Curacao to Cartagena

We HAD to leave Curacao before we grew roots like S/V Tiger Lilly had done!  It is a lovely place and very convenient.  We were getting to know our way around pretty well.  Spanish Waters is a great location to spend some time in protected waters.

We left on January 14 bound for Aruba to stage our next voyage.  That leg of the trip was 82.9 miles and a very nice sail down wind.  We slept for a few hours and flew the quarantine flag rather than to clear in to Customs and Immigrations.  Perhaps there will be another day to go ashore in Aruba.  Boy there is a ton of shipping traffic around these ABC Islands!

At 1:15 pm, we hauled up the anchor to make way to Cartagena.  Once again, we were travelling with Celtic Rover and had arranged to speak to them every two hours by either VHF radio or SSB since after a few hours we get too far apart for the VHF to work.  The trip was one of 60 hours and 4 minutes, totaling 387 nautical miles.  Our average speed was 6.4 knots with a maximum speed of 14.2 – surfing down the side of some of those waves!  Hang on to your hat!!

KUDOS to Tom Service aboard Tiger Lilly!!  That man is a wealth of information!!!!!  He helped us set up our cutter rig for downwind sailing and it was GREAT!  We had a very pleasant sail (without some of the roll we had coming to Bonaire from Grenada) AND we got the autopilot to work efficiently!  A trip of this length requires the crew to be rested and these two things really did the trick!  Much of the time, we were “wing and wing” and/or on a broad reach.  We have a much shorter list of repairs on this stop because we didn’t beat up the boat and US!

We arrived in Cartagena at around midnight and decided that we would try to enter the waters at night even though we had decided that we did not want to try that.  Entering the breakwater channel in the dark was a little scary but no big problem.  The harbor is huge – a major shipping port, actually.  Most cruising sailboats anchor in a corner near a couple of marinas so that took about an hour to navigate through the shipping channels.  It was 1:15 am when we put down the anchor.  Once we felt that the anchor was secure, we retired to the bed – yay! 

Next morning, we were greeted by friends on Sea Schell, a boat we have gotten to know on this trip.  They left about a week before us from Curacao.  They assisted with giving us an overview of the area and introducing us to an agent to get our papers processed for Customs and Immigrations. 

We got to watch one of the NFL playoff games on a television at a local eatery.  Go Broncos!!  Woo Hoo!!!  When we got home, we logged on to the internet, using Bruce’s username and password on the marina wifi.  On logging in and going to Facebook, we learned that there were several people worried about us.  We had been diligent about setting off a SPOT messenger every six hours (twice as often as coming from Grenada to Bonaire) but most of them did not go through.  So the last message was sent about 12+ hours after we left Aruba and never again – not even after we anchored here in Cartagena.  The only thing we can figure is that we did not leave the confounded thing turned on long enough for the message to go through.  We are here safe and sound and NOW, Jessica has a wealth of information regarding what, who and how to contact if we should be late checking in next time.  Sorry for any gray hairs we caused. 

We have walked over the section of town close to our anchorage.  By the way, this is all three of our first time to step foot on another CONTINENT!  A grocery store is very close and there are some small chandleries within walking distance.  Eating out is VERY reasonable in price.  On Monday, we walked to a mall to get set up with SIM cards for the phone.  That is the first mall I have been inside in at least a year and perhaps 2-3!  Many stores are US brand stores plus there are many others.  Communications are challenging as many here do not speak English.

SO……we are diligently trying to get our Spanish up to speed.  We have a book that is excellent called “Spanish for Cruisers”.  We also have been trying to watch an hour a day of television to increase our vocabulary.  Darrell is doing great with learning the numbers and exchange rate for Colombian Pesos.  It is very unnerving to look at prices that are 1000 times more and double the USD.  For example, a beer costs the equivalent of $1.00 here.  The Colombian price would be $2000.00 pesos.  Beeronomy – many cruisers understand that.  Another example, we went to lunch yesterday with Celtic Rover and the cost was $40,000.00 pesos but that was only $20 USD equivalent for an excellent lunch!

We have done one morning in the old city, meandering around.  There is a walled city that is very old and many museums are there.  We have barely scratched the surface of all the exploration we hope to do here.  Right now, we plan on spending at least 4-6 weeks total here.  Hopefully, we can get a better internet connection sometime to be able to upload all the pictures we have been taking.

For now, Adios and hasta luego!  I guess if we get good enough, we could do a whole blog in Spanish – OK?  lol

Eau de la Vie

We had an interesting evening night before last.  We were sitting at anchor in Spanish Waters, Curacao where we have been for about 2 weeks now.  It was after dinner and we were relaxing in the cockpit.  We had noticed the above vessel with their running lights on and thought that they were going to leave after dark.  Not unusual at all – two other boats left about 1-2 hours prior for Aruba.

Anyway, this vessel has been anchored for several days off our starboard quarter almost ¼ mile back (D says I exaggerate so a football field).  The day they came into the anchorage, our friends on Celtic Rover said they had dropped the hook in front of us and almost drifted into our bow.  Anyway, I digress.

As one can see from the picture, it is a beautiful and pretty new boat.  We have spoken about the vessel a few times and Darrell commented that if he had a great big pretty boat like that, he wouldn’t store 29 fenders on the deck.  First red flag should have been raised. 

Anyway, last night the two boats left the anchorage and one was a catamaran in almost the exact position of this boat now – a boat length or two off our starboard beam.  The catamaran left around 6pm while it was still fairly light outside to get through the channel leading to the ocean.  About two hours later, this boat decided to move.  No big deal, right?  Well, they had to use spotlights to see the anchor as they were lifting it because it was now dark.  As the anchor chain came up, they moved nearer and nearer our boat.  A second red flag should have been the dinghy that was not raised for ocean going as they dragged it over the water by it’s lift points, beam to the waves.

Finally, Darrell got out our spotlight (after several repositions with their loud bow thruster) to be sure that they were not going to dislodge OUR anchor chain.  YES, they moved nearly a quarter of a mile as they pulled in anchor chain and had dropped it almost on top of our chain!  They proceeded to re-anchor in almost the exact same spot and drop back a reasonable amount.

Anyway, this picture is taken the next morning from our cockpit.  Not sure what that was all about the other night but they are now closer than I would like given questionable judgment and the number of fenders that they deem necessary in their cruising lifestyle.  We will see what the next couple of days brings.  Eau de la vie – means water of life.  A French name for a German flagged vessel??

Bonaire to Curacao

While on Bonaire, we took a tour (guided). It was enlightening. This island is very flat and dry compared to all the lush, mountainous islands we have grown accustomed to seeing. We did see huge flocks of Flamingoes down by the salt flats but they were very far away. At the south end of the island, they make salt. There are also kite boarders and windsurfers by the gazillions. The north end is hilly and home of a park that we didn't get to tour as it is another half day of walking trails :(

It seems that they (the island inhabitants are mostly Dutch) really like fireworks this time of the year - the big boys!  Someone just launched one close to our boat and it sounded like an explosion. Hope we can sleep tonight.

We had a lovely day of sailing on Monday to reach Curaçao. The red carpet welcome was rolled out by Tom and Lilly of S/V Tiger Lilly!  Thank you guys!!!!  Our own personal guides to take us to Customs, Immigration, Port Authority, and a sight seeing tour of downtown. 

Curaçao is more photogenic but we sure enjoyed the diving in Bonaire!  And this island loves fireworks too!!  At least we are not close enough to shore for any to be launched at our boat!  New Years fireworks was a 360° panorama here in Spanish Waters.  We have gone into town a couple of times since we have been here – there is a large supermarket with a free shuttle bus transport.  Grocery shopping is a highlight of Ann’s week if there are an abundance of choices. 

We spent a day repairing sails (minor sewing) to get ready for the next passage.  There are several options that we are examining for stops along the next portion of our trip.  We have to be ready for somewhat heavier winds off the coast of Colombia.  In fact, this is one of the most windy areas in the world.  Chris Parker, one of our weather sources, refers to this as “the typically windy area of Colombia”.  The following gives an explanation. 

What creates this phenomenon is a combination of factors: 

1.  The Santa Marta Mountains form a ridge (almost 19,000 feet high) that the trade winds are forced to go around.  This increases the speed by about 10 knots over the normal gradient winds. 

2.  There is a stationary low that sits over Colombia – increasing the gradient winds. 

3.  At night, cool air falls down the mountains toward the sea, increasing the night-time winds by another 10 knots (catabatic winds). 

4.  The waves that are created by the wind blowing across the Caribbean Sea are pushed up on a shelf that is 200 to 500 feet deep (most of the Caribbean Sea is thousands of feet deep).  This increases the wave height. 

5.  There is a current that flows up from the Bay of Panama and along the coast of Colombia.  Current against the wind shortens the distance between the waves, creating what sailors refer to as “square waves”.

So we sit, waiting on the RIGHT weather window to make the next passage and prepare to have 30-35 knot winds.  Surely growing up in the Texas panhandle prepared us for this!!  Lol 

On the up side: 

★We have internet on the boat 24/7. 

★We bought a sim card for the phone so we can call our family. 

★We are in the company of many sailboats in this bay. 

★The shopping is good.

★Roxy has a boy come by every day and take her for a walk.

★The same boy picks up our trash every day for a small fee.

“I got my toes in the water, my a** in the sand, not a worry in the world, a cold beer in my hand, LIFE IS GOOD TODAY!”