Cholon and friends visiting

After a couple of weeks of socializing, shopping, some boat chores, annoying sulfur and smoke smells in the early mornings causing sinus problems, being waked by what seemed hundreds of boats all day long, a lot of barnacles growing very fast on the bottom of the boat, we decided it was time to head into a cleaner and more quite environment. Sid was shocked to see that the boat from the waterline all the way to the bottom of the keel was 99% covered with barnacles when he cleaned the propeller. That kept us busy for a couple of hours in the clean anchorage of Cholon. (Don’t get me wrong as bad as the anchorage in Cartagena sounds, it has a breath taking view and it is worth stopping here to see charming Cartagena Vieja).

The night before we left we had Keith and Rob over for dinner. Couldn’t have been a better evening to invite Keith as during dinner he told us know that this was his Birthday. It sure made Keith’s day not having to celebrate it alone and ours that we had chosen the perfect day. Happy Birthday Keith! 

Amazing the wind had been blowing out of the NE ever since we arrived in Colombia but of course the day we’re trying to sail west the wind came out of there. We motored though the channel of Boca Chica which reminded us of the ICW except for all the tourist boats speeding on either side leaving huge wakes behind. The entrance to Boca Chica is very beautiful as there is a well preserved fort on either side. 

Heading out the Boca the water was calm with only a one foot long swell out of the North. We pulled the sails out and since the wind was right on the nose we had to sail 90 degrees off our course. For about 15 minutes we sailed at 3 knots then we gradually slowed down as the wind got lighter. When the knot meter read 1.8 knots we had enough and pulled the jib in and motor sailed the 9 miles to the first way point. After that we had four more to follow for which the last one was very confusing as it was behind the island and we do not sail well across land. Some adrenaline was flowing while trying to figure out where to next. There seemed to be a little channel between the two islands, one had a long reef extending the other a shallow beach. As we watched a pleasure boat motoring through the cut we followed him very, very slowly with Sid on the bow and Manuela steering with a sharp eye on the depth sounder. Can you imagine driving your 6 foot draft boat through a narrow channel  and only 10 feet next to you are people standing in waste deep water waving to you, yikes. 

We managed to get into the Bay of Cholon with no problem, lots of friendly waves from swimmers and never saw less than 10 feet of water. The bay is huge and, very protected weather wise but unfortunately not from scum bags. The night before we arrived two dinghy engines where stolen off two cruising boats. Even though both dinghies were pulled out of the water during the night the thieves managed to steel the motors as they were not locked to the dinghy.  Lock it or loose it!

          The bay is beautiful with several little islands just big enough for some big shot to build a weekend retreat on it. The anchorage has good holding and the water is a lot cleaner than in Cartagena although not clear either. First thing we did was clean the bottom of the boat, yikes that was some work, we were sore for a couple of days from the underwater acrobatics.

We had the best reunion with Carmen and Roberto, formerly “Fresh  Air”, last time we saw them was 10 years ago in Cartagena. They live up on top of the hill in a huge house, had a bit of  confusion when they built it, between feet and meters so they ended up with a house triple the size than planned. The house “Crows Nest” is nestled on top of the hill surrounded by lush vegetation with a breathtaking 320 degree ocean view, wow. In the bay sits an old big shrimping boat “Manatee” owned by Roberto and Carmen and every Wednesday and Saturday they have a Happy Hour on board. Some times it’s a potluck and some times Carmen cooks up Hot Dogs. When we participated we had a scrumptious potluck and everybody that played an instrument brought it along. We had one guitar and 3 harmonica players and we played way into the night.

Daily Crows Nest and Paradise went for an early morning walk along the bay, Paradise ending up with blisters on their feet, had fresh brewed coffee afterwards overlooking this beautiful bay.

Roberto and Carmen

Manatee

The nights were so quite you could hear a mouse fart, but just before the sun puts her blinking eye over the horizon peacocks started screaming in unison, being followed by another species of bird which we have not found out yet what it is. This bird call is so pretty it sounds like a flute. Then there is the Guacharaca a bird about 53 - 58 cm, dark brown above and pale below dull plumage and similar in appearance to a turkey with smaller head, long strong legs and a long broad tail. This bird makes the loudest noise of all the birds and like the wave at a foot ball game from one side of the bay to the other. We asked for the English name of the bird, nobody seemed to know and it didn’t Sid take long to figure out the name himself as all you hear when they squawk is: “whatthefuckwhatthefuckwhatthefuck”.  I read up on it, it’s a Rufous- vented Chacalaca, Ortalis rificauda a member of an ancient group of birds of the Cracidae family. It inhabits northeast Colombia and Venezuela. It is also known as Cocrico and can also be found in the Grenadines, Bequia and Union Island. The male’s call is a loud and low ka-ka-rooki-rooki-ka answered by the female’s high-pitched watch-a-lak. I don’t’ blame them for yelling back what we think is what-the-f….

I tried to capture the sound on a video but only managed to get the peacock and the flute bird but if you listen very carefully you will hear them. 

We had a wonderful time but also some problems with the alternator, it did not charge our batteries which is a mayor problem. Also the solar panel regulator quit working so did the wash down pump so back to town. Besides we were expecting visitors and didn’t want to chance getting stuck in Cholon. The weather was another worry as it had been howling 25 knots for a solid 3 days, we had a break in the weather and we took it with a gentle 10 knots on the nose.

          We were all excited to have guests and what a perfect timing, we just got out of the Taxi in front of the Charleston Hotel in Old Town Cartagena when Dave Baker our friend got out of the Taxi right behind us. His friend jerry Maize joined him and we had nothing but a good time. Don’t know who wore whom out, I’ll just let the photos talk:

We explored the Cartagena Vieja (Old Town):

Walked the famous old wall “Murales” around the city

Climbed the San Felipe Fort with Gustavo our tour guide:

Meet Gustavo (click on arrow to watch):

Talked to Mom (ask Dave who’s Mom):

Ate at the best restaurants in town:

Roof Restaurant at Charleston Hotel

Wonderful Lunch at Club de Pesca

Assorted tropical fruits on Paradise

Got hooked on Mojitos and Zacapa Rum:

Toured the Bay in a speed boat and explored the Boca Chica Fort”

Where Romancing the Stone with Kathleen Turner and Michael Douglas was filmed:

Of course we also rested in the cockpit of Paradise catching up on good old times and savoring the moment our friends were with us. Dave found a few things he thinks we should change on the boat like this:

From:

To:

So here is a big cheers from all of us!

Dave is a member of our PMYC Yacht Club

Sail to Cartagena

Boca Grande Cartagena

When the alarm sounded at midnight the wind was howling again.  Not good! We were going to leave the marina but with gusts up to 28 knots and healing in the slip we decided to wait and see. It was frustrating as this was not predicted in the weather forecast. One our later the wind calmed down a bit an occasional 28 knot gust. At 2 AM it slowed down long enough to sneak out of the slip and marina, we pulled the sail up and headed towards Baranquilla. We came to the conclusion that the winds in Santa Marta are mainly a local condition as we now had a 10 to 15 knots the sea was relatively calm it was a good day to be sailing. After the sun blinked over the Sierra Nevada we actually could see the snow capped mountain peaks, well the snow we did not really see but we saw the silhouette of the majestic Sierra Nevada, it was very pretty. The view was only for a bout 5 minutes before it got lost in the haze. Our first leg was 20 miles to the point where the Magdalena River meets the sea. We had a feeling that towards that corner we would have some higher seas and eventual more wind as well and sure enough about 10 miles from the point the winds started escalating and the waves started to get higher and much, much closer together and one wave managed to broach us filling the cockpit with about 50 gallons of water. It wasn’t really that rough, the waves were just too darn close together and pretty much on the beam. Approaching the Magdalena River is quite intimidating, on the far horizon you see some brown stuff almost looks like some sand piles, very unnerving but than I remember from other cruisers description that it is not patches of sandy beaches but where the cappuccino colored dirty water of the river meets the ocean. It’s amazing the change from blue to brown water and the waves at that point are very high, steep and inconsistent the highest, it gives you the willies and white knuckles holding the wheel. We knew to stay off shore for at least 2 miles and seeing this mess I tried to follow the outflow as far as I could before we finally got into the mucky wild water about 3 miles off shore. As soon as we hit it we changed course and had the unsettled sea coming from behind us which was no problem. We now had a 2.5 knot current pushing us though the muddy water we did speeds up to 8.9 knots, nice. For about 2 miles we had this ugly mess then it gradually became calmer and after about 5 miles the water slowly changed color but stayed murky for the rest of the trip. Even though it was now pretty calm one wave still managed to slap us in the butt and dumped another 20 gallon of water into the cockpit. Sid got pretty good in shoveling the water over board, I think the shoveling sand in Santa Marta helped! About 5 miles out from Punta Hermosa the wind started to pick up as it does every afternoon and with it we sailed into Puerto Velero (Punta Hermosa) with 25 knots of wind. After a 58 mile fast trip we dropped the hook in a very calm setting. This is a big bay with plenty of room for hundreds of boats but amazingly we were the only cruising boat anchored. Wind Shear didn’t leave with us as they had to wait for fuel delivery at 5.30 in the morning. They didn’t leave Santa Marta until 10.30 and had a fairly rough ride with 25 knots of wind. Just before the muddy river they caught a fish trap and fouled the prop so they had to sail. Before they turned into Punta Hermosa or what the locals call Puerto Velero, they were able to run the engine again.

I didn’t take long for the Coastguard to tie up to us. Again I have to say we were treated with the utmost respect, they greeted us and told us that we were in a safe place to anchor and could stay for days. They wanted to know if we had a phone and gave us their phone number to call them if we had any problem and asked us that when we leave to contact them so that they could contact Cartagena to let the Coastguard there know that we were underway and make sure we were safe as this stretch of coast is questionable according to them. Before we left Santa Marta I questioned the Guardia in the Marina about this anchorage, they said it was OK but gave me a phone number of a guy owning a restaurant to call in case of emergency. We feel that we are in good hands here!

Poor Sid wasn’t feeling good the entire trip, sore muscles, headachy and later on that day he came down with a high fever. Knowing of Steve’s dengue he caught in Santa Marta we feared the worst. The following morning he had a slight temperature and it went away. But we decided to stay put and let him rest. Later as the fever returned with a vengeance we decided to boogy to Cartagena the following day to be close to any medical facility if needed.

The wind had subsided, we could have used at least 5 more knots of it to be able to sail, should have left the previous day, oh well. The last two hours of the trip we were finally able to turn the engine off and quietly sail slowly along the Colombian coast, while we wanted for Wind Shear to catch up with us. It was exciting to finally see all the high rise buildings of Boca Grande on the horizon and our anticipation rose. Approaching the old town brought nothing but good memories back and heading into Boca Grande we noticed there were now two instead of just one buoy. Sailing between the buys into Boca Grande we realized that we just had circumnavigated the Caribbean, wow it took us 10 years, could have gone around the world a couple of times. Hey after all we are the Turtle Express!!!

A huge dark cloud was hovering over the entrance and it looked like we were going to get some rain, yeah, rain we needed it. But of course the cloud was just teasing us it released the rain somewhere away from us.

Wind Shear followed us into the harbor and we found Club Nautico exactly where we left it plus a whole bunch of boats in the anchorage. Last time we arrived there where only 6 boats anchored including us. Not just are there many more boats in the anchorages but also many, many more high-rise buildings wow this place has blossomed. This anchorage has nothing but a thick mud bottom which is hard to get hooked, first try was a miss so we moved to a different area and before pulling back on the anchor let is sit for a while. We’re settled in and are just excited to be back in beautiful Cartagena.

Club Nautico

Our first sunset

Cartagena Vieja

Sid still wasn’t feeling better it was coming and going, not just that I came up with the same thing and Debi started as well. We did go a shore to Club Nautico for paper work and surprised Keith on Tortuga. Last we’d seen him was a couple of years ago in Trinidad and before that 10 years ago in Cartagena and it was a happy reunion.

Club Nautico Marina was a crappy marina 10 years ago but ohmygosh is pitiful now, the docks are falling apart and where the once so much fun restaurant was it’s just a pile of rubble with a tarp for a roof and a huge mess. The showers are horrible, the bathroom portapotties, man what a dump. We pay 20 bucks a week to be able to tie the dinghy to the dock and go ashore but it comes with unlimited use of water and shower. Imagine, this marina has hours for water usage from 08:00 – 12:00, 14:00 – 19:00, so no showers after 7 o’clock! WI-FI is horrible so for now we have to go to the Internet Café.

Anyway, we’re feeling a lot better and are enjoying discovering Cartagena again and will be in this area for a while

Getting spoiled with 2 foot long yummy bacon!