More Columbia

After a few days of partying with our friends, we had a few quiet nights on Aliisa and Quartermoon….. Yeah right!!







We were just about to head to the marina to sort out our new business, making up some cards and going to the hostels when we met four blokes from Australia who were looking for a ride to San Blas and Panama. How Convenient!! They wanted to leave within a two days so it left us with only a day to sort stuff out.
Firstly we had to sort out the boat, as it was a bit of a mess after all the sailing and try to make some space for all the food. Then it was to the supermarket to stock up with all the food and drink - as the San Blas islands are mostly uninhabited although the local Kuna Indians come around offering fish, crabs and Lobster for a wicked price!! After refilling with Diesel and stocking up the water tanks we were all fit and ready to make a move. The last job was to meet up with Manfred (our agent) the day before to check us all out of the country with Customs and Immigration.

The charter includes a five day trip - two of which are sailing non stop 200 miles to the San Blas Islands. Then the guests have two / three days sailing around the San Blas before dropping them off in Linton, Panama. The price includes all fees for clearance and food and drink for the five days!! What a wicked job a???

We left on the 26 the June and set sail for San Blas. A squall came in just before we left with heavy rain and thunder and lightening and once again there was a fair amount of boats that dragged in the anchorage. (Not us thank god!!)
We have never known an anchorage like this. One American guy we met in the yacht club who has been living here for a few years said that a few times a month in hurricane season you get some bad squalls and as soon as you feel the air go cold run back to your boat. We were like whatever (we’ve been anchored in 40 odd knots winds b4 and she has not budged!! BUT the grounding in this anchorage is soooo poor and the bottom is a soft mud so many anchors just slide right through when the wind picks up. A bit of digression but,anyway one day we were in the bar when we saw a squall coming in and everyone legging it back to their boats. The following evening some plonker had anchored right next to us, way too close and his tender was actually touching our boat. Anyhow we thought we better go back and low and behold this idiot has dragged and was smashing his boat into the boats at the marina. He had just missed us thank god, but we could hear these people from their boats screaming at the captain because he was banging into their boats- they all had their fenders out trying to prevent the damage and he was walking around the boat so slowly without a care in the world! Obviously it takes a lot for this guy to pick up his pace. Anyhow it takes him so long to turn on his motor and bring his anchor up that he ends up getting ropes from the boats in the marina wrapped around his props( both of them – it was a cat) and we then have to move our boat as he needs to be towed off and help re anchor by a fishing boat from the marina. Good entertainment though I must admit!! That day 12 boats dragged anchor – they were popping out like flies.

Our first wedding anniversary!!

What a lush place!! Years ago I would of felt a bit dodgy about going to Columbia because of the media about gangs, drugs, murder rates etc!! but this place is awesome, it is so safe and we have not felt uneasy once. Its quite well set up for yachties here and I was so surprised how many boats are here…way more than I thought it would be. The yacht club has quick wifi with all the other facitilies and a large cheap supermarket about a 3 min walk( and the meat is so cheap). STEAK oh how we have missed it…its been chicken for so long I would not care if I never had chicken again as long as I live. You can buy a really good quality steak there for about $1. Oh god it was wicked, we had steak every night for the first few days, even when we went out to eat. We also celebrated our first year wedding anniversary in the old town. We met up once again with our long lost friends Lauri and Annina and of course partied hard for the first few days.

Doing a bit of site seeing on our way to the old town!!

A few drinks in a wicked bar in an old fort - overlooking the water!!



Sym taking arty photo(or so he thinks)



A group of school kids(probably doing some traditional song and dance we think????)

Arrival in Cartagena!!!

We checked out on the 14the June and headed 326 miles to Cartagena in Columbia…and what a mega fast sail. We had quite strong winds but they were behind us so we were sailing at about 7 odd knots average. We made 160 nm the first day and 166 on the last days. The seas were pretty large and we were happy that we were going downwind rather than the other direction – it would have been a nightmare!! We had an aeroplane flying down sooo close to the mast, I crapped myself and thought it was going to crash into us. A helicopter also came down to check is out – both were the coastguard. They radioed through asking all types of questions about the registration of the ship and next destination. We heard that they monitor the area thoroughly because of the drug smuggling that goes on.



We could see Cartagena from about 10 miles away and the city looked amazing. There were so many sky scrapers it looked like a mini manhatten! I was so excited to get there and be able to go to shops, bars, and restaurants. We have been on little islands for so long now it was such a change to be heading for a big city on the main land. We arrived at about 5.30 pm, dropped the hook in the anchorage outside Club Nautico and went into town for well deserved beer!!!





Our first night with our new friend Fernando!!

Bonaire

What a beautiful island!! The people were so friendly and the atmosphere was quite relaxed. The people speak papa pimento, which is a mixture of Dutch, French and Creloe. It was quite amazing that these people spoke four languages fluently. They were taught papa Pimento in school, but at home and amongst friends they spoke Dutch. They could also speak Spanish (being so close to the Spanish speaking South America countries) and English! How amazing is that really! The water was amazing and Bonaire is well famous for its diving. We went off Snorkelling for an afternoon but it was quite windy, making the sea state a bit choppy. We only stayed for a couple of days before heading off to Columbia. We may of stayed a few days longer for a break before setting off, but you could not anchor in the water, you had to use one of the marina’s mooring buoys which was 13 quid a night so we thought we would give it a miss.

Columbia here we come baby!!!!

We were not really sure about what to do next when our friends Lauri and Annina called us to tell us to come to Columbia. There was work there with boats taking backpackers on trips to and from Panama and Cartagena. It sounded awesome and so being where we were we did not take a lot of persuasion to move!! Columbia here we come. We only stayed 2 days in Trinidad before checking out and sailing 800 miles to Cartagena, with a plan to stop off for a break half way in Bonaire – one of the ABC Dutch Antilles.

Checking out of Trinidad was a bit of a pain. It is the only countries where when you check out you only have 4 hours before having to leave. Every other place we have visited the day before is quite alright. The guy was customs was so rude and said that we would have to come in the morning we were leaving (which just happened to be a Saturday) where we would be payable for overtime charges. It worked out quite expensive (around 30 US Dollars for immigration and about the same for customs so we decided to leave that afternoon. The guy asked why we did not want to pay the overtime charges as it was chicken feed to us. What a cheeky git!! Then he had the nerve to ask how much our boat was worth!! What really frustrates us about the Caribbean Islands is all the locals think we are millionaires just because we live on a boat and if we don’t want to by something off them, we are of course being tight and the attitudes can sometimes stink. For all this guy knew we could have just sailed here on a 10 ft boat worth a couple of hundred dollars!! They don’t seem to grasp the idea that we are on a budget and do not have a endless pit of money…we were actually going there to find work because we were skint. Anyway sorry: enough of my ranting.

We headed off from Trinidad to sail a 465nm trip to Bonaire. I was a bit worried about this trip as its so close to the Venuzalen coast and there is a lot of trouble with pirate attacks on vessels. Just only a few months ago a 34 foot boat was shot at a few times and not so long ago some people were killed. We decided to head north of our rhumb line and sat well off the coast. Anyway what a brilliant trip we had. The weather was completely mixed ranging from no wind to gusts of 42 knots…boiling hot sun and then torrential rain. We made our top speed of 12.2 knots surfing down the waves, it was a really quick passage. We also saw some dolphins in the first time in a while and we caught a tuna fish ( black fin ) the evening before we arrived.

Attack of the killer bees

A couple of days after our family had gone home we decided to clear out and head for Trinidad which was about 65 miles away. We left at around 4am in the morning so we could make it there by day light. We were having a really fast sail and everything going really well until about 11.30am when we starting getting attacked by the vicious psycho bees. I know can you believe it. We are out at sea (at least 10 miles of the coast) minding our own business when a few bees flew into the cockpit. At first we thought nothing of it, but they were a bit scary cos they looked a bit nuts and were flying around very frantically. A few more landed on the boat so we started to kill them by rolling up and newspaper and squishing them. All cool we thought, until an hour later and we were running up and down the boat, shit scared, killing bees left right and centre. We killed way over 100 bees. It was absolutely horrible. I’m really not fond of them anyway to say the least but there were so many. They kept landing on us and going crazy. A couple flew up Sym boxer shorts and landed on his go- nads and one piece of work flew down my bikini bottoms and stung me and my ass cheek. Sym went down stares to get us some protective clothing and came up with the tightest spandex shorts he could find…he looked hilarious. We can still not figure out what they were doing out there so far from land, but i'm just grateful we starting killing them when we did, otherwise we would have been completely swamped. Shackles was not much help wither she was just lying there watching us getting stung! It sucked really and turned an enjoyable sail into hard bloody work.

Anyway our ETA was after 4pm so we decided to anchor up in Scotland Bay instead of going into the main anchorage t avoid paying overtime fees in customs and immigration which are quite expensive. The anchorage was amazing. It was so picturesque. There were only a couple of boats and we were surrounded by the rainforest, it was so peaceful and quiet expect for the howler monkeys you could hear in the trees. It was the first time we could hear them and they were so noisy it was unreal. They sounded like were wolves or something in that mean, run for your life category. We spent the afternoon fishing on the boat and then were accompanied by these massive bats circling the boat in the evening. At first I was quite frightened, but I learned to respect them as they were doing me a favour and eating all the horrible million of mosquitoes and bugs that were driving us crazy.



The next morning we departed and motored on round to the chaguramas where we did our usual check in stuff. The anchorage was rubbish: really windy and choppy and the water was crappy. We decided to go the bar with free wifi and suss out the scene. We made friends with the local bar maid who told us that her brother got murdered a few month back because his son was bullying another mans child so the father came over to his house and shot him in the face. Can you believe that, over something so stupid? I mean things like this happen between children all the time – its part of growing up but to murder someone over that is crazy.

Sym wanted to try and get some work working on peoples boats, but after chatting with the locals we found out that things were so quiet there and there was no work going around!!

Take Two Holiday with the Archers

Yet again I can only apologise to my poor mum and family who have not a clue where we are. It’s been over a month since I last updated and as usual all plans have changed. We are now working between Panama and Cartagena in possibly the coolest job in the world.

Well here goes, lots of backdating to do. The last week spent on holiday with the Archers (seems so long ago now) was great apart from the fact that Sym, Bev and poor Jenson took in turns being ill for a few days. We ended up calling the doctor out and they all has a chest infection and were put on antibiotics, but after a day they were drinking cocktails by the bar again. We hired a car for two days and did a tour of the island which was beautiful. The first day we drove through the rainforest and trekked through a nature reserve to get to the waterfalls. They were wicked and me Sym and Brandon climbed up to the top tier and hung about in the first bit. The waterfalls were so powerful you could not put your head under for very long without feeling like your back was going to break.



Sym and Bev bonding on the Kayak



Flukey shot by wmah of them falling off!!



We also took the car to Englishman bay (which was possibly the nicest beach in the world) where we went snorkelling. We went out for some good food and spent the last few days chilling by the pool and taking out the little catamaran boat that they hire from the hotel. It was my first time on a tiny sail boat, and I loved it!
Bye guys love you and miss you loads!!!!





Sym and I had planned to sail down to Trinidad next where we were going to stay for the rest of hurricane season and try and look for some work. I can’t express how much I was not looking forward to it. One reason because I knew how hard it would be to find work and secondanly the fact that the maid in Tobago told my sister in law Lisa to prey for us cos we were probably going to get murdered or raped if we went there!! NICE!!!
Apparently the homicide rate over the past few years has tripled and aside from Jamaica has the highest homicide and violent crime rate!
I know that when some people talk you should take things with a pinch of salt, as in every large city there is lots of crime, for example you want to go out to Bridgend where I am from on a Saturday night or Cardiff and that’s rough as anywhere, with people getting slaughtered and beefing each other up. Anyhow whenever anyone asked where we were going and we told them they would say, ‘stay well away from there’ so as you can imagine I was not entirely looking forward to it.