Well. What can I say about our trip from Bonaire down to Cartagena. I was very, very keen to come here and Oscar managed to find an agent to help us get in and registered etc. Most of the fleet not coming in as you cannot come in unattended but have to use a local agent so they are going to the much easier Santa Marta – not for us! In my opinion – for what it is worth – it should be on everyone’s must visit list.
We left Bonaire at 4am on Thursday morning having checked and re-checked gribs and deciding we had a window of opportunity – and so off we went with three hour watches in place. We started off well with big rolly seas but making good speed at force 5/6 but by 9pm that night winds at 6/7 and bigger waves. By 4th Feb around 12 noon the seas were huge and we were in 7/8. Horrific winds then arrived and we were hammered, really hammered for 12 hours with us reaching 14 knots going down waves and 50 knots (54 maximum logged) of wind consistently for hours. The noise was horrific and the boat was reefed right down. We took wave after wave right on top of us and our aft hatch started leaking! 627 miles of Charlotte being very seasick – I ate nothing – Malcolm and Richard eating heartily and sitting on watch getting soaked! Oscar puking regularly in between getting the boat ready to gybe which we had to do three times – him out on foredeck and me really thinking this is it we are all doomed – always looking on the bright side! Malcolm and Richard were totally brilliant and calm manning the boat up top during the worst of it all. In between all this we had to call up three cargo ships to ask them to alter course to miss us – one suggested we might change course ourselves! By 10am on 5th we entered port – I cried a lot!! The boat had managed the whole thing really well and felt enormously safe – all we had lost was an outboard motor cover and no damage detected to the boat at all – incredible. So all in all we are having a brilliant time!!! Just think how boring we are all going to be at dinner parties now – regaling you all with our stories!!!
Colombia’s coastline is dramatic – Cartagena is a colonial city with a really stunning preserved beauty and a really romantic air about it albeit a raw beauty tinged with the smell of sewage! It is a Unesco world heritage site and a complete maze of cobbled streets, balconied houses covered in bougainvillea and massive perfectly preserved churches, monasteries and palaces the large churches casting dramatic shadows across piazzas. Boutique hotels abound with inner courtyards and water features, trendy bars. Spanish is the main language here and very little English is spoken (Deborah and I managed to get our gel pedicure done with some hysterical acting out!). Oscar has stunned us all by using his A level Spanish to great effect – education not wasted! The people are incredibly friendly and it is reasonably priced – a breath of fresh air after the Caribbean. We are moored right in front of the old town with its 13km of centuries old colonial stone walls. Truly amazing place and such a stark contrast to Bonaire which was all about the sea and what was in it. This was a major slave trading port and there the history of that sits all around with the vast Palace of Inquisition which is now a museum which has some of the inqusitors’ gnarly instruments of torture some of which are quite horrific. There are naval museums, modern art museums, a gold museum, emerald museums etc etc….. According to the woman in the museum the finest emeralds in the world come from Colombia and they produce 65% of the world’s entire supply. Angelina Jolie has a 65 carat emerald ring from Colombian mines!
Wouldn’t recommend that experience although Deborah and I seemed to have cracked a stunning haggling ability without trying. The woman put a bangle on D and said that’s 12,500USD – I said I think it’s too big and then the woman said 8USD eventually getting it down to 6USD she thought I meant the price not the bangle! Saw the house of Gabriel Garcia Marquez author of one of my favourite all time books 100 years of solitude.
GP Berry was able to put her skills into play as Deborah lost part of a tooth and I was therefore able to put my vast medical skills into action immediately showing remarkable creativity with my torch and reading glasses! Making full use of one of my dental kits – not sure if it will stay put but seems to have done the job for now! Not had to stitch anyone up yet although Malcolm does insist on stubbing his toe regularly – no one much concerned about him just that he not get blood on the teak!
Cartegana seems an incredibly safe place with an inordinate amount of police everywhere as well as private security guards all carrying guns! Development money is obviously flooding in and down behind the old city there is a bustling and thriving area with many high rise developments. Like most places we visit in the world poverty sits alongside enormous wealth – very incongruous to be sat in a marina full of multi million pound yachts when I can see on the shore a young lad washing his clothes in the water and a small dug out home-made canoe with two men fishing with a throw net.
Oscar has been doing little videos which are quite fun – links below. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcGqAfTydOo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbXCW58KZ80&t=1s
We will be heading off to the San Blas Islands on Sunday morning as there is a little bit too much wind for our liking tomorrow!
Sophistikate 