Way back when we were in  May in Martinique, Karen and I agreed that Venezuela, particularly the mainland and most probably the islands were too dangerous for us to even contemplating going to.
So where are we now you ask... Medregal Village, mainland Venezuela! ( http://www.medregalvillage.com/MARINA/CatI.htm )Do we feel scared? Not in the least – in fact we are as comfortable here as we were in the Canary Islands, which is the last time we really didn’t feel “aware but not alarmed” as Johnny would have said before Kev won the election.



We are waiting here to be hauled and have the bottom painted with antifouling paint. For those of you who are not yet yachties (because sooner or later everyone should be), It is an annual or bi annual ritual to be hauled and have your bottom painted so as you don’t get barnacles on it or green slime. The ritual involves many months of discussions over copious drinks with other yachties to determine who’s bottom has been the cleanest the longest in what anchorages (because some are worse than others – Chagauramas Bay in Trinidad was the worse for us and my bottom grew a coral reef – can you imagine how that felt as I sat at the helm seat passing through the Bocas heading for Martinique – not comfortable I can tell you).

Anyway after numerous conversations and bottom comparisons, we mostly give up and buy the most common product, believing it will be the best, possible add a bit more aquatic poison and then resolve to haul again in year or two. This is a bit different to when we were in Europe and the Canaries where the SeaJet premium product that was applied by Lagoon seemed to work a treat. Now I am under the boat at least once a month scrapping my bottom!

Anyway enough of my hygiene problems.....

We have now been in Venezuela for a month, and I would have to say I love it. So let me start from the beginning. We did an overnight sail from Prickly Bay with Barry and Lindy on Samarang ( www.samarang.com ) and Dave and Jacquie on Jackster ( http://sv-jackster.blogspot.com ) which was our first flotilla sail. Given all we had heard about the dangers of Venezuela, we agreed to stay in visual of each other for the trip. Well this was interesting. Firstly we were going to leave at 1800 local time, but we were all sitting on our boats waiting, waiting, waiting and at 1745 I could take it no longer and we started to pull up anchor and start to move out of the bay before the sun went down. As we were doing this, Jackster pulled theirs up as well and we headed towards the mouth of the bay. We then turned into the wind to put up the main (something I am not good at but Karen is) and had several attempts to do before Karen got it right, all the time wondering why Samarang wasn’t following(Jackster meanwhile just unfurled their main – what we would have given at that point for in-mast furling I don’t know). Well it turns out another boat (won’t mention the nationality) anchored over Samarang’s anchor, just before they wanted to leave and despite being told that they were leaving, the skipper jumped in his dinghy and headed to the nearest bar, before returning a while later, stubby in hand to assist in enabling Samarang to leave.

Anyway we left, all the time wondering how we would stay in visual overnight, particularly as we only have deck level nav lights. Well the trip confirmed one thing – we are not visible at night, but we are visible on radar. We stayed within about 4 Nm of each other and in radio contact using DSC (with MMSIs) and worked our way through reefs and anchored vessels to arrive in Los Testigos safely. Despite my protestations that a Lagoon 420 is a slow cat (think very comfortable apartment with a sail) with a beam reach we could not keep up with our single reefed main. This would change later with some tips from Barry and Lindy from their observations of our sail trimming on our trips together). The arrival into the main anchorage between the two villages of Los Testigos was safe and uneventful, although, for basically uninhabited islands there seemed to be a lot of activity.



After anchoring, I offered to take Lindy and Barry across to the main island to check in. Dave and Jacquie also had their dinghy down, so we set off 3 and 3 across the passage to the main island and Lindy learnt the short comings of a 6hp Suzuki on a 3.1m Zodiac – it won’t plane and therefore it is drier to swim!



On arriving at the guardia dock, Barry swung into Spanish action and figured out that this (basically) uninhabited archipelago was celebrating the festival of the Virgin of the Valley and hence was the host to some 400 odd visitors from the mainland and Margarita! So much for a quiet visit. We checked in, toured the town (10 mins) and then headed back to the boat. It was difficult to get takers to travel with us after Lindy’s soggy adventure, but Barry drew the short straw and Samarang had a full set of wet clothes thanks to Debbie the Dinghy.

We relaxed for the afternoon and headed over to Jackster for the fish they caught on the way down. They were the only one’s successful in catching anything, but that’s probably because Samarang and us didn’t put out any lines. Where II can still not deal with the death issue... But it did taste nice. The fish was cooked on a nice bbq that they had bought in Puerto Rico, which demonstrated the power of the wind by flipping backwards into the open hatch of their bedroom. Fortunately this was just before it was lit.

Day 2 on Los Testigos was a cruising tourism day. Jackie, Dave, Karen and I climbed the sand dunes,





spoke broken Spanish to a group of young, vibrant Venezuelans who ran up the sand dunes after we had just recovered from staggering up the dunes





and then snorkelled around an small islet near where we anchored! We saw our first sea slug (no nothing to do with my speedos) and many colourful fish (still not good at the identification) but they were blue and yellow and white and black if that helps you get the picture. (Try not to put all the colours on one fish ok).

On Day 2 we decided to head off to Polamar, Isla Margarita as Barry and Lindy really needed the shopping fix – there is no Chadstone in the rest of the Caribbean, but as we were to learn Margarita does!

The trip to Margarita was great, we stayed close and sailed well and Samarang watched and gave us some pointers on how to sail when we got in from what they saw which was great – no macho pride here when you know so little. We relaxed when we arrived, checked in with Juan and started to shopping odyssey that was to last 3 weeks. We did Sigos for food and grog on a bus organised by Juan and changed money at 6BFs to the US$, bought some samples of wine, rum and beer and got some local money. Then it was into town the next day 15BFs one way, then back to Sigos and Sigos home and then there was somewhere else and somewhere else and somewhere else for 3 weeks. The Chaddie clone is Sambil shopping centre where you could be in any Westfield shopping centre in Australia. The Rattan shopping centre also has a hardware like Bunnings so we both got the fixes we needed!

I would also be amiss not to mention the dental odyssey we also enjoyed (suffered). It seems Spanish speaking countries is where we have problems with our teeth. I lost a filling that I thought was a part of the root canal (channel for the NPA folk – they will know what I mean) that I got repaired in Lanzarote and Karen needed some work for a repair that was done in Baiona Spain. Through a recommendation from both Juan and Laurie (SV Minchara) we got the work done by Dr Vincente Marin (02095 262 1446) who spoke excellent English and more importantly did great work and even picked Karen up from Marina Juan’s and worked on a Saturday to get the work done before we left for Medregal. There was more work involved for Karen but she has a much better smile now!
So after checking out by ourselves with Barry’s Spanish help without having to pay for Juan’s assistance (this is easy and you should consider if you come here) Samarang and Where II set sail for Cubagua on route for Puerto La Cruz and Medregal Village respectively. Jackster were waiting a day for their newly arrived friends Gary and Jackie on SV Inspiration Lady to recover from the trip from Trini and do some shopping.

On this leg of the trip, Where II showed her capabilities. A good downwind sail saw us whip out the Fitzsloppen and goose wing the genoa to blow Samarang out of the water. There was no stopping her and for once I thought I had got this sailing down pat – I won’t tell you the speed as those that can sail may skoff – but f*&% it I felt good!



Cubagua is an island with probably 10 -20 permanent inhabitants – mainly fishermen and their families. It has a research facility and the ruins of Nueva Cadiz, the first European settlement in South America from pearl diving days. We anchored in a windy but protected anchorage behind the wreck we intended to snorkel (before we realised that the waters were actually cold here by Caribbean standards).



We relaxed for the evening and in the morning we dinghied over and picked up Barry and Lindy up in Debbie to explore the island. Well Barry is a quick learner and climbed into Debbie in just his “show-mes” (speedos) so as to keep his clothes dry in the trip to shore. We tied up to the research dock which also turned out to be the Guardia Costa dock and were greeted by the new commander of the Coast Guard. Barry quickly slipped into something more appropriate and found out everything there was to know about the island (including the bitey bits and nasty plants). The commander was very friendly, enquired about our boats, offered any assistance if there were problems in the anchorage with a call on VHF 16 and gave us a quick tourist overview.

We wandered about on the shore of the anchorage seeing the antique rubbish tip of shells and the desert as well as being bailed up by the local dog, before heading back to the boat to pick up runners before our adventure to Nueva Cadiz on the eastern shore. On the trip back to the boat, Barry had forgotten how Debbie could make any man wet, and left his clean and dry clothes on. Within 10 seconds Barry was soaked, much to everyone else’s amusement!



We tripped over to the beach with our shoes (only get let out once every 3 months) and headed to shore. We made a dry landing and tried to find something to lock Debbie to which was a challenge. We ended up locking to a discarded truck tyre – probably not so secure as I could lift it – but it made me feel better.  Note the new chaps on Debbie (the dinghy) that we got made in Margarita by Simon’s Sails for about US$150.



We wandered across the salt flats and headed to Nueva Cadiz and wandered through the streets and saw the renovations.







Then we watched Jackster and Inspiration Lady sail on in. It was a quick stop for these two as we picked up anchor at sunrise the next morning and headed to the mainland. Again Where II hit her straps downwind, but slowed in the light beam reach as we sailed south. There must be something I am doing wrong...



Samarang left us as we rounded  Punta Chica as they headed to Puerto Le Cruz and the rest of us headed around Punta Arenas dodging the 500,000 pin?eros fishing around the point. This was an interesting exercise as the pin?eros seem to wait until Jackster (in particular) was approaching and then head in towards land across their bow?? We were not sure what or if they were trawling, but it made it a bit like dodgems as we turned into the Golfo de Cariaco on our way to Medregal.



Once in the Golfo, the scenery was spectacular – arid rocky mountains on the northern peninsula lush green on the southern main land. 









Once in the Golfo the winds dropped and it was motorsailing to Laguna Grande for a quiet stop before heading into Medregal. Laguna Grande is as the name suggests a very Grand Lagoon with a cacophony of colours from white, through ochre to a deep purple. We anchored deep in the Lagoon (at the muddy end) which was probably a mistake as there were a few bugs of an evening. The other mistake was that this was a mud basin with rock to the lee. It took all of us at least 2 shots before the hook dug in. 
The first night we again spent on Jackster eating fish they had caught on the way in.  No bbq incidences this time so Jackie and Garry missed out on the fun.



The next morning it was up early and enjoying the quiet stillness of the lagoon – it is magnificent with the colours change throughout the day ...



....and it looks better with boats in it

The local goat herders have adapted well to the environment, herding there goats, not by foot, donkey, horse or quad bike – no they get in their pinero and round ‘em up.



The goats have learnt the system and as soon as they hear the outboard, they come down to the water’s edge and follow the boss back home.

We then took off in the dinghies for a morning of exploration. Three dinghies and bugger it – mine was the slowest – this was the time that I really started to work on Karen for an outboard upgrade. All my photos had the backs of Jackster and Inspiration Lady’s heads in them! (Some of which have been photo-shopped out – sorry guys)





The brown pelican was everywhere in the Lagoon as were herons and frigates (apart from seagull, that is about the extent of my bird name repertoire).











We came upon a herd of goats while we were dinking around and on cue when they heard our engines they came to the water’s edge and started following the dinghies, until they realised that with tans like ours we weren’t going to be much good to them!



The locals here have a very basic existence, but the couple we met we friendly and told us they were diving for lobsters – hard work, no fins, snorkel, just a mask and a row boat!







In the afternoon Karen decided it was time to try out my hammock to relax –  it took a little getting used to....





But eventually she got the hang of it!



After 2 nights it was on to Medregal and with the wind on the nose it was time to fly the iron Genaker (those 2  x 40hpYanmars we keep hidden in the back of the boat.). Well the Golfo was flat and despite moderate winds on the nose I thought it was time to see what this baby could do! So with about 2 miles to go I opened them wide and held on tight! With no current to speak of and wind on the nose I got a massive 8.2knots!!!! For those of you who are not familiar with the term knots, it is 1 nautical mile per hour or roughly 1.84km/hr. So we hit about 15 km/hr. Not bad for about sixteen tonnes!

So here we are safely ensconced in mainland Venezuela, awaiting our first haul and bottom paint.