Testigo Grande,
Los Testigos,
Venezuela
11.22.917N
63.08.123W

Heather radioed this morning to see if we would be interested in exploring the sand dunes today. It sounded like a great idea so after we finished with our morning chores, we picked up Gerry & Nicky and made our way to the little beach where we would leave our dinghies.

There was a mountain of sand in front of us and as we tied our dinghies to the trees at the base, we started looking for a way to climb up. Dale and Gerry led the way and made it to the top. They shouted back down that the best way to climb was to do switchbacks, zigzagging our way to the top. This worked but it was still straight up and considering we were all wearing “Croks” (rubber shoes with holes in them), we were lifting shoe loads of sand with each step and getting our exercise for the day.

Nicky has bad knees to begin with and a third of the way up, decided a swim at the bottom was more to her liking. Gerry joined her, so that left Scott & Heather and Dale & me to explore on behalf of the rest. I took a couple of breaks but did finally make it to the top where an iguana met me and kindly posed for a picture.

We crested the top and beheld a desert stretching before us that ended at the water’s edge. A goat and her tiny kid were scavenging for leaves but made a hasty retreat when they saw us coming their way. The descent to the other side was less severe and we rewarded ourselves with a dip in the water when we reached it.

The breaking waves reminded me of California where you could wade out up to your knees and seconds later be crushed under an avalanche of water.. We were the only people in sight. I snapped loads of pictures but unfortunately, not many are without water drops or vapor on the lens.

On the way back we saw a sea creature rising from the sand but it didn’t seem interested in coming after us.

We returned to our respective boats and tried to nap for the remainder of the afternoon. Some of us were better at the attempt than others. At 5 pm, we started making our final preparations and by 6 pm, we lifted our anchors and pointed our bows towards La Blanquilla. We had hoped for the perfect sailing conditions that we had encountered on our way to Los Testigos but unfortunately, the winds were just a little too far aft.

First we tried sailing with both sails but the main would blanket the jib, which would cause it to flap and jerk the boat when it filled again. Then we decided to furl in the main and just use the jib. This worked as long as we had fairly strong, steady winds but if the wind eased below 10 kts, it would flap again.

As it happens, I’m not one who likes to sail downwind as there is no sense of speed and if the waves are following (as is the usual case) you have a tendency to wallow. Within an hour or two of leaving and traveling at speeds of 3-4kts, Dale was ready to throw me overboard with my never ending suggestions on how to improve the situation. So, of course, when he went below and it was my watch, I implemented a few of them. This meant unfurling the mainsail without turning into the wind and rolling in the jib in the same conditions. I did both a little at a time so as not to arouse suspicion. By the time it was his watch, I had swapped the two sails and had gained about ½ -1 kt of speed.

When he came up for his watch 3 hours later, I told him that he should be proud of me for the fact that I let him sleep without waking him when two ships passed us in the night; one within one mile of us, setting off the radar alarm, the other showing red lights (and we all know how much I love those). But you know, I’m getting better at reading the radar and getting the most information I can out of it. It was only after my little debriefing that he noticed that the jib was missing. He added a preventer to the boom and let the sail out more which increased our speed at least another knot. Now we were cooking! At least we were sailing in the 6 kts range!