First Day Out

Posted on December 11, 2009 by KC2RIY

This has been an eventful 24 hours. Shortly before the morning net I took the garbage in and tried to collect water. The water at the dock was not on so I had to return after the net. At the same time I washed the inside and cloth of the dinghy. Back on the boat we raised the dinghy and prepared to leave.

Our first stop was the dinghy dock. When Helen raised the anchor we realized we had a bit of a problem. The loop of chain dangling down from the bridle had caught on some ancient anchor shaped like a large safety pin. I had to lower the dinghy again and get round to the front and get a line under it. Gerald and Dianne came along to help as they were out in their dinghy and saw we were in trouble. We managed to free ourselves but in doing so got ourselves and the nice clean dinghy covered in muck.

Refueling went ok and soon we were off. Outside the bocagrande entrance we anchored in shallow seas to scrape the barnacles and clean the boat. There was a bit of a swell and this induced nausea in both of us before we had our jobs finished and were off.

The winds were quite light initially. For a while we motor sailed with main and jib. Later we hoisted the Code Zero. Shortly before dusk we discovered a largish fish on the port line. I think it was a barracuda but I can’t be sure as we lost it after having reeled it half way in.

We made good time going into the evening and I decided to leave the Code Zero up for the night as we had done previously. We encountered Western Trident, the seismic survey ship, again and this time decided to head a little north and pass it’s bow. Disengaging the regen for extra speed we were running along between 8 and 9 knots often going above 10.

The winds were stronger than we’d ever had the Code Zero up before but the seas were settling and the sailing seemed fine. This was to end. During Helen’s 11 to 2 shift the Code Zero blew out in a gust and turned into tatters. Helen woke me and we began to tie the tattered sail to the life line as we lowered the remaining pieces. Fortunately we had no knock on issues and we were able to bag the shreds of sail without further mishap. We let out the jib to continue the downwind sail. As we’d made such good time on the Code Zero we put a reef into the jib to be on the extra safe side. Our ETA was still pretty respectable – all rubbing in the mistake of leaving up the Code Zero in too stronger winds. I had been lulled by the seemingly easy sailing and the 2kW of regen we were accomplishing. The only good news out of this is learning this lesson before we head out into the Pacific. We’ll need to replace the sail – I doubt it can be fixed. We’ll certainly be more cautious with the next one.

This morning light shows us seas more reminiscent of the North Sea rather than the Caribbean. Grey, grim, mixes seas. The sky is overcast. We’re both tired. We both got soaked from pooping waves overnight. We’re both looking forward to landfall sometime tomorrow morning.

Posted in At Sea | Leave a comment

Ready to go

Posted on December 10, 2009 by steve

It’s now just a few hours to go before we head out of here. This morning is another one of those mornings where the bay smells like a toilet so we are keen to go.

Yesterday was a little busy. We did another provisioning run to the Carrefour supermarket in the morning. On the way we bumped into Gerald. The agent with our passports wasn’t around so we agreed that whoever found him first would collect all our paperwork.

We loaded up with more food and a little more beer – just in case the kids get too thirsty before we get to Panama City. We also picked up a lot of good quality beef which is very cheap here.

In the afternoon Gerald and Tom came over and we spent a few hours copying useful files and info we each had. Later we headed off to the local supermarket for more frozen and fresh food including our Christmas turkey.

Got a little more tidying to do before we go. Around 9am we’ll head round to the fuel dock and fill up. Then we’ll head out of the bay and find a shallow, clear patch to drop anchor and clean the props. The weather forecast still looks good (if not slightly better) to make it in two days albeit with a slow start perhaps. We’re going to head to Linton (9 36.7N 079 35.2W) as our first landfall. We’ve learned we can hire cars there and have the boat looked after. This gives us the option of going to pick the kids up from the airport which would be nice. We’ll look into the feasibility of doing that.

It will be sad to leave. We’ve made some good friends here and most we know we won’t see again. Every time we stay somewhere more than a week we grow a few roots which makes it all a little harder to move on. Problem with Cartagena is that if we don’t leave soon, the bay will grow roots into us.

Posted in 3/4 Time, Colombia, Whiskers | Leave a comment

Last Party in Cartagena

Posted on December 9, 2009 by steve

On Tuesday morning we walked over to the Carib mall so I could buy some pipes and sticks to make an extension pole to our grease syringe. Basically it’s a water pipe with a stick in it cut out on the end to accept the syringe. This enables me to squeeze grease into the dripless seals by removing the drawer under the bunks rather than open up the beds and removed whats stored under them.

We couldn’t find the agent yesterday so we’ll try again today. Yesterday was a public holiday. He said he’d be working but noone we know found him.

We also defrosted the fridge. It seems to do well for a long time but once the drip tray gets iced and the outflow blocks the thing frosts up very quickly. We’d reached that point so it had to be done and best before we do our provisioning today.

In the evening we were invited over to Whiskers for a Durban Curry cooked by Dianne. Tom and Marge from 3/4 time were there too. The food was great and we had a good evening. Again, a little more beer/wine that was good for us.

Bar anything unfortunate that delays us we should be off tomorrow. That makes last night our last night of partying here in Cartagena. We’ll want to be fit and straight for our two day crossing to Panama. The weather forecasts look good. It’s hard to predict the coastal winds but the forecasts seem to be consistently predicting good winds for us out at sea. Our current thinking is to sail to Portobello and stay around there until Monday morning when we’ll head over to Shelter Bay Marina in Colon and kick of the admin ourselves.

Posted in 3/4 Time, Colombia, Whiskers | Leave a comment

Christmas Lights

Posted on December 8, 2009 by steve

Monday was the day of the much anticipated Christmas Lights tour of Cartagena. That had to wait until the evening so we had the day to get a few things done.

In the morning I dropped off our passports with our agent so we can clear out. Later, I picked up the filled dive tanks and refueled the dinghy. I also ran the hookah to see if it was ok – it was. Given that it seized up last time it’s probably running it if left for a month or two. I was also called over to Panda to reverse their laptop setup as they had a connection problem with one of them. It should have been straightforward but it took a bit of o/s wrestling to make work.

We decided to eat out and have a pizza for before the tour of the lights. We had an ok pizza and a couple of beers each before heading back to Club Nautico to meet up with everyone.

Stuffed onto a bus we were given our free rum (I managed to get two) and then set off. After what seemed ages we were ejected to see a little park where they had a large, lit tissue paper doll nativity scene. The ‘baby Jesus’ looked lit a glow worm / maggot. Still, the trees were lovely and lit up nicely.

We were then packed back onto the bus for our next treat. Along the way we got stuck in the wrong street and had to back up which took forever. The next ‘treat’ turned out to be a residential street with a few lit up houses. To be quite honest, the lit apartments right next to Club Nautico were better. I imagined locals asking us how far we’d travelled to see this street. I was embarrassed.

Right round the corner we saw a clone of the first park with the holy glow worm but we were spared the ordeal of getting off the bus. Then it was off to the old town which raised spirits. Having seen some impressive lights go up recently we were hopeful for more. Sadly, we’d already seen the best of it on our previous night’s excursions. Although I enjoyed the company of friends (Pandas, 3/4 Times were there among others) I was personally quite bored with the trip and would rather have done something else. You can’t win ’em all.

As we approach Thursday, our planned departure date, I’m paying more and more attention to the weather. Typically the good winds are north of 11N which means a big arc up north to catch them for a while. The current predictions have better weather north of 10N which may mean we get an easier ride but need to be careful of stronger weather a little north of our track. We’ll see but it’s looking promising.

Posted in 3/4 Time, Colombia, Panda | 1 Comment

Officers Club

Posted on December 7, 2009 by steve

Not a great deal done yesterday morning. Something to do with the night before. Around 12:30 we dinghied ashore and caught a taxi round to Derek and Martha’s apartment to join them sailing Sunfish at their local club. It turned out Martha was good friends with a retired Colombian navy admiral and their club was the private naval officers club on the tip of Castillo Grande (we published pictures of the fort and lighthouse their a few blogs ago as we left for the Rosarios).

A mind game I often play with myself is to try to imagine oneself ten years ago believing what you’d be doing this day ten years later. Most days while cruising this is fun but this time, sailing solo on a sunfish out in the Bocagrande bay out of the Colombian navy’s officer club would have registered high on the scale of disbelief.

This was the first time that Helen and I have sailed anything so small. I managed to fall in twice and Helen once but we had a great time. After our time out we were treated to a late lunch at the ‘mess’ which was very nice. Later while Derek and Martha went out for another sail we were able to walk round the private grounds and marvel at where we were, what we were doing and how lucky we were to live this life.

Following a (hilarious) conversation from the previous evening Martha also gave Helen a gift of a necklace of small pearls and a similar one to give to Dianne. So very generous. A big thanks to Martha and Derek for the few days we’ve had of their company, hospitality and friendship. We said our Au Revoirs. They hope to go cruising in a couple of years. Perhaps we’ll see them out there somewhere.

Today we’ll begin the process of leaving Cartagena. This morning I will find our agent so we can clear out on Wed or Thu. Tomorrow is a public holiday so we need to get the ball rolling today. This afternoon I’ll pick up the dive tanks which I dropped off last week to be filled.

This evening we’re off on the Xmas light tour which should be interesting. Each night we’re out we see more and more so I doubt we’ll see everything. What we’ve seen so far is pretty good so we’re looking forward to this.

Posted in Colombia | 1 Comment