Cartagena Colombia

Wow, where do I start…? ‘I guess at the beginning’.

We left Port Antonio Jamaica at about 3:30 am last Tuesday morning. We ghosted out of the harbor in complete darkness. No moon was to be found and I was relying on my chart plotter and Garmin charts. I knew they were accurate as I checked them coming into the harbor and could follow my old track back out to sea.

Our friends on “LOLO” were going to leave after us later that morning. They have a 3 year old boy “Teddy” and Guinevere is quite fond of him. I think we will be traveling together for a while.

We motored east along the northern shore of Jamaica to a beautiful sunrise. We were heading to the eastern point to round it for a way point South. I had decided to head for Cartagena Colombia and make a decision for the San Blas when we were about 150 miles off of the Colombian coastline. This would increase our rum-line by about 50 miles to the San Blas but the advantage being we could still do the shorter trip (90 miles) to Cartagena if needed, and if we didn’t want to stop in Colombia the run to the San Blas would be down wind and sea. Well as it turns out we did stop in Cartagena.

Anyway back to my story. After we rounded the eastern tip of Jamaica we had a nice days sail. However the wind increased to 25-30 knots and the sea picked up to 9-12 feet, ‘good brisk sailing’! We were expecting 5-7 foot seas and 15 knots of wind. However Splendid likes wind as she is a medium to heavy displacement boat and needs a fair amount to get her going full steam. She also handles larger seas quite well. Truthfully I would have been happy with 15 knots and 6’seas, but we have to make the best of it, right?

I knew I made a mistake when I had my second cup of coffee that morning (too much acid). My stomach went off and I knew sea-sickness was coming. It wasn’t long into our second day before Sam and I were both feeling really lousy. Guin of course was bouncing around our bed watching movies all day. At one point she popped her head out of the hatch and giggled “2 sick parents and a healthy kid”. She went back to her movie and Sam and I managed a smile on our green faces. She really is the best kid!

It wasn’t long after that that our Auto Pilot’s drive failed, “$#!T” I shouted. “Oh man, 350 miles to hand steer”. When you’re sea-sick the last thing you want to do is hand steer, that means being upright. Sam knew this meant we would be taking 2 hour shifts steering the boat. Then I remembered we have a Aries windvane (Mechanical, non-electric steering). I had never used it and planned to play with it soon. I did fully rig it though…, would it work?

Let me just say this, ‘No proper boat should be without a windvane’, and if you are going to get one get an Aires. I had named her “Gina” after my childhood dog, and ‘Thank GOD for Gina’! She steered us the next 250 miles without a hiccup. In fact…, with the way she steers to the wind she steered us around a quite nasty squall. Our friends on LOLO were stuck in it and had a lot of lightning. We were in contact with LOLO via the SSB radio twice a day.

I have a small tiller pilot a friend gave me (Thanks Craig) and I’m going to hook it up to Gina so we can use her in light or no wind situations. Windvanes need wind to work but some people have found that hooking a tiller pilot to it works wonderfully in motoring and no wind cruising. Anyway, our wind died about 120 miles from Cartagena and we decided to visit Colombia. The old city is an amazing piece of history and I really wanted the girls to see it, we’ll post lots pictures and video:)

If you’ve seen my first film I ended it in Cartagena Colombia. I loved my visit here and it was one of the most memorable in all my travels. That being said I must say I’m a bit heart-broken.

The city and all is still the same but corruption and greed are taking their toll on sailors visiting Cartagena. I hate writing anything negative but the Government is trying to take over Club Nautico by not renewing their lease. I’m sure they want to make it a “Public” facility and keep the revenue for themselves. The people who run Club Nautico hand built the docks & Facility and always made a stay in Cartagena fun, memorable, and enjoyable for the visiting sailor.

I also find the fees for visiting Colombia have become offensive and vulgar. I believe I paid $40 5 years ago for 90 days which included the yachts entry and cruising permit. 90 day extensions were $20 bucks. Well the Agent charged us $80 for 10 days and if we wanted to stay longer we would be looking at a minimum of a few hundred more dollars. I had hoped to stay here for longer as i have some boat projects but I can’t afford it, and even if I could afford it I wouldn’t support it. We will be off to Panama within 10 days.

I don’t think I’ll be able to return to Cartagena if the Government takes over the Club Nautico facility. The owners have poured their lives into making it a wonderful facility and its just wrong. I would have to boycott Cartagena with a heavy heart. They tried to take over when Club Nautico was in the process of remodeling and all that stands now is an office, cement and rebar. The beautiful bar, restaurant & club house, laundry is all gone. It’s quite disturbing if you knew the old Club. The vibe is completely different and the magic is gone.

All that being said the city is Glorious and the girls are having a blast. We went out for a big dinner with the crew of LOLO (Peta, Rosanna, and baby Teddy) last night to celebrate our big 500 mile/5 day sea passage. We went to an Arab restaurant and ordered 2 big steaks and 2 HUGE plates of falafel, stuffed grape leaves, hummus, various meats rice and kababs, as well as plates for the kids. It was a feast fit for kings, seriously! The whole thing cost $80 for the 6 of us, beer & wine included. It’s time to get back to being frugal but the girls really deserved a big night and we had been dreaming of the meal for days in the big seas of the Caribbean. I have always eaten in this restaurant in all my trips to Cartagena, it’s wonderful! I believe this is my 4th time here.

I’m having problems with my tranny over-heating. When i installed the new oil cooler I used the only radiator hose I could find in Jamaica. Well it turns out it is too flimsy and implodes with the suction the the raw water system demands, and restricts the water flow to the engine and oil cooler. I have to find a good piece of hose while we are here in Cartagena. I also have to figure out a way to rig the tiller pilot to the windvane so Sam and I aren’t stuck in an eternity of hand steering shifts. New drives are a few grand and I need to look into having this one repaired. At the very least we will be without it for a few months. I need to get it back to Raymarine, and figure out how to receive it in Panama.

I also blew out my knee during the trip. I don’t know if you remember but I had a MRI back in Jacksonville and it revealed a torn meniscus. Man I hate getting older! I must say ‘Life is good though, and Tylenol goes a long way’.

Anyway we are all well and will be off to the San Blas soon.

We didn’t get a chance to choose the winner of the raffle as the sea was too big and will be doing it later today. Good luck to everyone who bought tickets.

If you check out our currant position you can see the track we took.

Sail far and live slowly.

Alex

Published in Alex Dorsey