OFF SHORE ISLANDS OF VENEZUELA TO BONAIRE

Travels to the off shore Islands of Venezuela

Los Testigos (Eastern Venezuela)

This part of our journey is much harder then before. The islands are much further apart. Every crossing takes 24 hours or more. The day that the weather was good enough to cross over to Los Testigos our generator over heated again. We had the mechanic to the boat two times fixing it (what now!). Being stuck here in Grenada was making us restless. We decided to head out anyway, we would motor enough to charge the batteries. We had great weather but our main sail ripped along the way. This season is starting off on the wrong foot. Without the main sail we had to motor the whole way. Also the main sail keeps the boat steady, without it, you rock back and forth a lot more. Carl managed to roll in the sail enough to keep it from ripping more. The other bad thing about motoring is that the off shore island don’t have diesel fuel and we don’t have enough diesel to sail all the way to Bonaire.

Los Testigos is beautiful. The water is turquoise and so clear that you can see the bottom. Carl & I sewed the sail by hand with a sewing awl, we attached new webbing and she was ready to sail again.

In the anchorage the guarda coasta (Coast guard) comes to your boat and checks your paperwork. They were real nice guys, I gave them both a Coca Cola. They were very grateful. The people that live here are fishermen. There is one church and one school, no ferry, no airport and no stores. They use their fishing boats to go to bigger islands for supplies. The language is Spanish. Gorgeous beaches with huge sand dunes, great snorkeling with lots of fish. Carl caught a big fish, as he reeled him in a shark bit it in half. We still had enough fish for four people with leftovers. We invited Sunway to dinner, good fish and wine topped off the evening. We only spent the night here then headed to the Off Shore Islands the next day.

Off shore Islands:

La Blanquilla:

On this crossing we had more problems. The back clue of our main sails rope broke. Carl rolled it in safely and turned on the motor again. Using more diesel, not good! As we arrived the Guarda Costa came to our boat again to check our paperwork. We explained our problem with the diesel to them hopping that somehow we could purchase some diesel somewhere close. These guys were so cool, they wanted to help us out really bad. They called their Commander on the VHF radio, told him our problem and asked him permission to give us some diesel. After a lot of talking back and forth, the Commander agreed to fill up our diesel jerry cans. Within minutes we were heading to the Venezuela Military Base with the Guarda Coasta leading the way. The Commander gave Carl the diesel for FREE! It filled up our tank and we had some extra in the jerry cans. That sure changed our image of the Venezuela government! All of the Venezuela people were really nice and happy to greet us.

Blanquilla looks a lot like Los Testigos. It’s a delightful island about 50 miles north of Margarita, well off the beaten track of Venezuela’s crime area. We fixed our Main sail again hopping it will hold up well on our next crossing. We enjoyed the water and the sunset. Slept great then left the next morning under full sail. Nice weather, low winds, no sail problems and full diesel, were feeling good now!

Islas Los Roques:

Los Roques is an area of about 14 by 25 miles of protected reef-studded water, dotted with pretty little islands. The main island is not as remote as the other islands. There is a food store, restaurants, souvenir shops and even an airport. The whole area is a protected national park. There is no cars, and the streets are sand. We stayed in a small anchorage far away from the village. This small island looks like a huge sand dune with some grass. As we walked on shore, we were attacked by mosquitoes. They swarmed over us biting every inch of skin they could reach. I jumped in the water to get them off, Carl ran to the dingy and started the motor. At night we had to close the windows to keep the mosquitoes out, during the day things were fine. We stayed here for a few days resting and enjoying our new friends on Sunway.

Islas De Avesg:

The weather and the wind were so nice that we didn’t stop on this island. We made the crossing to Bonaire without any sail problems. Perfect sail just a little motoring to charge our batteries. Life is good!

The ABC Islands:
Bonaire
Curacao
Aruba
Then plan our passage to Panama.