Colombia Cacophony!

Date: 11th February, 2024

Where am I? 

Latitude: 09°34.9N

Longitude: 078°40.5W

At anchor in Cayos Hollandes, San Blas Islands, Panamà.

How is the weather?

The weather is quite settled now, with winds of low Force 4 level and flat seas in the San Blas archipelago. We’ve higher winds and rain over the last 2 days but forecast is good for the rest of this week.

What am I feeling?

Relaxed after a couple of weeks of hectic sailing coupled with touring Santa Marta and Cartagena. It is wonderful to be back at anchor, swimming in pristine waters and bathed by cool breezes.

What has happened this week?

We spent the early part of the week eating and drinking our way through Cartagena with Rod for company. We didn’t eat a bad meal in Colombia and I think the highlight was, rather ironically, Uma Peruana in Cartagena. Fantastic pisco sours and ceviche with relaxed and friendly service, in a great dining room. If you visit Cartagena, you must eat there too!

Other highlights were El Baron – people watching in Plaza while eating simple fare on a balmy evening – one could be in any old city of Spain. And of course, Café del Mar, on the old ramparts overlooking the sea. 

Colombia is a cacophony. Of colour, heat and (most of all) sound! The sound of Latin music is everywhere, usually at unhealthy decibel levels. And the people seem to constantly be smiling or laughing – this is like Spain or Italy on steroids! Not for the faint of heart but rewarding and stimulating all the same. I’m glad we stopped in Santa Marta and Cartagena and I think Colombia has much more to offer the intrepid traveler.

We departed our mooring at Club de Pesca on Thursday morning,  extricating ourselves from our very tight berth with the minimum of damage at 0900 and heading to the fuel dock where 62 gallons later, we were relieved of USD120.  A reasonable price to pay for another month of independence from the grid!

The sail to Porvenir in the San Blas Islands was mostly a broad reach in good conditions with boat speeds mainly in the 7-9 knot range. We arrived early enough on Friday to check in and be free to find our first anchorage the following morning – or so we thought….. rain and high winds with low visibility soon set in and meant that we decided to stay where we were. Navigating the many reefs in those conditions didn’t seem necessary or sensible. Instead, we did boat chores and upped our anchor on Sunday, heading the 15 miles east to Cayos Holandes, a well protected anchorage with beautiful turquoise waters. We are anchored in 16 metres with 70 metres of chain sticking us to the bottom.

There is always drama at day break when on passage. Dawn, the herald of the Sun, reaches up from the eastern horizon, extinguishing Mercury, Mars and Venus, in line ascendant over our stern. Peremptory day reveals a dramatic skyscape of low cumulus clouds painted on a canvas of egg shell blue and burnished orange. The ever-present sea, iron-grey, lumpy and sullen, like a truculent teen dragged from deep slumber. The sun, now risen, pinks the serried ranks of clouds, bringing warmth and a new day.

Now we rest and chill amid beautiful surroundings, girding ourselves for the battle to come over a slot to transit the Panama Canal. It looks like a long delay unfortunately – we had planned for a transit around 20th February but a 3 week delay looks likely. Lack of water in the Canal is affecting everyone both in terms of time and cost. We plan to sail to Portobelo (near the Canal entrance and a World Heritage site in its own right), on 15th to meet our good friends, Ian and Chris, who will join us for the next phase of our voyage. 

Fujin out!