Puerto la Cruz, Venezuela:  September 1 -October 21, 2008

Click on the above thumbnail for a map of Venezuela

Devi (Arctic Tern) was writing a series of articles for All At Sea, one of the free glossy magazines distributed throughout the Caribbean.   She is an ornithologist, and the first of the series on sea birds was to be on pelicans.   Did I have pictures she could use to illustrate her article?   Yup, some, but we could take the dinghy out and get more, if she wanted.   And so it was that Barb and I and Hunter and Devi took our dinghy out on a pelican expedition along the shore on the outside of the wall that protects Bahía Redonda.   Devi submitted her article with a number of my photos, and two were used in the publication.  Here they are:

The original

Kinda what they pubished

They didn't change this one

"Charlie Alpha" is one of the friendly Venezuelans who caters to the cruisers in the Puerto la Cruz area.  He takes folks out on shopping expeditions to find boat parts, etc.  He runs the only chain galvanizing business in the eastern Caribbean.   He takes folks out for an extended gratis tour of the area, with the emphasis on the various types of resources that are available to cruisers.  He exchanges currency.  An ex-college student in America, he is a good guy to know for visitors to Puerto la Cruz.   Here are some pictures that deal with Charlie Alpha:

Chuck and Charlie on top of Isla Morro

Looking down from Isla Morro toward Puerto la Cruz

Tighter shot of Puerto la Cruz

Looking west -- note the oil tankers in the harbour

Refurbishing a statue of Mary in preparation for a religious holiday

Charlie delivering our newly-galvanized anchor chain

While Barb was visiting her sisters and her folks in America, I remained in Puerto la Cruz and spent my time on boat chores, including laying down several maintenance coats of varnish on the cap rails and polishing all of the external fiberglass above the rails.  Also did some running on the hard pavement in the immediate area of Bahía Redonda -- and managed to mess up my knee in the process.   As this is written (two months later), I still cannot run without inflaming the knee.  :-(

Addendum:

On November 9th we had some very bad news.  A friend of ours, Ken Peters, was killed by banditos in an anchorage seven miles from Puerto la Cruz (PLC).  Ken and his wife Cathy aboard Chill had just left the Bahia Redondo Marina along with another couple, Gloria and Steve aboard their boat I'Lean.  They had stopped at an anchorage for the night to prepare for a long trip to one of the off-shore islands, with the intention of eventually reaching Bonaire and spending some time there.  Cathy had just returned from the States after spending many weeks at her mother's deathbed and then funeral.  While she was gone, Ken watched our boat for us while we were in Merida.  She was still with her mother when we left PLC to go west for our haul-out in Trinidad.  The two couples were on one boat planning their trip when they were approached by a small boat with three men asking for water.  When they were given the water, one of the men pulled out a gun and from a very short distance, shot Ken twice in cold blood.  Fortunately, Steve had a gun aboard and even though he was also shot, was able to chase the men off.  The men have subsequently been apprehended and arrested and we hope they will be put away forever.  Of course that wouldn't bring back Ken or help Cathy who had to wait weeks to take Ken's remains back to the States.  We feel so badly about her loss.  This incident has certainly colored our outlook towards future cruising in Venezuela.