Curacao to Cartagena

Here we are in Cartagena, Colombia (10°24.598N 75°32.582W). We arrived, with day light, always nice when arriving somewhere new, especially when you are supposed to sail over an underwater wall built by the Spaniards to protect the city and when there is only a small gap which allows you to sail through this short cut (check the green and red buoys!).

The sail between the ABCs has a bad reputation: one of the worst in the world and has been named the Cap of the Caribbean. The winds can be strong (40-50knt) and the seas can be very rough. We were checking the weather carefully and when we left Curacao we were supposed to have 20-25 knt of winds. However, the winds weren’t blowing too hard (we even had to motor) and Merlin was going well, especially during day light with our symmetrical spinnaker. Off Aruba, we were surrounded by 15 tankers: quite spectacular at night to see all their lights, even more when we were checking their sized with the AIS.

Some of these tankers can reach more than 900ft. As our speed wasn’t as fast as planned and the winds were to increase, we didn’t stop at Cabo de la Vela to have few hours sleep and continued towards Santa Maria where there are 5 little bays tucked between high mountains. We didn’t see the snow some cruising guides were describing but we appreciated this landscape where sea and mountain mix in harmony.

We anchored just before dusk in Cinto, apparently a privately owned bay where you are not supposed to stop (but we didn’t know). We appreciated the calm water. The wind was not as quiet and from time to time was howling from nearly nothing to more than 40knt. Impressive.

We met some Colombians who were on holidays there and who invited us for a drink on the beach. Had a great chat. We also celebrated, without fuss, our 10^th anniversary. We celebrate the Epiphany with the “kings cake” and Felix who found the coin decided that his monkey will be his “queen” for the day. 

Saturday night, we lifted the anchor again to escape some strong winds which were forecasted for the next day. Also we wanted to pass the dreaded Rio Magdalena with some light as lots of river debris and strong currents can occur there. The change of the colour of the water was really noticeable: it became brown and had and strong earthy smell. Three hours before we arrived in Cartagena, about 15 spotted dolphins came to play with Merlin’s hulls. They surfed with us for 2 hours. We had the spinnaker out again and while surfing the waves we reached great speed.

The kids love checking the log and claimed we did 14.6knt.

After some cleaning and packing away (sailing time, especially when the conditions are not too smooth are not prone to these kind of activities), we are ready to discover the treasures of this old city.