Tony Hacking & Family

Chris, Tianna, Tony, Teresa, Daniel, Sean, & Amanda up the mast (of course)

November 13 - December 3, 2002

Jon's brother, Tony, and his wife, Teresa, and their three kids, Tianna (14), Sean (10), and Daniel (8) spent a great three weeks with us off the coast of Venezuela.  Yes, kids were sort of stacked in like cord-wood, but everyone had a good time.  One amazing thing is that we served something like 500 meals (including a Thanksgiving Day Feast) without ever visiting a grocery store!  Most of the places we visited were too remote for grocery stores.

Sean at the helm!

They joined us in Porlarmar, Margarita which was a great place to provision the boat for visitors.  From there we sailed 60 miles south to the mainland and into the Golfo of Cariaco.  We were accompanied by dolphins both in and out of the gulf.  What a treat, especially for the kids!  We relaxed for a few days in Laguna Grande where Tony and Sue spent many hours birding, often right from Ocelot!  We took hikes to the spine of the Arraya Peninsula for great views.  The swimming was cool but the water was a bit murky in the mangroves.  Even so, we found a giant scallop which helped create a seafood spaghetti sauce.

Of course, fishing is a constant theme whenever Tony is around.  Tony brought us lots of fine fishing equipment and we had fun trying it out.  Unfortunately, we've noticed that the Caribbean doesn't have as many fish as it did in the 1980s.  We used to catch fish about every second time we sailed, but not any more.  Still, Tony caught about as many fish as we'd caught in the previous 10 months.

Another constant theme whenever these Hackings get together is food and fun.  Over the course of the 3 weeks that Tony and family were with us we were only able to shop once, at a small vegetable truck that comes to the desolate far western coast of Margarita 3 times a week.  This means that we served something like 500 meals without re-supplying, quite an achievement, especially when you consider that Thanksgiving came about 2 weeks into their visit.  But the galley produced wonderful meals and a good time was had by all.