Just as planned, we left in the morning.  I took a nap around seven or eight; I don’t remember exactly because I was both nervous and excited.  Jerome must have sensed me because he took the initiative to tidy up the boat inside; the galley, the bathrooms, everything organized for our departure.  Jerome even prepared some sandwiches for the road.  My nap lasted like an hour or so, around twelve at midnight I prepared plenty of coffee and poured it in a thermos.  Didn’t put cinnamon.   

 I put on my night navigation gear which consists of leggings and a long sleeve cotton and spandex bottom.  We all put on our equipment; life jackets, holsters, harnesses, flashlights and all.  Once underway,  Jerome and Terence installed the whisker pole on the jib, which is a wonderful pole that maintains the jib in place when there is not a lot of breeze.  

When we took out the moon was full; magnificent. Truthfully; it illuminated the whole surface of the water which was calm and in spite of it being dark, I could feel the warmth of the water which had received the heat of the blazing sun the day before.   And we left like this, the breeze was like eight or nine knots, the seas super calm, what can I say, fabulous.  In this manner, we left motoring with the sails the trajectory.

Eventually, after the sun came out, after the skies had turned violet with a tone of reddish yellow diffused alongside the clouds: voila, the sun came out.   After the sunrise, little by little the breeze became less intensive at the time that Jerome decided to cut the motor thinking we were not advancing much anyways. Right then was when we heard the noise which definitely sounded like something had just f----d up down below.  And just like we thought, when Jerome and Terence went down below they saw that the propeller shaft had come out again.  Promptly, Jerome indicated we had to return to Puerto La Cruz and that we did by turning ninety degrees: a turn that left us quite frustrated and deceived. 

    

We had covered one third of the route to La Tortuga; accurate fact since Terence is performing the charting of our passages.   Then after a while, Jerome said that with the lack of wind, we could not make it back to Puerto LaCruz before sunset, those leaving us exposed to the many freighters and oil tankers in the area.  He said we were going to heave two; that’s when the boat “stops” by backing the head sail into the wind.  It causes the boat to canter in one position.  He had decided to dive under the boat and push the propeller shaft back inside so he could attempt to reconnect it to the motor coupling.  Terence was going down below to remove the wooden plug and assist him in reinserting the shaft.    

     

So to make a long story less long, they were able to put the goddamn thing back together in some way and we were able to start the freakin’ motor.  We came back to Marina Bahia Redonda in Venezuela where the staff has treated us like family.  They placed us in a slip, called the mechanic, Juan,  who had performed the work on our propeller, and graciously accommodated ApueJ Bien back.  Once there, Jerome cleaned the hull and the outside of the boat; I cleaned inside; the bathrooms, the saloon, the galley, everything sparkling clean.  After that Jerome fixed some “cuba libres”, and while I started writing this we were cooking some chicken with a seasoning I brought from Grenada; steamed vegetables, and I re-heated lentils I had cooked the day before.  Hey and by the way, we had been sailing from two in the morning till three in the afternoon.  Today, we are repeating the operation again at two a.m.  Same route.   Apuesbien.

Maria, muy amable y atenta

Juan the mechanic