingos and some ancient Arawak rock drawings before heading off to Curacao where we headed into Spanse Waters, a very protected if windy anchorage, and made the arrangements to haul Seacycle and fly back to Canada.

To be continued....