Cartagena or bust!

We finally arrived in Cartagena around 2:30 Saturday afternoon. This was the longest, toughest voyage to date. Our trip took eight days. We chose to travel doing mostly day hops, but we had one overnighter with rough weather that was a very long 20 hours. Most of our trip saw 20 to 30 knots of wind. The seas varied, from 3 to 9 feet. The wind was behind us most of the trip, but the swells broke at our beam, so we were constantly being twisted around between the swells on one side, and the current on the other. It was never an unsafe trip, only uncomfortable. The first and the last days were the calmest, we actually had to motor the last three hours into Cartagena due to lack of wind.

Friday, March 26: Our first day took us from Aruba to Monjes del Sur, a tiny island on the coast of Columbia, a 50 mile journey. It was very frustrating to try and communicate with the “Garde Costa” while coming in to tie up, we couldn’t understand each other. They speak so fast and with such an accent that the small amount of Spanish we know, was of no use. Once tied up and settled down, we cooked up a feast of tuna and mahi mahi from the boys very successful day fishing. (See Brett’s blog post for the details!)

Saturday, March 27: Up before dawn the next day, we headed out for the next leg of our journey, to Cabo de la Vela, 80 miles down the coast. We arrived there late afternoon, after a pleasant day of motor sailing. The boys caught and released two small fish. We anchored in the bay, which was open and windy, but we were only there for one short night. We dined on fish again and went to bed early.

Sunday, March 28: We left Cabo de la Vela around 2:00 p.m. the next day. The next leg of our journey was taking us to The Five Bays, which were 120 miles down the coast, 20 hours away. We had to time our departure so we would arrive in daylight. Unfortunately, the wind picked up, and the swells were pretty big, so it was a fairly rough day sailing. Late in the afternoon, Greg asked me to make a pot of coffee for the night. He went to start the generator, it turned over, but wouldn’t stay running. Unable to take the time to do any troubleshooting, we dug out the Honda 2000, AKA Baby Gennie and made a pot of coffee.

At around 9:00 p.m. that night, Dylan woke me up from a nap. There was water coming into the boat and sloshing around on the salon floor. He had towels thrown all over the floor and was trying to mop up things as best he could. We thought we had solved that issue, but apparently not. The water was leaking into the compartment where the motor for the refrigeration is, not good. While the boys and I took over the helm, Greg fired up the Honda, dug out the shop vac and cleaned up all the water. We did this as needed throughout the night, until our arrival in the first of the Five Bays, Bahia Cinto at 8:00 a.m.

Monday, March 29: We anchored, hung out wet towels and cleanup as best we could. As tired as we were, we were amazed by the beauty around us. The Five Bays are a National Park, where locals go to the beaches and relax. They are sparsely inhabited by a few fishermen. They are also perfect stops for cruisers, as they are sheltered and good holding for anchoring. There are a few beaches on the shore. Behind the beaches, the growth is green and lush, all the way up into the mountains. We decided to stay in The Five Bays and rest up for a couple of days, before heading out again.

Greg went down into the engine room, to try and get the main generator running. I am going to take a minute to try and explain how our power is set up on the boat. We have a complex inverting system that supplies power to the two main electrical panels, one is DC, powered by the batteries, one is 110 AC. To run anything off the 110 AC panel (ice maker, air conditioning, electrical fans, etc.) you need either shore power, or a generator. The DC panel runs all the “necessities”: lights, radar, autopilot, steering, electronics and refrigeration. The DC panel gets its power from the four huge batteries in the engine room. These batteries are charged in two ways, either by running the main engine, or from the inverting system. The inverting system however, needs 110 AC to run, and therefore, charge the batteries. Without the main generator, the only way we are able to keep the batteries charged is by running the engine. Why not use Baby Gennie, you are probably wondering??? Unfortunately, it does not supply enough power to run the inverting system and charge batteries. It does give us enough power to run basic 110, coffee maker, toaster, ice maker, but not air conditioning, etc. What happens when our batteries get low? The lights dim, the battery operated fans slow, and most importantly, the refrigeration does not have enough juice to run its motor. Everything slowly grinds to a halt. The gas to our stove is supplied through a solenoid, and when the batteries get low, the gas alarm goes off, and we have to turn off the switch supplying the gas, so I can’t use the stove.

Back in the engine room, Greg managed to get the generator running. Unfortunately, even though it is running, it is not getting power to the inverter. That means the problem is with the circuit board. Now we know we will have to wait until we get to Cartagena to get the generator running. We will run the engine as needed to charge batteries, and use Baby Gennie for basic power.

We spent the day resting, the boys and I went swimming and snorkelling off the boat. Kelly, Mike and the boys swam to shore and checked out the beach and the shore. We tried to get internet, but couldn’t get a signal. We decided the next day we would weigh anchor and go over two bays, where there was supposed to be a few services. With any luck, we could pick up internet and weather.

Tuesday, March 30: Greg had a good look at the port side of the boat to try and figure out where we were taking in water. If you remember, back in Puerto Rico, and again in Sint Maartin, we ripped up the teak decking on either side of the pilot house where we were taking in water previously. Greg cleaned it up and patched the holes. While in Aruba, he worked on this again, and painted both sides with a good primer and then paint. Now, after having a good look at the port side, he was stymied, as he couldn’t see any holes at all. But he decided that the next day he would put on another thick coat of paint, to try and seal any tiny holes.

We weighed anchor in the afternoon, and moved two bays over to Bahia Guayraca. There was a tiny fishing village, with a little restaurant (basically a shack!). The guys launched the dinghy and went ashore with Rum Boogie. I stayed on board as I was not feeling well, and just needed to sleep. They chatted with the locals, who were friendly and helpful. They went to the restaurant and shared some red snapper, rice and salad, which they said was delicious, and had some cold beers. We decided to stay here another day and relax a bit, before moving on.

Wednesday, March 31: The snorkelling here was better, so Kelly, the boys and myself spent a lot of time in the water, checking out the reefs. We saw quite a few fish and some coral. Greg painted the deck on the port side. The wind really picked up in the late afternoon and howled through the night, waking us up a few times.

Thursday, April 1: We woke up and saw that Rum Boogie had moved further out in the bay. We thought their anchor must have slipped and they moved and re-anchored. It turned out they did slip, but didn’t realize it. We had slipped a bit as well. We decided we may as well move on to the last bay, to stage ourselves for the next leg of our journey. After hoisting the dinghy back on board, we head out to Ancon Chica. We anchored and prepared the boat for travelling. Mike and Greg strategized, to have the sails set for a more comfortable trip. The afternoon was spent splicing lines and planning. We decided to reef the main sail, so hopefully we wouldn’t heel to port as much, and take in water again. (Reefing means you don’t have the sail up all the way). With the mizzen, we let the back stay loose so we could run the sail at a different angle, in hopes again, of stabilizing the boat.

Our next destination was Punta Hermosa. The tricky part of this part of the trip was the timing. We had to leave early enough so that we were crossing where the Rio Magdalena comes out into the ocean, in the morning when it was calm. This area is notoriously rough, with debris coming out from the muddy river. Past the river is a city called Baranquilla. This city is known for crime, and they warn cruisers to stay away as people get robbed and shot. So we had to carry on until the next bay, Punta Hermosa. From Ancon Chica we were only 120 miles from Cartagena, but because we had to leave to be crossing the river in the morning, it meant if we went straight to Cartagena, we would arrive there at midnight. Not good. Thus, the stop at Punta Hermosa, 70 miles away.

Friday, Aoril 2: We were up at 4:00, and underway by 5:00. Because of an off shore island on our port side, we had to head east before turning south. It was rough! As much as we tried to secure things down below, there is always something forgotten, or something that comes loose. This morning, the cupboard that holds my pots, pans, bowls and a few glass jars decided to open, and everything flew out onto the galley floor. We were getting tossed around so much it was hard to walk around inside the boat. I managed to get out my broom, and while holding on for dear life, sweep up the glass. Meanwhile, the guys up top are trying to get the sails up. When they pulled out the jib, it caught and was stuck. Greg and Brett tried to unfurl it, but it just wouldn’t budge, so they tried to roll it up again. The wind was howling at 25-30 knots, and there were 10 foot swells hammering our starboard side. So, Dylan had the helm, Brett was trying to help Greg. Greg was at the bow of the boat, trying to get the jib under control. It was flapping wildly in the wind, and the sheets hopelessly snarled and tangled. I was in the galley sweeping up broken glass. In the salon, yes, water is sloshing back and forth across the floor. I went up top and saw how Greg was still struggling with the sheets. We finally managed to get it pulled back in, and he tied it up as best he could with the tangled sheets. What a mess! When he came back to the helm, I told him about the water down below, and suggested turning back. We were out about 10 miles at this point, turning back would have meant going into Santa Marta, a small city that we knew had a marina, but very limited nautical services. I tried to radio Rum Boogie that we were having difficulty and were thinking of turning around, but they were well ahead of us by this time and out of sight. Their radio, quite frankly, is a piece of crap and barely works at the best of times. That is another story in itself. We decided to carry on and make the best of it.

I think I forgot to mention that the night before, when Greg went to start Baby Gennie, the pull cord ripped out of her. It was late at night, and the boat was rocking in the windy anchorage, so he didn’t want to try and take it all apart to fix it. Unfortunately, this meant we couldn’t run the shop vac to clean up the water in the salon. We had to mop it up with a big sponge and towels. My hands and forearms ached, wringing salt water out of heavy bath towels. Greg was sore from struggling with the jib, he got hit in the head a few times with the wildly flapping sheets. It was a long day. We crossed the point where the river comes out at about noon. Even being five miles out, the sea turned muddy brown, and stayed that way for a few miles. It was rough, but no rougher than what we had already been through. We arrived safely in Punta Hermosa later that afternoon. We hung out the towels to dry, and prayed for calmer winds the next day.

Saturday, April 3: Cartagena or bust! I wanted to be in Cartagena for my birthday, and it looked like that would actually happen. We wanted to leave early to arrive in plenty of time, so we were up at 3:00 and underway by 4:00 a.m. Cartagena was only 50 miles away. The winds were about 20-25 knots when we left, but as the morning progressed, got calmer and calmer, until we finally took down the sails, and motored the rest of the way. About five miles out we could see the shore lined with high rise buildings. What a welcome sight civilization was! We motored into the bay at about 1:00 p.m. We called Club Nautico, the marina we planned to stay at, on the radio, only to be told that we would have to anchor out for the night, and would be able to get a slip the next day. Their mooring system is “med style” which means you are tied up at your bow or stern, and then tied to a mooring at the other end. They use divers to do this, and their divers don’t work Saturday. We explained our situation and our need for shore power, so they let us come in, and we were even able to tie up to our side, which works best for us anyway. Rum Boogie followed us in, and are tied up behind us at the dock.

We were so thrilled to be here, at last, and to be able to walk on firm ground. I hadn’t been off the boat in eight days! That about sums up our 373 mile journey! We have checked in and plan on staying for a few weeks. Keep checking our blog, I will be posting another one shortly about my birthday celebration!