At the beginning of September, we took a look at our maintenance interval program for the boat, and wished we hadn't. We had been so focused on doing special projects on the boat that suddenly, we had a whole bunch of red items to do. So, for the first week of September, we worked on regularly scheduled maintenance.
On Sunday September 7, we took time out to go for a day sail with several friends. This was a day sail that we had been trying to do for almost two months! We invited Gary and Josefina, Gordon, Estrella, Charlie and Jose Luis, all shore based friends out for a day sail. In addition, Pam and Bob on Pamela arrived in the anchorage in time for us to invite them as well. We hadn't seen them since Grenada over a year ago! We ferried everyone out to the boat and set out on our day sail.
Having learned from the last one, we sailed close hauled heading out. It was a fun trip. We were out almost 2 hours when we decided it was time to turn around for our return trip. Because of the sail angle, we were able to sail all the way back into the anchorage. On the way back in, we sailed by the Simone Bolivar, the Venezuelan tall ship, which was at the main fishing pier for a local festival. After we got back and settled we broke out lunch, which was beef tacos. As always, it was tremendous fun to go out and just sail the boat with a group of friends.
After our sailing interlude, we returned to completing our maintenance for the rest of the month while still making room for socializing because September was also a time to catch up with old friends. Carol and Ashley from Blind Date returned to their boat after visiting the U.S., and Precocious Gale and Galadriel returned to Porlamar after visiting Bonaire for several months.
voyages