Lots of sea.. (Klein Curacao - Cartgena, Colombia)
We’ll that’s frustrating!
I’ve just lost/deleted the last two days diary entries. That’s twice now in the last month or so.. and I’m still not sure exactly how it happened. For now I’m blaming unnecessary Apple software updates, …rather than any user related ‘fat finger’ issues.
In summary of what was missed - Anchored in Spanish Waters, Curacao. After a very successful fresh food provisioning run, we left Curacao in blowy conditions. Not having checked in to the country, this counts as an illegal pirate raid on a Caribbean Island!
Garrrrrr!
Bypassed Aruba, and we’re now just off the NE tip of Colombia. We’ve had big seas, and following winds throughout. It’s been an exhilarating two days of sailing so far. We had our personal best daily total for distance: 162nms in 24hrs at an average of 6.75kts.
Which brings us to:
Day 3:
I was nearly nodding off at the tail end of my shift last night, and was glad to get my head down when Chez came up an hour early. Slept deeply.
More of the same weather and sea state when I rose: sunny and big waves: all good.
I had a play around with the fishing rods to try and see why they’re not working.. It’s the third day trolling lures behind the boat, but no nibbles since we skirted Bonaire. We’re probably travelling a bit fast to catch fish, but regardless I let out some more line and added an ‘exciter’. This is a small, pink, bird-shaped lure that stays on the surface and splashes its wings to and fro - this supposedly whips the fish below into a mad feeding frenzy… I’m yet to see any evidence of this. Update 2 hours later: still no frenzy.
4, 6 and 8 hours later: ditto.
After dinner Chez headed down for her pre-shift sleep. I’m treated to a light show shortly after sunset. There’s two hours of pure black darkness until the fullish moon rises. Making the most of it, the stars have all come out and are twinkling their hardest. Below us the water is alive with phosphorescent life who sparkle and flash as we cut through the surf. Add to this, off to Port an impressive lightening storm that occasionally flashes away over land in Columbia, it all makes for quite a spectacle.
Moon came up, seas stayed big. Nothing else to report on my nightshift.
Day 4:
Arose to find that 5 members of the flying fish Air Force (Kamikaze section) had done the honourable thing on our deck overnight. After having a good look at them I returned them to the deep. They are truely amazing creatures both up close and flying. This leg of our journey has seen the highest numbers encountered in five years sailing; whole shoals/fleets of them darting away from the boat as we approach.
We’re nearing the mouth of the Magdelana river - a river fed from a large swathe of jungly, mountainous South America. This, according to the guides will result in significant amounts of debris and discoloured water as we pass. We’re about 15miles off, and nothing seen yet. That suits us, as getting tangled up in an uprooted tree or similar is not how we hope to spend the day.
Not two minutes after writing that last bit, we see a wide line of greener turquoise coming towards us - I’d expected brown. There’s a now a distinct line visible between the deep blue Caribbean waters and the incoming ‘fresh’ greeny/turquoise river water. …and ten minutes later, all we can see is the green tinged river water to the horizon on all sides.
After a nap and some dinner, we play one of Martin’s favourite ways to pass time on a long passage: eye spy.
It’s currently my turn: a ‘J’ … it’s Jammers (the things that hold the sailing lines in place) - don’t tell Chez.
Day 5:
It’s easy when I’m at sea: I have all the time in the world to consider my words and can happily jot down the everyday going’s on as we slowly glide along on the water.
On land it’s a slightly different story - there is so much to see and do, that capturing and enjoying all a new city has to offer can be quite a task. This being the case, I’m dropping back to summary version for a while:
A day out from Cartagena, the winds gradually rose to make the final pre dawn run in, another exhilarating ride.
Cartagena looms large as we approach - a line of tall white skyscrapers lining the shore. As we enter in though the narrow gap in the anti-pirate underwater wall, the seas drop to allow us to take it all in: blimey! After what in effect has been nearly 10 days at sea seeing very little, the shear scale of Cartagena is a shock to the senses.
Boats whizzing everywhere, cruise liners, freighters, navy boats, coast guard, pilot boats…. and submarines!
We anchor just off of Nautico Marina and tender over to meet our check in agent - José.
In the first few days we tick off the few things we need to sort out:
Complete (most of) the check in process.
Get some laundry done.
Visit the bank.
Go to the supermarket.
Buy a Colombian courtesy flag.
Top up our water
…and try and get the boat back to a ‘ship shape’ state after the crossing.
Before I finish up this one - the boat needs a mention: she performed beautifully in getting us here, the sails remained filled for all but four hours of our journey when we needed to motor. The hydrovane kept us on course using wind alone. All in all, a really good sail, and one that has done so much for our confidence. We’ve got some decent sized legs to go, and this one was a great start to get our minds in the right state to continue.
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