It's For Sail: 87) Columbia


Extra lines securing the dinghy.

Run-off from Rio Magdalena, Barranquilla, Columbia

This entire passage has been plagued with high seas with cresting waves, high winds and rough conditions. The seas have been up to 12-15’ and the winds reached 42 knots. At one time I was in the time-out chair and several waves crested above my eye level. Once again this has been a very rough ride. I now have formed opinions about the areas that we have transited and don’t really want to do a downwind Caribbean run again.

The u-bolt on the front of the dinghy has not been replaced so we could not raise the dinghy with a halyard to put it on the forward deck. We hung it from the davits on the transom and on the a.m. walk I noticed that it was loose and had swung towards the starboard side. We had to add more lines and add more fenders to try to keep it from swinging. We still have a dinghy!

Rio Magdalena, Barranquilla, Columbia

Route from Barbados to Cartagena

On this a.m. walk I found only 3 flying fish. At 940am we crossed into a body of water that was a different color. The color went from deep blue to deep green to light green. It was the strangest thing. John says that the river Rio Magdalena flows out in this area and the sediment is from erosion along the river due to mining, etc. It was immediately obvious that there were no longer any flying fish. We exited the green water at 1245pm. While in it we were 15 miles offshore and on all horizons the water was light green.

Offshore Columbia

We had a very rough ride this entire passage. One night while Alan was on watch and sitting in the aft part of the cockpit a wave broke on the aft quarter and he got pretty wet. Waves were breaking all around us. At times they would break and hit the side of the boat and it sounded like we were hit by a rock. The boat would lift up on a swell and start to turn sideways, correct and then surf. Our speed would go from 6 to 9+ knots while surfing. All this, while motoring because the swells and wind were directly aft of us. This was a very fast memorable passage. We saw several freighters heading east and pounding into the waves. The height and spray on their bows was spectacular.

We arrived at the anchorage around 1130pm and after a couple tries set the hook. The route into the bay to the anchorage took about an hour and we spent time looking for red and

green-lighted markers and also checking the nav screen. The squiggly image depicts the boat route while setting the hook. We dropped it twice and set it the 2^nd time. When the hook sets the boat draws a square pattern with GPS and we can verify if the boat is hooked or dragging with the image on the nav screen.