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Paradise found

by KC2RIY, on October 22nd, 2009 (Alofa, Los Roques)

After saying goodbye to Oud and Brice we put up our sails and sailed 5nm north to a new spot off the reef. Sailing through the reefs is magical. At one point I was standing at the bow with the autopilot remote in my hand keeping the boat away from the brown bits and, for good measure, the green bits. The green is where the sand is rising but is usually safe to traverse but there are risks of rocks. Our garmin maps seem very accurate in terms of where all the rises are.

Olafa soon arrived at the same spot. We knew they were heading here too but were glad of the company. We hailed them and invited them over for drinks after dinner to which they agreed.

After lunch, changing the water maker filters and a rest Helen and I went snorkeling. It wasn’t as excellent as our guide book suggested but still pretty good. We saw a turtle, a couple of large rays, a large barracuda and a couple of tuna along with many other smaller fish. The seafloor changes depth quite abruptly from a couple of feet to fifty within a short distance. Some of the interesting things were found on the margins.

Back on the boat we grilled chicken on the barbecue and cleaned up. With guests coming Helen forced me to tidy my desk – something that had been bugging her more than me for a while.

Oud and Brice stayed for a couple of hours and we had a good time. They were getting quite tired after their overnighter and ordeals of the day so we bid them farewell having exchanged/loaned each other a useful item each. Brice lent me some notes about sailing in Columbia and I lent him my contact cleaner to hopefully repair his laptop keyboard.

We finished the evening with a bit of stargazing. The objective was to spot the Andromeda nebula – the nearest major galaxy to our own. With the aid of Stellarium, fantastic free software, we were able to find it as it was just visible to the naked eye. With the astronomical binoculars the sight was awe inspiring. If I remember correctly it’s something like 2 million light years away and the furthest object that can be seen with the naked eye. Helen sloped off to bed and I spent a little longer gazing with the binoculars. I found a couple of star clusters and had a look at one of my favourites – Jupiter. I love seeing the four moons arranged in a line, different every time you look. You can use Stellarium to see how the positions of the moons vary even each hour.

Today we’re off to a group of islands called Francisquis. It’s heading into the touristy part of this park so we expect to lose the isolation. Olafa are probably following intending to stay there a few days.

Footnote. Horror of horrors. I discovered last night that the track memory on our chart plotter is full and it’s overwritten the earlier data. That means we’ve lost the tracks from when we returned to Dignity up until just as we entered Margarita. Bugger.

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Category: Alofa, Los Roques | Here is my comment

International Rescue

by KC2RIY, on October 21st, 2009 (Alofa, Los Roques)

Shortly before writing this morning’s blog I noticed a sailing vessel entering the Boca. Even at that time I thought it was a bit early in the day but I figured they knew where they were going. After sending the blog and in the middle of responding to emails I took a look around again and realized the boat hadn’t got too far and the sails were flogging. Normally I like to leave the VHF on all the time but the local Venezuelan fisherman have a habit of chatting on the emergency channel so we turn it off overnight. Just in case we would be hailed I turned on the VHF to channel 16 and almost immediately received a mayday call from the vessel that had just entered the boca. They had run aground. The Frenchwoman, Ude, felt they’d made a terrible mistake and requested our help to tow them off. Her partner, Brice, was also on his way over in the dinghy to request help directly.

Unless things got desperate it would be foolhardy to bring another boat close to the reef so I offered to take our spare anchor/rode and help winch them off the reef. Gathering the anchor, our portable depth sounder, my facemask and snorkel and a hand held VHF I took off in the dinghy to assist in their getting off the reef. I left Helen to report the situation to the soon to be starting coconut telegraph just in case anyone else was nearby and could lend a hand if it was required.

Once I reached their boat, Alofa, I could see things could certainly be worse. They were upright and away from any swell which could push them into shallower water. On the other hand the wind had pushed them sideways a bit and there was no way back out. Using the anchor seemed the best bet. We set it at an angle to the boat and brought the line aboard and onto a winch. We winched the anchor in but unfortunately it didn’t hold. We tried again with same result. We realised we needed to get it lodged on a rock, despite the coral on it, and Brice then thought setting it more to the side to shift the boat sideways to create a clearer run backwards. Around this time I had managed to call Helen to check our chart plotter and see what the tides were doing. Fortunately the tide (all one foot of it) was coming in so we didn’t have to panic and rush.

This time the anchor set and we were able to move Alofa around a little. I made my second splash into the water to check around the boat. I was concerned that just behind the bow was rubbing on a rock. I was in favor of using their anchor to pull the boat off the rock and wait for the tide to rise a few inches. Brice was more concerned about the possibility of continued damage while remaining on the reef. His boat, his call. Rather than lose my anchor I asked them for a fender to tie to the end of the rode so we could retrieve it when they let go. I offered to stay in the water and give the signal to move when the rudder was off the reef and to check for a clear passage out. On the signal Brice gunned backwards. I had to swim out of the way and grab hold of our dinghy which was tie to their boat. He committed to the action which was a gamble as he missed a large rock by just a few feet which could have snapped the rudder if he hit it.

The good news is they got off the reef all ok. We agreed they would come over to where we were anchored and anchor themselves. Once there they checked there underside. The bottom of the keel and rudder is damaged but not badly. They’ll survive. We invited them over for coffee so they could unwind from their experience which they accepted.

What makes this story ever more interesting is that Los Roques is the location Brice had been dreaming of for a long time. This was *the* destination. They had arrived earlier than expected and in their eagerness sailed through the boca far earlier than they should. They were confused (perhaps complicated by lack of sleep) as to why they couldn’t see the middle reef. They found it all right. On our boat, with the sun higher, they could see the difference the light made – all those shades of blue. And brown. Brown is where you don’t go.

Right now we’ve moved further up the reef and Alofa are alongside us again. We’ll probably see them a few more times over the next few days.

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Category: Alofa, Los Roques | Here is my comment

Los Roques: We’ve got the blues

by KC2RIY, on October 21st, 2009 (Los Roques)

I first learned of Los Roques shortly after Google Earth was released. I was using it to explore places we may possibly go and by luck I found Los Roques. Here was a place in the middle of nowhere that I’d never heard of. It stuck in my mind and I always wondered if it would be a place we would visit.

Well, here we are. We have arrived. We’ve just spent our first night truly and utterly alone at anchor. The only other boat in sight is a wreck that’s been on the reef for years. The area is strewn with reefs, deep pool, channels of varying depth, sandy and rocky bottoms and clear, clear water. Complete with stunning blue skies the result is a collection of as many blues and greens as you can imagine.

The sail here was stunning. The humidity recently (perhaps it’s true all the time round here) has been a lot lower than we’ve been used to. Apart from cooler evenings and greater comfort this means the night skies are absolutely stunning. At sea, with a new moon, you can see everything. The shape and texture of the milky way is very clear. Shooting stars are numerous. Standing night watch is quite a pleasure.

As you know from my previous rant I messed up the departure time. That meant we spent about 8 hours giving Dignity a little extra push from the electric motors. This equated to just over 2 hours genset running which is not bad.

We also had the excitement of the catch along the way. We had been up front changing the shackle on the anchor. The one we’ve been using was lent to us by Where II. We finally found a stainless steel replacement in South Africa for next to nothing – it seems they don’t rip off sailors as much there. When returning to the stern I saw the bungee on one of our lines stretched out. Sometimes this means we’ve snagged a plastic bag or something but this quickly felt a bit more. With the line half way in I realized I had something round rather than long. It had the glisten of a fish so I realized we may have only part of a fish. When I hauled the head aboard it was having it’s final twitches and the blood was still draining. It’s demise must have been recent – perhaps as I was hauling it in. From the size of the head the fish must have been quite large. We’ll never know of course. It’s interesting to wonder what took the tuna – some sort of shark probably. Before prepping the head (removing gills and trailing guts) to eat, I put the lure back in the water. I ended up with something else on it for a short while but whatever it was, it escaped. I’d sharpened the hooks very recently. Looks like I’ll need to sharpen them every time.

The fish noodles Helen drummed up was very tasty. The head had a little shoulder attached so we did have some meat as well as broth.

No more fish were caught along the way. We arrived at our anchorage, just north of Boca de Sebastopol, around 3:30pm. This stop is our rest stop just to recover from the trip. Today we’ll begin our exploration of the area. We have a timetable which we’re using only as a guide. We had planned on staying here for 9 days. We’ve arrived 4 days early so we’ll be around hear for at least a week – probably more.

Apart from a couple of brief bursts, we’ve been off the internet since we left Grenada. This is the longest I’ve been unconnected since well before the www went mainstream. I’m getting used to this.

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Category: Los Roques | Here is my comment

Fish soup

by KC2RIY, on October 20th, 2009 (At Sea, Los Testigos, Tortuga)

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.

Category: At Sea, Los Testigos, Tortuga | Here is my comment

Better planning required

by KC2RIY, on October 20th, 2009 (At Sea, Los Roques, Tortuga)

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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Category: At Sea, Los Roques, Tortuga | Here is my comment
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