The last time I wrote it was election day. Well, I am sure it is no surprise that I was ecstatic about the outcome. What a historic day for Americans. We proved that we "judge a man not by the color of his skin but by the content of his character". As I have said before people around the world (or at least in Venezuela) were closely watching and thrilled about the out come. I do wish the market had gotten that post election bump but I think they are too far gone for that.
The night of the elections O manned the home front while Roberto and I went in to watch some returns. The place we all normally go was closed for inventory so we had to go to a cruiser bar that is in serious need of repair and disinfectant. When we first arrived some English cruisers were watching soccer (football). I was a little disheartened because asking an Englishman to change the channel from soccer is similar to a declaration of war. So we waited and chatted with them and some other cruisers until the conversation made it's way to the elections. After listening to a rather colorful description of how the American electoral system is all "shaite and bollucks" they started flipping to the returns during the commercials, and then slowly but surely we had the returns all the time. By then more people had trickled in, surprisingly most Americans were Republicans. I think Roberto and I were the only Democrats and Roberto is Italian so he didn't really care. It was a fun evening full of off hand commentary, far flung opinions and lots of laughs. The English never let up throughout the evening in their criticism of our system but it was all in good fun and very funny. After the writing was pretty much on the wall, O called to say the computer signal was strong enough to live stream CNN. I went back to watch, enjoy and celebrate with O. What fun.
The next day we got the boat ready, provisioned and that night around 9:00 set off for the Tortuga islands. About forty minutes out our autopilot packed it up. O ran down to see what the problem was, but it's a little tricky to fix while underway because the hydraulics for the rudder are next to the autopilot. When I turn the wheel he has to move out of the way or his head will get crushed. After talking it over we decided it best to return to Margarita so we could look at it under the calm of an anchorage, we could call RayMarine or if need be, order a part. It was depressing turning around and heading back to Margarita. I could not get the lyrics to Hotel California out of my head: "You can check out anytime you like but you can never leave."
O was up until 2:30 that night diagnosing the problem. It was getting power in but not out etc. So he called RayMarine bright and early the next morning and they told him he needed a new 'brain' for the system. This meant either we buy a newly repaired one or send ours in to be fixed. We called an expat that lives on a boat who is an electrician. He came and identified the problem, and brought it someplace to look for resistors(I have no idea what it means, so I will not take you down that road). He fixed one of the problems but it had created a different one. Long story short, we could not get it fixed in Margarita and we did not want to wait there for the new one. So, we decided to hand steer these next couple of legs and have a rebuilt brain sent to Bonaire. Once in Bonaire we will send ours back to be fixed so if this happens again we will have a back up. This has been a big wake up call about the Pacific. I would hate to have to hand steer Indy through the Pacific...I know that O would hate to have to listen to me complain about hand steering through the Pacific too. Yes, lots of boats don't have an autopilot and I admire them, but I like the creature comforts.
However, all was not lost. The day Wayne took the autopilot, O and I took the kids to the waterpark on the island which was LOADS OF FUN. The park was HUGE, something you would find in the States or Disney World (without the price). The best part was that there was nobody there! I 'd be singing a different tune if I had to deal with throngs of kids knocking us down to get to the top. There were maybe sixty people in the entire park which meant we never waited in line. O could even take Sam with him down some of the slides which was cool. Ben was a crazy man up/down the slides all day. Initially I thought the adult section was closed because there was never anyone there! The little kid section had tiny slides, climbing ropes, fountains and all the bells and whistles you would expect. The little girls were quite taken with Sam. The boys blond hair draws lots of attention from kids and parents. All three boys fell asleep in the cab back which is a sure sign of a great day.
On a side note, the Venezuelan women are refreshingly immodest when it comes to their bodies. I was the only person at the park in a one piece swimsuit. The bikini is the only thing worn here regardless of body shape, size or age. The women are proud of their bodies and walk around totally unselfconscious. The fashion here seems to be the tighter the clothes the better, the higher the shoes the better. The women dress sexy, yet tastefully (most times). A woman could be lugging three kids around a mall and nine times out of ten they are wearing jeans with high heels. It made me long to wear heels and not my 'board flat' same ol' flip flops. You never see women in sweatpants, shorts or with shirts untucked etc. They really take pride in their appearance and their femininity. I bet things like bulimia or other eating disorders are rare here. From what I have seen it is rare to find a stick straight figure. The women embrace and are proud of their curves, they are curvaceous but I have seen very little obesity.
The Venezuelans work hard but play hard too. They are quick with a smile and seem very family orientated. They are wonderful people to be around.

Anyway, Saturday we ONCE AGAIN, did the last provision and that night left the Hotel California. We had a windless but starry twelve hour trip to the Tortugas. Hand steering is a pain because you can't go make a cup of tea or step away for a minute without being way off course. I saw more shooting stars on that trip than I have ever seen in my life. The sky was a planetarium. We even managed to catch three fish around sunrise! We caught two tuna and one barracuda. We threw the barracuda back because we had so much tuna and I am a little sketchy on eating barracuda.
It is always exciting to hear the zing of the reel "fish on" is what we all yell. The kids come bounding out, I slow down the boat and O reels it in. While he is bringing it in I get the cheap rum and gaff while Ben gets the fish book so he can look up whatever we catch. It is very exciting.
Ben is starting to get a little freaked that we kill and eat the fish. Sunday morning he sat me down for a 'talk' about putting "the fish back". He is very concerned about fish becoming extinct. He explained in great detail the plight of the whales and how there used to even be pink whales but people killed them all. I explained that yes, I understood and am proud of his stance, but we were going to eat the tuna so it would not be wasted. He was quick to reply that the whales wete used for oil and meat but they are almost gone so essentially fishing is still wrong. I was astonished by his reasoning and compassion. Like his mother, some issues are only black and white. We still kept both tunas, but I made sure we utilized every single bit of them. We did not fish any more that day to prove to him we only fish for food. After killing the first fish, O put it on the tramp until he could clean it. Sam marched into the main salon, grabbed his cereal and announced that the fish was hungry and he was going to feed it.
FYI: Sam loves sashimi and sushi!!!!! Ben only sees flipper....
We had Los Tortugas in sight around 8:00am. We discovered that our electronic charts were WAY OFF!!!. At one point they had us moving over land! It is a little unnerving to see this happen especially when the island is surrounded by reef as these are. Fortunately we had the sun above us so it was easy to weave our way in. Salt and Light were there along with Alegria and Fruco.
That night we all went to Alegria for happy hour. While there the talk turned to Thanksgiving, where we would be, what we would have etc. None of us have a turkey (god knows, my freezer would not keep one cold even if I did have one!) and Sophia on Fruco said "we will just have to get ourselves a pelican" which I thought was hilarious. It would be a nice shape...and they do eat fish..and I know O would take the fish bite..just keeping options open.
The next morning we heard some tragic news. Saturday night two American boats on their way from Puerto La Crz to Los Tortugas had stopped at Cayo Borocho (about 35 miles from us) for the night. They were attacked by pirates while at anchor around 5:30 that evening. One of the Americans was killed and another seriously wounded and two of the three attackers were shot. That is all we know about the attack but I will write more as I hear it. My heart went out to all their families. What awful news. Especially scary considering it happened less than fifty miles from where we were! My god, how life can change in a single instant. Venezuela is a wonderful country but the government must step up to ensure the safety of cruisers foreign and domestic. If this had happened while we were in Grenada I am unsure whether we would have stopped anywhere in Venezuela.
Last night we upped anchor and made our way to Los Roques which was another twelve hour, hand steered trip but this time we were with four other boats. Initially we had great wind and were humming right along passing everyone making great time. Then I came on watch...the wind died and the rain came..and came and came. It poured almost the entire five hour watch. I was soaking wet and for the very first time since I can remember I was freezing!!! Naturally, once I turned the reins over to O nary a drop fell from the sky!
And in saving the best for last, I am proud and somewhat sad to report that Ben lost his first tooth!!! It was his front, bottom left tooth. It had been loose for a while but when he bit into an apple on Sunday that pretty much sealed the deal. He took this very seriously. He informed us that he had to be on a yogurt diet because anything else would force the tooth out before it was ready.....of course. While we were in Tortuga the captain of a yacht told us he had one of those bananas that you tow behind the boat, and offered to take the kids for a ride on it. All the other kids were ecstatic at the offer but Ben declined because he did not want his tooth to come out while he was swimming. That night he wanted to sleep with a bowl under his chin in case it fell out while sleeping. Much to everyones relief, the tooth made it until 5:30 in the morning when it finally came out. He was sooo proud. I wanted to cry. He is becoming such a little man that it breaks my heart. I hope the tooth fairy can find us...I wonder what currency she uses??