Hewson’s Sunday Island

Sunday Island departed the yard at Powerboats, Chagaramas Trinidad on Friday 1st December for a quick shake down and sail to the beautifully protected Scotland Bay. On the morning of Saturday 2nd December we set sail to the Venezuelan island group of Los Roques.

We sailed 50nm clear of the coast before gybing to the west and sailing to Grand Island, arriving in the morning 24 hours later. This was our first sail in a while and the crew took a bit to get used to the motion, but by the end of the voyage everybody was ready to get in the water and explore the reefs.

We had heard rumors that Los Roques was expensive and Venezuela could be dangerous, but the beauty of the islands and other cruising stories outweighed any risk. Some cruisers had told us it cost them $1000 to check in to Lost Roques for 5 dys. Emilie and I decided that we would set the budget of $500, and if it was going to be more expensive than this we would simply sail on. On our arrival we found only three other yachts in the main harbour. One had half a mast, the other was a local charter yacht.

Local authorities were very welcoming. Nobody on the island seemed to speak English, and Emilies spanish came in very handy during the check in process. To check in to Los Roques one must follow the following steps
1. Visit Customs at port control – a jacked up container with a rusted out floor on the beach that also seemed to serve as the officials house – Cost $50 in and $50 out 2. Visit the Coasta Guardia coast guard and check in – Fee $0 3. Visit the touist buero for a parks permit $40
4. Visit Immigration at the airport $180 for the four of us
The process took most of the afternoon, part of which was trying to find how to pay for the fees. We only had $500 US onboard, so needed to find local currency so as to leave some cash in the piggy bank. Unless one has a Venezuelian bank account you can not draw money from the local bank. And there is not ATM. You can not pay by card, it all is cash. The tourist buero told us the pharmacist may allow us to withdraw money by card for a fee. It cost us $15 to withdraw the cash in what seemed to us as a dodgy drug deal outside the chemist (his card machine did not work inside or even close to the building).

With everybody checked in and bills paid we contined our look aroud the town, seeing the sites and hoping to find internet to check some messages. While every man, woman, child and dog seemed to be glued to their smart phones, we could not find internet for ourselves, and after seeing the zombies the smart phones had made of these beautiful islanders, we decided we didnt really want internet anymore! Back to the boat for a HF transmission to let people know we arrived.

The next morning we sailed to the island of Sarky, dropped anchor and bought out all the toys. Sups, Wind foiler, 2 x dinghies, snorkling gear the works. We then all went for a snorkle on the coral reef and enjoyed seeing so many fish. Max was in heaven identifying all the fish from his book!

After the snorkle and some lunch I set off on my wing foiler for some practice. Im still learning so had to be rescued by Em and the Kids a few times before I was swept away to sea. I got some big fins to enable us to use the SUP for wing practice and the kids enjoyed a ride on this too.

After a few hours in the water I was supprised when I returned to Sudnay Island and had a vomit. I hoped it was an isolated event from too many spicy beans at lunch, but unfortuntaly it wasnt and the crew spent the next two days in paradise getting gastro from each other! As I groaned to Emilie, if your families going to be sick with gastro, may as well do it in paridise!

Three days later we were all living again, and we sailed up to Grand Rock for the night so we could check out the next morning, and then sail to the more western islands of the group. The following day we sailed to Cayo De Agua which we found very windy and unprotected, but very beautiful! We enjoyed more snorkling, walk along the beach and some more winging and stayed there fore two days.

On 10th December we woke up to a rainly morning with gusts to 25kts. There was no incentive to visit the beautiful beach in the rain, so we raised the anchor, put two reefs in the mainsail, and headed down wind towards the ABC island. Rich