Just about to splash here. There just happens to be a dredging boat with a rope attached to it and a diver in the water right behind where the boat needs to back out. Like many, many sailboats, backing up is a crap shoot. You put the boat in reverse and pray. Usually you have a little grace when the boat decides to go in a different direction than you are directing. Great, this time the "grace" just got eliminated with the dredging boat, rope and diver. As soon as the travel lift was gone Bill removed the lines from the dock. "Rats", Bill shouted, as one of ropes from the bow got jammed on the dock cleat. Now the stern of the boat is drifting toward the concrete wall (see how narrow it is) and I'm thinking this is getting worse by the minute. Bill scrambled over the railing, ripping his shorts from stem to stern, and freed the rope. With a little more forward and back maneuvering we started to drift back out of the slip. Prayer works because I didn't touch the wheel, as the boat drifted back alongside the obstacles until I could make my turn and head toward the entrance. Keeping good speed we kept within 1 meter of the buoy despite the fact that the depth sounder showed the bottom was climbing steeply and suddenly we were free and clear, heading into the Golfo de Cariaco.

The 70-ton travel lift can easily handle our boat but we are still a little anxious watching it being transported across land.

The access to Navimca has been an issue for many boats as sand continually builds up at the shallow entrance causing deeper draft boats to ground. After putting all that expensive paint on the bottom (like $200 US/gallon x 5 gallons) the last thing you want is to rub it off. We had actually wanted to splash the day before but Navimca was in the process of dredging the waterway and the equipment would have created a hazard. The equipment was still there but we were told if we came within 1 meter of a marker buoy on our port side at the entrance we would be fine. Yikes, 1 meter means reach out and touch it. Is my blood pressure rising or what? Any further than 1 meter meant we'd be in the rocks on the starboard side.

After 10 days or so on the hard in Navimca we were ready to splash. Hurrah! No more climbing up and down the steep ladder and taking a hike to "el bano". Considering it was our first time on the hard it went well. We added a chemical concoction to the paint in hopes of discouraging sea life from attaching itself to our bottom as recommended by a few other cruisers, so we'll see if it helps. We will not leave it so long to haul again as the effort was way more than we expected. Every 1 � years is more the norm.

We were pleased with the care the marina workers took with the haulout and splash.

It's entertaining to watch the latest boat getting hauled. Right now Navimca is dredging the sand from the bay in front of the travel lift as the depth causes many boats problems and they lose a lot of business because of it. Nobody wants to paint their boat and then rub it off in the sand as they are leaving...including us. Hopefully we can sail out of here without incident.

We're pretty pleased with the boat right now. It's lookin' good. Hauling out is quite a challenge but gives you time to look at any potential problems that aren't evident when you are in the water. Fortunately we didn't have any surprises... just a lot of manual labour.

We are challenged each day with our lacking Spanish, even though we are studying and learning new words every day... it just isn't adequate. I get a kick out of Bill as he thinks if he adds an "a" or and "o" to an English word he could easily be speaking the Spanish word. That isn't altogether faulty thinking because there are many words that do just that, e.g. fruta, carro for fruit and car. However, one day I overheard him asking a taxi driver, who wanted to drive us from Puerto La Cruz to Cumana, where his "housa" was. I killed myself laughing as "la casa" is one of the first words we learned in Spanish. I guess that was just a long time ago and Bill momentarily forgot. At least he's brave enough to give it a try.

Our intention was to splash the following day from our trip to Puerto La Cruz and by the time we got back it was dark. Bill promptly installed the propeller and got out the paint. A man with a mission... The paint needed several hours to dry and he wanted to put a second coat on before we splashed. The following morning we decided we didn't really have to splash that day and what was the big hurry anyway. We'll wait until Monday and the paint will be well set by then.

We did our exploring, picked up the propeller and headed back to Cumana. The bus ride was great but just as we entered into the city limits of Cumana the bus quit and everybody got off. It was in a dark, remote area of town and we were a little nervous as we had cashed a cheque in Puerto La Cruz and weren't expecting this. However, we managed to hail a cab quite quickly that delivered us right to our door.

Another day of adventure and exhaustion.

The propeller was molded perfectly according to a computer diagnosis and looks like new.

There are a few stray dogs in the boatyard and this one adopted us. Consequently we went out and bought some dogfood.

The other day we went to town and got caught in a major rain storm. We were in an agricultural store when the threatening dark clouds delivered their goods. We stood in the doorway of the store for about an hour waiting for a break. The streets filled with water and cars were up to their axles. When water started flooding into the store they closed one of the entry doors. The gutters were overflowing and there was actually a current flowing down the road. Unfortunately I had worn regular shoes to town so after the hour wait we decided it was time to move. We both rolled up our pants, I removed my shoes and waded through the 2-feet of water in bare feet, through the gutters and to a cafe across the street. We sat eating delectible chocolate-covered donuts filled with caramel cream and sipping coffee for another hour (wonderful) until finally we could make our way, in our shoes, back to the street to hail a taxi. Just another exciting day in Venezuela.

About a week ago we were suddenly startled out of our sleep at 2:45 a.m. by a violent shaking of the boat. Yikes, what's happening. We thought we were about to topple over. There was a loud roar from the earth and the boat was heaving and things falling over in the cupboards. Every dog within hearing range was barking its head off for about 15 minutes. We realized we had just experienced an earthquake of a proportion that grips you with fear. The power was off so Bill climbed down the ladder to check our supports as did our S. African neighbours and everyone else in the boatyard. Everything seemed to be solidly intact with the exception of our nerves. Two more aftershocks hit but of minor intensity. The next day we learned we were on the epicenter of a 5.6 earthquake.

Being on the hard in your boat is not where you want to be in an earthquake...on the water is far more preferable. The last earthquake that hit this area was 11 years ago and apparently devasted many homes in Cumana. This one only destroyed a small number and there were no injuries or deaths. Another exciting experience in our lives. Last year it was a hurricane, this year an earthquake. El Shaddai is protecting us.

This is our next door neighbour in the boatyard and we're told it is one of several abandoned boats. Apparently the boatyard cannot legally get rid of them by selling them without the papers so they just use up valuable boatyard space. How unfortunate.

The boatyard is a little rough as far as services are concerned. The cafe has no food or beverages most of the time, the toilets flush about 50% of the time, but there is good security. Most of the work is industrial so once again, pleasure boats are few and far between. A few sailboats have been left while their owners have flown home for a few months.

There are a couple of supermarkets within a short walk and an inexpensive and good fast food chicken restaurant. There is a barrio right outside the boatyard gate but during the day it seems pretty safe. We have heard of cruisers having groceries ripped out of their hands and take-out chicken, but nothing worse. Still, if we're out after dark we make sure the taxi drops us right at the gate so we aren't tempting targets.

The other thing we'd like to put on our boat is a dove. As we wandered around the boatyard we noticed this fishing boat with the scripture verse on it with two doves. We are amazed at how people are so bold in proclaiming their faith. I like how the dove on the right is using the olive branch to inscribe the verse in Psalm 91. A rough translation as far as I can determine is: Jesus is my Pastor and nothing shall I lack". It suits our boat El Shaddai which is one of God's names that means God is All Sufficient.

Back in Canada we went to a graphics shop and got two new VANCOUVER's printed as the old ones were too small and out of proportion. That was yet another project for the boatyard and we're pleased with the results.

Bill also checked the cutlass bearing as he feared it may have to be replaced. However, we determined it is within its acceptable tolerances and doesn't have to be changed. That would have been a huge undertaking.

The painting and polishing are now complete and we just have to make another trip to Puerta La Cruz to pick up the propeller. Then we'll be ready to splash. We want to wait for a high tide to leave here as we'd hate to rub off all the new bottom paint.

The other thing was the color of the antifouling paint turned out completely different than we'd expected. The only blue we've ever seen is the bright Pacific blue which we really don't care for. However, the color of this antifouling is gorgeous, matching our boat much better. We figure it must be a new color because we haven't seen it on any other boat.

We took the bus to Puerto La Cruz with our propeller and while we were gone the boatyard moved the jacks so we could paint under them. That required sanding, cleaning, scraping and painting (3 coats).

A place in Puerta La Cruz called Prop Scan can diagnose your propeller using a computer and an Australian technology. It takes 5 positions on each blade of the propeller and measures it exactly. After each blade has been measured the entire prop is diagnosed. Through this diagnosis the technicians can correct your pitch and balance your propeller perfectly. Our propeller (which had been damaged back in the Bahamas when a rope tangled around it) was temporarily repaired in Cuba with a hammer and torch but still vibrated and needed this type of diagnosis. The diagnosis was "disasterous" but the good news is it is repairable at a cost of less than $150 US.

The barnacles had managed to burrow into the bottom paint so deep that even after the scraping and power washing we had a huge sanding job ahead of us. When we were back in Canada we bought a small hand sander from Canadian Tire and put it to work. It took two full days to sand the bottom, working diligently to remove as many barnacles as we possibly could. The sanding was grueling because we would have to work a few centimeters at a time. We could not believe what a huge job it turned out to be.

The other thing we decided to do was paint over the bottom blue stripe and move the waterline up higher with the antifouling. It needed to be raised but that meant scraping the blue paint off as well. I'm getting tired writing about it.

We knew from the get go that we had more work than we'd expected and our anticipated 5-day haul out was going to be much longer. Consequently Bill got going on cleaning and polishing the hull while I ground out the barnacles. We still have gelcoat as the boat has never been painted but it takes a lot of work to clean and polish it.

The scraping was done right away but the power washing not until the following morning. Again, two men spent at least two hours trying to remove more barnacles. It was really, really bad. They only work half a day on Saturday so when they finished we jumped into action.

We decided to hire the boatyard to scrape and power wash the boat. The scraping had to be done immediately while the boat was still wet so two men jumped into action. They acknowledged that it was very, very bad. The fishy smell of the barnacles that dropped onto the ground was quite repulsive. It took two men two hours to scrape the bottom.

We knew we were overdue for this project as our bottom would be cleaned by divers and within a few days the barnacles would have reappeared. The former antifouling was long gone and it was time to get serious. We bought the paint in Trinidad, Micron 66, which is what was on the boat before. We had rollers, trays, paint thinner, brushes, a paint mixer, masking tape and figured we were ready to get to work.

El Shaddai was maneuvered into position between a boat from South Africa and a rather derelict boat that apparently had been abandoned. The jacks were positioned, the tall ladder put in place and the travel lift's job finished. Great job guys.

With the boat suspended the travel lift began to maneuver its way into the boatyard. We had asked to be cerca de officina (close to the office) for internet and they obliged.

It's always a little unnerving when you do things for the first time and having your boat being carried by a lift across land is one of those times.

The travel lift helpers showed us a photo of another boat and asked if our keel was similar, which it was. We were pretty pleased that the travel lift operator actually dove under the boat to check the straps to ensure they were properly in place. Once satisfied he got back on the lift and started to raise our boat. We watched with interest and relief that they were so conscientious.

Here we are about to haul out for the first time. We have been procrastinating on this for some time. We checked out Navimca and thought their facilities and prices were the best we could find, however, the approach was tricky and we were afraid of grounding. We checked the tides and went in on a false high tide, following the bearing given in our guide book. I guess we zigged when we should have zagged and also learned that the bearing in the book was inaccurate, so yes, we grounded. We had called Navimca on the VHF and told them we were coming in so within a short time a skiff came out to give us a pull. We ended up anchoring inside the reef and went to shore with a young couple who offered us a ride in their dinghy. Navimca said they had some other boats splashing and may not get to us that day but for sure the next. Around 4 p.m. as we sat in the boat sweating and snoozing, I heard the travel lift getting ready to launch a boat. We watched the procedure and when it was free they signaled for us to come into the holding area. I maneuvered the boat in smoothly (whew) and once we were tied up we stepped ashore. The travel lift got into position putting the straps in place. They asked where certain things were positioned so they would place the straps without damaging anything.