Venezuelan Holiday

Unless you like crowds, which I don't, I don't recommend going anywhere popular during a Venezuelan holiday. Check out this crowd...and they kept coming.
Friend Daniel invited me to go sailing, and we went out with his wife, daughter and his wife's mother and 3 sisters. It made for a crowded boat, so I spent the entire time up on the bow. We "sailed" to Playa Punare (5 nautical miles) with the main sail up, but motored across the bay with the diesel.
Once at the island, we found a spot, I went for a short swim to try my hand at underwater photography...which I found very difficult and frustrating. I really need to learn how to take a good underwater photo.
The sail back was real sailing. We put up the main and unfurled the jib and took off! We made it across the bay in about an hour so we were averaging about 6 knots which isn't too bad considering our angle of attack (a broad reach in following winds). When we turned upwind to lower the sails, Daniel lost his Gila Cliff Dwellings horny toad hat in the sea. It must have sunk because we never saw it (plus it was a dusky olive color, so it blended with the sea pretty good). Will have to try to get him a new one.

This Evening

This evening near our condo was a Red Bull Night Wind Surfing Free Style Competition, so Tania and I walked down to check it out. Competitors included the current world champion (a Venezolano) and a former 3x world champion (also Venezuolano). Tried to get some pics but my camera has some limits what it can capture.

Petrel

When sailing yesterday, we were far enough from land to see a petrel. It was probably a Greater Shearwater Puffinus gravis. These images came from the link.

First time I've seen a pelagic bird in the wild. Very cool!

Carnival! [Day 2]

Check the Horizon

Went sailing today on Daniel's boat.

Not much wind going out so we had to use the outboard. Once we were far enough out, we caught some wind and tried to tack to Isla Borracha. The boat began taking on a serious amount of water. We headed back to Los Borrachitos so we could figure out what was wrong.

Once in a tiny cove, dug around and found a small hand bilge pump. We would have to fill our beer cooler with water then dump it overboard. Each stroke of the this little pump would spit out about 500 ml (1 pint) of water. It would take at least 100 strokes to fill the beer cooler. This soon got tiring and we decided to rig up a small electric pump we found. It was not powerful enough to send a column of water up and over the rail, but it was easier to fill the beer cooler than the hand pump and soon we had to boat empty of water.

A cotter pin came loose from one of the stays on the main mast and we could not put it back in due to length of the cable. We decided to go out, put up the main sail hoping sail would tweek the mast so we could put the pin back in place. Daniel had go out on the rail do the fix but it worked.

Then water started coming back in...a lot of water! I went below and hooked up our makeshift electric bilge and started the bucket brigade once again but we were not making any headway. Water was coming in faster than the pump could take out. I asked Daniel if all the seacocks were closed. He thought so...

Borracho y la Borracha

A couple more beer coolers full of water and Daniel asked where the sink drained. I looked under the sink and found our problem. The drain pipe had come lose and the seacock was open. Water was coming in like a firehose! The seacock was frozen, but with the help of a Leatherman tool, Daniel got it loose and closed it. Then we were able to empty the boat of water via our electric bilge pump/bucket brigade method. We probably emtied at least 1100 L (300 gallons) of water.

Came home and watched Ben Hur on TMC with Tania. I hadn't seen that movie since I was a kid. It is really good. Last night we watched Bridge on the River Kwai, also very good.

More Sailing

Capt'n Dan

Easy Breezy

Rail Riding

More sailing on Saturday. Nice day out on the water. The sail to El Saco was easy and calm. In the evening we had a stiff breeze, swells, and chop. Dan had the rails in the water coming back. He had to back off the main sail. He probably had the boat at its max hull speed considering the condition of the sails and rigging. I sat up on the rail on the bow and got plenty wet and cold. Kind of stupid on my part, but the cockpit was full.

Snorkeling and free diving

Howdy!

My 15 year-old brother-in-law Oscar and I snorkeled some at El Saco. The water was cold. Fish I saw; a flying grenard, a snapper, and a local food fish called lebranche. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera with me when I saw these creatures.

We were beat when we got home about 8:00 PM.

Sailing

Capt. Dan

At the Tiller

A Broad Reach

The Sawana

Lunch Offerings

School O'Fish

Went sailing today with Daniel and Marino. Daniel bought the sail boat a couple of years ago, but it was in pretty bad shape and got even worse because of neglect. Finally during the Christmas break, Daniel and Marino recovered the boat from where it was tied up, and took it to Marino's place where he had his crew clean it. Boy howdy! What a difference! The boat still needs quite a bit of work, but is now sail-able.

We sailed a broad reach to Playa El Saco (motored the last mile since it was a direct headwind into the beach), had a killer lunch, then did some snorkeling (murky water due to the time of the year...did see some fish though).

Things were working pretty good until a strong wind ripped the mainsail on the way home, then it was motoring. The sail was dry rotted from sitting in the sun for such a long time and would have needed replacing anyway. Now Daniel and Marino will need to find a new sail.

Overall was a fun day on the water.