To Cartagena Colombia, January 2oth 2010

Ah, all those old pirate movies where the swashbuckling captain urges his crew on with a cry of “To Maracaibo”. Well we found ourselves hove to, in the dark, worrying about the Majone islands and all their rocks. The Majones were just north of the Maracaibo Lake and a common stopping place where you tie off to a line at the Venezuelan coast guard station between two islands. We had opted to pass by headed straight for Capo de Vela, an overnight run. Eight hours out of Aruba the new wind vane wheel adaptor unexpectedly gave up the ghost. As we floated, we disassembled it and discovered it was missing a piece that had caused it to wear down another piece, leading to failure. Oh well, the best laid plans. We were already nervous enough. Our insurance company wouldn’t insure us for this leg; “too lawless” Cornell’s cruising guides call it the planets fifth worst passage and then there is all that contra being run off its shores and the danger you might get caught up in someone’s crosshairs by anyone called Escobar. Well we rigged up the tiller pilot and by one am the wind finally totally died and we motored into Capo de Vela after a 28 hour run. Equinox and Audrey Page were all there anchored and we pulled in with Cocee. A few hours later Evening Star and Quest pulled in and that was everybody who had left Aruba when we had. We all had a day off and then the next morning we set sail at 10am headed for the Five Bays area 125 nautical miles away. Our newly McGivered fix on the wind vane which consisted of a cut up cutting board mat and a long screw with a thru hull handle was holding up and we had a great run till 2am when we finally gave up and turned the motor on. The seas were totally flat and it was very hot with no wind except what our movement through the water created. We arrived at Five Bays in the same pecking order as the day before and then sat out a late afternoon thunder and lightning show. All I could think was great, one hit and there goes my new SSB radio.
We pulled around the corner the next day, Christmas Eve, into Roderaro and spent one night before pushing on the next morning. The rest of the fleet decided to stay and have an Xmas day get together but we followed our instincts and decided to keep sailing. We were trying to keep offshore here to avoid the Rio Magdalena and its huge outflow. This is also a repute dangerous pirate area so we were hoping they would all be at home having Xmas eggnog and not worried about the sparse pickings we represent. Again we had a beautiful sail on a broad reach till about 75 degrees west which we hit around midnight. There we had to turn in towards the shore and run downwind but the seas were a little too big go out on the foredeck and set up the pole. Between the headsail jibing and the wind vane and the increasing cargo ships I opted to hand steer through the growing seas for the next five hours. At one point it seemed as if we were on a highway and we counted 12 ships, three of which were cruise ships and none of which would answer a hail on the VHF. Dawn found us off the city of Cartagena riding large 12 foot rollers and trying not to let the boat broach up. The narrow entrance over the sea wall was out of the question because of the swell so we opted to go down to Boca Chica entrance to enter the huge harbour there. It wasn’t our first choice since there had been a boarding there a week earlier but we had no choice. Two hours later we pulled up safely in front of the old city and the Club Nautico and dropped the hook in 32 feet of water. We tidied up Sea Cycle and hit the sack .
This is an old city and the walls surrounding the old city with the Fort of San Felipe looking over everything would cost a trillion dollars in today’s money showing how important the Spanish considered the location. We spent a couple of hours just doing the fort and it's tunnel system. This is also not the standard slave built fortifications. The masonry here is beautifully crafted and for the most part stood the tests of time. The city is loaded with museums. In the old city, night life is vibrant with the music throbbing and pouring out of the salsa bars which don’t really begin till ten. Of course that means not a lot to a cruiser who live by the sun’s rise and set. To the west of the old city lies Boca Grande section of the city which from the boat resembles Miami Beach. Everywhere the roads are a mix of cars, buses, taxis and donkey driven carts with everybody’s horn playing a song or greeting. I couldn’t help but think at home how all the cacophony would lead to road rage.
Well a month here and we are ready to leave. The only knock against the place is that the harbour waters are filthy. You cannot go swimming off the boat and the growth on Sea Cycle's ground tackle and bottom is like a garden. We are leaving at the end of this week January 20th and headed down to the Darien Gap and Panama to the Isla Pinos in the San Blas Islands. This is a big one for me. This is where childhood heroes like Francis Drake and William Dampier would gather to raid Nobres Dios or Portobello and the huge Inca treasure shipments to the old world. Today it is still occupied the Kuna Indian tribes. We will be out of touch for a few weeks since there isn’t any internet or phone service


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