may, 2007

hi folks --

its been way too long since i did my newsletter, like last fall. a lot has 
happened in the interim, so this will be long and probably boring. before
i start, i need to make a minor correction in the story from last time about
the saba resident who wouldnt listen to the dutch engineers telling him the
road couldnt be built.  he didnt go to college to learn civil engineering,
but did it with a correspondence course. 


peru side trip
--------------
i flew to lima to join david, the british single-hander i went to antarctica
and southern chile with, for some land based cruising.  david had bought a
car in chile and was exploring most of south america with it.  we drove through
the mountains from lima to cusco, the jumping off point for treks to macchu
pichu, the incredible inca ruins. the andes are definitely spectacular, like
the sierra.  they make the rockies that i'm used to look like small hills.

we didnt have a very good map for the trip (they dont exist) so we asked
directions several times.  at one town we had an estimate of the time to
cusco that went 6 hrs to xxx, 4 more to yyy and then 2 to cusco. when we
arrived at xxx in 5 hours we were pleased and anticipated an easy trip the
rest of the way.  the next "4 hour" leg took 17 hours and the 2 hour one
was 6 in reality.  then we realized that the person we had asked has probably
never been past xxx and so was a bit off in his time estimate. but we finally
got there, just a few days late.

we stayed in a bed and breakfasty hotel and searched around for a trek to
macchu pichu. the inca trail, the traditional route, has a limit of 500
people per day and a several month waiting list.  not my kind of hiking.
we booked one with a company called united mice to go the back way to macchu
pichu in 5 days instead of 4. there were 8 of us in the group and a cook,
guide, assistant guide, and mule man. we carried only a day pack, the mules
did the hard work.  but that first day was a killer. we were picked up about
5am and driven for 3 hours to a town where we had breakfast.  then another
2 hours to the trailhead. got on the trail by about 10am for the hardest
day.  we climbed to 15,500 feet over a pass beside mt. salkantay. the
scenery was spectacular and at the pass there were cairns (piles of rocks)
everywhere. when i asked about it, i learned that they werent cairns to 
mark the trail, but instead offerings to the mountain gods. seems the
peruvian mountain people believe you must leave a stone as an offering
for the mountain gods to help with good weather and things like that. we
hiked on down the other side a ways to our first camp. i was slower than
anyone else so was last into a rest stop and first out so i didnt get too
far behind.  i was ok on the altitude for the most part, but the long hike
that first day (25 km), almost all either up or down, blistered my heels
beyond repair.  i had moleskin along and should have stopped as soon as
i felt the heels hurting, but was behind and didnt want to take the time.
badly blistered heels on the first day of a 5 day hike is stupid and i 
paid the price.  sure slept good that night, just collapsed into the tent
and had to really push myself to get up for dinner. it was then that i 
noticed that the guide and some of the locals were playing soccer and not
even breathing hard at probably 14,500 ft altitude.

its common for folks to have altitude sickness in the andes and the local
remedy is to chew cocoa leaves or make them into tea. i didnt try chewing
them, but sure drank a lot of tea.  the high altitude dehydrates you, even
with all that tea i didnt have to pee, convenient since the female anatomy
is such a disaster of a design for peeing while hiking. thanks to my nieces,
i now have a fix for this design flaw in the form of a scoopy looking thing
that you stand and pee thru and you get to be just like a boy.

my heels got continually worse until i asked one of the other hikers, who
was a doctor, if he had anything better than moleskin.  he said that moleskin
never works for serious wear and tear on feet and that the best thing is
duct tape.  i tried it and it was indeed better, but comfort wise the damage
was done and i hobbled the rest of the trip.

one camp was near a hot springs and the mile hike down was definitely worth
it.  we lounged in the lovely hot water and relaxed out all our tiredness
before dinner.

about half way thru the last day, as i dragged along farther and farther back
from the rest of the group, the assistant guide came along with the horse
that had been brought for the purpose of helping anyone who got hurt or couldnt
make it.  blanca was the horses name and she was white.  i hitched a ride with
her for the next hour or so of trecherous downhill trail.  a few seconds after
getting on her i started to wonder how she decided where to put her feet so
they wouldnt slip like mine were doing.  but she seemed to have it all 
figured out and definitely walked faster than i did.  later i learned that
the horses who dont figure out about footing arent around anymore, having
long since slid off the cliffs that the trails hang to.  riding blanca was
definitely way more scary than walking, right up there with skydiving.

the last day also included crossing a raging river in a cable car that was
set up to let you pull yourself across in either direction. it seemed to hold
about 15 school children, 4 local adults or 2 tourists and luggage. the kids
were hanging on with only a toe and one hand on the car and the rest of their
body dangling over the rapids.  they must be used to it, they were so casual
about it and also so little.

our last camp was in the town at the base of macchu pichu called agua calientes
(hot water in spanish i think).  we took the 6am bus up to macchu pichu and
arrived before the crowds.  got to walk around for a few hours before it filled
up with people.  the incas were incredible architects and engineers and 
scientists.  the site is was in the middle of the jungle with no very
accessible access. its totally terraced to make the steep slopes arable.
must have a million steps. all the fields are flat and irrigated by an
elaborate water system - no pipes, just channels cut in the rock. the stone
walls are like the chinese wood puzzles that only come apart if you find the
master key stone and remove it in the right direction.  all openings are
trapezoid shape, which withstands earthquakes.  the spanish when they conquered
peru made the doorways right angles and they fell down in earthquakes.
macchu pichu was abandoned when a princess from there fell in love with a
spanish soldier and the incas felt that they spanish would find it and kill
everyone.  so they melted into the jungle and it remained a local secret until
50 or so years ago when a utah man found it with a local guide and told the
world.

we visited other inca ruins in the cusco area called the sacred valley, all
very impressive but definitely outdone by macchu pichu.

our next stop in peru was lake titicaca, a navigable lake at over 14,000 ft.
people live around the lake and on islands in the lake.  some of the islands
are natural, but many are man made from reeds that grow in the shallow sections
of the lake.  the floating islands are about 1 square block in size, millions
of reeds tied together with string.  they feel like walking on a trampolene
when you step on them.  they make boats of the same reeds and must redo them
every few years because the reeds become waterlogged and the boats sink.
on the real island the average life expectancy was about 90, on the floating
islands in the same lake, it was 60.  not sure why, drowning doesnt seem like
it should account for that much difference.

as we hiked up to the main square in the village on the real island i saw
a sign that said "photography exhibit". after just spending 1.5 hours on a
boat, i wondered what a photo exhibit in such a remote place might be. turns
out a swedish photographer had visited the island and stayed a while trying
to take pictures of the locals.  not having much success, he went home, bought
a bunch of digital cameras, a mac, a printer, etc. and returned and gave 
camera lessons then gave people cameras to take home to take pictures of their
daily lives.  the results are spectacular.  many framed photos are for sale,
many are made into post cards, and the whole project is now self sustaining
with the locals producing incredible photos.

i was a sucker for the peruvian handicrafts and bought a lot from the local
artesans and museums in the cusco area.  their wool and alpaca goods are
really yummy, very soft sweaters, hats, scarves, gloves, etc. did all my
christmas shopping at their open markets.


my brother, tom
---------------

my brother, tom, died november 22. it was 6 weeks from diagnosis (pancreatic
cancer) to death.  his 4 kids all came home from their lives to be with him, 
as did i. was pretty hard, he wasnt in pain, but each day he was weaker than the
day before. he was an inspiration to us all, accepting the hand he was dealt,
even though as he said, his hand was more like a foot. he died at home. was
cremated in a box built by his best friend and decorated by all who stopped
by. we had a pot luck party and contra dance instead of a funeral.

i helped close his construction business and file all the tax forms that
both the feds and the state of washington want.  at one point i found an 
error in a previously filed tax form, we had the amount of tax correct but
not the amount of wages that it applied to.  i reprinted the form and filed
a corrected version with a letter explaining it.  then the feds sent a check
returning some of the money because the wages line was too small.  we called
and asked what to do and were told to return the check, write void on it,
and include another letter explaining it all again.  did that and got a classic
us govt letter back saying that 1) i returned their check, 2) they dont know
why, 3) i wrote a letter, but they wouldnt be able to read it for 3 months.
you'd think with all the automation our government would get more efficient,
not less.

in dealing with tom's impending death, we were told of 3 analogies by various
folks, sherpas, trampoline, and ship sailing over the horizon. in the first,
we were all sherpas helping him along on his final mountain to climb. i was
the tcb (taking care of business) sherpa, ellen his wife was the medication
sherpa, the kids were the crying sherpa, cooking sherpa, documentation sherpa,
hugging sherpa, photographer sherpa, etc. at various times.  the trampoline
analogy fit best for me, in it tom was on a trampoline and occasionally with
his feet on the ground and in our world, but more and more up in the air in
his own world, either asleep or day dreaming with the help of the pain 
medication. and then like a ship at sea, he sailed over the horizon.

after tom's death i went home to colorado for christmas and back to the boat
right after christmas.  i had left it on a mooring at the trinidad and 
tobago sailing association and aside from the barnacles on the bottom (my
taiwanese 5 year bottom paint turned out last closer to 5 weeks than 5 years)
and lots of mildew inside wonderland was in fine shape. the outboard wasnt
stolen, the dinghy was still on deck, sails ok, anchor still there, etc.
one casualty was the snack drawer. had tied a towel around the mast to catch
the leak and as a result instead of falling harmlessly in the bilge it all
went into the snack drawer in the middle of the table.  quite an ecosystem
growing there after 2 months of rain and hot weather.


venezuela exploration
---------------------

my 4 nieces/nephew came to the boat right after christmas for some much
needed r+r (rest and rehabilitation in military jargon) and we decided to
explore the rivers of venezuela that are part of the orinoco delta. we
wanted to go up the macareo river where reportedly there were wareo indians
living as they had for thousands of years.

river try #1
------------
we cleaned up the boat, got the bottom scraped and headed to the feul dock
late in the afternoon the day before we were to leave.  on the way over
the temperature gauge went high and the engine wasnt charging the batteries.
continued on to the feul dock, filled up with water and diesel (22 cents/gallon)
and stayed on the dock overnight to try to fix the engine problem.  asked a
friend what it might be and he said the diodes on the alternator probably had
blown and he could help me fix it in the morning if there was an alternator
shop nearby.  in the middle of the night i woke up thinking it could just be
the fan belt, although it had been changed only a few months before. got up
and took a look and sure enough, there were bits of fan belt all over the
engine compartment.  

it took 2 trips to the fan belt store to get just the right size. my spare
i discovered was the right size for my old alternator but not for my new one.
oops.  i couldnt get the new fan belt on by myself, it took more strength
and cleverness than i could muster, but my "its the diodes" friend helped.
the problem is the bracket that you use to tighten the belt, it doesnt have
enough throw to go from loose enough to put a new belt on to tight enough
for the running engine.  need a bit of engineering there. after fitting the
new belt we tried it with the engine compartment open and saw oil coming
out of the oil filter. yikes.  changed the oil filter and saw that the 
raw water pump was leaking and the drips of sea water landed right on the
oil filter rusting it out.  with a new oil filter in place we were good to
go, the water pump could be changed later, it seemed to leak only at idle,
not when we were motoring at cruising rpms.

so we got a late start for the macareo river.  its across the gulf of paria
that separates trinidad from venezuela and then thru a narrow section called
the serpents mouth where the current runs fast against you and then against
that current, but near the shore for 20 miles, then across to the river mouth.
about 60 miles in all -- way too far to go in one day with such a late start.
we also didnt check out of trinidad since we would be going to a section of
venezuela with no customs and immigration folks and if you check out you have
to check in at your next port and we couldnt have done that.  got this advice
from another boat who had gone and it turned out to be bad advice.

our original plan was to sail to columbus bay at the serpents mouth, anchor
for the night and start early to the macareo, hitting the serpents mouth at
the right tide for minimal adverse current. because of the late start we
decided to stop in st. pierre who according to the guide book had a small
but nice yacht club that welcomed visitors.  we were arriving at st. pierre
at dusk when the marine police came out and told us we couldnt go there but
had to leave and go to san fernando another 10 miles along.  we said we 
couldnt because it was getting dark and we had no data on san fernando - it 
wasnt in the guide books.  we just wanted to anchor for the night and didnt
need to go ashore. they said wait a minute, called someone, and then told us
to anchor near a catamarin in front of the yacht club. after we were anchored,
they wanted me (the captain) and all the boat papers to come with them. they
took me ashore and then someone else took me next door to the big commercial
port to checkin. i lucked out and got the most obnoxious, rude, bully of a
black guy as customs guy.  he was a total ass, hated whites, hated women, 
hated yachts, hated ... and i was all of them.  unfortunately i forgot to get
his name to complain later.  he kept me about 2 hours, yelled at me for not
checking out, called chaguaramas where i had left from and told me that they
wanted me to go immediately back there to checkout. this was a lie, but i
didnt know it.  i told him that i couldnt go back at night with engine trouble
(leaky water pump). he said tough, you have to go.  i said nothing, but was
not going to go.  as i went back to the boat, the marine police told me he
was an ass and also that since he had no boats and they werent going to
bother me that night anymore, he couldnt force me to leave when it wasnt safe.
but early the next morning the police were back telling me we should leave
before the customs jerk noticed we were still there or the police guys would
get in trouble.  we should have just continued on to the macareo, but since
i did have to go back to trinidad sometime, we went back.  when we checked
with the customs guys there we were told that they hadnt gotten any phone
call last night and the other guy was lying, but if we protested he would
deny that we even were there.  i had signed into a log book so there was a
record but without the super jerks name a complaint was weaker.  customs there
apologized and said that the right thing to do is to clear out to "high seas"
next time we want to go to the rivers.

we were so mad at trini, we checked out immediately and went to the town
in venezuela called guria. its on the south side of the penninsula that
divides the gulf of praia from the caribbean sea. on the south side are
lovely little bays with good anchorages, small fishing villages or just
a few fishermen. on the north side there are pirates who hassle yachts
heading west from trinidad who dont go over 50 miles offshore.

we stopped at several bays on the way to guria and a few on the way back.
guria itself was ok, but clearing customs was a hassle.  my nieces speak
fluent spanish, but that wasnt enough, we had to hire an agent who cost
$90 to fill in 2 forms and put stamps worth 3 cents on them.  it seemed
to take this agent an entire day to check us in and back out again.  meanwhile
we were advised to move the boat to next to the coast guard dock and did.
was good advise as we had not realized there was an 8 foot tide and we would
have been sitting in the mud at low tide or even half tide.

the coast guard guys decided to do a safety inspection of wonderland, 4 came
aboard and asked all kinds of questions which my nieces translated and i
answered. the number of inspectors and the length of the inspection seemed
to be directly related to how pretty and fun my nieces seemed. 2+ hours later
we had passed our inspection and could go to town for dinner. their inspection 
is amazingly complete and they advised us to keep it to show the next instance
of marine police wanting to inspect us.

by the end of this venezuela excursion, hannah and susha had to go home (back
to school and work), but libby and weston had another 2 weeks so we tried the
macareo again.


river try #2
------------
for our second try on the river, we left bright and early after checking out
for the high seas, and arrived at columbus bay about 1pm. lazed around for
the afternoon, swimming, cooking a yummy dinner, playing 3-handed bridge, etc.
we left the next morning, not at the crack of dawn as we should have, but
more like 10am when the tide was optimal.  it took most of the day to motor-
sail against the wind and current down the coast and across to the entrance
to the macareo river.

we had a publication done by another boat that showed 3 waypoints to the 
entrance of the river. got to waypoint 1 just fine, waypoint 2 too. about
halfway to waypoint 3, where the water was supposed to be 12 feet in the 
channel, we got into trouble.  the water depth went from 12 to 8 to bump.
it was choppy brown river water so visually there was no channel to see.
it was also late afternoon by that time so we didnt have time to do all
the things hindsight recommends (anchor, get in the dinghy, find the channel
or look at the cmap electronic charts for the channel). we backed off the
bar we bumped on, tried to go left, bump again, tried to go right, bump,
and ended up reversing and going backwards to deeper water.  we gave up.
and so close, less than a mile from the entrance to the river.

sailing back through the serpents mouth was fun even though it was getting
dark.  we were going almost 10 knots with the wind and current and were
able to get into columbus bay to anchor in the dark. was a bit confusing
as there were a zillion fishing boats in the narrow part of the serpents
mouth snatching the fish as the current brought them thru.

we sailed back to trini the next day and booked a spot at the asa wright
nature center to celebrate not breaking anything on wondy.  the bird life
at asa wright is awesome as is the food and we had a nice relaxing time.
weston and libby went home from there and i went back to the mooring at
the sailing club.


river try #3
------------
not wanting to give up on the river, i tried again, but this time it was
on someone elses boat (cute french doctor and his son) and to a different
river, the manamo.  we had heard of the manamo but were told it was more
commercialized with lodges and tourists so had opted for the more authentic
macareo. they had heard of the macareo but had heard it was full of drug
boats now and dangerous. turns out they were right about the macareo and
the manamo is plenty authentic and also easy to get into.

we again checked out for the "high seas" and headed out at 6am trying to
make the town of pedernales at the mouth of the river by dark.  but there
was no wind and so about noon we divered to columbus bay instead. arrived 
there in time to go ashore with the dinghy and collect coconuts. there
had been a coconut plantation there and were thousands of trees. we thought
we could trade coconuts but it turns out the river folks had plenty of their
own coconuts, so we just ate them ourselves.

we left the next morning and got to the river entrance about noon. we
anchored for lunch to wait for the tide to turn and help us in instead of
fighting us.  made it by mid afternoon and went ashore to the village to
check in with the guardia nacional (coast guard + marine police combined).
half the village was wareo indian houses (on poles, no walls, palm thatch
roofs, no furniture except hammocks) and half were regular small town
spanish houses.  the main industry was fishing and they salt and dry
the fish there and then sell them upriver.

the river is wide and deep and we had no real navigation problems once
we got into the mouth of it.  the cmap charts were pretty good, but
after a while we were sailing on land according to them.  we usually
anchored opposite a village and were soon inundated with kids in canoes
wanting to trade things.  the wareo is a trading society with money being
used only for gas and oil for the outboards.  some villages have a 
generator and therefore electricity for about 2 hours in the evening.

we had brought lots of tshirts to trade, mostly old colorado internet
coop ones, but also some kids clothes, material, harmonicas, chewing
gum, balloons, etc.  they would trade for fish, bread that was like
thick pizza dough and very yummy, baskets, jewelry, and best of all
paddles.  the baskets were quite beautiful, woven from palm thatch and
colored with native dyes. the jewelry was nice but we didnt know what
seeds were used so when we got home we were reluctant to give it to kids
because chewing on it might be dangerous. my favorite trade items were a
pair of very nice paddles that i will use but also mount on the aft cabin
door of wonderland as both decoration and a way to store them.

the nautical skills of the children were amazing. one year olds sat in
the canoes and bailed out the water that seemed to always sneak in. 4
year olds were totally self sufficient in paddling sometimes against or
across strong currents.  the canoes held many folks, especially kids and
had about 2 inches of freeboard it seemed.

as we went upriver we came to a fork and choose to go left around a big
island to the town of tucupito, a real town with houses, cars, churches,
etc.  we thought we could go across to the macareo and go down it, but
unfortunately our charts didnt show a dam that prevents it now days. this
left fork of the river had 3 sets of cables overhead that we had to
negotiate.  the first set we could see from the dinghy we cleared with 
about 2 meters to spare.  the second set was inconclusive from the dinghy
so we sent benjamin up the mast to see.  as we approached he said to back
up and we waited for low tide and also took off the vhf antenna. then
we cleared with 30cm to spare.  close and scary for him at the top of
the mast.  the 3rd set of wires was so high we didnt even put the dinghy
in the water to check.  as we worked our way upriver the wareo houses
gave way to real houses with walls and tin roofs, to cultivated land
instead of jungle and to farm animals. tucopita had a church, cars,
motor scooter taxis, grocery stores, yummy street food and even an
internet cafe.

we tried to go down the other fork of the river but ran hard aground
at the entrance.  tried it on the left, in the middle, and on the
right, then finally gave up and went back the way we had come.

we had a couple of adventures with a local guy named pedro.  first
we asked if anyone with a motorized canoe would take us to ibis island
where thousands of scarlet ibis come to roost every night because we didnt
want to take the big boat as we intended to take a cross channel over to
the pedernales river for the return trip and going to ibis island would
be the wrong way.  we went for the cost of the gas and oil and since we
were leaving early pedro took us exploring some of the smaller side canals.
he showed us several native fruits and edible plants and we tried them all.
i should figure out how to embedd pictures into these newsletters, especially
as they are so long, but then i might have to use something more modern than
"vi" as an editor :-)  we saw thousands of scarlet ibis coming home to roost
on ibis island. unfortunately its at dusk and so pictures are lousy unless
you have a really good camera which i dont.

pedro also took us fishing and hunting.  fishing starts with the kids in 
the family getting the bait, a fresh water shrimp, that they catch in
bed sheets that they drag thru the shallow river water near their houses.
most houses are above mud at low tide and shallow water at high tide.
the choice fishing spots are right next to the shore in the mangroves
where the water is deep.  you can catch about 1 fish per minute if you
are good.  we were not good so it took a bit longer.  first i caught a
blow fish which they took off my hook and threw away.  they are dangerous.
it floated like a balloon on the waters surface for a long ways.  they
also threw back a catfish that ben caught.  then i caught a really big
fish, so big that the line cut my hands as i tried to pull him in.  he
was definitely the prize and we went home with enough for the day after
him.  we divided the fish between pedros extended family and us so i
didnt get to taste my big fish.

i remember hunting from going with my dad.  its a lot of walking or a
lot of waiting.  no different with the wareo in venezuela.  we were
tiger hunting. turns out it wasnt a tiger but rather a black panther
that we were after.  we had a dog and two pedros each with a gun.
the plan was to go to a spot where they had seen tracks, one pedro
and us would then wait while the other pedro and the hunting dog
chased the "tiger" to us and we would shoot it.  i was rooting for
the tiger.  an hour or two later the first pedro came back without
the dog who had taken off after the tiger (maybe) so he couldnt 
shoot without getting the dog.  we all went in the boat looking for
the dog but didnt find him till we came back to the original spot
where we had parked the boat and there he was waiting for us. on
the way home we suddenly pulled into the bank of the river and they
put the dog ashore and held their guns outside the boat and down
toward the water.  we didnt understand until they said "guardia"
and pointed to a police boat out in the main river.  the guns
were ready to drop in the river and the dog was being disowned
ashore.  after the police passed they explained that hunting is
illegal and having guns is illegal too.  when we got back to their
village they were told the police had been there looking for guns
and signs of guns (meat shot with guns i guess).

the wareo seem to be happy people, well fed, dont work too hard,
certainly not all day like the mountain people in peru and chile.
one curious thing for me was that there were no old people. in
all our travels we saw 3 people my age or better (60s) and at
least 200 under the age of 5.  their health seemed fine, i think
they recently stopped drinking river water and made cisterns to
catch rain water.  the children dont wear clothes till they are
6 or 7 so the baby clothes we took were looked at in awe but no
one wanted to trade for them.  the family is matriarchal with the
groom joining his wifes family as a worker.  clearly in the trading
we did it was the elderly woman who made the decisions.  another 
thing i took that was totally not right was shoes.  they just dont
wear them, except for wearing boots for the mud while hunting. their
feet are very wide with toes really spread apart, incredibly agile
and balanced on the elevated boardwalks that serve as streets in
the villages. crocs might have been a hit.

we took a side canal to the pedernales river to go down a different
way. it got a bit narrow and it was interesting trying to watch the
depth to keep the boat in deep water and also watch the mast to keep
it out of the trees hanging out over the canal.  but we made it ok
and were autopiloting it along in the big river about 5 miles from
the mouth when disaster struck.  i had showed ben and his dad my
blackberry and its brickbreaker game and they had started a contest
for high score.  didier, the dad was playing brickbreaker, ben and i
were doing a sudoko puzzle and the autopilot was steering the boat.
we were all 3 sitting in the cockpit when the river turned, no one
noticed and we drove full speed into the left bank, getting the
rigging all tangled in the trees.  the current was still going 
downstream at 2-3 knots so our bow was attached to the shore and 
our stern twisting downstream.  we quickly got an anchor out and
ben climbed the mast with a saw to try to cut our way out of the
trees.  took about an hour to get out and the boat looked like
a hurricane had deposited wood, leaves, etc. on it.  huge limbs
broke off and fell to deck.  the tree ben was trying to cut had a
hornets nest in it so he was hanging on to the rigging, sawing the
tree and trying to swat biting insects all at the same time.  i
got a few good pictures, but felt a bit bad snapping away as they
frantically worked to cut limbs and get us free.  the spreader
was permanently bent and needed to be replaced/repaired, but other
damage was mostly cosmetic.

after this incident we all paid better attention to the boat and
where it was headed.  we also left that night instead of waiting
till morning to head back to trinidad.  this was also a bad decision.
there is a large oil field in the gulf of parai that is about half
lit and half unlit.  we had a big spotlight-flashlight and so were
ok for the oil platforms but totally misjudged the fishermen who
put an unlit buoy with a flag at one end of their nets and then
have their boat with occasional lights at the other end.  we got
tangled in a net and couldnt get out.  didier dove on the net and
determined that we were stuck on the keel.  there was a scary moment
when he tried to get it off and got his hand caught behind it.
not a good idea to be underwater holding your breath and have your
hand caught between the fishing net and the boats hull.  using his
legs he managed to free himself. the fishermen came back and pulled
in the net, but thought they could just pull it off from us. of 
course they couldnt.  we were actually caught in 2 nets. they cut 
one and it came off but the other didnt.  didier went down again
and was able to cut the last one free and we sailed away.

we brought back an incredible store of trade goods - 4 paddles, about 50
baskets and innumerable necklaces, bracelets, ear rings and other trinkets. 
definitely worth more to me than the bag full of tshirts and other used
clothing that we traded away.


other side trips
----------------
i day sailed wonderland for most of the spring, based at trinidad and going
mostly to the small islands near chaguaramas on the north west end of trini.
on one such trip, during a squall with about 30 knot winds suddenly the
steering wheel just spun.  oops.  minor panic as i was blowing down on an
anchored ship waiting to go into the commercial docks at port-of-spain.
then the brain kicked in and i realized that the autopilot that i had just
repaired worked on the steering quadrant and was independent of the wheel
and its linkage to the rudder.  clicked it on and voila, i could steer.
this gave me time to get the emergency tiller out and installed and to
practice with it a bit.  continued on to chakachakare, an island over toward
venezuela that used to be a leper colony. it has good anchorages and good
exploring ashore.  much easier to anchor than to pick up a mooring with the
emergency tiller.  had a swiss guy along who had sailed tiller boats a lot
and he steered as we came in for the mooring at the end of the weekend.

found a french guy, patrick, who was a good mechanic and traded him one of my
old dinghy's for fixing the steering.  he got it taken apart right away, the
chain that hooks to the cable was broken at the 3rd link, a bit too far in
to just put in another master link.  the cable was old anyway and had not
been maintained well because i never knew whether to grease it or oil it or
ignore it.  oil it is the answer.  it took a couple of weeks to get the new
chain and cable made and by then my frenchman had found other work.  he came
just before i was due to leave to install it and noticed immediately that it
was wrong.  curious since we had made a drawing with the boss of the rigging
shop when i brought it in, specifying everything, but the drawing and specs
never got communicated to the guy who built the new one.  he used the old one
as a pattern, but since we had to cut it to get it out, it was wrong unless
he understood how it had been, not how it was.  net result, the rigging shop
fixed it in a couple of hours, but screwed me with my installer.  its still
not installed.

i got a chance to sail on a friends boat to northern norway for the summer,
to spitzbergen on the island labeled svalbard on the world map.  its way
up there.  so i packed all my warm clothes and boat goodies and planned to
go home for a bit and then fly to portugal in late april to be ready to leave
may 1 for the new hebridies and orknay islands north of scotland, then the
coast of norway and and up to tromso, then finally to spitzbergen in july.

i found a spot on land for wonderland and had a tiller friend, mike, help me
move it to the boatyard.  parking, backing in actually, in the boat ways was 
beyond my tillering abilities i thought.  we headed over from the sailing
club to the marina area late in the afternoon and soon discovered that the
bottom and propellor were so full of barnacles we could hardly move against
the incoming tide.  when we discovered the bottom was so fouled mike, who
sails alone mostly got the anchor all set up to drop quickly if we were 
overcome by the wind/current against us.  he did it a way i never do, putting
it down over the front and using the windlass to hold it. we went on a bit
and suddenly lost steering, had to do a 360 to get back on track and then
couldnt make any headway. so we decided to stop and clean the prop, which
i should have done before we left.  i went forward to drop the anchor and
it was already dropped - thats why we lost steerage and couldnt make headway.
duh. cleaned the prop a bit and our speed and manuverability increased
miraculously.  mike did an awesome job of parking us and even made it look
so easy i'll try it myself next time.

i came back to boulder in late march to visit my grandkids, zok who is 7 
and ziggy who is 1.5 and to receive a special award from the engineering 
college at the university of colorado.  it was a distinguished alumni award,
but a special category since i wasnt an alumni -- basically an award for
helping establish the univ on the internet in the early days and for
championing undergraduates.  i was able to invite anyone i wanted to the
reception dinner so included my family and lots and lots of students.  this
combination of young people totally changed the stuffiness of the usual
awards dinner, with cheering, throwing napkins in the air, etc.  the open
bar didnt hurt the general mood.

two days before i was to go to portugal and start my northern sailing 
adventure the trip was called off because the captain's dad's cancer
returned and he needed to be way more accessible than northern norway.
i was pretty disappointed, but luckily had used frequent flyer miles to
buy my ticket so could cancel it and save the miles for only $50.

this freed me up to go to my 50th high school reunion. was interesting to
see my classmates, recognizable only because our name badges had our 
yearbook pictures on them too.  it was fun.  interesting to see what
the in-popular-cliquey kids had done with their lives as compared to the
quiet-wallflowery ones like me.  most successful (by some measure) was
a gangly skinny kid who now wears suits and owns 19 car dealerships in the
area.  

also did a trip to budapest to visit family there.  was fun, a combination
of visiting relatives and sightseeing/touristing.  the highlight for me was
exploring the labryinth, a maze of tunnels and caves under the castle in 
buda.  it was used as a bomb shelter during world war 2, holding about half
the city and as some sort of russians weapons storage area during the cold
war.  now its a tourist attraction.

i'm currently in the seattle area attending 3 graduations: my oldest niece,
hannah, getting her masters in teaching, my sister-in-law, ellen, getting 
her masters in nursing, and my youngest step-niece, beth, getting her bs in
psychology.  their ages are 30, 50, and 20 respectively, a full century all
together.

i plan to go back to the boat in july, finish up the pending chores: 
steering, new wind generator, maybe a water maker, etc. and then head
along the coast of south america, avoiding hurricanes and ending up in
panama in time to go thru the canal in feb. my crew for the pacific is
three "maybes" jim lane, libby pratt and john mcginley.  for the trip 
along the top of south america its just jim lane, so come visit, especially
if you speak spanish.  have a couple of new acquisitions -- a new main sail
and a super wireless antenna so i should have internet in most caribbean 
anchorages.

hugs and i apologize for the length of this one.  next one will be just a
month of sailing/boat-chores i promise.

-evi