Renovations

When standing on the brink of demolition to begin renovations, there is a point where the question must be asked:  Will I make it better or worse?  Of course the goal is to make it better, but will something get damaged unexpectedly in the process of taking it apart?   Are there unexpected surprises, not necessarily good ones, lurking under the surface?    These are all questions that must be faced and evaluated, or just completely ignored and hope for the best.  We had a couple improvement projects that were touch and go for a little while. 

When we began evaluating moving the quarter berth shelf and found that it was recessed into both bulkheads, it was a little hard to tell what it would entail moving it.  As it turned out it was not so difficult, and only left a few areas that needed trim.  The contemplation of how much worse we could make it, turned out to be far more stressful than the actual process that went very well.

Our biggest surprises came in more unexpected areas.  The nav station desk was one of the first items we stripped to re-varnish.  Our first surprise was finding that the wood was a very different color.  If it’s teak, it’s a very white teak, I think it more likely that it is spruce and was disguised as teak under the factory finish.  The original finish was colored and somewhat opaque to hide the grain.  Once we saw what we had, this became one of the last items to get varnished.  In the end it turned out well, but it took some trial and error mixing stains into the varnish and getting a color that at least blends in with the boat.

And then we come to the dining table.  We contemplated long and hard as to what to do with it.  The varnish had deteriorated over the years, leaving many small black dots where the wood was exposed.  When the rest of the varnish was finished and turned out well, and the nav desk was under control, we chose to jump in; strip the table and re-varnish.  It didn’t take too long till we discovered this was an “oh s*#%” project.  It turned out that the veneer was as thin as paper, and in a lot of places came off with the varnish.  After much rum and contemplation it was decided to buy some veneer and re-do it.  Our table was not just a solid sheet of veneer though, rather it radiated into a center point.  So of course we wanted to replicate the original.  It turned out that all my unused quilting tools came in very useful for cutting and fitting the pieces of veneer.  In the end the new table has turned out very nice, although it was an extra project we could have done without.  I will assure in the future the varnish remains in good shape with refresher coats, never to be stripped again.

The Quarter-berth with new trim varnished.

The quarter-berth new shelf varnished.

The original nav desk.

Starting to varnish the nav desk.

The completed nav desk.

The original table.

The stripped table.

The now missing veneer.

Piecing together new veneer.

The finished table.

The finished galley.

Boat Yard

Day 92 of our 30 day stay in the boat yard.   So for everyone that thinks we are floating around in tropical waters sipping rum … life is currently a very different story.  There’s not a whole lot of fun involved at the moment, unless you consider sanding, varnishing and crawling in small spaces to install a generator fun, then by all means get down here, this is the time of your life you are missing! 

The decks took nearly a month, but they are officially done.   We hired Flavit and his crew to do the work, they do a good job, are hard workers, always happy and easy to get along with.  The big however is that any project really needs to be supervised very closely, and there are quite a few issues that need to be looked out for to avoid problems with the finished result (or time in a redo).  Flavit and his crew may not get it just right on the first go around, and they may make some seemingly novice mistakes, but he will do anything you ask to make it right.

  Just as we came into the boat yard we had the opportunity to talk with two other cruisers who just had their decks done by Flavit, and were given the pitfalls to avoid, we learned a few more in the process.  We were warned to check the tape very closely when they taped off the deck to spray the gel-coat.  I did.  I re-taped much of it.  We were also warned to mix PLENTY of gel-coat, and make sure it was mixed well throughout the process.  They ended up with the color changing as they got to the end of the bucket, as it wasn’t mixed thoroughly, and ran out of gel-coat having to remix and repaint the entire deck.   The mixing process here is standing over a bucket of gel-coat, with red, yellow, blue and black:  mix till you like the color.  If you have ever stood over paint chips picking out the perfect not quite white, white, then you know how hard it can be to choose a shade.  We wanted a not quite white similar to our hull.  So a little red, a little yellow .. mix .. compare to the last sample etc, until you can’t tell what any of them look like.  When we finally got a color we were happy with, I certainly didn’t want to repeat that process again.  On that go around, we did have plenty of gel-coat and were able to finish the job on one mixing.  It would have been nice if it was one spray as well.  The spraying went okay, but he chose the windiest day we had out of the month to spray, which blew a lot of dirt into the gel-coat.  A bad decision.  Spraying should only be done on days with no to little wind, it’s still a dirty place so dirt is an issue, but why not minimize.  When they sanded down the gel-coat, they went through all the layers in several places and those had to be taped off again and repainted, it turned out okay,  but not as well as if it had been right to start with.  Faced with it again, I would insist he spray twice, once the first day and again the day after to assure a good coat everywhere.  And then we get to apply to nonskid.  The choices here are a very very fine nonskid that he sprays on, and the other is a much larger texture.  We went for the larger, which has to be rolled on.  Mixing grey was every bit as much fun as mixing white.  The first go around, black was added to the white and put on the deck.  The next day we looked at the deck, it was grayish with a very strong blue tone.  The nonskid was very rough and very sharp.  After a while of talking we found out that it would be better if it was sanded a little, this wasn’t just done or offered we had to ask.  So it gets sanded we mix up a new color, trying to make sure there was no blue tone to it, we erred on the side of green, but just barely and it looked okay, however there were places that stayed soft and never dried right.  When wet there were places that had been sanded too hard and were just plain slick.  So once again tape off and re-do the non-skid.  This time we forgot to mention ‘get plenty of gel-coat’, apparently it’s a reminder that has to be said every time.  The painstaking process of mixing grey, resulted in a very nice grey, no blue, no green, just a nice light grey. We got down the first coat, with new non-skid compound.  On the previous applications when rolling the gel-coat, they would put the gel-coat in a tray add a capful of activator, to harden it, mix it around with the roller and apply.  I’m sure you can imagine that it was quite easy to get spots of gel-coat on the deck that would contain little to no activator, not harden well and get ground in with dirt.  We had them mix in a separate container and pour into the tray, even then they had to be watched closely to make sure they didn’t use any right out of the mixing container.  By this point we want to be done with the decks and not have any more mistakes.  At the end of day the decks looked great, the color was perfect.  Day two would be lightly sanding the non-skid and applying two new coats.  But we didn’t have enough mixed gel-coat!  We were able to mix a nearly exact match of the grey, but that hour could easily have been spent doing something else if we had enough to start with.  The first go around with the nonskid many of the edges where the tap had been were also ground with dirt and didn’t look so good, it may have been the tape residue rubbed into the gel-coat before it set completely, we are not really sure as we didn’t watch them take the tape off the first time.  We opted to take the tape off ourselves the second time and mostly not walk on the gel-coat at all for a couple of days to let it fully cure.  The tape removal process was very slow and tedious.  Some places the gel-coat was quite thick over the tape and hard to break/cut with a knife to peel up the tape.   It would have been better if they were more careful in the application near the tape, keeping the edges thinner and barely overlapping the tape.  The green tape that is available here will leave a very sticky residue just after a day, if possible the blue tape is much better to use, bring some from the states or another country if you can, I have seen some available in one of the marine stores here in Cartagena.  In the end, the decks look great, and Flavit did a great job, we would highly recommend his work to other cruisers. 

As with most boat projects it’s not a far leap from one project to lead to yet another project.  While we had Flavit working on our decks, we had him do some fiberglass work for us.  When we repaired damage from the lightning strike in Grenada we moved some instruments from the cockpit up to a Navpod over the companionway.  This was a big improvement, making them much more visible and accessible, but didn’t look the best.  Flavit fiberglassed a custom navpanel over our companionway, it looks great and gave us more space to mount cockpit speakers.  And since we were into fiberglass…. When we bought the boat she had a deck mounted life raft, which was well out of inspection.  Instead of shelling out the money for an inspection that may or may not pass we replaced the life raft with a Winslow that stows below decks.  Instead of getting rid of the life raft deck box we used it to store our folding kayaks.  This worked well but was not the easiest to get into, so we had a new deck box built, with a hinged lid it’s easy to access, and a little bigger in the same space. 

            One project leading to another … for the past two years we have had trouble with our windlass blowing breakers, not going up or down at very inopportune times.  IB had added a new breaker mucked with wires and other stuff.  We were contemplating getting a new windlass when we took the old one off the deck and discovered no main bearing at all, it was completely worn away, and the mount was completely corroded through on one of the three legs.  So a new windlass went onto the project list; one of the quicker projects to complete. 

            I took advantage of not using the dingy and having a room to work in to make a set of dingy chaps to cover the top of the dingy.  Saving it from damage due to UV and not so great dingy docks.  I even found a bit of Spectra fabric hiding in my fabric supplies, after quite a bit of effort getting it cut I reinforced the front panel with it, nothing is going to abrade through that!

            The other sewing project to take advantage of the extra space was replacing the UV cover on the staysil, and repairing a few rips.  I got one place repaired, only to find two others harder to reach.  I spent a day removing the old UV cover, taking out all the threads and cutting out the new cover.  When I started assembling and sewing I had some trouble with the machine jamming and breaking needles.  When I saw the amount of area that would need hand sewn because my machine could not stitch through it I gave up and went to a sail repair shop.  Using all my supplies, even my thread since it was better quality than what they have available, the cost was $40 USD.  That was very much worth letting the repair shop sew it for me.

            The interior varnish has just been time consuming.  We completely stripped the galley.  The varnish had completely worn through in spots, and just didn’t look good.  Luckily most of the boat was still in good shape and just got/ is getting a good cleaning, sanding and refresher coats.  It seems my life for the past month and a half or more has been; wake up, sand, varnish, repeat.  I am finally nearing a point where there is an end in site.

            Since we were here, and found a good way to ship items in from the US, thinking of future plans to spend time in the San Blas islands and possibly head into the south pacific, we decided to install an AquaGen (a DC generator and watermaker).  The watermaker makes 24 gal/hr, the luxuries of abundant clean fresh water, and no need to worry about the water source.  Many times we fill up with water at marinas but don’t really know how safe the water is. IB has been working on the generator install for the past two weeks or so.  A space had to first be made for it, by moving the autopilot.  Once he got it physically mounted, and we started looking for a place to mount the control panel.  The decision ended up with building a box and mounting it over the shelf in the quarter berth, which led to moving the shelf up 6”.  Something I had wanted to do for a while, I just didn’t have a good enough reason to make it a priority project for IB.  The control panel did the trick!  And it’s great news for any guests, since they will now have space under the shelf to actually roll over.  I’ll never understand the original reasoning to put that shelf so low over a bed.  The generator install sadly will not be finished.  We have long overstayed our intended stay and will have more to do when we return from the US in the fall.

            I’m quite sure there are smaller simpler projects that got done as well; I just can’t remember what they are right now!  And it’s time for me to head out and start sanding.

Flavit spraying the gel-coat on the decks.

Applying the non-skid compound.

The finished decks.

The space created for the generator.

The generator in it's little cubby hole.

The new deck box.

The new instrument panel with speakers.

The new Maxwell Liberty 2500 windlass.

The completed dingy chaps.

Replacing the UV cover on the staysil.

The completed galley varnish .. what doesn't look finished? We may have a different definition of finished these days!

The quarter berth shelf moved up 6 inches.

A mini shelf built into the cover trim.

Capital One: A Rant

Credit cards are an important part of cruising, we use them for everything we can.  It’s easier and more convenient than keeping cash around.  I am fortunate to have inherited USAA benefits and have never had a problem with banking from abroad with them.  I have on a few occasions had them cancel my credit card and reissue a new one when a credit card server has been compromised.  This can be a hassle but is also a good safety from having my card number stolen and used.  They will FedEx a new card to any location in the world, as I’ve known cruisers who have encountered this with them while in the Bahamas.  That can alter plans as even FedEx can take a while to arrive in some destinations.  I solved the problem simply by having a spare card I can activate if needed.  The only drawback is that there is a 1% foreign transaction charge.  This is really not a large amount of money, but eventually over the year it does add up, especially if any large purchases are made.  When I heard that Capital One has no foreign transaction fees it sounded like a good reason to get a Capital One card.  I had no idea what I was signing up for.

            I signed up for a card in my name and added my husband to the account.  This however means they will not talk to him about the account at all, even though he’s authorized to make purchases.  Since I’m usually the one dealing with the banking this is not really a problem.  When I called in to activate the card, I had the most annoyingly thorough verification process I have ever experienced.  I lost 40 minutes of my life that day. 

We happily used the card a few times and then poof it was declined.  Half an hour later after a phone tree and being on hold, I could talk to someone who turned my card back on.  It was used in a foreign country so that automatically triggers a possible fraud alert.  I informed them that I would be traveling in foreign countries for the foreseeable future and please note that on the account.  I should have realized I’d be in for trouble when they wanted to know how many days that would be. 

            I never considered my credit limit on my card since I always pay it off right away, but when were struck by lightning in Grenada and looking at paying out nearly $20000 until we got the insurance settlement suddenly the credit limit was important.  I called to ask for a raise and they simply said it was declined.  No reason would be given.  Google helped me find out that they simply have a policy of never increasing a credit limit when asked; it would have been nice if they could have told me that.  So we just signed up for a second card, I put it in IB’s name and poof we got a higher credit limit.  This is when the real fun began. 

They allowed us to use the new card to charge over $4000, and then chose to put a hold on the account for possible fraud.  So now we can’t use the card, we can’t access the account online to pay the bill and if we don’t sort it out it will go to collections and reflect on our credit score.  Eventually they did send a paper bill and I had my ‘secretary’ back in the states mail a check to pay it.  When we called to sort it out, they won’t speak to me, because it’s IB’s card.  They run him through the various security questions and then tell him they don’t believe he’s IB and he needs to identify his identity.  What?  I don’t know if they already had something flagged on his account or if he answered a question wrong, which can happen a lot with us.  Since we have a skype phone number, a local (whatever country) cell phone, and sometimes I’ve used my mom’s number.  Usually we always use our PO Box address from WV, expect some things still have our land home address, but Capital One insists on a physical address, as if we all are supposed to fit into this “American” mold.  So I used my mom’s address.  It’s really easy to be confused over security questions with our lifestyle; sometimes it can take me three tries.  Either way they now want a utility bill, his social security card and his drivers license or passport faxed to them before they will even speak to him!  Of course no one understands why we can’t produce a utility bill, that’s unfathomable.  And no bank account with a physical address?? Unheard of!  And really does everyone carry a social security card around these days?  Well he actually did that for many years, which is why you can’t actually read it anymore.  Eventually we did change the address with our bank, wait for a new bank statement and faxed that to them with the illegible social security card over an internet fax site with the credit card number .. and this is more secure than asking a few questions on the phone???  Well they apparently got the documents because they called, but of course wouldn’t speak to me, even though they called, and know my name since it’s listed on his account.  They would not even tell me if they have all the required information to turn the account on or not at this point.  We are seven months into this and still don’t have a useable card.  During this time my card has been turned off three times for suspected fraud, luckily they seem to always believe I am who I say I am when I call in, but it still means always carrying a second card because I never know when it will work.  I’ve never experienced such ridiculous frustration; perhaps I’ve just been spoiled by USAA.  I’m starting to think 1% is not so bad, at least I know my card will work, and my bank will work with me not against me.

On Dry Land

It comes around every few years, like it or not.  We procrastinate, push back deadlines, and scrape the bottom to get by for just a few more months, but inevitably in the life of every cruiser comes the day that the boat must be hauled out of the water.  A year ago we were forced to switch to a new insurance company while in Georgetown, Exumas, when we discovered our current company did not insure the Caribbean.  We were fortunate to find a company that would insure us for one year before requiring a new survey, a very good thing since Georgetown was not known as somewhere you wanted your boat hauled out unless absolutely necessary.  A year sounded like plenty of time … that was a year ago.  Last fall, while in Grenada, we were supposed to complete our haul out for our survey, install a new transducer and inspect for lightning damage after our strike.  We managed to put it off till Colombia.  We almost tried to extend it for another few months and go to Panama first, but finally bit the bullet and hauled out two weeks shy of our one-year deadline.

            Cartagena, Colombia has three options for haul out yards:  Manzanillo Marina Club, Todomar CHL Marina, and Ferroalquimar.  We had several very high recommendations on hauling out at Manzanillo and they have a couple of rooms to rent, so we decided to go with them since we really don’t want to live on the boat for a month on land.  A boat on land means, no refrigerator, no toilet, and climbing a ladder to get on and off.  Generally not a fun experience, and add some messy dirty work to the mix and you get the picture.  Our initial plan to paint the bottom, maintenance that needs done every couple of years to prevent the bottom of the boat from becoming a reef, and survey has grown and taken on a life of it’s own.  Somewhere way down on our project list was to repaint the decks.  The nonskid was worn off in places, most of the rest is very oxidized, and a few fiberglass repairs need done.  Even though this is expected to be a very expensive job, we had a quote of over $20,000 in the US on our last (smaller) boat, we figured why not just get a quote and see.  Well, when the quote came back for about $4000, to have the decks gel-coated it was hard to say no.  Gel-coat is usually harder to apply and often found just on new boats, but it’s something they do here and do relatively well.  So we are taking stuff off the decks, taping things up and getting it done.  The bottom paint is getting done, but going one step farther and stripping all the old paint off, adding some barrier coat and new toxic paint to keep the marine life in the sea and off our boat.  Inside the boat, we have a great opportunity to refresh the interior wood with a nice coat of varnish while we don’t have to sleep in the boat; as well as some other small projects.

            We are getting settled into our apt, it’s no 5-star resort, but it does have A/C, a small kitchenette, and enough space I can get some sewing projects done out of the heat.

Moving the travel lift over the boat to place the straps underneath.

Pulling the straps up tight and making sure the boat is centered.

Lifting the boat out of the water.

Moving her onto land.

Moving her to her new parking space.

Parked on land.

Pirates!

I am not the type of person that is glued to the news, generally I don’t hear any news until it’s either posted on facebook by one of my friends or my Mom calls to tell me.  Just a few weeks ago the disappearance of Don North aboard s/v Windancer in Panama was brought to my attention by email.  The story was close enough to my lifestyle and current geographic location to catch my attention.  I started scouring the web, following the unfolding story that within days quickly led to the capture of Javier Martin; serial murderer and pirate. 

            Just this past week I heard of the hijacking of s/v Quest by Somali pirates.  Although not a location near to where I am, with confusing vague reports initially hitting the media, I once again turned to the internet to scour news reports and cruising forums.  My initial response to hearing of their capture is very much like that of many people; why the heck were they there, don’t they know better. 

            For a sailor or cruiser, piracy is a part of lifestyle.  How big the risk is to any given vessel depends on choices made and sometimes just dumb luck.  When we first announced to friends that we were heading south to cruise the Caribbean the most common question we heard was;  “What about pirates?”.  My husband’s joking reply was always, “Arg, we are okay for now, but if finances get tight we might consider it.”  Although there can be pirate attacks in the Caribbean and Bahamas, it’s not common, usually the biggest problem is petty theft, which is frustrating, annoying and can be expensive it’s not life threatening.  Our first real concern of piracy is when we decided to leave Grenada and head west.  Venezuela has had an increasing number of pirate attacks over the last few years, and they have become increasingly violent.  We had a choice to make; to go to Venezuela or not.  Sitting at home only looking at news reports it could make the decision look really simple; pirate attacks = don’t go.  However, sitting in Grenada only a few hundred miles away from Venezuela the decision was not so black and white.  We talked to cruisers that had been going there for years, and even given the increase in attacks they were still going back this year.  They all had advice, several areas to keep clear of, travel with a buddy boat or two, avoid traveling near shore at night.  There were some contradictions to their advice, as we were told there was one part of the mainland to stay away from and the rest was okay so long as you were careful, travel during the day and with other boats.  One area we were told was “okay” to go, we were told was also the site of an attack and murder of a cruiser earlier in the year.  It does make you go..  hmph…  Our decision went from definitely don’t go… to sounds like it may be okay .. to only go to the out islands.. to don’t go.  Meanwhile we had friends that did decide to go, avoiding the mainland but visiting the islands.  While they were in Isla Margarita, we heard about a cruiser whose boat was boarded at anchor and he was killed.  When asking our friends about the event their response was that he was in the wrong anchorage and they were relatively unconcerned, and enjoyed the rest of their time in the Venezuelan Islands with no problems at all.  We still chose to not go, for us the possibility of dealing with a violent attack was more of a risk than we wanted to take, even though we had quite a few friends who did go. 

            I imagine for s/v Quest, they had a similar story behind their decision to go.  It just so happens their decision was the wrong one.  I still do not understand their decision to go through pirate-infested waters and I don’t agree with it.  But I do try to understand that it is not necessarily a black and white decision, as it would appear to those sitting in their comfortable homes, not seeking adventure or travel and looking only at the limited news media they are presented with.  Although pirate attacks in the area are prevalent, I’m sure they knew that rarely is a private yacht hijacked.  The pirates are interested in large commercial  ships that they can get high ransoms for from corporations.  Which brings the question to mind, are we aiding the problem of piracy off Somalia when we choose to pay upwards of $2 million for a ransom?  I don’t pretend to have a solution or even an idea of what to do about the situation, but it seems that for every large ransom paid we are just supporting and encouraging their “business”.  Back to the subject;  I expect s/v Quest also knew private vessels that were successfully transiting the area and making it to the Mediterranean.   I’m sure they read blog accounts, talked to people who have done it, possibly even close friends.  They probably knew that very few pirate attacks off Somalia end in death, they want money for ransoms, and a dead body won’t get that.  Perhaps they thought that the risk of capture and eventual release was small enough to risk the trip.  The convoy of 30 boats they had been traveling with split up and abandoned their plans to sail to Oman when they were unable to obtain a naval escort.  The boats then made their own plans to continue on or change direction.  I doubt the s/v Quest knew that 2 days before they were hijacked the US sentenced, Abduwali Abdukhadir Muse, the pirate apprehended for hijacking the Maersk Alabama in 2009, to 33 years in prison.  This act changed the tactical plans of the Somali pirates, no longer were they just getting ransoms but now they want to make a statement of retaliation against the US.  At this point in the events s/v Quest, despite their planning and good or bad decisions, encountered bad luck.

            The situation with Somali pirates has gotten out of control.  They are not attacking just along the coast of Somalia, but operating from “mother ships” that allow them to be hundreds of miles out to sea.  There are reported attacks clear throughout the Arabian Sea; from Africa to India and even as far south as Madagascar.  How long until their range goes even farther?  Where will it end? 

            Back in Panama, authorities are still investigating the murder of Jean Pierre Bouhard and Don North, collecting evidence to obtain a certain conviction on as many counts as possible of Javier Martin.  A very different pirate tale from those in Somalia, but the outcome is not so different.  Javier Martin did not board their boats by force, but actually had some form of professional relationship with both of these men, gaining their trust to get on their boats then murder them at sea in an attempt to take their boats as his own.  These events were set into motion after Martin sunk his own boat in the San Blas islands.  It’s very possible that he also gained possession of that boat by murder back in 1997; that is still under investigation.  Don Winner at the panama-guide.com has been instrumental in the capture of Martin and has current articles on the investigation.  Before he sunk his boat and started the search for a new one, Martin carried backpackers aboard his vessel from Panama to Colombia.  I can only wonder what some of those backpackers, who may have learned of his arrest, now think of their experience at sea with a pirate.

Santa Marta

Santa Marta was not originally on our planned itinerary.  Whatever exactly a planned itinerary is when cruising, I think it’s more of a vague concept of an idea of something that could be done should we so choose to do it.  We quickly found ourselves very comfortable and sad to leave.  With guests arriving in Cartagena we had a week to enjoy Santa Marta and then move on.  If we make it back again we will plan to stay longer, maybe next year we will return.  We’ll just add that to the “planned itinerary”.

We did have just enough time to sample the food and mojitos.  It seems that most of the good restaurants with a nice atmosphere to hang out in are generally well hidden until you stumble upon the right streets.  Our first day out, we wandered the streets for several hours and just managed to miss the ones with the inviting restaurants.  We did find several plazas, the gold museum, the chapel and the main shopping district.  Our second day out we were given some directions and discovered Agave Azul.  It’s a great little Mexican restaurant, with 2 for 1 happy our drinks.  It’s not a US tex mex restaurant, but they had amazing dishes full of flavor all for the price of…. Well had I written this when I should have over a month ago I could probably tell you an accurate price, as it is I’m going to take a really good guess and say the meal was about $10 US.  Just a few days before we left we managed to find a walking only street that was just bursting with small café’s.  We wandered into Lulo for some more happy hour (2 for 1) mojitos.  They may have been some of the best in Santa Marta but it will probably require more research to be sure.

Marina Santa Marta felt both comfortable and safe.  The marina just opened this year and many of its facilities are still under construction, but the slips were completed with power and water.  There were no restrooms or any other facility yet completed but they did pick up trash right at your boat on the dock.  Every day we would see a security guard patrolling the docks.  The floating docks and finger piers made getting on and off the boat very easy, which is not always the case with the marina’s down here.  We were given a discounted rate for the week and paid $162.00 for our stay.  The negative aspect of the marina and the stay in Santa Marta all has to do with the wind.  The wind will whip down off the mountains and we often saw 30 – 40 kts of winds for days at a time.  The boat felt safely tied up so this was not too uncomfortable, but the beach is located upwind from the marina and a super fine dusting of sand would coat every surface of the boat inside and out daily.  The sand was highly annoying to say the least, but it wouldn’t stop me from going back, it may however convince me to close up the boat and run the air conditioner next time.

Aruba to Colombia

The seas behind our boat.

Christmas winds.  Growing up in landlocked West Virginia I never heard the term.    Sailing down to the southern Caribbean, if I heard it I paid it no attention.  Researching information on the Internet about the passage from Aruba to Colombia the term started popping up more frequently.  When we finally left Aruba, I understood:  Christmas winds.  For those of you still living a non-seafaring landlocked life who may be unfamiliar:  Christmas winds get their name because of the time of year they arrive ... Christmas time.  During the late summer and fall the trade winds weaken with periods of light winds.  Around Christmas time the trade winds blowing all the way from Africa pick up and intensify, bringing strong winds across the Caribbean at a sustained 25-30kts or more, lasting for weeks at a time.

They say experience is the best teacher, and it certainly makes concepts sink in deep.  We had heard about these Christmas winds, even talked about them as we planned our passage from Aruba to Cartagena, Colombia.  Somehow though the reality of them didn’t quite sink into our little brains very solidly.  We had experienced week after week of mild weather and somehow thought there was still more yet to come, tossing the whispers of Christmas winds to the back of our consciousness.  The passage from Aruba to Cartagena is known as one of the five worst passages in the world.  In heavy winds the seas can build quickly and become dangerous.   Many boats have left Aruba with what sounded like a good weather window and found themselves in 40-50kt winds, 30ft seas, even seeing breaking waves and confused seas with waves coming from different directions.  As we watched our weather windows, to make the 400-mile passage, disappear we started to realize the true meaning of Christmas winds.  We also realized that we had broken our own rule, and made plans to meet visitors in Cartagena on a specific date.  Although they did have fair warning that buying their tickets in advance there was a possibility we wouldn’t make it there.  However even though they were warned I really want to see them and I don’t want to spend another month waiting for a weather window!  So instead of the 10–15kt winds and 4 ft seas we had hoped to have for a 4-day passage, we were now looking at 20-25kt winds for the foreseeable future.  Time to change our plans. 

We chose to take advantage of a 2 day weather window of 20kt winds and 6 ft seas, that would get us to the coast of Colombia where we would duck into an anchorage for a day or two until we got more “settled” weather.  It seems that once the Christmas winds kick in 20kts is about as “settled” as we can hope for.  Since leaving Grenada we had been traveling with Dave and Wendy on Elysium, although we had planned to make the passage to Cartagena together at this point we both made different decisions.  Elysium wanted to wait for a 4-day window that would allow them to stay well offshore and travel straight to Cartagena, and we decided it would be best to take advantage of the 2 day weather windows and hop along the coast to assure we would arrive in Cartagena before the 13^th of January.  Sadly we said good-bye to our traveling companions, but at least we look forward to seeing them again soon in Cartagena.

With the winds behind us, we had an easy passage with the boat gently rolling from side to side.  Unfortunately my stomach does not appreciate the gentle lolling and retaliates until I medicate.  We made to into the anchorage at Bahia Honda the next morning and were recommended by our weather guru, to stay put and not continue on, as the winds were to build during the day and overnight.  So stay put we did; but not happily.  We had trouble finding a good spot to anchor.  The bay is very wide, about 6 miles, and the mouth is also very wide, allowing the ocean swell to roll in and nearly fill the bay.  We had read a post from other cruisers who were recently in this bay and loved it, of course I didn’t know exactly where they anchored and I don’t think they saw the sea conditions we did.  It is a pretty area, very remote with nothing around but arid desert plateaus.  We finally settled on a spot in the northeast corner that was out of the swell.  The water got shallow while still a couple of mile from the land, getting as close as we could to shore we anchored in 9’ of water choosing to deal with the wind chop that was blowing in.  It was not perfect but it was comfortable enough for a night of sleep.  So we thought.  We thought wrong.  During the night as the seas built so did the swell in our anchorage, wrapping around the edge of the bay 4ft waves rolled in directly toward our boat.  At first light we were up, we needed to leave.  We waited long enough to get a weather forecast, pulled up anchor and headed to sea.  The forecast didn’t thrill us, but it was better than where we were and Chris Parker gave us the go ahead to head to Santa Marta.  We had 20-25kts of wind with 12ft seas behind us.  With 10-second intervals the seas were comfortable, much better than the anchorage we just left, and we settled in for the 160-mile journey. 

Throughout the day the wind and seas subsided, and eventually so did my stomach.  By the end of the day I was no longer medicated and even cooking, well sorta .. I put stuff in the oven and turned it on till it was hot; at sea I think it counts.  We were even visited by a pod of dolphins, the first we had seen in a very long time.  One had a young calf with her, and one had no dorsal fin, he must have an interesting story.

The following morning we checked with Chris for the possibility of continuing on to Cartagena, but he recommended staying in Santa Marta over the weekend as conditions were going to be building throughout the day.  Within 2 hours the seas were building up to 9ft and winds gusted up to 30kts and above.  We were happy to stop.  As we pulled into the bay the water was calm and the mountains blocked the winds.  We contacted Marina Santa Marta on VHF 72 and got tied up to a slip: our home for the next week.