Friday March 26, 1999   Cumana, Venezuela

We have made our first new continent ! We are in South America !


We left Grenada shortly before sunset after we dropped our friends Valerie and Tom in St. George.   They both had to go back to their normal life and are now in New York and Hamburg respectively.  They made their modern day jet travel of thousands of miles in the same time it took us to steam 200 nm to Cumana, Venezuela.   Sometimes I wish we would be faster, to run away from weather or to make a certain deadline.  But mostly we enjoy our speed. It is part of the whole idea, to realize how big our planet still is, even though technology makes it appear smaller and smaller everyday.  emails wiz around the globe in seconds and with the worldwide web you can be anywhere anytime, as you very well know by being close to us as we go around. 
In the earlier days, the old seafarer went about the same speed we do. Eight to nine miles per hour.  Well things get bigger that way.  Letters used to travel months and news spread slowly.  And travelers were travelers in the true sense. Not "beamed" by an airplane to another continent overnight.  At nine knots you can really feel the distances, the changes in climate and ecoregions.  And that is something we tremendously enjoy !

Anyway, we made our journey heading west for the first time in about 10 weeks in little over 20 hours.  With our heading of roughly 240 degrees, current and wind were from astern and it was a pleasant ride all the way.


Map of Venezuela. Click to enlarge

We are meeting a German TV-Crew and a STERN Journalist here in Cumana.  Cumana was the place where the Europeans started the settlement of this part of the world and I quote you what Microsoft Encarta 99 has to say:

Cumaná, city, northeastern Venezuela, capital of Sucre State, a seaport on the Manzanares River, near the Gulf of Cariaco. Cumaná has an excellent natural harbor, with modern cargo-handling facilities. The chief exports include coffee, tobacco, and sugarcane. Located here are distilleries and plants producing furniture and textiles. The Universidad de Oriente (1958) is in the city. The first permanent settlement of Europeans in South America, Cumaná was founded by Spanish explorers in 1523. Earthquakes have devastated the town on several occasions, notably in 1766, 1797, and 1929. Population (1992 estimate) 232,228.

Tomorrow during the day we are exploring the area a bit with the STARSHIP.  Later we will meet with our new guests and discuss the plan for the next 5-6 days.

See you tomorrow.

Michael