Many people dream of life on a Caribbean island.  Exotic names like the West Indies, the Spice Islands, the Spanish Main and the Grenadines conjure images of swashbuckling adventures and high-seas drama.  I've always been a bit of a pirate at heart, and several years ago I decided to try the island lifestyle on Isla (Margarita Island in English), located in the Southern Caribbean off the Venezuelan coast. Living on an island, pretty much like living anywhere else, has good and bad points, but thus far I've found the good far outweighs the “not so good”.  But even “paradise” can get a little boring at times.  Since I am surrounded by water here and really love to fish— hey, why not buy a boat?   All I really need is just a small, comfortable fishing boat.  I considered an outboard boat with a center console, but the tropical sun can be brutal and there's no way to avoid the sun on that type of boat.  Maybe a walk-through?  More room than a center console and with a bimini top that would work...but few are available in this part of the world.  During one of our business meetings/happy hours I mentioned my boat quest to my business partner Roy.  Since this was well into happy hour he thought this was a swell idea!   Let's buy an even bigger boat and share the cost! Long story short, my little 18'-19' boat suddenly grew into a cabin cruiser because Roy said “we” really need a boat with a comfortable cabin containing a head, galley, and bed so he can take his girlfriend(s) for  'romantic cruises'.  And the search began!  We wanted a fast boat with twin engines (gas o.k.) and the basic comforts.  Thanks to the low fuel costs in Venezuela we can afford to run the boat as often as we wish.  Gas is cheaper than bottled water here.  High fuel prices in the U.S. prevent the average boat owner from using his boat more than a few times a season so there are LOTS of these “gas guzzling” boats on the market.  Several months, untold Internet searches, e-mails, and phone calls later we had narrowed our search to just a few boats in Florida.  Thanks to some great friends who live in Florida and helped us by driving to look at these boats, take detailed photos, and gather more information, we narrowed our search to boats in the 30 ft. range.  I believe the best Sport Fishing boat in this class is either a Hatteras or a Bertram, and there are few of this size made by Hatteras.  There were several Bertrams we thought would suit us, so it was time to go to Miami, rent a car, and take a closer look at some of the “possibles”.

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I hadn't been back to the “states” for years, and I was almost overwhelmed by sticker shock!
$3.20 a gallon gas, $10.00 hamburger lunch, $5.00 beer—I couldn't believe the price increase in 4 ½ years!  I guess Margarita Island living has spoiled me. 

We found a reasonable hotel in Lauderdale By The Sea.  It was owned by some people from Poland.  Roy had lived in Poland and enjoyed talking with our hosts—they even gave us a discount on the rate for 2 rooms.  For the next week we looked at quite a few boats, but finally settled on a beautiful older, completely rebuilt Bertram Flybridge Cruiser.  We briefly enjoyed ONE of the happiest days in a boat owner's life...until we went to fill up at the gas dock.  The tanks weren't even empty but it took $498 to fill up with gas. Talk about sticker shock!  Gas was $3.89 per gallon at the marine dock.  In Venezuela it would cost about $35 to fill the tanks.

Miami to Martinique-
Next we arranged to ship the boat with Dockwise Transport out of Port Everglades, Florida.  This is a float-on, float-off transport ship where they actually sink the cargo area of the ship about 10 ft., you drive your boat on (lined up similar to an auto ferry), divers block and secure your boat, the water is pumped out, the cargo area is raised,  and there you are—ready to sail.  On our ship there were about 15 boats ranging in size form 20' to 90'.  Our plan was to fly to Martinique in 5 days to meet the ship and take possession of our boat.  Five days later we arrived on Martinique, but unfortunately due to some 'technical difficulties' the ship arrived almost a week late.  Meanwhile we were stuck in Martinique.  Now at this point I'll bet you're all thinking “How sad, stuck on a Caribbean Island.”  Well, although Martinique is very green and tropical it is also very expensive.  They use the Euro, so everything costs over 35% more compared with the U.S. dollar. French is the prevailing language, and it was our experience that almost everyone we met had an attitude-- we call it “uppity” in Texas.  Finding a hotel was a challenge because just about everything was closed due to the off season.  We finally found rooms at “Le Dock” (pronounced Le Duck”)--at 45 Euros per night.  Each room had just a bed-- nothing else.  No other furniture at all.  The shower was something else.  Push a button and you get about 30 seconds of water.  I felt pretty stupid standing there pushing the damn button with one hand and soaping and rinsing with the other.  Water is a precious and expensive commodity on Martinique and this seems to be their solution to conserve what they have.  This might be why so many people we met had serious B.O.  If that doesn't put you off your appetite, the food probably will.  Breakfast was typically a 6” piece of French bread, with butter and Marmalade, and a cup of coffee that the “Margaritenos” back home would throw out with the dishwater.  For this “continental breakfast” we paid 5 Euros ($6.75 U.S.  Bacon and eggs were not available.  Martinique has so much French influence we looked forward to a few good meals while we waited for our “ship to come in”.  Although we traveled the whole island we only found two places with good food.  One was a bar that served good burgers and the other was a street side restaurant that had good ribs.   Beer was $5 a bottle and by the time our boat finally arrived we were eager to clear customs, fill up with gas at over $4 a gallon, and head south.  You might say this was our first encounter with pirates, but they weren't on the high seas.

Martinique-St. Lucia, St. Vincent, the Grenadines, Petite Martinique, Grenada
On the passage from Martinique to St. Lucia we encountered 9 ft. seas and 20+ knot winds, so our max speed was only about 15 knots and we didn't arrive at St. Lucia until late afternoon.  As we cruised into the entrance to Rodney bay we encountered the dreaded “Black Pearl” pirate ship.  Suddenly we felt as though we'd stepped back in time to the days of Long John Silver, Blackbeard, and Henry Morgan.

The” Black Pearl” appeared to be loaded to the gunwales with prisoners, but at second glance it turned out that the “prisoners” were just a boatload of tourists.  Thankful for our narrow escape, we gave the “pirate salute’ and entered Rodney Bay without further incident.  Had we had too much sun/beer or was that the” HMS Interceptor” at the gas dock?  Yes, but it turns out that these two ships were the ones actually used in the movie “Pirates of the Caribbean”, and are now being used to take tourists on cruises of the bay.. 

The cannons don't thunder, there's nothing to plunder...but the tourist dollar. 

We found dock space in a nice marina, but they only had 220 power.  We were salty, thirsty and tired and naturally we had 110 and no converter so we couldn’t use dockside air, but there were hot showers and no push buttons! Hallelujah! 

The food was good, the people were friendly, and the women were more attractive and better dressed than those on the last island.

Note: While we were docked at the marina several local vendors came by selling local souvenirs, fruit, and junk. One very enterprising, well spoken and courteous young man offered to do some varnish work on the boat, we declined with thanks.  Then he asked if we needed a guide.  We declined that offer as well.  Then he asked if we wanted some marijuana.  We declined.  Then his last offer was to find us some pretty girls.  We regretfully declined, because we still had many nautical miles to cover, but we admired his sales approach.

St. Lucia is on the Caribbean Dollar monetary system, and prices were better than Martinique, but were still over double what we pay for similar goods and services on Margarita Island. 

St. Lucia- Grenada
We left St. Lucia after a three day stay, next stop The Grenadines.  We bypassed larger St. Vincent and spent the next night on Bequia.  Located just nine miles south of St. Vincent, Bequia is small-- only 7 square miles.  We happened to arrive on their Carnival Weekend so most businesses were closed and most of the people were drunk.  Sounds like our kind of island!  We found the local “supermarket” (the lower floor of a private house) that was abundantly stocked with beer and little else but “Frito's”...which was just fine -  in Texas that would be two major food groups.  Prices were high here too, and there weren't any real docks available, just moorings.  We traveled to and from town via water taxi, and couldn't buy gas because the fuel station owner was drunk at Carnival.  The following morning we headed to Petite Martinique for fuel, then on to Grenada, the southernmost of the Grenadine Islands and the last port before the long run to Trinidad and Tobago or the Venezuelan mainland (the Spanish Main of pirate fame).

About 6 nautical miles from the Northern coast of Grenada we passed “Kick-em Jenny”- listed on our charts as an underwater volcano. There have been reports of boats losing buoyancy and even sinking while traveling over this 3 mile stretch of ocean, and since we were fresh out of virgins to sacrifice, we took the cartographer's advice and skirted “Jenny”, all the while envisioning hell fire and brimstone engulfing us in a sea of boiling water.  We didn't see any smoke or bubbles in the area, but the waves and wind did feel a little 'peculiar'.

Interesting Anecdote- at one time the capital of Grenada was on the north island mainland. A volcanic eruption destroyed the entire town of about 20,000 except for one man who was in jail for being drunk.  We took that as a sign that it's always best to be drunk when you are near a volcano.

St. Georges Grenada-
The leeward run south was very smooth and we cruised at 3200 RPM (about 20 knots).  We found overnight dockage on St. Georges at the Grenada Yacht Club.  While talking with some people at the Yacht Club we heard various tales of the pirates that we were likely to encounter on out trip to Venezuela.  We decided to take our chances.  After all, we were armed!  I had my trusty pocket knife and Roy had his Leatherman Multi-Tool- which has pliers, bottle opener, corkscrew, etc.( just in case we needed to out-drink the pirates) and of course our flare gun, the weapon of choice in all the “cruisers beset by pirates” movies!  We were ready to take on Johnny Depp and his scurvy band of brigands!

We crossed the bay to Port Lewis where we spent a couple of nights waiting for optimum weather conditions.  During our trip around the island we visited a large real estate development under construction.  It's called Port Lewis and when completed it will be beautiful but expensive.  The smallest apartment is 80 square meters (approx. 850 sq. ft.) and will cost $500,000 USD.  If you buy one of the apartments you get the right to buy a space in the Marina for up to a 40 ft. boat for a mere $125,000.  But you must install your own finger piers.  In addition, the monthly maintenance/fees are about $700 per month.  Too rich for my blood!  On Margarita Island you can buy a 'castle' for that amount.

After some minor 'boatkeeping' and topping our tanks we began the long voyage home. 

Grenada to the Venezuela Coast to Margarita Island
The voyage from Grenada is about 130 nautical mile of open ocean with 4'-6' waves and was uneventful.  We didn't want to rely on our fuel gauge for the long trek back to Margarita, so we headed for the nearest reputed “pirate” port, Puerto Santos.  We arrived in the early afternoon and began searching for the fuel dock.  As we motored into the bay, we saw a lot of fishing boats (undoubtedly these were disguised “pirate” boats). We finally found the fuel dock (using the term loosely here, it was actually a large rock with a gas pump on it with a beat-up old tire for a fender.)  Boats wanting fuel will drop anchor about 50 yards out and float back to the rock where the fuel person hands them a pump handle and the boat owner fills his tank.  Not knowing about the 'anchor and float' procedure, I proceeded to make a complete fool of myself by motoring majestically across several anchor lines while waiting for my turn at the gas pump.  A Pinero (large open rowboat-type boat with an outboard) with about 8 young “pirates” came to our aid.  Two guys dove under our boat and un-fouled the lines.  After all this fun, we were informed that there was no more gas.

“When will there be more gas?” we inquired.  “Manana” was the predictable answer, of course.  We all know that this really means not today, maybe tomorrow, maybe not.  Meanwhile, the teen “pirates” were asking all sorts of questions about our boat—what horsepower on the engines, how fast it would go, etc. They were fascinated by our fish finder and GPS Chart plotter, the latest model that looks a lot like a flat screen TV.  We invited several of the kids to come aboard for a closer look. Their uncle, who remained on the Pinero, asked how much fuel we needed.  We told him we were headed for Margarita Island and he offered to share his fuel with us. They siphoned off about 40 gallons of their fuel into our tanks.  We paid them 40,000 Bolivars for the fuel—about $10.  We hope to meet these very nice “pirate” friends again in the future, as they come to the island often to buy avocados by the boatload to take back to the mainland. 

All fueled up and ready to go, we headed west along the coast searching for a suitable overnight anchorage, not wanting to arrive at Margarita after dark.  We motored up the coast about an hour.  We managed to outrun a squall and finally dropped anchor in a cove that had some more “disguised pirate boats” and not much else.  Our plans were to make do with a cold supper, take turns standing watch, and resume our journey at first light.  Shortly after we anchored we saw a disreputable looking old man in a tiny dingy rowing toward us using only a board for a paddle.  He introduced himself and offered any help we might need.  We said we would like some cold beer.  He said “no problem!  How about some roasted chicken and vegetables to go with that?”  “Si, Por Favor!!!" we both said in unison.

We gave him some money and he insisted on leaving his identification as security until he returned with the beer and dinner.  The beer was ice cold, the chicken huge and delicious and there were vegetables and other goodies on the side.  We enjoyed what was possibly the best meal of our trip while we watched a spectacular sunset.  Our new friend even offered to watch our boat so we could get some much-needed sleep.  He was the night watchman for the little fleet of “pirate” boats.  Roy and I collectively have traveled over most of the world, and these were the nicest bunch of “pirates” we've ever met!

Next morning we upped anchor, fired up the 575 horses and headed home at a leisurely 16 knots.  Your can see Margarita from the mainland so no major navigation skills were involved.  We found dock space at the Marina by the Hilton Hotel - about a mile from my house (a couple of miles from Roy's), checked in with customs and immigration and were home before noon.

Our experiences while visiting the other islands convinced us that we still have the best deal in the Caribbean here on Margarita Island.  Don’t believe everything you read in the American press about Venezuela.  Much of it is total b/s.  There's no communism here, just 'socialism' that looks more like restrained capitalism to us.  Capitalism flourishes here—new and expensive construction everywhere, bank financing on new cars, houses, apartments, and all the other “neat” consumer goods most people keep going into debt to own in America.

The cost of living is still very low, a gallon of gas is cheaper than a gallon of bottled water and beer is about 24 cents a bottle.  As far as we've discovered, there's no place else in the Caribbean where you can vacation or live as inexpensively as you can here—especially if you have Dollars or Euros to exchange for local currency.

Now that we have the boat, Roy can concentrate on playing with all the lovely ladies here, I can do some serious sport fishing.. My lady mentioned that the first pound of fish I catch will be one very expensive meal.  Well, we do it all for the stories we can tell anyway, and if you’d like to learn more about my tropical paradise island—no hurricanes, volcanoes, snow,  a very affordable cost of living for vacationing, retirement, or a second home. 
 

Please visit my website www.discovermargaritaisland.com where I have more information about island living and additional photos of our island trip. E-mail me at discovermargaritaisland@yahoo.com if you have specific questions

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