Next Stop Cartagena!

Last time we left you, we were in Curacao. In this update we will tell you about finally pulling up the anchor in Spanish Waters and heading for Cartagena in Colombia. Its the first time that either of us has visited South America, and we were a little nervous about sailing the boat in to Colombia. Everyone we had met in the last few months who had been to Colombia told us that we must visit, and sang its praises. In the back of your mind you can’t help that nagging doubt about Colombia’s past reputation of violence and drug trade. Add to that the perceived difficulties of the bureaucracy of checking in to the country (and cost) and we both faced this next trip with some trepidation.

On the other had, we were definitely ready to move on from Curacao. Whilst a very nice place, we felt it was a little dull and a rather sanitised version of the Caribbean in the way the Dutch had stamped their mark upon the place, and given the country a colonial and somewhat European feel. There were still historical tensions simmering underneath that manicured exterior though.

So when the weather window finally appeared with 3 straight days to get to Colombia, we decided to go for it. A quick morning trip to Willemstad had us checked out of customs and immigration. Spending our last guilders at the supermarket and local fruit market, we took the bus back to the anchorage, prepared Azimuth, pulled up the anchor and motored out of Spanish Waters waving goodbye to the number of friends we had made during our stay.

Once out offshore to the South of Curacao, the wind freshened from the west giving us a straight down wind sail. We had already got the spinnaker pole set before we left, so we furled out the genoa and started to surf our way along Curacao on a beautiful sunny afternoon. Perfect sailing conditions, oh and the autopilot was doing all the driving too!

We left Curacao behind as the sunset ahead of us and headed onwards towards Aruba. The sea state got a little more confused, with the current fighting its way between the islands and the mainland of Venezuela. We stayed well away from Venezuelan waters, as there had been reports of piracy for those yachts that steered too close. In the night we navigated through a bizarre oil field with rigs and tankers in the shallow waters South of Aruba. The wind was strong and we were bouncing along at 8 to 9 knots heading towards Colombia. Early the next morning, I was on watch when I noticed a Venezuelan fishing boat off our port bow, heading on a direct course towards us. He was small and didn’t have AIS and did not show up on our radar. I watched him closely for about 20 minutes. In the end he came quite close to us, close enough to see the people onboard. It was a nervous moment, and self doubt comes in to play when you think about the tales of attacks on other yachts in this area. I had specifically turned off the AIS and our naviagation lights as we transited this area, so that we could not be easily tracked. In the end, we passed by without incident, and they disappeared in to the distance with me breathing a sigh of relief.

That relief increased when we finally reached Colombian waters. These are known to be patrolled by Colombian Coastguard, and are considered safe in comparison to Venezuela.

We continued to sail along at a good pace. The seas were boisterous and confused at times, but it was comfortable enough and we were making good time. It was about this time though that the autopilot started to make its familiar horrible noises associated with the grinding and slipping of gears. Not a good moment. It was having to work quite hard in the big seas, but it wasn’t anything too onerous. We decided to live with it for a bit, but it got worst over the next few hours. Damn! Just as we were getting used to the good life of having an autopilot again. The decision was made to hand steer again. We were still about 150 miles from Cartagena at this point, so not too far.

The wind became a little fickle for a bit. As usual the conditions did not match the prediction from our trusty wind app Windy. Does it ever??? So we struggled on for a few hours until the wind came back again and whisked us down the coast towards Cartagena. We were ominously followed by a huge thunder cloud with bright flashes of lightening all around us, some of it throwing huge forks across the sky. Definitely a disquieting feeling, and we tried to steer away from the worst looking candidate that eventually slipped by to our port side and gave a spectacular light show ahead of us for the rest of the night.

Early morning bought us to within 45 miles of Cartagena. The wind dropped off completely and so did the sea state, so we had to motor the last bit. The sky scrapers of Cartagena were visible in the distance. The autopilot was able to cope with the reduced sea state, and so we moved ever closer to our destination flanked by super tankers on their way too and from Cartagena.

There are two entrances in to the fine anchorage of Cartagena. The main shipping channel is 5 miles to the South and a long detour is required to navigate this (when arriving from the North). The second entrance was described in the literature as the small ships channel for boats with draft of less than 2.9m. Azimuth has a draft of 2.15m, so we should be OK to use this channel. It turns out that the channel is cut through the old underwater sea wall that was built by the Spanish to stop enemy vessels gaining entrance to the port. The channel was marked by a couple of buoys. I decided to give it a go as it would save at least 2 hours of motoring if we decided to use the main shipping channel. So we crept over the sea wall and trusted the local information was correct. I was given some confidence by watching a local sailboat sail out of the channel ahead of me. Of course the depth sounder decided not to cooperate, but we passed without incident and worked our way in to the main harbour surrounded by many speed boats whizzing anyway they liked without any regard for the rules of the road. To be fair they didn’t get in our way. We identified the anchorage and dropped the hook in front of a very impressive skyscraper skyline and breathed the usual sigh of relief that accompanies the act of arrival.

To check into Colombia, you are forced to use a marine agent. The authorities will not deal directly with a ships captain. Also given the language barrier and our dreadful Spanish, this is probably easier for us. However, this service comes at a cost, and before we left Curacao we had contacted a number of agents and received various quotes. In the end we chose Jose from the New White Light Agency for the agreed amount of US250 dollars to complete the whole process. This is by far the most expensive fee we have had to pay to enter any country. Such is the bureaucracy here that Azimuth actually has to be temporarily imported into Colombia (TIP) if we want to stay any longer than a week? Seems pretty crazy to us. As I write this, we are currently waiting for our interview and visit to the boat from the port official to make this TIP happen. Fingers crossed it goes smoothly.

So after arriving we took the dinghy in to the Club Nautico Marina right next to where we were anchored and managed to track down Jose the agent at the office. He took our passports and showed us to the ATM for the first payment! He was actually really helpful, and so we steppe on shore in South America for the first time.

Not long after we arrived in Cartagena, this fantastic tall ship arrived with great pomp and circumstance on an official visit from Mexico. A really beautiful ship that has been moored right next to us for the whole week

We were both pretty exhausted after a three day sail, and crashed for the night. Over the next few days we slowly started to explore a bit of Cartagena, and what a great city it is! We are anchored in an area of the city known as Manga. It is a vibrant area with lots of students, a huge shopping centre (notably with air conditioning! Important in this heat!) and a plethora of nice local restaurants, and a fantastic supermarket with all the trappings you might expect in the UK. One important difference though, the prices here are about one quarter of the prices in the UK and also significantly cheaper than anything we experienced in the Caribbean. Suddenly it feels like our cruising budget of about 1000 quid a month will go a long way. That is definitely a factor in endearing us to this place!

Take a 15 minute walk from the Marina across a road bridge and you find yourself in the beautiful old town of Cartagena, the Gethsemini district. This is the historic city of colonial Spain lying within an impressive 13km of centuries old stone walls. It was founded in 1533 on the site of a Carib settlement by the Spanish, destroyed by fire in 1553 and the rebuilt in stone, brick and tile where it quickly grew in to the main Spanish Port and the main gateway to South America. It became the storehouse for the treasure plundered from the locals throughout South America until the Spanish Galleons could ship it back to Spain.

Of course that made the city attractive to buccaneers and pirates and other European nations and the town was regularly attacked. In the 16th century there were at least 5 sieges by pirates the most famous of which was led by Sir Francis Drake in 1586. He sacked the town and promised not to raise it to the ground on the proviso that he was given 10 million pesos which he took back to England!

The Spanish were probably quite annoyed by this! The result being that they built huge fortifications all around the city.

So we have spent a couple of days so far exploring the old city. Its a beautiful place, incredible architecture and very well preserved. The only downside in some areas are the huge number of street hawkers who hassle you at every opportunity.

So far we have visited the Naval museum. A good test for our poor Spanish, but very interesting non the less. Detailed history of the early battles in Cartagena and then a lot of detail about the independence of Colombia in 1811 from the Spanish and the formation of Colombia’s extensive Navy.

We have stopped for lunch in a couple of fantastic restaurants. Oh and sampled a few very cheap but very potent and tasty mojitos!

Whilst we were in one restaurant called the White Patio, the staff started getting all excited and looking up at the sky. Turns out they were looking at an 80% lunar eclipse of the sun. We had no idea!

A visit to the museum of the Spanish inquisition was interesting and sobering. They caused terror throughout the indigenous population for some 250 years.

We also visited the Gold museum with lots of gold artefacts from the indigenous population which survived the Spanish ransacking.

So far we feel like we have only scraped the surface of what this town has to offer.

We are also thinking about taking a holiday, and taking a trip by bus to Bogota and maybe some other areas of this vast country.

So join us again soon as we hopefully explore some more of Colombia!