Sailing Season January - May  2004:

         Trinidad & Tobago and Venezuela

         Günter and Gundi Zimmermann, Austria

      (Wharram Catamaran Tiki 30: Anna Sophia)

After 9 months in Europe we returned to Trinidad and to “Anna Sophia“ on Jan.7th. We had hauled her out in the boatyard “Power Boats“, Chaguaramas in March 2003. The rainy season of last year had luckily been drier than usual and so we found the cabins completely dry inside and no smell at all. Unfortunately the cockpit had suffered in the tropical environment. Through cracks in the varnish layer water had found its way mainly into parts made of solid wood. We had to drill out the rotten material with a “Dremel“ tool and fill the holes with epoxy / silica. The weather became a problem. The dry season should have started already but we had tropical showers nearly every day. As we had jumped from an Austrian winter of minus 10°C to plus 30°C and nearly 100% humidity we used up a week to adapt. So it took us 6 weeks to get the boat ready for sailing.

.During this time we took only 4 days off and the reason was our 40th wedding anniversary. We flew to Tobago, hired a car and discovered the island inshore after we had come to know it by boat last year. Tobago’s northern half is still nearly unspoild by tourism which thrives in the southwest near the airport. We found accommodation in local guesthouses and payed 20 US$ for a double room with aircondition and the possibility to use a kitchen. So we came into contact with the friendly black population originating from Gambia.

For us the north of Tobago is the nicest part of the Eastern Antilles as far as we know them. The prettiest bay is Englishman’s Bay. The strong currents around the island are a serious problem for swimmers. That’s why most tourists stay in the southwest where the Bucoo Reef shelters the beaches.

.Back in Chaguaramas we luckily had 2 dry days to do the necessary varnishing job. Meanwhile a Wharram had turned up in “Power Boats“, a Pahi 42. The German owners Rolf and Susanne from Düsseldorf had left it on a mooring in Carenage Bay Yachtclub for 2 years. During this time the pelicans took over and the boat looked like a floating guano island. Rolf renamed it “Pelican Inn“. When they invited us for dinner the biggest part of the excrements of the birds was already removed. This was the last Wharram we met that season.

On Feb.19th our boat was launched by travel lift. As no mooring was available in Chaguaramas Bay we moved to Carenage Bay where anchoring is much safer. On Feb.20th we cleared outwards and set sails late in the evening for the Testigo Islands (Venezuela). We slipped out of the Gulf of Paria through Boca de Navios, one outlet of the socalled Dragon’s Mouth (Boca de los Dragones) into a dark moonless night, our navigation lights unlit and the radar reflector down as the north coast of Venezuela west of Trinidad has a bad reputation for piracy. With northeasterly wind of 15 kn and a current setting to west with about 1.5 kn it was easy sailing and we reached the Testigos next day at noon. This small group of islands looks like a Mexican cactus landscape and one wonders how people can make their living here. We visited the coastguard on Isla Iguana and were allowed to stay for 3 days. Inward clearing is not possible here. Then we anchored in front of the large beach of “Breakthrough Bay“ (Playa Real) where the Islands of Testigo Grande and Testigo Pequeno are only devided by a few meters of water.

Next day we relaxed. The day after in the morning I went snorkeling and saw that the anchor rode had been caught under a coral head. Gundi started the engine to take the pull from the rode. All of a sudden the engine sagged down a little. Main parts of the suspension had broken and the engine was now held only by the rod that shifts gear. The engine is a Yamaha 9.9 hp fourstroke ultralongshaft outboard mounted in a an engine well in the centre of the cockpit (centre of gravity of the boat). We secured the engine with a rope and then I set one of our two Fortress anchors, took the pull out of the main anchor (a German Bügel) and freed the rode. Now we lashed the engine’s head tightly to the engine well and fixed a bridle to the shaft just above the propeller. The 2 ends of the bridle were fixed on clamps on the aftdeck of both hulls. So the pull of the propeller was led to the hulls. But we could only use forward gear.

Next morning we left the anchorage under sails. The wind was down to 10 kn and as we could not raise the propeller above waterlevel we were very slow. We wanted to reach the bay of Porlamar on Isla de Margarita in daylight. As the wind went further down in the afternoon we had to start the engine although we had planned to use it only for anchoring. To our relief the lashings worked well and we even managed a speed of 7 kn. Shortly afterwards we caught the first fish of the season , a bonito, by trolling. We reached Porlamar in last daylight and anchored next to “Athenaeum“, the Moody of our friends Josef and Maria from Salzburg. We had met them last time last May in Austria and they had encouraged us to come to Venezuela. The long evening became morning and it was 4 o’clock when we went to bed.

Two days later Josef and I took the engine apart and Michel, a French Suisse who repairs nearly everything for the sailors here in Porlamar knew somebody who could weld aluminium and had access to a trustworthy equipment. To my great surprise I could put the engine together a few days later.

Life in Venezuela is cheap and as Margarita is a duty free area this island is even cheaper. Fuel costs next to nothing. Many European bachelors ended up here with or without boat due to the low liquor prices and the liberal views of the local women... People are friendly and in the shops and restaurants nobody tries to cheat. But security is a problem like in many Latin American countries and you must be on alert. A perfect paradise does not exist.

In each new harbour it takes some time to come to know what can be done where and what can be bought where for the best price. Through the help of Josef an Maria we could shorten this time considerably. On the first day they already introduced us to the German “beer club“. On a beach in the vicinity near a dinghi dock that is reckoned safe when you lock the dinghi onto the construction by steel cable and padlock some locals have installed a bar with sunshelter and a few rather strange seats where they serve mussels and icecold “Polar“, the Venezuelan fashion type beer. For a bottle of 250ml you have to invest 0.15 Euros in cash... Every evening the German speaking sailors meet here with a few Germans who live in town and this is a useful source of valuable information. They tell you for example where on the socalled “trustworthy black market“ you get the best exchange rate for US$. 1 or 5-dollar notes are not accepted, 100s favoured. Expatriates who live here fly every now and then to Trinidad where you can get US$ from your credit or bank card, for example on special ATMs on the airport. The official exchange rate in the first half of 2004 was approx. 1 900 Bs. (Bolivares) for 1 US$. The “trustworthy black marked“ offered approx. 3 000 Bs. during that time. In the towncentres strange guys will regularly approach you with better offers but you can be sure to be cheated.

Clearing inward and outward is very complicated in Venezuela and it is boring if you don’t know the country very well. On Isla Margarita the formalities have to be executed in the comercial port of Pampatar where yachts are not allowed to anchor. But there is Juan Baro, born Argentinian, who is fluent in English and French. He runs a little enterprise on the beach of Porlamar, not far from the anchorage and calls it “Marina Juan“. It comprises a dinghi dock with watchman and a spacious hut, his office. For approx. 35 US$ he does the job for you within one day. This is a bargain as it saves lots of taxifares and as a foreigner you would not know who has to get what bribe where and when... The crew gets permission to stay for 90 days and the boat for half a year. Both permits can be renewed but the boat has to leave the country at least for a short time after 18 months. Rumor says there is also another solution but somewhat more expensive... Juan has a competitor, the Canadian consul who advertises his services each morning on VHF in English and French. You can meet him at certain times in Jack’s Restaurant on the beach, run by a Thai woman. It is a good place to dine but a little more expensive than in town.

How do you get to town? The most convenient way is to lock the dinghi to Juan’s dock. The watchman gets 500 - 1000 Bs. on return. He has to make a living from these tips and from the aluminium tins he gets from the sailors. He also takes the rubbish from the boats. Once a day he gets a meal for free from the restaurant. Somewhere between Juan’s office and the restaurant under a shady tree the taxis are waiting. The fare to the town centre is 3 000 Bs. You can also go by dinghi to the beach in front of the town. That is a long way and can be quite wet.There fishermen run a romantic little restaurant under coconut palms and their watchman helps when you have to struggle in the surf to get ashore or back into the water. The dinghi has to be locked to a palmtree. From here you can reach the town centre by foot but you must not return later than half an hour before sunset as the area becomes dangerous later on. Here the watchman gets 1000 Bs.

.An important place is the chandlery “Vemasca“ where English and German is understood. Although it is only a few hundred meters from Marina Juan a taxi is necessary because it is situated in a mangrove area, a good hideout for criminals. Robberies are frequent. A German sailor told us a nice story. An American lady of approx. 70 had her electric generator repaired at Vemasca. On the way back to the beach she was attacked by three young robbers with knives. She carried the generator in a white linen bag, flung it onto the head of the first robber and knocked him down.  The second had already turned round to flee when the generator hit him in the back and got him down too. The third had a bicycle. He dropped it and fled into the mangroves. She brought the bicycle to Juan and proudly told her story on VHF. Another Vemasca story happened shortly before we arrived. Two men wearing National  Guard uniforms entered the shop, produced their pistols and emptied the tiller.

In Porlamar you can choose between 3 supermarkets. In the centre in  “Cuatro de Mayo“ (4th of May Avenue) you will find “Rattan“. A little way out of town on the road to the airport is “Sigo“. They send an old American schoolbus to Marina Juan three times a week. Transport for you and for the goods you buy is free and the bus brings you back nearly to the dinghi dock. Here mainly the Americans buy their big stores of liquor. They hate alcoholism (in public). The 3rd possibility is CM-market on the road to Pampatar which means taking a taxi. The price level of the 3 is similar.

On the beach near the “German beer club“ a little shop sells beer and rum cheaper than the supermarkets.We used to buy the ice for our coolbox there. Porlamar is a perfect place to buy your ship’s stores no matter if you head for Panama or back to the East Antilles or even to mainland Venezuela. The duty free status of Margarita means that also imported goods are very cheap here. Liquor bought here is marked especially as it may not be sold on the mainland.

Security in the anchorage of Porlamar seemed good since the people who earn good money from the sailors organised an armed security service that patrolled the area at night in a fast dinghi. Anyway dinghis were stolen from time to time. The thieves are only interested in strong outboards. The rubber dinghies themselves were set adrift and sometimes recovered on the western shore of the bay. It is a rule to take the dinghi aboard before sunset. The 3.5 hp Tohatsu of our little Bombard dinghi was not what they were after. A few days before our second visit to Porlamar an armed robbery happened. The skipper was an Austrian. The robbers were after his expensive video equipment and a gun. Rumor said that the coastguard was involved as they had controlled the boat thoroughly the day before. Then the robbers knew exactly how to find what. A mistake of the skipper was to anchor in some distance to the rest of the boats.  In general it is more dangerous in Venezuela the longer you stay in an anchorage and the more expensive your boat looks. Some sailors take women onboard for the night and don’t pay afterwards. This would be dangerous everywhere.

Venezuelans are a mixture of Europeans, Africans and Indios and the result is very pretty. You don’t feel racial animosities, very much in contrary to the Eastern Antilles. As they got rid of their colonial power Spain as early as the first half of the 19th century they are politically very selfconfident. They show an open attitude to sex. Bathing nude in a public beach is not done but the area of the bikinis can be measured in square centimeters and even highly pregnant women wear them. Children abound and men like women treat them friendly. Their fathers or the current boyfriends of their mothers care for them in public. Women like to show their female attractions also in their every day outfit. If a man shows his appreciation they take notice with a smile. Aids seems not to be a big problem. On remote parking areas you see a comforting amount of used condoms.

Where ever we had met Americans in anchorages or boatyards so far they were friendly, helpful and openminded and usually not very happy with their current government and the war in Iraq. In Porlamar we came to know a completely different species. Apparently their reason for living here are the low prices. They came down from Florida island hopping and avoiding open water where ever possible and they would have held hands all the time if that wold be possible between yachts. Now they found themselves in a world that speaks exclusively foreign. You met them always in big groups and even if you exchanged a few words it never became a real contact but their women communicated excessively on VHF.

In mid March Athenaeum left us with 3 Austrian charter guests. On March 19th our daughter Barbara and our son in law Hannes joined us for two weeks. In the morning of March 22nd we left the bay of Porlamar and sailed westwards with the tradewind. We passed the islands  Coche and Cubagua and headed for the western tip of the peninsula of Araya. When we rounded a beacon off Punta de Araya our Simrad/Navico tillerpilot TP300 stopped working. Later on it turned out that saltwater had made its way into the electronic at one of the little acrylic glass windows that cover the LEDs and had corroded it. We were very angry as it was the third time an autopilot of this type had failed on “Anna Sophia“. 

Now we sailed to SSE parallel to the westcoast of the peninsular of Araya. As the apparent wind went up to 24 kn we put a reef into the main. Shortly afterwards the peninsular shielded us completely from the wind and we had to start the engine. At 4 pm we reached the entrance to the Golfo de Cariaco and from now on had to go directly to windward on engine power only. The boat was pitching heavily and we made only 2 kn heading eastward. The Golfo runs from west to east approx. 25 nm long and 5 wide. On the south bank of the entrance lies Cumana, famous for its high criminal rate, capital of Sucre, the poorest state of Venezuela. For sailors the main attraction in the Golfo is Laguna Grande del Opisbo, a fjord that reaches deep into the northcoast with ist many arms. We headed for the much smaller Laguna Chica 1.5 miles west of Laguna Grande. As we were so slow we didn’t reach it before nightfall. We had the coordinates of a waypoint south of the entrance and reached it by help of our GPS. When we slowly approached the coast I sat in the trampoline our searchlight in hand. Suddenly a slope became visible coming down from right to left and so the position of the entrance was clear. A light was switched on. A French sailor who lives on his boat near the entrance of the lagoon had noticed us and had lit his decklight. Now anchoring was just routine and then we enjoyed  a meal and the fact that the enervating pitching was over.

Next morning we realised the idyllic surrounding. The shores were coverd with intensive green mangroves with a few huts and coconut palms in the back. The slopes rising from the water were part of a barren red desert scenery. The frenchman visited us in his dinghi. The third yacht in the bay was Italian. We stayed for two days and then moved to the eastmost part of Laguna Grande. When we tried to set the anchor in reverse gear the engine jumped up. The weldings were broken and so we had to renew the lashings and had to rely on them for the rest of this sailing season.

Later in the morning two children in a small rowing boat offered us fresh mussels and we bought them. Later on we were told that the fishermen send their children to avoid to be shot by sailors scared of pirates. In the afternoon Athenaeum entered the lagoon, anchored next to us and invited us for dinner. They left again next morning and we went ashore in the afternoon, climbed one of the surrounding hills and enjoyed the scenery. As far as we could see “Anna Sophia“ was the only boat in the lagoon. The shores are uninhabited with the exception of a fiherman’s camp in the far west and therefore lack of coconut palms but are covered with  mangroves. The slopes above are barren with the exception of a few cactus plants and show  the deep red colour of laterite soil. Further east on the peninsular the high mountains make up a dramatic background. As the area can only be reached in a private boat it has preserved its splendor and loneliness so far.

Next morning we went 25 nm westward to the fjord of Mochima. We had expected a pleasant sail with the tradewind but there was no wind at all and so we had to use the engine. We anchored in a small sandy bay  on the eastern shore of the fjord. The beach was crowded with Venezuelan holidaymakers who were brought out there by locals in their fast pirogues from the village of Mochima. On the slope behind the beach the locals had built sunshelters and here their woman served fish and icecold beer. We went ashore and enjoyed the food, the beer and the whole situation around us.

Mochima fjord is the eastern boundary of the nature reserve of Mochima that reaches as far west as Puerto la Cruz. It is a labyrinth of mainland bays and islands, the islands barren and the mainland dry bush. We anchored for one day near the village of Mochima and then went around the peninsular on the western side of the fjord and anchored in the narrow bay El Oculto over bow and stern opposite the island Venados. Here the water above a coral reef is clear which is unusual on the Venezuelan coast and so snorkeling is excellent.

The day after we passed the islands Venados and Caracas on the way to the Golfo de Santa Fe. All over the reserve we were frequently accompanied by dolphins. They specially liked to jump out in a zig-zag-course between our two bows. The further we came into the Golfo the greener turned the banks. We wanted to anchor in the innermost part that is called the “green hell“ by sailors. It is really densly wooded but no  tropical jungle. As we didn’t find a good anchorage and as the sun was still high up we decided to head for the Arapos Islands. We passed Santa Fe, a village where shopping is possible but we were warned not to anchor overnight there. The Arapos are two narrow islands streching east to west. Between them lies a rock with the ruin of a house. Between the rock and both islands are two streches of sand on top of a coral reef. We anchored at the eastern strech over bow and stern and so had a good basis for snorkeling over the reef with good visibility.

Next morning we crossed the reef without problems due to our shallow draft, passed Isla de Monos and anchored in the sheltered bay in the southwest of Isla Chimana Segunda. There were some peole in the bay as Puerto la Cruz is not far and the prices in the little fish restaurant were already expensive for Venezuelan circumstances. The island is a stoney cactus desert. In front of the restaurant a few half tame iguanas doze in the sun. Anchoring in the bay is restricted to one night but nobody would have bothered if we would have stayed longer.

The time was running out for Barbara and Hannes and so we headed for Puerto la Cruz next morning. We avoided the marina complex of  El Morro as we didn’t want to enter a marina without being able to use reverse gear. So we rounded Cabo el Morro further westward and anchored in the bay of Lecheria near a small marina for powerboats where we put the two ashore next morning.

Now we had to go back against the direction of the tradewind and that ment that we had to start before sunrise to use the time of low windspeed until noon approx. We anchored one more night in Lecheria and then left on April 4th at 5 40 am. As we had next to no wind we reached the entrance of Mochima fjord at 10 am already. Halfway to the village we caught our second and last fish of the season, a small tuna, by trolling. At Mochima we anchored for two days and then headed for Medregal Village near the eastern end of the Golfo de Cariaco. There we wanted to meet Geoff and Pat of the English yacht “Ardito“ whom we had come to know in 2003 in Tobago. We started early and reached Cumana with next to no wind. But in the Golfo it piped up and the waves became nasty. So we entered Laguna Grande and anchored there for one night. Next morning we managed the last leg to Medregal.

Geoff and Pat took us ashore to introduce us to Medregal Village, a cosy bungalow hotel. Jean Marc, the owner, is a French Belgian born in the Congo, aged around 50. He lives here with his young Venezuelan wife Yoleda and the two year old daughter Shasha. As tourism is in a big crisis in Venezuela he likes sailors to anchor in front of his hotel. They meet regularly under a sunshelter next to the swimmingpool. The beer costs a little more than elsewhere but the use of the pool and the showers is free. Jean Marc is a good cook and introduced himself with “coque au vin“, chicken in red wine. Every Saturday evening he prepares a special dinner. One of these dinners became very expensive for us as “Anna Sophia“ received uninvited guests during that time. Among the items stolen from the cockpit the liferaft was the most expensive. Everybody in Medregal was shocked as the last theft had happened here three years ago and everybody had felt safe already. One night the whole area had an electricity blackout. The next day they found that someone had cut out 40 m of copper cable  from the supplyline. An old Venezuelan whom we had met in a Porlamar restaurant had told us: “If you want to live in this country you must have a strong sense of humor.“

On many yachts alcohol becomes a heavy problem as life on board can sometimes be quite boring. Here in Medregal we met two examples. Brad and Karen from Florida were a pleasant exception although on their calling card they stated: “Our drinking crew has a sailing problem.“ Jean Marc owns a Landcruiser capable of taking up to 11 people. As fuel costs next to nothing and as he does not possess a numberplate transport is cheap. Each Saturday he takes the sailors to the village of Cariaco for shopping. Twice we accompanied him to the little harbour town Carupano and once to Cumana. The highlight was always a lunch in a top restaurant as he is a real gourmet. Together with Brad and Karen we booked a tour to the Caripe caves in the state of Monagas that turned out to be very interesting not only because of the cave in which the famous Guacharo birds live.

After 3 weeks in Medregal we moved to the eastern end of the Golfo on April 28th and anchored near the mouth of the Rio Cariaco in front of a dense mangrove wood. Late in the afternoon we went upstream approx. a mile in our dinghi and then drifted back to the river mouth. Here we were in a real tropical jungle and it was fascinating. We met lots of herons, kingfishers and a few scarlet ibises. These birds are actually white but when they get enough carotine from their diet of crayfish they turn scarlet red. When we came back to the river mouth the sun was setting and now we saw swarms of hundreds of red ibises overhead. They were an impressive contrast to the intensive green of the mangroves. Nobody who sails in the Golfo de Cariaco should miss this experience.

After a day in the bay of Puerto Nuevo we started our return to Margarita early on April 30th. Now we could use our sails again after more than a month. On the way westward in the Golfo we were accompanied by a large number of dolphins for more than 2 hours. When we left the Golfo and headed north parallel to the western end of the Araya peninsular we had to put two reefs into the main and reduce the jib to 1/3  as the apparent wind went up to 36 kn. The boat speed went up to 7-8 kn.

We headed for Isla Cubagua. After we had rounded the beacon off Punta de Araya we had to take the sails down and battle to windward under engine power. For 5 hours we were restricted to 2 kn and reached the SW-tip of the island shortly before sunset. On the way to the anchorage in Ensenada de Charagato the sun went down but it was no problem to find an conveniant place in the big sandy bay. This evening we could receive the BBC world service on shortwave clearly and as it was 1st of May already in Europe we got the first reports of the celebrations of the enlagement of the EU from 15 to 25 members.

We used the next day for a rest and then started for the last leg  shortly after midnight. We expected a long battle against the tradewind but managed to reach the bay of Porlamar at 6 am. The bay had changed completely. Huge numbers of cormorants, pelicans and frigate birds had arrived as the sardine run had reached Margarita. That night 30 tons of tuna had ended up in the sardine nets and one of them found its way into our frying pan.

After we had stocked up our provisions we sailed back westwards along the southcoast of Margarita as far as Punta de Mangle and from there to Chacachacare where “Anna Sophia“ was hauld out in Marina del Caribe which is actually a boatyard run by a frenchman, Phlippe Philippart, a former helicopter pilot. Storage of multihulls is rather expensive here but as we could convince Philippe that our small Tiki had to be charged like a monohull we decided to leave the boat here. Alternatives would have been the marinas in Puerto la Cruz or Navimca in Cumana. Many sailors had warned us not to choose Navimca.

Chacachacare is situated in the driest area of Margarita in the middle of nowhere. The latter reduces the risk of theft. During night a watchman with gun and dogs is on duty. Of course most things have to be bought in Porlamar but there is a little shop here selling basics and cold beer. A retired ship’s cook prepares meals on request and delivers them to the yachts.

When I serviced the engine it turned out that there was only seawater in the gearbox instead of oil. When the suspension of the engine broke the gearbox had been cracked and it seems a miracle to me that the engine still worked for another 200nm and 2.5 months. So a new engine must be bought and I still don’t know how to get it down to Venezuela. 

We left Margarita by air for Port of Spain on May 24th, spent four days in Trinidad where we hired a car and toured the island and were back home in Austria  on May 29th.