The sail from Trinidad was a long one and full of adventure.
Had lots of fun, but lots of damage also. Both my sails are ripped to pieces, and my new outboard – my pride and joy, my Johnson 5HP, now lies at the bottom
of the ocean under 1000feet of water. I feel wiped out at the moment. It’s going to take me a while to tell the whole story, so in
the meantime I just wanted to let everyone know I made it to Bonaire safely,
Merry Christmas, and here’s part one:
Part 1
La Blanquilla
I left Trinidad early in the morning and was escorted past
Scotland Bay by lots of very playful dolphins. They were jumping right out of
the water (very difficult to photo though).
Dolphins off Scotland Bay
I sailed north to avoid pirates and was sailing fast. I was past
Grenada by nightfall. Making good progress I turned east and sailed well
through the night. The next day though the wind completely died and I wasn’t
anywhere near Blanquilla by sunset. On
the second night feeling completely exhausted, I hove-to for a few hours and
got some sleep.
I like heaving to; it’s a good way to stop the boat so you
can make a cup of tea, but I don’t really like doing it at night, and trying to
sleep while you’re bobbing around in the open ocean in the dark is difficult.
In the morning as the sun was coming up, I set off again toward Blanquilla.
La Blanquilla is a really magical place. Firstly it was
almost impossible to see, invisible
until you get right up to it. I thought I was going crazy, looking at my charts
and my GPS, but still not seeing anything. Then from a mile or so I could see
what looked like a very long 5ft high wall in the middle of the sea. It seemed like an Arthur C. Clark kind of thing. After two
nights without sleep I had started hallucinating, so I was doubting what I was
seeing. As I got nearer I
could see it wasn’t a man made wall, but a very smooth and tiny cliff face,
maybe 10 feet high. I sailed along it for miles and miles, and finally reached
the other side of the island, which was just endless beautiful little bays with white sandy beaches.
La Blanquilla
I still had an hour or two of sailing left before I reached
the spot where I wanted to anchor, I stood up in the cockpit and stretched and
yawned really loudly. Like a bear. I scanned the completely empty ocean and noticed
a boat heading towards me. Did they think that my stretching arms in the air
thing was a call for help? ‘Guys I’m just yawning’. Then I thought there’s no
way they could have tuned toward me so quickly; they must have been heading my
way before I yawned. In which case maybe they think that was my fighting growl
or something.
I still wasn’t sure if they were pirates. The boat was an
old fishing boat, OK, but with three big outboards; that’s a bad sign. Then
again it was painted yellow and orange and looked like it was called Daisy Tom.
I thought that was a good sign; just lots of friendly Venezuelan old men out
fishing. I wave. They wave back. And then one of them holds a severed arm above his
head and starts shaking it madly, and their boat is still heading toward me,
fast.
As their boat comes even nearer I can see that it’s not a
severed arm, but a lobster. He wants to know if I want to buy it. I shout
‘hola’, then shake my head, say sorry and off they go. Lucky for them, I was just
about to let off all my smoke bombs and start going round and round in circles.
What would they have made of that I wonder?
I anchored here
Blanquilla was like a beach holiday, but just me. No one
else on the island, no other boats (once the pirates had gone). I stayed for
two nights but would have liked to have stayed much longer. It was exactly what
I needed after Trinidad.
sunset off Blanquilla
Not all was well though. Anchoring, I noticed that my depth gauge
was broken. I checked the gauge, and the monitor, and finally found that some
of the cable between the two had chaffed, and partly worn through. It should be
an easy fix once I get to Bonaire. Also I had tangled my main sail halyard around
my radar reflector, and had to pull it tight, so that now I would have to go up
the mast to get it back down. But since the wind was directly behind me I was
sailing jib only, so I was happy to leave it up there for the time being. In
the morning I would set off early again for Los Roques.
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