Tortuga – Aboard Dignity (Lagoon 420) Blog

Venezuela tracks

steve — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 12:20:52 +0000

Here is our track through the Venezuelan offshore islands. Again – first part was reconstructed due to loss. Enjoy.

View 2009 Venezuela in a larger map

Fish soup

KC2RIY — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 16:17:00 +0000

So who says we can’t catch fish. Just caught a massive Tuna. Problem is, something else caught it just afterwards. All we got was it’s head. Must have happened fast as the head was still twitching and bleeding. Oh well. Fish head soup for lunch.

Wind is slightly up. Kind of a up/down day.

Better planning required

KC2RIY — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 13:57:00 +0000

It’s all a learning experience. The forecasts I read yesterday all suggested we’d have winds between NE to E around 15-20 knots. Except for the first 2-3 hours, what we’ve been seeing is 10-15 from the SE – right behind us. This is not our best point of sail by any means so our mid afternoon ETA is somewhat compromised. I had expected to be on a reach. Not this. I should have known though because the winds have tended to have been more southerly than the predictions.

There is no way we should enter Boca de Sebastapol in weak light so we’re assisting our passage with a nudge from the motors. If the wind stays as it is we’ll run for a few hours with a light nudge via the batteries then run for an hour on the genset to charge up. We’re learning lots on this trip.

I am left wishing we’d left at dusk which was our original plan. Much easier to slow down than speed up. I was seduced by the thought of a little solid sleep before we set off. It’s the difference between making the right decision versus the easy decision. Another lesson learned.

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Almost alone in Las Tortuguillas

KC2RIY — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 21:15:00 +0000

Slow morning. Got up gradually. Read. Did our bit on the Coconut Telegraph which is currently running Mondays, Wednesdays & Fridays. Then we left our previous anchorage and headed west. We started with a reef in the main and gradually jibed down the coast. The wind died a bit so we shook out the reef and continued on. We passed by Cayo Herradura where we saw about 8 boats anchored and carried on to Las Tortuguillas. There was one fishing boat anchored where we wanted to stop so it looked quite secluded particularly as they might leave at some point. For the first time we tried anchoring under sail. In the end I muffed it by being a little timid and left the boat side on and too close to the shore to maneuver. Easy enough to nudge us straight with the electric motors which had had there charge up along the way. Not bad for first time – next time better.

This afternoon we went for a swim from the boat round to the lagoon on the northwest side. The guidebook suggested the snorkeling would be pretty good there. It was all a bit murky so we had no thrill there. However, the walk along the picture perfect beach made up for the mediocre swim.

Right now we’re awaiting sunset. It appears to be picture perfect too except for the fact some buggers have anchored right to the west of us. There should be a law against that. We recognize the boat – maybe from Martinique.

Slight change of plans for tonight. We’ve decided to have a short sleep and leave at midnight arriving in Los Roques tomorrow afternoon. We’ll enter the park through Boca de Sebastopol and find a close by anchorage to rest up before getting the full enjoyment of sailing the east side when we’re rested up.

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Addendum to yesterday’s blog

KC2RIY — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 12:16:00 +0000

How can I have forgotten.

I was up first in the morning and was waiting for the sun to rise when I noticed the back steps were being covered in little fish. We’ve seen this before. Small fish being chased by bigger fish ending up on the back of the boat.

My first thought was to push them back into the water which I did. When a second lot washed aboard I thought again. I figured I could use a few of them as bait for bigger fish. With one small hook and line I managed to haul in nine yellow jacks. The smaller fish were gathering in tighter and tighter balls as each individual tried to get into the inside of the ball. They seemed to like hugging the hulls of the boat while the jacks feasted on the outside of the balls. It reached the point where I could put my hand into one of the balls and grab new bait straight from the water.

I have a picture of my catch but that will have to wait.

Soon we’ll be off to the west end of Tortuga.

Going West – Finally

KC2RIY — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 20:51:00 +0000

I checked the chart plotter yesterday and discovered we’ve finally anchored somewhere to the west of our starting point. After nearly a year, for a couple of plan on circumnavigating to the west, this is finally a step in the right direction.

Slowish sort of day today. Some cleaning in the morning (we have to) and some checks on the drive shafts. The latter due to some noticed vibrations while sailing yesterday. This only happened when we were travelling at 7.5-8 knots under sail without the regeneration going. If we turned it on, the vibration stopped. A little troubling so we need to keep an eye on things. No conclusions from today’s mucking around. I did put some more grease into the port seal just to see if that improves things but I won’t know for a while.

We’ve just been for a walk on the beach, across the little isthmus and around the ‘airport’. You need to see the pictures to really understand what it looked like. It is a compressed sand airstrip close to the beach with a number of huts separating the strip from the beach. We understand the airstrip is use by mainlanders who fly their planes over for the weekend. One of the huts is a very quaint looking hotel/restaurant. It comprises a few rooms surrounding and interior sandy courtyard area with seats and decoration. Other huts looked like changing areas and one, perhaps, a bar.

Tomorrow morning we’re moving a few miles down the island to anchor for the day. Around sunset we’ll head for Los Roques. The entrance to the reefs is about 85nm sail away and we want to be sure to enter during daylight. It will be another 15nm or so to the main island. We may make it there tomorrow or stop on the way. There are park fees to pay if one visits properly. Given that this is a maintained park we want to pay the fees as we will receive the benefit of visiting. It is possible, we understand, to sneak around the south to the west end of the park avoiding the fees. It’s academic now as we have the Bolivars to pay for the park fees and nowhere else to spend them.

Tortuga

KC2RIY — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 21:42:00 +0000

Arrived safely. Everything put away. Place looks cool. We did see dolphin in the end. Caught no fish although line with ballyhoo was snapped or bitten. Hope it wasn’t the dolphin. More tomorrow.

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Margarita -> Tortuga

KC2RIY — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 18:34:00 +0000

Early to bed and early to rise and we were off to Tortuga just after 3am. We motored out of the immediate anchorage but soon put up main and head sail and started sailing in the dark. The wind was right on our tail so we had to sail off the wind jibing from time to time. I think we waited too long after daybreak to try the Code Zero because again it came up trumps. It allowed us to sail dead downwind which put us back on schedule. We’ve had to jibe that a couple of times too due to wind changes.

No dolphins today. We should arrive at Tortuga shortly after 5pm. Due to the lateness in the day we’re not going to our preferred anchorage but a more simple one a little further round. We may shift the boat again tomorrow.

Interesting factoid. Sunset at Parlomar would have been 5:58pm. At Tortuga it will be 6:03pm. We’ve gained 5 minutes on the day.

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