Aboard Dignity (Lagoon 420) Blog

Category: Cruiser Connections

  • Happy in Cartagena

    Yesterday we woke to clear skies and relatively still waters so we up anchored and left before 8am. I was glad of the effort to take waypoints the day before as this made transiting and exiting the reef stress free.

    There was little wind so we motored all the way back to Cartagena, this time taking the longer route via Boca Chica to see a different view and to live a little in history as this was often the entrance taken by invading fleets.

    Now that we’ve settle into Cartagena we probably won’t move until we leave for Panama next week so here is our current position and our tracks within Colombia.

    INSERT_MAP


    View 2009 Colombia in a larger map

    Once back anchored we were soon met by Gerald from Whiskers and made plans to meet up in the evening for the Wednesday Happy Hour. I also called the A/C guys and the stainless steel guys to line them up to complete their work. The A/C guys are due in at 8am this morning and the s/s guys were due to show up at 2pm although I had to wait until 3pm before they arrived.

    I also caught up on emails, etc. We received one email from a couple who live part time here in Cartagena who have been following our blog. They have invited us round to dinner this evening which we’re looking forward to.

    Back to the work. Mounting the mast was mostly completed yesterday afternoon leaving a little work to be completed today. They will also arrive around 8am (they say). If we’re lucky they’ll arrive along with the A/C guys and I can save a dinghy trip. That leaves me to complete the install of the wind gen. Shortly I’ll check cable lengths, etc and see what I have that I can use and what I need to buy later this morning.

    Yesterday evening, after dropping of the s/s guys, we headed off for Happy Hour where we met up with the Whiskers as well as Tom and Marge from 3/4 Time among others. The six of us ended up in the nearby burger joint.

    Either today or tomorrow we’ll head off to the fresh fruit & veg market where I am told I can also pick up cheap water cans. I’ve also made a promise to the folks on Panda to help them set up their boat network. They heard what I did for Whiskers and are looking forward to the help.

    Once the two sets of work are done we’ll be free to relax. We’re booked on a city tour on the 7th of December but beyond that we’re free to go.

    Finally – I’ve uploaded pics for our time in the Rosarios.

  • Thanksgiving

    The morning started with us heading ashore so that Helen could take a taxi to the dentist and I could meet the stainless steel guy. Helen had a temporary crown put in in South Africa and Colombia is by far the best place (high quality, low cost) to get a proper one done. Helen left in the taxi while I had to hang around for the stainless steel guy. It turned out the stuff isn’t going to arrive until early next week now.

    I then headed back to the boat to while away the morning. I heard from the guy repairing our air con control board that he’d been successful which was good news.

    Towards midday I was hailed by one of the Thanksgiving organizers, Marianne, who was heading out and would drop off a second dinner ticket for us – we were the only ones who had both names written onto one. She said she would be out in 5 mins. Then Helen called from across the bay suggesting I dinghy over to pick her up. I decided to jump into the dinghy and meet Marianne, halfway. It turned out she had run out of gas so I towed her back to her own boat where they had an extra supply. By the time I got over to the other side of the bay Helen had moved. With dwindling power on my handset it took a while to find her but we managed.

    On the way back to Dignity we bumped into Dianne and Gerald who seemed to be going nowhere in particular (I’m sure they were but we never found out). We invited them back to Dignity for a Thanksgiving bevy.

    Shortly after 3pm we headed off to the Thanksgiving party at Pacho & Guillos, a nearby hangout. We had a good time despite the food being a little mediocre. We sat with Rosie and Tom from Sojourn and Tom and Salaman from Everafter and enjoyed their company. We may bump into them later in the year as they have similarish plans for Panama/San Blas.

    As a result of our stainless steel not being ready for a few days we’ve decided to leave the anchorage for the weekend. We’re heading about 20nm south to the Rosarios, a nice little island group with good diving. We need to get somewhere with a clean smelling breeze and clear water where we can swim and make water. After last night’s dinner we headed to the supermarket to provision for five days in case we stay a while. The one thing we need before we leave is a chart of the area showing where we can anchor. Hopefully we can obtain one from somebody by request on this morning’s net.

  • Castillo San Felipe de Barajas

    Our original plan for Tuesday was to go and see the castle in the morning. This was until we learned there were two cruise ships in town and that they would probably leave around 2pm.

    We therefore idled the morning away until 2pm came by. We met up with Whiskers at the dock along with Marge from “3/4 Time” was coming along with us.

    We walked there and were greeted at the foot of the hill on which the castle stood by a statue of Blas de Lezo who successfully led the defense of the city on one occasion against superior British/American forces despite being short an arm, a leg and an eye.

    Exploring the castle was fascinating as it was geared up as last line of defense with several layers behind which besieged troups could fall back. Within the solid structure were warrens of tunnels which I presume formed the escape channels as soldier retreated into central defenses.

    As we finished off our exploration the place filled up with tourists, perhaps all from a cruise ship, so we were very lucky with our timing. At the foot of the castle we saw a sculpture of a large pair of shoes. The symbolism referring to a poet who loved the city as one loves and old pair of shoes.

    We shopped for food on the way back picking up some nice ribs for dinner.

    This morning we’ve been sharing expertise with Gerald from Whiskers. We’ve helped him set up his PC a little better (without too much going wrong). In return he’s shared some good info about the Pacific islands which they visited on their first circumnavigation.

  • GPS Hookup

    Monday was another day of  heat and sweat.  Rather than just sit around I roused myself to work on one of my projects.  In this case it was to permanently wire a hand held GPS up to the power, the VHF, the SSB and have an connection for the computer.  This will enable the radios to send out emergency digital signals (should we want to) including our position.  The only hiccup was not having the right connector for the SSB so that will have to wait.

    We spent the evening aboard Whiskers with Dianne and Gerald.  I think it was pay back for us wining them up the previous evening.  They made superb pina coladas which tasted more like painkillers.  My the state of us I think we had a little too much last night.

    This morning we have some sightseeing planned.  We’re off to see the Castillo San Felipe de Barajas with the Whiskers. Should be interesting.

  • Escaping the heat

    I kicked off Sunday with a little research into our future travels along the west coast of Costa Rica. There are some particularly interesting areas such as the active volcano Arenal and the Osa Peninsula which I’d like to make sure we fit in.  As I go I’m making records of possible anchorages.

    The day promised to be hot as ever with little or no wind.  Early on I spotted Gerald from Whiskers dinghying back to his boat with jerry cans filled with water.  He came by and we had a little chat.  The upshot of this is we agreed to share a cab to the nearby Caribe Plaza (which we’d walked to a few days ago) to enjoy the air conditioning during the midday heat and, perhaps, to do a little shopping.

    At 11am we all headed to the dinghy dock and caught a cab to the mall.  The cab only cost $2.50 which amongst four of us is next to nothing.  The cool air of the mall was most welcome.  We wandered around all together sharing stories and laughs.  We had lunch at the fast food joints on the second floor.  As meat is quite cheap here fast food includes pretty good food.  I had ribs and Helen had steak strips in a bun.

    After lunch we headed for the Carrefour supermarket downstairs.  I took a closer look at booze prices.  With the kids coming at Xmas and the prospect of difficulties provisioning at Colon, Panama (due to the Panama Yacht Club being demolished recently) having a decent stock is important.  Turns out the beer prices are pretty good.  330cl cans of decent beer can be had for under 60c and 500cl bottles for 50c.  I filled half a shopping trolley.  We also picked up a few different bottles of $5 wine to try out over the next few nights.

    Back on the boat it was stifling.  We decided to do the wash and run the air conditioning.  This is the first time we’ve run it outside of testing it.  It was a luxury but bliss.  Sadly, within a couple of hours we’d lost the benefit of it and the boat was now hotter inside than out.  The 95F water can’t help.

    Shortly after having an evening snack Dianne and Gerald passed by and said hello.  We encouraged them aboard as we’d opened one of the bottles of wine and they could try it out.  One thing led to another and we ended up trying all the bottles we’d bought.  We’re a bad influence on each other.