Farallón Centinela is a tiny rock in the Caribbean Sea.  It is  located approximately 25 miles north of Cape Codera.  Cape Codera is located 100 miles from main city Caracas in Venezuela.  The rock is about 50 ft high, 80 ft long, and 40 ft wide.  For the navigation a small light house has been installed at the highest point.

The purpose of this particular expedition was to celebrate 20th Anniversary of Grupo DX Caracas.  The call sign was issued by local authorities as YW5F for this expedition.  In 20 years this group has done completed 27 expeditions and 28 major contests, a giant total of 55 activities.  The group has experience of doing DXpeditions from most challenging places in Caribbean.   

One of the two previous attempts to activate Farallón Centinela (IOTA SA-058) by the group had failed in 1999.  The second attempt in 2000 was successful.  You can view information of previous two attempts on www.hfdx.org.   We were fully aware of the dangers of activating this time around.  The rock has no landing beach, therefore in past expedition operators had to reach the rock by swimming and equipments were brought in by helicopter.  This time we did not have helicopter assistance so we were up for operators and equipment unloading challenge.  The arrival and departure are very much dependent on the sea conditions.

On November 5, 2009 we left Caracas in the afternoon.  We worked very hard all day to pack everything we may need.  You have to really think the amount of equipments to take because of difficulty in taking equipments off the boat and taking to top of the rock.  At the same time you want to take back up radios, antennas, generators and everything else because anything can fail in  the harsh conditions. In fact we had couple of major equipment failures.

We packed equipments on top of the SUV and also stuffed as much as possible inside.  We were asked to take as little as possible personal belongings.  As we were loading, we realized that we don't have sufficient space for all equipments and operators.  Then came our rescue Carmen (YV5CAJ), who generously allowed us to borrow her car for taking few operators and some small equipments.  We are very thankful for her generosity and cooperation to make this DXpedition possible.  Carmen also packed us delicious two kinds of soups, which were very much appreciated on the rock. 

We stopped over for on our way to the Carenero (port of departure).  We arrived very late in the night and very tired.  However, Ramon YV5EED made sure that we have 45 minute group meeting to finalize the logistics before going to bed.   We rested at the hotel on the night of November 5th so we can start very early to not get caught in high seas.  We wanted to reach the port at 7 AM for early departure, but we realized that in hurry we had forgotten few critical items.  We split the group.  One group started loading the boat and getting ready with purchase of gasoline.  The other group had to go to market to obtain few last minute none the less very important items.  No matter how hard we tried but we could not take off until 9:30 AM.  Ideally we wanted to reach there by that time.  The weather was very stormy with heavy rain during our journey, we all got soaked wet and you can imagine importance of protecting sensitive equipments.  Ramon YV5EED unfortunately lost data on his electronic agenda (organizer) due to rain and huge splashes of the salt water. 

The location for departure is a small area with various fishing boats parked.  The owner of the boat is the same one that group had used in previous trips to Farallón Centinela.  And the skipper had recent experience of assisting in the installation of lighthouse on the Farallón.  Dark clouds can be observed ready to burst.

The fishing boat "Apartate" would take us to the Farallón Centinela.

"Apartate" completely full and ready to leave.  On our way we had few strong bursts of rain.

As we approached the rock, sea conditions were quickly becoming worse.  We had two options, whether to attempt a jump from the boat straight on the rock or jump in the water and swim across.  The owner of the fishing boat advised us not to jump in the water due to strong currents. But that also means that timing of the jump to the rock has to be very accurate.  If you miss by a few seconds you can be sure to get hurt by sharp rock formation.  We rushed to unload equipments and ourselves before the worsening sea conditions would make this expedition impossible.

YV5OHW and YV5EED ready to assist with guiding the boat and disembark operators.