Huguley,
No problem with density -- you got both answers right.
It's a 500 nm 040T rhumb line from Caracas to Antigua. The winds along this track can be expected to be 050 -090 T +/-15 degrees, ~20 +/- 5 knots. In the best of times it's a close hauled beat down the rhumb line, in the worst of times the wind is on your nose and you're tacking across the rhumb line into 6-12 seas. Depending on the boat, you might make 100 miles per day down the rhumb line -- so the trip is ~ 5 days +/- some. Not much fun.
On the "instability" front -- Here's a post off the Caribbean "Safety and Security Net" website reporting an incident last year:
Quote:
10 November - Tragedy at Isla Borracha
Out of respect for the families involved, no names are mentioned.
On Saturday 8 November, two yachts left Puerto La Cruz, Venezuela, bound for Isla Tortuga. They anchored for the night at Isla Borracha and gathered on one of the boats to discuss the plan for the next day.
About sunset, they saw three men in a pirogue approach the second boat and so shouted over that there was no one on board. The men then came to the first boat and asked for water, which they were given. Guns came out on the pirogue, and the captain of the second boat was shot twice, and apparently killed instantly. The captain of the first boat was shot once. His wife retrieved a gun from below which he fired at the pirogue, and the three men sped off. The wife then called a MAYDAY on the VHF and, since they were only a few miles from the marinas in Puerto La Cruz, the incident received immediate attention.
The Coast Guard arrived about an hour later, put a seaman on the first boat to assist the wives in taking the boat back to Bahia Redonda. The injured captain was able to move the other boat to the marina on his own.
The injured captain was taken to hospital upon arrival and treated for his wound. The deceased was removed from the first boat, which was tied alongside the Coast Guard dock, and taken to the morgue. All have been questioned by the police and reports submitted. The American Embassy had a representative on site within a couple of hours to render assistance.
At this point, there are no more confirmed details),although e-mails have been flying around, including a number of suppositions about the three men in the pirogue.
This is the third report of the death of a cruiser received by the Security Net since mid-July. All yachts cruising in Venezuelan waters should exercise EXTREME caution.
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For a more complete listing of the "security issues" involved in cruising the Venezeulean coast and islands, see
Reports and click on the appropriate boxes. You'll see that the Venezuelan coast is not really a "cruiser friendly" place. (In fairness, I should add that if you click on "most recent month" you'll also see a reported incident in Antigua).
The Caribbean has some tough neighborhoods, but some places are a lot worse than others. Venezuela is one of those places, but we shouldn't worry -- Hugo is working on the problem and I'm sure he's got the best interests of rich Yankee yachtsmen at heart.
