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.

Under the Sea

Boat on Location

Barracuda!

Lizardfish

Sergeant-Major

Spotfin Butterfly Fish

Mixed Variety

We had access to a launcha on Sunday so we took advantage of it and motored to Isla Borracha . I ended up swimming more than a kilometer taking pics. Water was mostly warm but I am glad I wore my wetsuit top layer; a 3mm [thick] jacket.

The reef is healthy on the northside of the bay and was teaming with fish in those areas.

The camera used was my Canon SD-1000 instead of my A-530. The camera dry bag is for a larger camera like the A-530 and the SD-1000 was small for the bag so sometimes the photos were obscured by the plastic window housing, therefore I've cropped most of these photos to make them look a little nicer, otherwise everything else; color, light, etc. is how the camera captured the shot.

Saw a variety of fish including; a barracuda, a lizardfish, a couple butterfly fish, several sergeant-majors, tons of wrasses, a few damsel fish, and several other kinds of fish that I am not sure what they are.

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.

Paddling and Snorkelling

I am back in Venezuela (arrived Aug 23). I've been working for about two weeks now. I took my Klepper out for a paddle this past Sunday. In the front seat was Matt, the new teacher at school. I figured I would show him another part of Venezuela besides El Tigre.

I like paddling the Klepper. It is a stable, forgiving boat, but still fairly fast across the water. We paddled to the "Hemmingway House" at La Piscina, and paddled around Isla Arapo. Here are a few pics.