MUTUAL FUN - A SAILING ODYSSEY

October 2, 2001

I was talking with a guy from Boston Harbour on SSB radio the other night and he said it was going down to 40 degrees there. I forgot that it’s Fall back home. It’s a beautiful time of year but oh so short. Well, keeping this is mind, I’ll try not to emphasize the sunshine as much over the next season.

We have been busy everyday here. Shopping is a bus or taxi ride away; both being very cheap. Actually, the bus is extremely cheap at $150bs per person or $.21. We shared a taxi with “Free Spirit” yesterday; mainly to hunt down my much awaited birthday present and also for some grocery shopping. There are very few jewelry stores here. The best I could make out as to the reason is because it costs so much for the inventory. But, alas, we found one with a beautiful off-white stone of agua marina, from Brazil. It’s set in 18K gold and I bought an 18K gold chain to make a beautiful necklace. It’s not nice to tell the price of a gift but I’ll just say the necklace was about 1/3-1/4 of the price back home. The stone is incomparable but I know with the setting, it was a bargain. Bob didn’t think much of it until I put it against my skin and hung it from a chain. Of course, to do it justice I must maintain a nice tan. We’ll see what we can do about that.

We then had a nice local lunch and did our grocery shopping. A taxi brought us back home where we rewarded ourselves with a nice cold beer and a quick bout on the Internet. Today is laundry day. That means I’ll get it ready and we’ll take it to the marina and leave it for a day, pick it up tomorrow all fresh and clean. I love these cheap countries! We need fuel and water and Thursday we’ll head to new territory. “Free Spirit” is having a guest arrive today for the next 2 weeks.

October 4, 2001

Off today to Coche island. Will be back in a few weeks, but for now, more boring swimming and snorkeling.

October 7, 2001

Isla Coche was a nice little place with a German resort, which lent itself to jet skis, pay-for canopy chairs and an overpriced bar. We stayed a couple of days and then sailed to Cubagua. Another small island near Margarita. The sail over was quite fun, with “Free Spirit” and “Bagerra.” We had a fishing contest, which I won, coming up with a decent sized rainbow runner. The loser had to filet the fish. Elayne on “Bagerra” was up for the task and she and Richard came over to do the nasty deed. She did a splendid job, making 2 perfect filets. Cocktail hour was held on “Mutual Fun”, complete with the luxury of ice cubes. We only use them on rare occasions as the temperature of the freezer rises about 5 degrees in retaliation. Rum and tonics, with a lime twist, lots of munchies and fish medallions were served. Each of the ladies brought a munchie and we partied until the wind drew them all home, about 9:00pm.

The wind has been quite relentless the last couple of days so we thought we might do well to pay attention to the weather. Another tropical storm is close; Grenada is only about 60 miles north of us and so we are being affected. The storm is bringing winds of 55-60 knots to Grenada but we are seeing 20-25K. There is a break in the action today and so we all decided to make a run for a safe haven. Unfortunately, it’s in different directions. “Bagerra” and “Free Spirit” are going to the mainland for some land adventures. Steve is a guest aboard “Free Spirit” and seems to be enjoying himself and getting into the routine of sailing. He’s a delightful “bloke” and has a very strong Scottish accent. I get such a bang out of the way the British talk. It was especially fun last night because we were outnumbered by the Brits. Just little things Sue says cause such delight. When we were grocery shopping, she asked if I needed a trolley. When we were getting into our dinghy at night, she wanted to know if we had a torch. We are constantly going to suss things out. Steve tells a story how he was all dressed in “me suit and tie”, etc. These friends are a delight to us and as you can probably read between the lines, I’m going to miss them terribly. Bob, too. We all plan to gather in 2-3 weeks back in Margarita, where we will check out of Venezuela and go our separate ways. Geoff and Sue will head back to Trinidad, moor the boat and fly home. As mentioned, Sue is staying home and maybe we will see Geoff again up-island. We will start our trek up-island from Grenada.

Due to weather reports of high winds from the south, then west, then south again, we are now underway to Tortuga. It’s a day before we planned and we are skipping another planned anchorage and are leaving way too late to get in with daylight. I’m not a happy first mate at this time but hopefully the moon will be out when we anchor and all will be OK. After hearing the weather, we got underway as fast as possible but it was almost 10:00am. We have to cover over 60 miles today and so far the winds are light, our speed is 6K and that means landfall about 9:00pm. Well, I guess I can’t be happy 100% of the time. I’ll let you know tomorrow how it went.

October 8, 2001

We neared land about 9pm, right on schedule. We throttled way back and came within a mile of land at a speed of about 3 knots. Bob was below with his eyes glued to the electronic charts on computer. Bob bought these charts from our friend on “Vitrain” and although at the time I thought it was a waste of money I eat my words. They saved the day last night. With the GPS in front of me, I was at the helm. As we made the turn into the anchorage, Bob was on the bow with a spotlight, getting the anchor ready. I was at the helm pretending to be an airline pilot. That is, I had the compass light on, the GPS light on and the depth light on and couldn’t see a thing ahead due to night blindness. We came in at 1.8 knots. There was quite a roll from a northern swell so steering the boat at that low speed was not easy. We had our walkie-talkies and we had already made a pact to be calm, cool and non-yelling. At one point Bob asked me to put the autopilot on and run down and look at the electronic chart. I got nervous leaving the helm with boats around us but I ran down and gave him the all clear. We were just where we were supposed to be. Up a hundred feet or so, turn into the wind and down the anchor went. Just as Bob was going to snub the anchor chain, his walkie-talkie went out so I ran mine up to him. I didn’t have to talk to him; he just had to give me the orders. Hand signals were obviously out. There was no moon yet and it was DARK. We got snubbed, turned the engine off, set the anchor alarm and went to sleep. I didn’t sleep great because of the roll but was anxious to wake up this morning and see where we were in the anchorage and what it looked like here. As I came up, I saw that we were set apart from about 20 other boats. They were not rolling and we were (we’ve since moved over.) The water is the prettiest I have seen since the Bahamas. Well, Tobago Cays were this pretty, too. A light turquoise with a white sand bottom. Today we will dinghy over to the beach, which is about 2 miles long and have a walk. I’ve already been swimming twice and it’s not even noon yet. Bob’s fixing egg salad sandwiches for lunch so bye for now.

October 10, 2001

We are at a new anchorage, about 10 miles from the last, called Cayo Herradura. It is astonishingly beautiful here. Picture-perfect white sand beach and light turquoise water. We swam and I cleaned the water line of the boat and then gave in to the sinus infection that has been troubling me for the last week or so. Bob made us minestrone soup, with added pasta and we had an early night. I started antibiotics yesterday but feel even worse today so I have barely moved from my bunk. I’m reading a good book so it isn’t the prison sentence it might be in a beautiful Eden as this. Tonight a bunch of us are gathering driftwood to build a fire and burn our garbage. We are far removed from civilization here and are beginning to think about our water supply and fresh foods depleting. Well, I’m worried about the water and Bob’s worried about the food. The next island we plan to visit is also uncivilized with no water or stores. I plan to ask our friends on “Duchess” if they could spare some water as they have a water maker. Possibly I could trade them for sending out some emails, as their hard drive went down.

October 13, 2001

Last night I made my favorite meal, spaghetti, with a pound of our much adored and depleting supply of fresh food and a fresh salad. I was so disappointed. I find myself to be in a deteriorating state with this stupid sinus infection. Not only could I not taste the food, I wasn’t hungry and my taste buds made the food taste foul. This morning, feeling even more lethargic, I called Annie, from “China Town” on the 54’ Oyster sailboat next to us. Annie is a nurse, and for you living and breathing men out there, a nurse that any of you would love to be sick for. She came over and we went over my medicine and devised a plan to get me better.

Yesterday being Columbus Day, this island started filling up with powerboats, just like Put-In-Bay does at home. They piled in here. At first, we thought maybe 10 or 12 but at day’s end, there must be 100 powerboats from the mainland here. They have brought their families and good, clean fun is being had here. The cruisers got together and organized a beach clean up, where Bob is now and where nurse Annie commanded I stay away from. The big boats will take the garbage back to the mainland and dispose of it. It’s just a way to show the locals that we care about their islands as well.

October 15, 2001

Medical report: Mona still feels like someone stuck a pencil up her right nostril. That, after a full treatment of antibiotics. Please, don’t make us go to the mainland to see a doctor. Have a heart. I’ll be good, I promise.

We had the worst night we’ve had in ages. While Bob and I were watching a video of Les Miserables, a lightning storm began and lasted about 4 hours. It was far enough away to just be beautiful and not scary. It was continuous lightning. Well, this light show brought us big swells out of the west. That’s WEST, I say. What’s up with that? Our anchorage got pounded. There are about a dozen sailboats here and we were all up much of the night. About 4 boats went to a neighboring island, a couple boats reanchored and the rest of us just stuck it out. Tonight, it’s business as usual. No swell and the wind where it’s supposed to be. Aah. We could all use 8 hours of sleep!

October 18, 2001

We rewarded ourselves tonight with a wonderful dinner of filet mignon, boiled potatoes and a fresh green salad. The fresh salad being a miracle after almost 2 weeks from provisioning. The reason for this reward? Aah, plenty. First off, we decided to not go to Blanquilla, after it took our friends on the 54’ boat 23 hours to go 70 miles. The wind was on the nose and it was a bad slog. Secondly, Blanquilla, according to our friends on “Duchess” is “different.” Meaning, the water is cooler, the beaches not as pretty and why go all of that way for “not as pretty?” So, that decision made, we are still pondering a replacement plan, which may include a sail to the mainland. In any case, we were supposed to leave today but yesterday turned out to be a tough one and today was not much better. My right sinus cavity may have to be amputated. The jury’s still out. That’s not the bad news. Our generator is leaking oil and Bob can’t find the leak. So, every couple of days he has to lift the stairs, pull everything out, clean up the oil in the pan, add more oil, put everything back and scrub himself off. I, of course, am the tool-hander. I sit very quietly and don’t speak unless spoken to. Which is almost not at all. I know that cursing is not directed at me. That nasty job being completed for the day, we then went ashore and gathered driftwood and dead scrub for a trash burning at 5:00pm. This required quite a bit of trekking and quite a few dunks to cool off. Upon our return, I realized I am not recuperated and was quite pooped. We had a few hours to kill before having to be back on shore so I flipped on the fridge to cool down and played some computer games. Poof. No fridge. Checking outside, I saw that the water wasn’t being pumped. Bob took all the cushions off the couch and had a look inside the unit. All electrical connections were good. He cleared the thru-hull with the wire crammer we used to clear out the jellyfish in Trinidad. No clogging there. That only left the water-cooling pump. Did we have a spare? Bless my thoughtful captain. We did. Now he’s hot and sweaty and getting grumpy but he attends to this chore with confidence. At least, I thought so. He had to take off the dining room table; about a 15-minute chore and then he set to work taking out the old pump and connecting the new. For this chore, I was tool- hander and flashlight holder (a promotion.) Exactly one hour later, by George if the water isn’t pumping out of the new water pump and the fridge chugging away. We were both having our separate thoughts on where we were going to sail; back to Trinidad, Margaritta, straight to Grenada. It was nightmarish thoughts. Who to give all of the food away to. How much I could cook before I collapsed of over-cooking (I have about a 1-hour limit.) In the end, all was fine and we were on the beach at 5:15, happily burning our trash, along with 2 other boats.

Oh, but let’s not stop there. Let’s forward to today. We’ll have our tea, coffee and toast, listen to the morning net, read a little, get introduced to the day before Bob gets into his next project, of which I am totally in the dark. Next thing I know, he’s hunched over the forward head (toilet) tools in hand and cursing away. Much to my benefit, I don’t have the first clue what he’s even doing. And, the presence of mind not to ask. After the cursing goes on for awhile, I offer my services but am ignored until needed. When I do become needed, I would give anything to take back my offer. To make a terrible story short, he had to pull the sewage hose and somehow it had a life of its own, got out of his hands and… made a mess. When he asks for paper towels and a bucket, I start cursing and he starts apologizing. I have to say, we are a good team. We got the job done and the cleaning up was all it was cracked up to be. Not knowing this little accident was going to happen, Bob wasn’t wearing latex gloves and let’s just say rags, tools and a flashlight were all involved. When he was done reconnecting the toilet, I started in on my admiral duties and ordered him to stand up. I handed him 1 paper towel for each hand and ordered him to get up on deck and jump in, without touching a thing. I got in the dinghy and got him soap and then the ladder to get back on board (this was a question I was pondering.) Once he was clean, we got a sponge and disinfectant. All of the tools and flashlight first, then he stepped out, I donned gloves and in I went. We put the hose through the window of the head and let her rip. Salt water and disinfectant abounded. Later, I accused Bob of all of this just so I would clean his head. After all was clean and Bob looking pretty content, I advised him the pain wasn’t quite over. He just looked at me as I brought in the alcohol and told him to put his hands over the sink. His hands were all cut up from scraping barnacles off the boat, with many open cuts. He’s had infection before but he pleaded and begged. I said “put your hands over the sink.” He looked like a sad little puppy-faced dog but I spilled about 1/5 of the bottle over his hands. When he was done screaming, I told him to turn his hands over and sprayed the other side as well. It was many hours later that he thanked me, but to his credit, he did.

Now, do you see why we rewarded ourselves with that delicious dinner?

October 21, 2001

A log is a log and unfortunately, things don’t always go well. I guess we’ve had a run of them. We left Tortuga yesterday, or was it the day before? About 2:00pm, we picked up anchor to go around the corner to an anchorage 10 miles away. We planned to spend the night there and then get underway for the trip back to Margarita. We figured this might take 2-3 days, stopping at different places at night. Bob had it all planned out. Even though the total trip is only 100 miles or so, the current and wind are both against us and sailing, or even motoring directly is not possible. About 4:30, Bob suggests we should just go by the selected anchorage for the night and keep motor sailing. We have had so many differences of opinion on this subject because the winds are stronger at night here and I didn’t want to try to slog into it when we could just rest at night and sail in the day, with lighter winds. This is exactly opposite of how I usually feel because I love to sail at night and am always trying to talk him into a night sail. I any case, I am fairly beaten down by this sinus infection that has turned into bronchitis (self-diagnosed, mind you) and so I say, “whatever you think best.” All is fine and I am feeling OK. My energy level is zilch and so I go down below, out of the sun and sleep for awhile. We plan to have hot dogs with the fresh bread I baked yesterday (another story in itself, having to do with the propane going out in the middle of baking and flat bread). By the time the sun dips down, the wind is up to 22-27k and I ask Bob, how does cheese sound with the bread? By now the seas have kicked up as well and we have 6-8ft seas instead of the 4-6ft. called for and there is a 12-footer that knocks into the side of the boat every 20th wave or so that sprays whomever is silly enough to be sitting on the helm seat. The boat is pretty well battened down so things aren’t flying around too bad. The saving grace to this nasty sail is that there is a bit of moon. It’s just a small slice but it lights up the sky a little and tends to make the heart a little lighter by its presence. It also helps to counter act the slight feeling of depression of all the lightning up ahead. As the night progresses, the wind and waves remain strong, the lightning stays with us and I notice that little sliver of moon, keeping us company, is a setting moon and is leaving us. Well, this makes me sad, along with carrying a bit of resentment about even being out here at night so after giving Bob a bit of a break, from 11:30pm-1: 00am, I went below and slept until 4:30. I staggered up the steps and Bob told me to go back to sleep so I slept until 5:30am. By then the seas and winds have calmed down and I’m well rested and not so grumpy. I made coffee and toast and Bob slept for a couple of hours. When he got up, the sun was shining, all was well but the going was slow. We did have our hot dogs for lunch and I slept some more. We arrived, at long last in Margarita about 3:00pm, 25 hours after we left and proceeded to take another hour to anchor. Bob was dying for a hamburger and iced coke at Jak’s so we got the dinghy together, showered and went in to dinner- for the first time in weeks. We were so tired we came right back to the boat and crashed. This was the worst sail we have had since being down in the Caribbean and I’m glad it’s over. I now realize how spoiled we have become. Today is sunny, there are many boats we know here and although it’s Sunday, I will try to find a doctor.

October 23, 2001

When we arrived here, Randy on “Passagio” dingied to our boat and told us a story so horrific, I thought he was kidding. He and Patti had been up at the restaurant for "“Mexican night" and had indulged in far too many margaritas. As the night wore on, the drinks got stronger. When Patti and Randy set out in their dinghy for their boat, they were thankful they had left on an anchor light to guide them back. Unfortunately, in their inebriated state, they mistook another boat’s anchor light for their own and went speeding in that direction. They realized their mistake as their dinghy careened into a reef and Patti was thrown from the dinghy. She lay on the rocks asking Randy to just let her be for a few minutes, then she got up and tried to help move the dinghy off the rocks. I’m not sure of the exact facts at this time, but she did get back to their boat and seemed all right, except for a foot that was swelling badly. During the night she was having difficulty breathing and the next morning she was taken to hospital. After an exam and X-rays, she was found to have a torn ligament in her leg and 6 broken ribs. Yesterday, the day Randy thought he was bringing her home, he called Patti in the morning and was told that her blood pressure dropped severely. He left in a taxi with a translator and looked pale and worried. We didn’t see him again until dark. By then, I was frantic and thinking the worst. He came to our boat and told us that during the night, she was feeling poorly and rang and rang the nurses. When she got no response, she got herself up, walked over the sleeping nurses in the nurse’s station and walked herself down to emergency, where they laughed at her. They stopped their laughter after they retook X-rays and found one lung was deflated and bleeding. She had already lost a liter of blood. Poor Randy. They wouldn’t allow him to sleep there and he couldn’t understand any of what the doctors were saying but they put Patti in intensive care with all of the nurses looking quite alert and monitoring her on machines. Bob went over this morning to learn how to work the generator on “Passagio” and we just got word from the marina that Randy has called in. We were prepared to ask for blood donations here but it turns out that Patti had a transfusion during the night. Randy was pretty scared about her getting local blood and so were we. I’m looking forward to seeing him later today to get her progress report. We have learned many lessons from different people on what can happen out here. Two different things come to mind. In one instance, a girl was scraping the hull at the water line with a metal putty knife and she got her hand bit off by a barracuda. Our friend, Cliff, on “Joss” was cleaning out his water intake under the boat when his finger got stuck and he panicked, of course, without oxygen. He was thinking of different ways to amputate his own finger when he talked himself into calming down and worked his finger free. This situation, of course, is a good lesson in drinking and driving. Whether it be a big boat, car or dinghy, accidents can and do happen. We wish the best for Patti’s recovery.

Along lighter notes, I did manage do get some new antibiotics with the help of a retired male nurse cruiser friend. I started then yesterday and I already feel much worse which is probably a good sign.

October 25, 2001

Patti continues an up-and-down recovery. She stabilizes and then something else goes wrong. Apparently a shunt in her shoulder got misplaced and jabbed into a nerve and then something else happened to cause her other lung to be punctured. She also lost more blood and had to have another transfusion during the night. Randy is very worried about her, of course. He’s constantly on the phone to his doctor in the States and the feedback is that the doctors here are doing everything right. Bob went to the store the other day when I wasn’t feeling well and picked her out a stuffed dog, candy and a card. We sent it with Randy yesterday and he said Patti hadn’t shed a tear until she saw the dog. Randy is asking for people to stay the night at the hospital, just to have someone there watching over the procedures. An X-ray tech and Spanish speaking cruiser named Micki will be staying with her tonight and I have offered tomorrow night. I don’t know any Spanish but I can look mean if I want to. Keep Patti in your thoughts, please.

October 29,2001

Patti continues her recovery. Other than penetrating her lung membrane with the shunt, hitting the lower button on the bed to jar her backward and then pull her up by he arm, finding 4 or 5 more broken ribs (total count today is 11), Randy feels she is in decent care. She is still in intensive care but that makes us all happy because the nurses don’t seem to sleep on the job there.

I continue my recovery, as well. All of my strength is back; my headaches are only at night and all of that stuff in my chest is coming up.

Bob continues…whatever Bob does. To give you an example, today he was pondering if Juan (pronounced whan) is Spanish for John, then is whac Spanish for Jack? Do you see that I have my hands full? Today he spent the morning trying to get water baby to come over. That’s right, water baby. We have been trying to get the water boat for 3 days but on Friday, he didn’t come into work. Does his boss get upset? No. When asked, she just says, “he didn’t show up for work today. On Saturday, he didn’t have any fuel in the boat so he couldn’t drive around. Sunday is a day off and by Monday, the VHF radio is full of people offering to siphon fuel out of their tanks if he will please come over. Bob waved him over and then got in the dinghy and talked to him. We were told we were on his list for the morning but when Bob asked to see his list, he had 1 name on it. Which is pretty funny because his boss was telling people that they were on the list and there were about 20 call-ins. He finally got him over while I was grocery shopping. That took till about 2:00pm and then I did a bunch of chores which proved I am much better. There, I knew that all had a point. Tomorrow I think I go stay with Patti for the day to make sure they don’t puncture something. I have to look everything up in the translation dictionary, which takes much of the spontaneity out of mouthing off. I have to put my index finger in the air, look in my dictionary and blurt out, “you idiots” in improper Spanish. This will lose the desired effect, I’m sure.

October 30, 2001

Big party aboard Mutual Fun tonight. We drank and ate and danced and laughed. Patti comes home from the hospital today. Randy rented a condo for a week for her recovery.

- MORE TO FOLLOW -