Moving Again

We finally have left Trinidad as the threat of hurricanes has now diminished. Although the insurance company wanted us to stay until November 1, we left a couple of weeks early. The entire crew was tired of the dirty water around Trindad and were anxious to swim in clean water again.

Our first stop was Los Testigos. The trip took longer than would be expected because we had to travel due north for almost 30 miles before turning west. We did this based on pirate reports on the north coast of Paria. There had been reports of trouble and this crew wants no part of any trouble.

Los Testigos is part of Venezuela and is mainly occupied by fishermen and their families. We saw several rugged fishing boats and a few cruisers and we enjoyed a few days walking the beach and snorkeling before moving on.

From there we headed southwest to Isla Margarita to top off the tanks with more cheap Venezuelan fuel. We did not care much for the island other than the cheap fuel. We took on about 400 gallons at 78 cents US per gallon and we were only 80 gallons from completely full. We wanted to get those last few drops aboard, but ran into the “no fuel today…maybe manana” Venezuelan two-step and decided to move on. The captain took a bus into the city to get Bolivar fuertes at the black market rate of 5 to 1 and the whole process made me feel dirty. The official government rate is about 2 to 1, but with inflation here at greater than 20%, every one except Chavez and the banks believe it.

The water was clean enough to swim in and make RO water, but was still slightly tannin from the Orinoco Delta outflow. They had a nice cruiser interface with a good book swap and free busses into the city 3 times per week. However, after 6 days here, we were ready to move on.

The boat has been running good. I’ve got one troubling issue where the laptop computer won’t consistently drive the autopilot. Since our other GPS chartplotter will, it has not been a serious problem, and the third backup plan is (heaven forbid) we could hand steer the boat. I suspect it may just be that the oldest (about 5 years old) laptop is just too slow now to keep up and I will switch it out when we get a chance.

We are now underway (another night passage) due west to Isla Tortuga. This should be our first clear clean blue water since Grenada and will be welcomed by the entire crew. It is nice to have the wind, currents and seas mostly on our stern. Tonight the seas are less than 1 meter and the stabilizers are switched off since they are not needed. The moon is nearly full, the stars fill the night sky and all is well as our home glides west. In 5 hours, Emily will awaken with the sunrise as we slip into the anchorage and drop the hook. Another island to explore and enjoy.

Tom

Socializing and our Domino Champion

We have met several cruisers along the way with whom we have shared joys, dinners, and beach trips and helped each other with boat problems or needed parts. Here is a shot of us celebrating a birthday of circumnavigator Gerald aboard Whiskers with several other friends.

Along with beach trips and sharing rental cars we have found that Mexican Train Dominos is a quite popular game with boaters of many countries and another avenue to socialize. We had a nice set hidden away with the many games we had brought from the states but had never bothered to learn how to play. We finally all went in one Sunday and we sat down with about 30 others and learned this simple and fun game. We now play on the boat after dinners many nights and Emily has gotten quite good at it.

We have run into quite a few areas through the Caribbean that are so organized that there are morning nets on the VHF radio every morning. These 30 to 40 minute discussions review safety and security issues, trade “treasures of the bilge” among cruisers in the harbor, summarize the weather for those without single side band radios or WiFi internet and discuss social events.

She became a regular at the Sunday Domino cruiser tables and she even beat all 30 of the adults and became Champion for the week in Chaguaramas, Trinidad. Below is the announcement on the morning net.

We are trying to instill some humility in this child and explain that doing a victory dance in front of 30 adult losers may not be the most mature thing to do. However, Dad won the next week so the crew of Emily Grace is now feared by Domino players throughout the Caribbean!

Tom

Risks and Rewards – The Orinoco Delta Lodge

Sometimes the greatest rewards come with greater risks. The recent trip to Venezuela was in many ways similar to this whole boat trip with regard to risk. We could have stayed safely home in our four-bedroom colonial in Connecticut and been quite comfortable. But we would have missed Emily playing with Dolphins in Lucaya, swimming through Thunderball Cave in Staniel Cay and watching fireworks on the bow of our boat in the Virgin Islands with my Mother.

We left Trinidad with a handful of waypoints towards a muddy river that is essentially uncharted on both my electronic and paper charts. The charts for this area were created by Christopher Columbus. We braved all this and passed several areas of 6 foot deep water (at 5 feet, we are aground!) as we moved 65 miles up this river. What we found was a magical spot called the Orinoco Delta Lodge. This lodge mostly caters to wilderness type travelers who come in for 2 or 3 nights to see the howler moneys and fish for piranha. The staff doesn’t see too many cruising boats and even fewer trawlers.

The owner, Anthony, and his wife run this place and two other lodges in Venezuela and could not have been more welcoming. We initially anchored around the corner from the lodge, but were quickly asked to anchor right off the main lodge for our convenience. Within a few minutes of re-anchoring, they called to me across the water asking if I could give an intra-muscular injection. I told them no, but that my Admiral could if need be. They sent a Panga over and Kim was soon giving an injection to one of the workers that had been stung by a scorpion. Apparently, he was being a hero and did not tell anyone about the sting at first. By the time Kim got to him, he was vomiting as the venom was working through his system. After the injection (we suspect was benadryl or a pain killer), he was on a Panga at high speed headed 25 miles to the nearest town and some antivenin.

We ate several wonderful dinners in their restaurant and spent several warm afternoons sitting in comfortable chairs in the shade of the thatched roof lodge. We strolled the grounds and saw woodpeckers, butterflies and even a parade of leaf-cutter ants. They had WiFi internet which was useful for checking e-mails, but not even the Captain wanted to waste much time here thinking about the outside world.

We were befriended by James who tended the bar and had done most of the landscaping around the lodge. There were flowering bushes, banana, mango and guava trees and tons of orchids throughout the grounds. James searched in a plant near the dining room and soon had a tarantula crawling up his arm. He explained that they don’t usually bite things bigger than they are unless they are spooked. Soon it was crawling on Emily much to her delight. Having spent some of his working years in the US, he had full command of English, Spanish and Warao.

They had a caged Puma and a wild parrot named Rumba. Rumba was raised there from a chick and was free to fly off into the jungle and would come and go at will. Rumba quickly bonded with Emily and would sit on her shoulder for hours while we walked around the lodge or sat and talked. Once on her shoulder, Rumba would protect Emily. Even the lodge owners could not approach Emily for fear of being nipped. Since these birds can crush nuts like butter, this is not a threat to be taken lightly. When we would come in to the Lodge from the boat, Emily would only get two steps off the dingy and Rumba would swoop down from the rafters or from a palm tree and land directly on her shoulder. It was WAY COOL.

James taught us how to fish for piranha with cane poles, and how to clean and fix them for dinner. We ate several and we were thankful that the piranhas were not eating us! We took the dingy on several long excursions up the narrow canos and saw howler monkeys, flying parrots and toucans and beautiful blue butterflies as big as my hand and we did some more piranha fishing.

I approached Anthony about getting some of that cheap Venezuelan diesel fuel and he explained that they travel about 25 miles further up river to get it in Boca De Uracoa. We changed some US greenbacks for Bolivar Fuertes and headed further up the river with no dependable charts and no waypoints…more risk. We managed to find the station and we docked our 50 foot boat in 12 feet of water to a rickety 8 foot wide dock. Since no English was spoken at this place, it took some Spanish babbling to explain that we were looking for about 1600 liters of diesel fuel. At first it was not possible, but further discussions produced a long leaky hose that could reach 3 of my 4 fuel tanks. We managed to pump almost 600 gallons of fuel through my filter funnel into the boat and into my only spare diesel jerry can. I exchanged my Bolivar Fuertes and asked for a receipt like this was an everyday thing for me…no big deal.

Once free from the rickety dock and safely backed up the narrow side river we were on, I took out my calculator. A silly smile came to my lips as I realized that I had just filled my boat with diesel at just under 4 cents US per gallon. All that fuel had cost me under $20.00 US! Thank you Chavez!

All along the rivers were Warao homes and villages and waves and smiles were freely passed. These people were as interested in us as we were with them and were very respectful. Some had baskets or hammocks to trade but most wanted just to say Hola and see the big blue boat and the friendly little white girl. Sometimes while anchored, groups of young girls would paddle near but not come within about 30 feet unless we waved them closer. Most could understand the captain’s rusty Spanish and many giggles and smiles were exchanged. It was refreshing to see these peaceful, simple people living much the way they have for hundreds of years.

We stayed near the lodge for almost a week. We gave tours of our floating home to some of the staff and several were ready to sign on as crew. On our final day, James walked us around the grounds and through his herb garden picking stalks of bananas, fresh sweet and hot peppers, cilantro, callalou and fresh oregano for us to take with us. Emily bit into a fresh guava with Rumba riding on her shoulder and tears were shed by all when we had to say farewell.

This experience reinforced that the greater risk would have been not to come. To have stayed home, to have stayed in Trinidad, would have been tragic mistakes. The memories of these people and this place will warm us long after we have moved on.

Tom

The Orinoco Delta

We were growing tired of the dirty water around Trinidad, but the calendar and the hurricanes swirling in the Caribbean told us it was too early to head North and West. Luckily, we heard about an area of Venezuela that was safe for Americanos located to our south. This area is called the Orinoco Delta and we got Navigational waypoints to guide us deep up a river called Manamo.

The Orinoco delta is a vast, intricate labyrinth of waterways weaving through a simmering jungle to carry the waters of the Orinoco to the Atlantic Ocean. The Orinoco Delta - the landmass now known as Delta Amacuro State - has formed over the course of thousands of years as the mighty river has deposited millions of tonnes of sediment into the ocean. Over the last century alone, some 1,000km² has been added to the delta, which continues to extend into the Atlantic at a rate of 40m per year over its entire 360km coastline. The Orinoco branches off into over 60 caños (waterways) and 40 rivers which diffuse through 41,000km² of forested islands, swamps and lagoons.

The Warao Indians – literally the ‘Canoe People’- are the native inhabitants of the delta. With a population of 24,000, the Warao constitute the second largest indigenous tribe in the country. Family groups reside in palafitos (wooden houses raised on stilts) along the banks of the river, and spend most of their daily lives in canoes fishing the nearby caños and hunting and gathering in the surrounding forests. Skilled craftspeople, the Warao build their palafitos and canoes from forest wood using traditional techniques, and, owing to increased contact with tourists, have also begun to carve figurines from balsa wood and to make necklaces, baskets and hammocks from the leaves and seeds of the ubiquitous moriche palm. The moriche palm, however, supplies more than just the basis for artesania. Otherwise known as the ‘tree of life’, the moriche provides the Indians with fruit, juices and a sweet pulp that can be made into a type of bread. Moreover, the trunk of the palm is used to cultivate a thumb-sized beetle grub, the moriche worm, a nutritious dietary supplement.

A massive variety of habitats has arisen within the delta, both terrestrial and aquatic. Mixed tropical rainforest, dominated by towering palm trees, prevails over much of the terra firma, fostering a variety of flora including fruiting trees, orchids, bromeliads and arboreal ferns; the latter of which flourish in the moist air of the canopy. Grassland swamps and marshes brim with aquatic plants, and estuarine waterways towards the ocean are thick with mangroves. Throughout the delta, the caños are themselves hugely diverse in form. Wide channels break off into narrow rivulets, isolated pools and lagoons. Some, heavy with sediments are brown in color, others are black with tannic acids. Many are carpeted with vast floating meadows of water hyzcynths (bora) and grasses, slowly drifting along with the current.

Needless to say, the wildlife of the delta is also extremely rich and varied. Jaguar, puma, ocelot, red howler and capuchin monkeys, capybara, agouti, giant otter, manatee and dolphins are just a handful of the countless species of mammal that can be observed in their natural habitats. Among the extensive bird population are the scarlet ibis, hoatzin, macaws, parrots, toucans, caciques, kingfishers, cormorants, egrets, falcons, hawks, harpy-eagles, weaverbirds and hummingbirds. There is also an untold number of amphibians, reptiles and fish species, including anaconda, boas, vipers, fer-de-lance, coral snakes, iguana, cayman, turtles, piranha, stingrays and catfish.

We slowly cruised up the river watching the depths and trading with the Warao as we passed the villages. The river was wide and we could just drift with the slow current as Daddy conversed in Spanish and used a few Warao words we had learned from other cruisers. We traded tee shirts and fishing supplies for baskets, a hammock and even a hand-carved Warao paddle.

Negotiating for the paddle was interesting. I asked if they were willing to trade for one of their two paddles and when they said Si, out came our trading goods. Kim and I offered a hunting knife and two yards of material in a plastic bag with two needles and some matching thread. Both heads nodded quickly and the woman’s paddle and our goods exchanged hands. I noticed that the handle had a small gouge and his paddle looked better crafted. Never one to leave good enough alone, I asked for his paddle instead. Big head shake NO! Out came another bag of material from the Emily Grace “mystery bag”. The woman’s eyes lit up and she started a fast and furious Warao conversation with her man. He kept lifting and looking at his paddle and protesting, but it was a loosing battle. The language difference was not a barrier between our two cultures. It was clear to me what was happening. He exchanged paddles with me (reluctantly) and the deal was done. We waved to each other farewell and she was in the bow of the canoe clutching her prize and he was paddling solo using her paddle back to the village.

Fauna abounds (where the songs of the birds and the unique sounds of howler monkeys serve as the morning wake-up call) in the surrounding area. We saw monkeys and flocks of Ibis, fresh-water dolphins and Emily was even adopted by a Parrot at a lodge we stopped at…but that, Dear Reader, is left for a future blog.

Tom

Food- This is not your Mama’s Grocery Store

Shopping for food since leaving the states has been an adventure in itself. They say that you may not eat the same foods you are used to when traveling, but you will eat. People everywhere must eat. We just have to learn to eat local. Potatoes are still available, but they have become a treat. In this heat and humidity, they are good for about three days. On day three, they grow many appendages and by day five they are a smelly liquid. Rice is good and flavored with the curries and saffron here that are sold by the baggy-full here for pennies is also quite tasty.

Meat has been tough because it is not cured as it is in the United States. The beef and pork that we buy here was alive only hours ago and is much like eating your shoe. We have bought the best cuts of fillet mignon and pork tenderloin and they do not match USDA quality. We occasionally see Omaha Steak USDA meat on the shelves and we fill our freezer when we do.

Chicken is very good and this is one meat where fresh is very good. Many of the shops allow you to look your chicken in the eye before it is dispatched for your culinary pleasure. Here Emily is standing in front of several chickens with tied feet and is learning about the food chain.

Fish is universally good everywhere and we only buy whole fish where we can see the eyes and know it is fresh. Yes, that is a shark behind Emily in the market. We have had blackfin tuna, dorado, and several fish that we only know the local names of. They are all good and could not be fresher. Those crabs in the photo with Emily are alive and are individually tied by hand with vines.

The vegetables are good. Cassava is like potato and is good. Calabash is like spinach and is used in soups. We all like the peppers and the Captain enjoys the hot sauces. We bought a pint jar of pepper sauce that we thought would last a lifetime since a small amount will bring beads of sweat to my entire head. I have been adding it to more and more dishes and at last look it is already half gone!

Fruits are simply to die for. Mangos and papayas are picked only when ripe and the juice running down your chin makes you glad you left off your shirt because of the afternoon heat. Coconuts, pineapple, bananas are all sweet and juicy.

It is truly a blessing that Emily has an adventurous palate. She is always willing to try new things and having her along in the markets opens up the locals to share how foods are prepared and eaten locally. I wonder what kinds of food await us as we get ready to move on from Trinidad.

Tom

Projects After a Year of Cruising

We’ve now been cruising full time for over a year and have a little better idea of what things are important and what projects should be moved to the top of the to-do list. We got a few items done in the first month and a half here in Trinidad.

A new awning with sun shade sides. Since the prevailing winds came from the east as we moved through the Caribbean, the sun would beat into the back of the boat and heat up our salon to unbearable levels just when Kim was deciding what to fix the crew for dinner. After more than one “I’m not cooking in this heat!”, this problem moved to the top of the Captain’s list. The solution involved having a stainless tubing canopy made to extend the boat deck over the transom and dropping sunshade material down on the sides. The finished product is shown in the picture and it works really well. We can see through the screened sides but the mesh blocks the beating sun and gives us some added privacy for those outside showers. All of the sections can be rolled up individually when we want that panoramic view back. It really feels like a new room on the boat and we added a few hooks above for drip drying wet swim suits and towels.

Strengthened Stern Davit. The original stern davit was too weak for our heavy dingy and did not raise our dingy far enough out of the water. Since many of areas we will be visiting are third world and would consider our dingy quite a prize, raising it each night has become a priority. We could also raise the dingy up on the boat deck (which we do for all passages), but that is cumbersome and requires considerable battery amperage that is obviated with the hand-operated davits. We beefed up the stainless supports and added an attachment to our new canopy to have it follow the boat deck lines and provide additional support. Leaving the dingy in the nutrient-rich, 84 degree water also quickly fouls the bottom with algae and barnacles. Raising the boat each night has the added benefit of keeping the critters from getting a foot hold.

Haul-out for bottom work. As you can see from the before and after shots, our hull needed some new bottom paint. Down here in Trinidad, we have access to heavier duty Tin-based paints that are now outlawed in the US. We hope that the 2 ½ coats we had our Trinidad friend Shawndel put on will keep the bottom clean for another year or so. We also had some through-hull valves replaced and had our naiad stabilizer fin seals replaced and were back in the water in less than a week.

Sprucing up the car (dingy). We use our dingy at lot. The beating tropical sun is brutal and our Zodiac is made from a material that will slowly breakdown with extended UV exposure. We found some craftsmen here who will wrap the dingy up with a canvas material that will allow this dingy to survive our 5 year adventure. We replaced the cushions too and think she looks so good now that we are REALLY happy that we can raise her up every night! We also found several instances where it would be useful to explore some possible anchorages and check the available depths without endangering the mother ship. Therefore, we added a roll bar and mounted a removable depth/fish finder and a GPS to find our way home when we stray too far at night.

We did some normal maintenance items on all the engines and did some extra items like replacing all the injectors to get ready for a Pacific crossing. The last six weeks were a lot of work and we and our credit cards need a rest. We have moved into a more secluded anchorage now and are getting back into our normal cruising mode. We started fourth grade home schooling this week and Emily is still enjoying afternoon swims and visits with cruising friends anchored only 100 yards away.

We are enjoying watching the topical storms as they develop off the African coast, build strength as they head straight for us and then veer predictably to the North West long before they reach us. We sit calmly in this undeveloped cove and hear the squawks from the bright green red-winged parrots as they argue loudly who will get the highest branch. We have heard, but not yet seen the Howler monkeys that scamper through the trees. What they do not know is that we are a patient crew and are certain that we will see them before we leave this steamy land…

Tom

Leatherback Sea Turtles

Leatherbacks are the largest turtles on Earth, growing up to seven feet long and exceeding 2,000 pounds. These reptilian relics are the only remaining representatives of a family of turtles that traces its evolutionary roots back more than 100 million years. Once prevalent in every ocean except the Arctic and Antarctic, the leatherback population is rapidly declining in many parts of the world.

While all other sea turtles have hard, bony shells, the inky-blue carapace of the leatherback is somewhat flexible and almost rubbery to the touch. Ridges along the carapace help give it a more hydrodynamic structure. Leatherbacks can dive to depths of 4,200 feet (1,280 meters)—deeper than any other turtle—and can stay down for up to 85 minutes.

Leatherbacks have the widest global distribution of all reptile species, and possibly of any vertebrate. They can be found in the tropic and temperate waters of the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans, as well as the Mediterranean Sea. Adult leatherbacks also traverse as far north as Canada and Norway and as far south as New Zealand and South America. Unlike their reptilian relatives, leatherbacks are able to maintain warm body temperatures in cold water by using a unique set of adaptations that allows them to both generate and retain body heat. These adaptations include large body size, changes in swimming activity and blood flow, and a thick layer of fat.

Leatherbacks undertake the longest migrations between breeding and feeding areas of any sea turtle, averaging 3,700 miles each way. After mating at sea, females come ashore during the breeding season to nest. The nighttime ritual involves excavating a hole in the sand, depositing around 80 eggs, filling the nest, leaving a large, disturbed area of sand that makes detection by predators difficult, and finally returning to the sea. This was the event that we wanted to witness.

The temperature inside the nest determines the sex of the hatchlings. A mix of male and female hatchlings occurs when the nest temperature is approximately 85.1 degrees Fahrenheit (29.5 degrees Celsius), while higher temperatures produce females and cooler temperatures produce males. Female hatchlings that make it to sea will roam the oceans until they reach sexual maturity, when they return to the same nesting areas to produce their own offspring. Males spend the rest of their lives at sea.

It was in search of these giants that the crew of Emily Grace climbed into a bus at 5 PM for a 3 hour ride to the Northeast coast of Trinidad. We stopped along the way and had dinner at a roadside diner. From about May through August, thousands of giant leatherbacks return to the beachs of Trinidad to lay their eggs -- At the peak of laying season, between 300 to 500 come ashore each night, each of them laying between 80 to 100 eggs in each nest.

We arrived after dark and were met by a group of guides and were to wait off the beach until we received word that a turtle was sighted. It is illegal to go on the beach at night without the company of a certified guide (which was included in our excursion). Guides take groups of people out onto the beach with the help of a red light (regular flashlights disorient the turtles), and each guide is trained and knowledgeable about anything you'd ever want to learn about the turtles -- the fact that it is believed that the turtles return to the beach on which they were hatched; that they generally love the waters of the arctic and northern oceans, and actually travel thousands of miles to the Caribbean and South America to lay their eggs, so that the warm sands provide the proper temperature for incubation; and that while they seem clumsy on land, they are incredibly fast in the ocean, able to outswim sharks, and dive deeper than whales.

Because flashbulbs are prohibited at night, it can be very difficult to photograph the turtles after sundown. It was discovered, however, that the period when actually laying eggs the turtles are unaffected by lights as they enter a kind of trance. We were allowed to take a few photos for about 10 minutes of the entire night. Since it was too dark to take video, I borrowed a video from the internet that shows what we saw and included it below.

We were lucky to see 3 or 4 turtles laying eggs and one nest of hatchlings scurrying across the beach towards the water. Our guide almost stepped on one baby since he was rushing over to see another adult.

As we rode back on the bus we all reflected on how fortunate we were to witness this unique event. It was almost 2 AM when we finally climbed back aboard and snuggled in our beds to rest up for our next adventure.

Tom