Saturday 17 september 2005.

Hello!

As you may remember we were in Antigua when we last sent a travel letter. We left the 1st of June to go south, away from the hurricane belt. We had some rough sails in the beginning with lots of squalls, rain and wind.

The Wahoo that kept us fed for 4 days.

We stayed in Martinique for a week waiting for the weather to subside, then we continued south. There are many islands to visit but we didn't consider having time to spend on them all since the hurricane season was already started (June-Nov). In Martinique we met Lars on the Norwegian boat Luna again. Last time we saw him was in Porto Santo on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. One of the advantages of cruising is that we meet so many nice people, then we part and when least expected bump in to each other again. St Lucia was a new experience for us. The contrast between their island neighbor Martinique is great. St Lucia is much poorer and it reflects upon the number of boatboys who want to sell just about anything by our boat.

Krilla deals with the boatboy Pascal i St Lucia.

In Bequia we started to catch up with more cruisers heading south and we kept seeing the same ones in different places. We had a very stormy night in the snorkeling paradise Tobago Cays, so we went to the close island Mayreau, out of the waves and storms and enjoyed ourselves instead.

We went around Grenada a little and saw that the damages after Hurricane Ivan (Sept 2004) are huge. Many houses are still without roofing next to some who have the new "Ivan-blue" (waterproof fabric) roofs. On a big field by a stadium there were hundreds of bundles with blown away tin-roofs.

The plan was to sail from Grenada to Los Testigos in Venezuela but there was not a single US Dollar to be found in Grenada. Other cruisers had advised us to bring dollars into Venezuela for the stay there. That caused us a bit of problems and the only solution we could come up with was to sail to Trinidad first. We did an over night sail together with Luna.

Did we like Trinidad? It is below the hurricane belt and we think it's a good place to haul out but the rest we weren't too keen of. We spent 2 weeks there but after 3 very rolly nights in Chaguaramas we had had enough and we went to a calm anchorage for the rest of the time. We traveled the 3 Nm between the boat and all the facilities by dinghy, 39Nm after 11 days!

We left Trinidad on a Monday night to go to Los Testigos, finally! It's a small island group with a few resident families who make their living by fishing. When we anchored there were many boats there, but the next morning when we woke up it was empty! The weather outlook told us that the hurricane Emily was forecasted to go due west towards us. We did not stay long after we heard that, we just pulled up our anchor and left. As soon as we came around the island we saw 15-20 boats, all on the run from Emily. It was nerve-racking to say the least, Emily went west with 18-20 knots and we did 5-7 but we got away. After 22 hours of travel we arrived in Laguna Grande, in the Golfo de Cariaco, with many other boats and we took protection. There was a lot of traffic on the VHF and the ones with latest hurricane prognosis shared with the rest of us. Emily started veering NW, which meant she missed us, we got some rain but no more than 15-20 knots of wind and that we can handle! The paradox was we left Antigua to avoid hurricanes...

Laguna Grande, Venezuela.

Laguna Grande is a fantastic lagoon with plenty of places to anchor but in Venezuela you have to put security first. Never anchor alone, always lift up your dinghy at night and lock everything onboard. A lot of thefts have been reported and we are glad every morning we wake up and see we still have a dinghy and an outboard.

Pleasant sailing i Golfo de Cariaco.

We sailed around in Golfo de Cariaco for a while and then we went north to Isla Margarita. We sailed past the island when running from Emily. Margarita is a tax free island and we loaded the boat with food and bought new glasses among other things. 400 for a beer sounds much but it isn't more than 20 Euro cents! Diesel costs 4 euro cents per litre...

The store in Medregal Village.

For the first time we experienced that we couldn't trust the ship agents (regarding in- and outward clearance). We have gotten contradictory information on what we are supposed to do and we understood someone is lying, only who? In Margarita we had our first and hopefully last armed robbery. It went well though; we got away with our lives and money.

Lovely bath in Tortuga.

The last 2 weeks we spent by the islands Blanquilla and Tortuga, both situated in Venezuelas outer archipelago. No shops, crooks or agents but white beaches, seas shells and turquoise water. We have lived out our sailing dreams to the fullest with BBQ:s on the beach, long walks and nice snorkeling. We are not tired of the heat yet!

Gunilla is taking care of one of her sea shells.

Drinks on the beach in Blanquilla.

Elvina is in a marina in Puerto la Cruz for a while and the plan is to travel inland for a few weeks. The show must go on!

All the best from Gunilla och Krilla