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!