Colombia

Colombia
(a non-planned stop)

The start of our 5 day 5 night journey from Aruba to Panama was great. We all lounged around in the cockpit, ate 3 course dinners. Nice winds low seas. Mystique had the wind and the current behind her, pushing us 6 to 7 knots. Much like our last passages to Bonaire and Aruba. The second night the seas picked up a little and the winds were about 10 to 15 knots. Nothing to worry about, but still started to get a little rough inside the cabin. By the next morning the winds picked up to 30 to 35 knots and the seas were 10 to 15 feet waves. Everything inside the cabin started to roll back and forth. Things that stayed in place before began to fly around the cabin. Even the fruit was rolling from one side of the boat to the other. Sailor had no safe place to go to be safe. I went down below to try to secure things a bit and safe Sailor. I was tossed from side to side like a rag doll. I was smashed agents the master berths door and it split down the middle. I have the bruises to show for that one!

Carl and Dick were at the helm, and taking over all the watches, they couldn’t move anything the way the sails were set was the way they would have to stay. We were reaching 13 knots of speed without anyway to slow us down. A captain really don’t want to be moving at that speed under these conditions. After hours of this rough weather our autopilot would no longer take the strain and quit. Carl & Dick had to steer the boat by hand the rest of the way. Carl besides to go inland. We were approaching Colombia. Carl viewed the charts and found the closest city was Saint Marta. It took us about 10 hours to get into Santa Marta. The conditions remained the same.
As we approached the mainland it was starting to get dark. Captain Carl called over the VHF “is there anyone in Santa Marta that speaks English?” Optimistic a sailboat in the anchorage answered him back, then guided us safely into the anchorage right next to their boat. The anchorage was well sheltered from the wind and the waves. It was so peaceful that we all prayed to thank God we were safe and then fell deeply asleep.

The next morning we could see the shore. Large skyscrapers lined the shore line. A white sandy beach lay ahead. The whole beach was filled with people on Holiday. There was a inflatable Christmas tree on the beach music was playing, people swimming and paddling little boats all around. They all were so happy. What a place to end up, without any idea where we were going! We couldn’t have planned it better.

This really wasn’t an anchorage, Optimistic and Mystique were the only sailboats in the bay. The people all waved at us and didn’t seam to mind that we were there. We visited Optimistic and found out that they too had to come into Santa Marta to get out of the weather. They arrived at 2:00am not knowing where to go. They had 50 knots of wind as they came into the shelter of this bay. Both boats decided to leave together to go to Cartagena Colombia. It was a overnight crossing. We still had strong winds and high seas, but not nothing like we had before. Dick & Carl fixed the steering, so autopilot worked again. All is well!

Cartagena:

Cartagena is known as the last stop when heading to the San Blas Islands of Panama. They cater to the cruisers and have Marinas and dinghy docks. This mainland also has skyscrapers all along the shoreline with mountains in the background, there was even snow on the top of the highest peak. We went ashore and ate the local cuisine. It was very good and not to expensive. We took a taxi into the Old Town. There was lots of shopping. Terri & I had a blast shopping in all the different shops. There was a beautiful flower district with lots of Christmas shoppers. We really enjoyed the firm ground wile we were there.

The next day we headed out for the San Blas Islands. Seas were low and wind were 15 to 22 knots. Autopilot still working well. I made sure to put everything in the cabin away safely. Nothing hit the floor, no more bruises. Kind of a rough sail but nothing like before. We reached San Blas in 30 hours. Crew is fine just tired.

Colombia

Colombia

Colombia
(a non-planned stop)
The start of our 5 day 5 night journey from Aruba to Panama was great. We all lounged around in the cockpit, ate 3 course dinners. Nice winds low seas. Mystique had the wind and the current behind her, pushing us 6 to 7 knots. Much like our last passages to Bonaire and Aruba. The second night the seas picked up a little and the winds were about 10 to 15 knots. Nothing to worry about, but still started to get a little rough inside the cabin. By the next morning the winds picked up to 30 to 35 knots and the seas were 10 to 15 feet waves. Everything inside the cabin started to roll back and forth. Things that stayed in place before began to fly around the cabin. Even the fruit was rolling from one side of the boat to the other. Sailor had no safe place to go to be safe. I went down below to try to secure things a bit and safe Sailor. I was tossed from side to side like a rag doll. I was smashed agents the master berths door and it split down the middle. I have the bruises to show for that one!
Carl and Dick were at the helm, and taking over all the watches, they couldn’t move anything the way the sails were set was the way they would have to stay. We were reaching 13 knots of speed without anyway to slow us down. A captain really don’t want to be moving at that speed under these conditions. After hours of this rough weather our autopilot would no longer take the strain and quit. Carl & Dick had to steer the boat by hand the rest of the way. Carl besides to go inland. We were approaching Colombia. Carl viewed the charts and found the closest city was Saint Marta. It took us about 10 hours to get into Santa Marta. The conditions remained the same.
As we approached the mainland it was starting to get dark. Captain Carl called over the VHF “is there anyone in Santa Marta that speaks English?” Optimistic a sailboat in the anchorage answered him back, then guided us safely into the anchorage right next to their boat. The anchorage was well sheltered from the wind and the waves. It was so peaceful that we all prayed to thank God we were safe and then fell deeply asleep.
The next morning we could see the shore. Large skyscrapers lined the shore line. A white sandy beach lay ahead. The whole beach was filled with people on Holiday. There was a inflatable Christmas tree on the beach music was playing, people swimming and paddling little boats all around. They all were so happy. What a place to end up, without any idea where we were going! We couldn’t have planned it better.
This really wasn’t an anchorage, Optimistic and Mystique were the only sailboats in the bay. The people all waved at us and didn’t seam to mind that we were there. We visited Optimistic and found out that they too had to come into Santa Marta to get out of the weather. They arrived at 2:00am not knowing where to go. They had 50 knots of wind as they came into the shelter of this bay. Both boats decided to leave together to go to Cartagena Colombia. It was a overnight crossing. We still had strong winds and high seas, but not nothing like we had before. Dick & Carl fixed the steering, so autopilot worked again. All is well!
Cartagena:
Cartagena is known as the last stop when heading to the San Blas Islands of Panama. They cater to the cruisers and have Marinas and dinghy docks. This mainland also has skyscrapers all along the shoreline with mountains in the background, there was even snow on the top of the highest peak. We went ashore and ate the local cuisine. It was very good and not to expensive. We took a taxi into the Old Town. There was lots of shopping. Terri & I had a blast shopping in all the different shops. There was a beautiful flower district with lots of Christmas shoppers. We really enjoyed the firm ground wile we were there.
The next day we headed out for the San Blas Islands. Seas were low and wind were 15 to 22 knots. Autopilot still working well. I made sure to put everything in the cabin away safely. Nothing hit the floor, no more bruises. Kind of a rough sail but nothing like before. We reached San Blas in 30 hours. Crew is fine just tired.

Aruba

Aruba

We arrived in Aruba the night before Dick & Terri’s arrival. In Aruba you have to call the Aruba Port Authorities to ask permission to enter the harbor. Small vessels have to enter along with the hug freighters and cruise ships we even use the same docks. The entrance is marked with large green and red buoys the channel has a large reef between the two entrances in Oranjestad harbor. Customs and Immigration boarded our boat and complete the clearance procedure. Mystique looked so little along side of the hug commercial dock.

We anchored in an anchorage alongside of the airport runway. Pinchos bar and grill located on a pier over looking the water is right in front of our boat. We arranged to meet Dick & Terri there. They had no problems finding us. We ate a wonderful dinner at Pinchos went to Mystique had a few cocktails and let Dick and Terri settle in for the night. We provisioned the next day, walked around town a little then returned to Mystique to prepare for our long journey to Panama. This will be our longest crossing ever it should take us 5 days and 5 nights to arrive in Panama. It will be nice having extra crew aboard for the night crossings.

The local currency in Aruba is the Aruba Florin (AWG or Afl). 1.77 Afl to 1 US$ (no sales tax). The people here are well educated, often speaking several languages. It is a happy nation enjoying a high standard of living with low unemployment, also safe and friendly. Aruba remains part of the Dutch Kingdom having direct ties to Holland but no longer needing the central government of the Nederlands Antilles to manage it’s affaires. The northeast coast is rugged and wild while the interior is desert-like with a variety of cacti and rock formations.

Bonaire

Bonaire
The sailing this year has been really nice. The wind and the current are behind us pushing Mystique at 6 to 7 knots without a lot of changing of the sails or really doing anything. This is great, we only turn on the motor to charge the batteries at night so we can turn on the running and instrument lights. Having no generator is really a big pain. Most of our crossing last year the wind was on our nose so we had to use the motor. Now that we can save money on diesel we still have to charge the batteries, well things could be worse.

We arrived in Bonaire safely with Sunway leading the way. In this anchorage the reefs are really close to shore and the water drops off really deep about 100’ out, so they have installed mooring balls for the cruisers. The only bad thing is that they charge $10.00 per day. There is only one dinghy dock that you can use in the bay. It’s owned by a restaurant so they charge $35.00 a week. Nothing is free here! The cruise ships come into the bay just beyond the moorings sometimes arriving in pairs. It’s really cool to watch the crew anchor those hug ships with the massive ropes that they use. I also like watching the passengers get off the ship, It looks like little ants flooding the town.

The ABC’s, though still part of the Caribbean are in a class of their own. They are part of the Nederland Antillies, the islands are full of Dutch and European influences. The currency is in guilders (NAf) exchange is 1.78 NAf to 1 US$. Tourism has not yet taken the charm away from the people, they go out of their way to help you out. We hired an older gentleman MAX to fix our generator. He ended up making some of the parts we needed by hand and sailing all the way to Curacao to buy some bearings that we needed to replace. We ended up staying at the Habour Village Marina for a week just waiting for the generator to get fixed. The marina is walking distance to a small store, chat n browse the internet café and a ice cream shop. “I’m in heaven!”
Sunway and Mystique rented a car to tour the island. In one day you can see it all. We visited the salt pans that look like small pyramids of salt. They are one of the most successful solar salt industries in the world. Their was a group of small slave houses along the shore not much bigger than a dog house still in tact. With the abolishment of slavery in 1863, the Spanish brought donkeys to the island to cart water, salt and other goods. They are still here wild on the side of the roads. If you stop to see them they come right up to the car looking for a handout “really cute.” As we drove we could see little lakes of water with wild Flamingos standing and bathing in the water. We really enjoyed Bonaire beautiful clear water, great reefs for snorkeling. I saw the biggest reef fish that I have ever seen before.

We will be saying our goodbyes to Sunway. “We will miss you!“ We are going to pass by Curacao on to Aruba to meet up with our good friends Dick & Terri. They are meeting us in Aruba and sailing all the way to Panama with us. We are so excited.

OFF SHORE ISLANDS OF VENEZUELA TO BONAIRE

Travels to the off shore Islands of Venezuela

Los Testigos (Eastern Venezuela)

This part of our journey is much harder then before. The islands are much further apart. Every crossing takes 24 hours or more. The day that the weather was good enough to cross over to Los Testigos our generator over heated again. We had the mechanic to the boat two times fixing it (what now!). Being stuck here in Grenada was making us restless. We decided to head out anyway, we would motor enough to charge the batteries. We had great weather but our main sail ripped along the way. This season is starting off on the wrong foot. Without the main sail we had to motor the whole way. Also the main sail keeps the boat steady, without it, you rock back and forth a lot more. Carl managed to roll in the sail enough to keep it from ripping more. The other bad thing about motoring is that the off shore island don’t have diesel fuel and we don’t have enough diesel to sail all the way to Bonaire.

Los Testigos is beautiful. The water is turquoise and so clear that you can see the bottom. Carl & I sewed the sail by hand with a sewing awl, we attached new webbing and she was ready to sail again.

In the anchorage the guarda coasta (Coast guard) comes to your boat and checks your paperwork. They were real nice guys, I gave them both a Coca Cola. They were very grateful. The people that live here are fishermen. There is one church and one school, no ferry, no airport and no stores. They use their fishing boats to go to bigger islands for supplies. The language is Spanish. Gorgeous beaches with huge sand dunes, great snorkeling with lots of fish. Carl caught a big fish, as he reeled him in a shark bit it in half. We still had enough fish for four people with leftovers. We invited Sunway to dinner, good fish and wine topped off the evening. We only spent the night here then headed to the Off Shore Islands the next day.

Off shore Islands:

La Blanquilla:

On this crossing we had more problems. The back clue of our main sails rope broke. Carl rolled it in safely and turned on the motor again. Using more diesel, not good! As we arrived the Guarda Costa came to our boat again to check our paperwork. We explained our problem with the diesel to them hopping that somehow we could purchase some diesel somewhere close. These guys were so cool, they wanted to help us out really bad. They called their Commander on the VHF radio, told him our problem and asked him permission to give us some diesel. After a lot of talking back and forth, the Commander agreed to fill up our diesel jerry cans. Within minutes we were heading to the Venezuela Military Base with the Guarda Coasta leading the way. The Commander gave Carl the diesel for FREE! It filled up our tank and we had some extra in the jerry cans. That sure changed our image of the Venezuela government! All of the Venezuela people were really nice and happy to greet us.

Blanquilla looks a lot like Los Testigos. It’s a delightful island about 50 miles north of Margarita, well off the beaten track of Venezuela’s crime area. We fixed our Main sail again hopping it will hold up well on our next crossing. We enjoyed the water and the sunset. Slept great then left the next morning under full sail. Nice weather, low winds, no sail problems and full diesel, were feeling good now!

Islas Los Roques:

Los Roques is an area of about 14 by 25 miles of protected reef-studded water, dotted with pretty little islands. The main island is not as remote as the other islands. There is a food store, restaurants, souvenir shops and even an airport. The whole area is a protected national park. There is no cars, and the streets are sand. We stayed in a small anchorage far away from the village. This small island looks like a huge sand dune with some grass. As we walked on shore, we were attacked by mosquitoes. They swarmed over us biting every inch of skin they could reach. I jumped in the water to get them off, Carl ran to the dingy and started the motor. At night we had to close the windows to keep the mosquitoes out, during the day things were fine. We stayed here for a few days resting and enjoying our new friends on Sunway.

Islas De Avesg:

The weather and the wind were so nice that we didn’t stop on this island. We made the crossing to Bonaire without any sail problems. Perfect sail just a little motoring to charge our batteries. Life is good!

The ABC Islands:
Bonaire
Curacao
Aruba
Then plan our passage to Panama.