After suffering through the tie up at the Aruba customs and immigration office again, we finally began the passage to Colombia. As you will recall, we tried to hire Captain Crazy to take the boat because we just did not want to be that crazy but alas, here we are. Heading to Colombia on one of the most notorious passages in the world. The passage is known for high winds that run in crazy directions due to the mountains on the coast of Colombia, waves in excess of 20 feet at times and of course, the Magdalena River crossing. With no other favorable options, we decided we would just take Galt ourselves. We watched weather all week and decided Friday through Tuesday would be our best weather window for the trip. We left Aruba around 5pm on Friday. The first night was uneventful as was the next day. The weather was as predicted so we chugged along with the only major aggravation being the wind direction. The wind was directly on our tail end which makes setting up the sails properly a bit challenging. Plus, once Bill would get the sails set, the wind would shift slightly. Very aggravating! My aggravation was the following seas. Those who wish “Fair winds and following seas” have never been on Galt in following seas. The waves pick up the back end of the boat and Galt slides far to the right and then shifts back left before settling in for the next wave. It drives my vestibular system insane! In order to distract me, nature sent the most amazing pod of dolphins. We think it must have been the nursery pod because the dolphins were all about 2 to 3 feet long and had sweet pink bellies with spots on their backs. They would start behind Galt and catch a wave whisking by us and then launch themselves into the air doing flips and twists. It was amazing!
Even with the persnickety winds and the sliding ass end of Galt, we arrived around lunchtime on Sunday in Santa Marta, Colombia. More than halfway to our destination! Prior to arrival, we were introduced to the Colombian coast guard via their VHF call outs starting at 5am. They were trying to contact a boat and repeated the call every 5 minutes for at least 2 hours, “Motor vessel, Katarina. This is the Colombian coast guard. You can copy?” It got to the point that we were going to answer the hail just to make them stop. Our fun started once we pulled into Santa Marta and contacted the port authority for permission to sleep overnight and move on rather than check into customs in Santa Marta. Between their English, our Spanish and our 40 year old VHF radio crackles, we did not do well communicating. We finally contacted the local marina and they contacted the port authority for us. It turned out that all the hullabaloo was because we were anchored in an area they did not like. So, after relocating 200 yards away and dropping anchor, all was good! Even the all night party on the Santa Marta beach could not keep us awake because we were both so exhausted. At 2:30am, we arose and headed out to tackle the day of the infamous Rio Magdalena. The river is infamous because it flows from the mountains into the ocean and it carries massive amounts of debris including reports of entire trees, dead cows and even cars. The previous morning, the flapper valve on our exhaust system failed. After a little research, Bill determined the valve’s main job was to keep animals and foreign objects out of the exhaust line so we knew it could be repaired once we reached Cartagena. One by-product of the missing flapper that we had not considered was the weight of the water that would sit at the end of the exhaust pipe. As we chugged along toward the river on Monday morning, I noticed the bilge pump was coming on more than usual. Bill went down to check on the situation and immediately turned off Larry the Lehman engine. Never a good sign! He quickly explained (quickly because other wise I freak out!) that the elbow came loose from the exhaust line which meant that sea water from the engine cooling system was flooding into the bilge. Like Superman, he grabbed his socket wrenches and spare hose clamps and jumped into the engine room while I held open the hatch door so it would not slam on his head. Without the engine, the boat tossed and turned relentlessly but somehow, Bill got the new clamps onto the exhaust line. The only injury occurred when I tried to get the wrench set for him and fell across the floor onto my knees. I’m going to have a bruise to show for it. Thus…the reason my only job is to hold the hatch door! After far too much excitement at 3:00am, we cranked Larry and headed on our way with no further leaking issues. We had carefully planned to arrive at the Magdalena around 10am in the morning which was reportedly the best time to pass. We knew if we stuck close to the shoreline we would not encounter any large waves or winds. As we approached the river, we heard a hail on the VHF from the port authority. The port authority told us that we had to head out 3 miles from the coastline to cross the river. Are you kidding me? Three miles in Galt time is around a 40 minute trek. Given no other option, Bill turned Galt and headed out to sea. The waves were no longer following. The waves were directly on the side of the boat. The waves were no longer 3 to 6 feet. The waves were 10 to 12 feet. The wind was howling. Needless to say, I had a bit of a meltdown but Bill was once again my Superman and muscled Galt through it all. At three miles out, he turned Galt back to the following seas and I was never so happy to have following seas! In my life, I have had many “that is the darnedest thing!” moments. I once stood five feet from a flow of lava that melted everything in its’ path….that is the darnedest thing! I once had a kid I worked with for seven years who left therapy at 4pm on a Tuesday able to communicate only in single words. When he walked in for therapy on Wednesday at 3:30pm, he was talking in complete paragraphs….that is the darnedest thing! In regards to the Magdalena River…..THAT IS THE DARNEDEST THING! As we approached, both Bill and I fell silent. Staring. Trying to figure out what we were seeing. At first, we both thought we were staring at an odd strip of land that just happened to protrude 3 miles out into the ocean. Then, we thought perhaps it was a huge mass of sargassum. Then, we both realized, it was the RIVER! Three miles out into the ocean, this river spewed and roiled brown water that was at least 5 miles wide. The ocean went from its’ beautiful blue to coffee colored water in an instant. As we approached the demarcation line, nerves were on high alert. About that time, one of our plastic water bottles escaped and rolled onto the deck. Bill said, “Grab the water bottle before it flies off” to which I responded, “They are talking about dead cows and cars floating by me and they want me to be concerned about a water bottle? I think not!” (I actually added a little colorful language related to plastic and kissing a part of my anatomy but I won’t go into it!) As we crossed into the brown water deluge, Galt began to fly! We were averaging 9 knots and even hit 10 knots a few times! We scanned the water for dangerous refuse but none arrived. Perhaps the river knew we had reached our darnedest thing limit for one day. After a night of sleep in a very windy bay, we continued our final day into Cartagena. The waters were flat and the winds calm so it was an easy last leg. The beautiful, white skyline of Cartagena rose out of the sea to greet us under a threatening sky that thankfully did not welcome us with rain. We had a bit of a challenge getting Galt into the tight slip at the marina with dock staff that only spoke Spanish and not one of them in charge. Luckily, a couple of cruisers came over to assist and on the fourth try, Bill slid Galt into place. We then ran for a hot shower, a delicious dinner (sorry, I forgot pics!) and some very cold and well-earned beers. We look forward to exploring Cartagena this week and I promise to take food pictures for my foodies! This blog was written on Wednesday morning after we arrived on Tuesday. I will not be updating this blog for our end of week activities but I will include them next week. We need some rest!
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AuthorSally Miller Archives
May 2024
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