Tortuga Island

Tortuga Island 6/9/09

Unlike what Jack Sparrow had led me to believe the real Tortuga Island was not a bubbling meca of ancient pirates wandering around belligerent. What Tortuga turned out to be was a beautiful, barely inhabited, desert island off the coast of Venezuela.

Our Trusty Quercus

The passage aboard Quercus was as smooth as sailing over night in the windy Caribbean as you could get. Luckily all aboard were by now comfortable in the routine of night watches and glimpse of sleep. When we left Margarita that afternoon a school of dolphins had escorted us out along with the last glimpse of the island. That night we had a stiff breeze behind us and found ourselves a few hours ahead of schedule arriving at Tortuga. Considering Quercus is a eight ton steel boat we were pleasantly surprised at what a good sailing machine she was turning out to be. In any other form of travel arriving early would be a boon. However with sailing into new harbors, specially with coral reefs and shallow waters all around, that you time it so that you arrive when the sun is high enough above you in order to keep a sharp eye on the water ahead. We spotted land around 4:30am, thus requiring us to sail up and down the island for a few hours while we waited for the sun to come up. This decision turned out to be the wisest course of action, even though we were all exhausted and with land within sight it was a little tortuous to force ourselves to stand around a few more hours. The reason this course of action became so crucial was that for reasons left untold Venezuela has a 300 meter error attached to its electronic charts. Meaning that if we had relied on our handy-dandy high tech chart plotter to enter the harbor we would of ended up right on course for land!

A few hours later we found ourselves safely anchored in turquoise waters facing the beginning of some 20 mile long white sandy beach. We were the only boat at anchor for several hours when another couple of sailboats arrived after us and anchored in the bay as well. As soon as we got our dingy in the water and made sure everything in the boat was in order John and I rowed over to shore to explore the island a little. Once you walked up to the top of the beach you looked over a flat expanse of dry desert, complete with cactus and thorny shrubs scattered in the horizon. Tortuga is so flat that once you get a few feet above water you can practically see across the entire island. We sat behind a scrubby bush to get some shade and watched the desolate landscape for a while. Amazed at how different it looked from it’s gorgeous and lush seeming view only a dozen feet back from the water’s edge. After that we headed back onboard and everyone fell into a deep sleep.

One of the high lights to our stop-ever in Tortuga was that I had my 25^th Birthday on the island! John and I decided that since my first birthday wish—to get a lush room with air conditioning, cold and hot showers, a bubble bath, and a giant bed that didn’t move—was a little out of the question, we’ll do the next best thing. Trekking across the cactus strewn desert and finding a remote and memorable place to have our picnic. That morning Mom made her famous pasta salad for us and helped pack our picnic with things only a mother would remember: crackers, plates, even silverware! Ha! I had bought a bottle of white wine in Margarita for a special occasion so we grabbed that as well. Off we went heading straight across the desert.

John Trekking The Desert

One of the interesting things about the island is that even when you are in the middle of the island watching not to step on cactus the grown is littered with ancient coral and shells. It would be hard to sneak up on anyone here as the coral cracks and snaps under your feet for each step!

After an hour and a half of walking we reached the opposite side of the tip of the island. There we found paradise! The white sandy beach we had left an hour ago had wrapped itself around the island as well and was there waiting for us. About a 100ft from the beach was a strip of coral that wrapped itself into a protective barrier that created the tranquil and turquoise water in front of us. We felt like we were the first people in the world to discover this mall calendar worthy spot! Just as we were looking at our unspoiled spot with the pioneers pride a couple of guys taking a walk on the beach showed up! We were miles away from the only town of four buildings on this island and we had managed to bump right into other people! The world is indeed getting smaller. Luckily the young guys were just on a stroll and not as pleased to ruin their fantasy of exploration as we were and promptly headed back down the beach. After a quick dip in the pool like waters we got out a towel and proceeded to have a lovely birthday lunch and wine. For the next couple of hours we took turns sipping wine and splashing in the water.

I turn 25!

By the time we could feel our skin radiating heat, and not from the wine anymore, we gathered our belongings and started back. For the trek back we chose to walk along the beach. The beach, with it’s miles and miles of white sandy sand in the middle of the Caribbean sea should have been the picture of unspoiled nature. However, sadly, garbage from islands and countries upwind of Tortuga had drifted onto this beach for years. There is nothing sadder than seeing a virtually uninhibited island bombarded with garbage that could of originated from thousands or miles away. There were all sorts of bizarre items mixed in with the usual suspects such as plastic bottles as well. Large tractor tires, chairs, thousands of liquor bottles, toy dump trucks, shoes, and sadly hundreds of other non-biodegradable plastics that are destined to littler this beach for another thousand years unless something changes. It was a clear sign of how man has unwittingly touched every corner of this world, and not always for the better.

It was, however, a magical day over all. From the hike across a desert to having lunch at a perfect beach, I couldn’t have planned for a more visually memorable birthday! Back on the boat Mom and Dad were waiting with a birthday cake she had baked. It was Mom’s first time baking a cake onboard and it turned out quite well, even if it was shaped a bit odd because of the oven moving while the cake rose! This was a great start for my 25^th year, I can only hope this year continues to offer the opportunity to travel and see the world as much as possible.