Venezuelan out islands

With one last trip into St. Georges Granada we watch the carnival parade from the dinghy then depart at 6pm for a series of night time jumps through the troubled waters of Venezuela. We traveled with one other boat, Serene, and kept our lights off and limited radio contact for this section as piracy is a problem here. Our radar still will not continue working more than an hour after i take it apart and adjust the drive belt, so we are truly traveling blind. No lights on Serene, no moon, no radar. It was as if we had our eyes closed, absolute blackness.

The first island was Los Testigos. Very arid with a fishing village along the shore. We anchored and watched the frigate birds and fishermen troll by us. Pulled down the radar again to get it going for the next leg and installed our back up voltage regulator for the alternator as salt shorted out its predecessor.

Onward to La Blanquilla the radar cut out shortly after turning it on again. Another dark night sailing blindly ahead. We hooked up a couple of tuna and a small mahi along the way and had enough to invite Serene over for dinner in Blanquilla. Pulled down the radar again with little hope of getting it fixed but not giving up either.

Once again a dark night time sail and once again the radar fails. We are in safer waters here but still run without lights to be on the safe side, if they cant see you they cant rob you.

Los Roques is the busiest island in this chain. The Venezuelans come here to get away from it all. Very friendly and quaint. There is no motorized transportation on land just sand streets for walking or pull hand carts. We find it to be one of the best stops we have been to. The waters remind us of the Bahamas. The birds soar and dive all around us and its nonstop entertainment for us. We try some fishing but no luck so we just explore by dinghy.
Los Testigos 92NM sailed 15 1/2 hours,La Blanquilla 96NM 15 3/4 hours, Los Roques El Gran Roque 131NM sailed 22 1/2 hours,Las Aves 38NM sailed in 7 hours