Worth the Wait

We sat at San Ignacio for a bit over two weeks waiting for a good weather window to make our crossing to Colombia, and it was worth the wait. For two weeks the forecasts said the seas were in the 8 to 15' range with 20 knots of wind out of the NE which would be right on the nose for us. When we saw the forecast for last thursday with slightly moderated conditions we weighed anchor and headed out but quickly turned around. The conditions where just uncomfortable and we couldn't make any reasonable speed.

As we continued to check the weather forecasts on Friday and Saturday it appeared that Sunday was going to be the day. We awoke early Sunday morning and indeed it did appear that the weather had moderated as the winds shifted to the south and the waved crashing over the reef in front of us were considerably smaller. So at 9am we weighed anchor and headed out. What a difference three more days made in waiting. The winds were 10 knots out of the south, perfect for sailing, and the seas where a very comfortable 3-6 feet nicely spaced out. And a pleasant surprise was the current coming from behind pushing us a little faster.

We had planned on at least a 30 hour trip to one of the Colombian islands where we would have spent the night, then continue on to Cartagena the following day which would have taken us another six hours. Our trip was not what we had expected, and that was okay. As it turned out the wind direction remained between south and northwest, never on the nose so we had full sails most of the trip. The current was favorable almost the entire and while it was never less than one knot we had 1.5 knots pushing us most of the trip, occasionally 2 knots. The seas were very comfortable with nicely spaced out 2-4 feet once we got into deeper water.

Along the way we dodged a few squalls, had numerous dolphins playing under our bowsprit and jumping on either side of us, saw a few large container ships and a couple small fishing boats. We installed not too long ago an Automatic Identification System (AIS) which transmits our postion and other data as well as receives info from other vessels that are equipped with an AIS system (large ships are required to be equipped and transmitting). Our AIS receiver paid off at 1030pm when it was dark and squalls all around us. Our radar is great at picking up ships and rain squalls however if a ship is inside a dense squall the return only comes back as one target. In this case I was tracking a large dense squall six miles to the north of us when the AIS display beeped to indicate that a ship, Cold Stream, was in our proximity. The reason we didn't see it on radar was because it was hidden in the squall. The AIS information indicated that it was on a collision course with us so I hailed Cold Stream on the radio. After a brief yet polite conversation and confirming our position Cold Stream altered course and passed two miles behind us. Without the Simrad NAIS-300 AIS system we would not have know of Cold Stream's position until it popped out of the squall, probably too close for comfort.

While we expected our trip to take much longer it only took 27 hours from the time we raised anchor until we reached Cartagena. There was one sailboat that left the San Blas Islands on the same Thursday that we turned around, it took them 48 hours in the rough seas. Other boats that left on Friday arrived two days later as well. Our contribute our comfortable and speedy trip to waiting patiently for the right weather.

Right now we're secured in our slip at Club de Pesca Yacht Club where we will remain for the summer. We're happy to see our friends Dan and Jaime (s/v Nereia) whom we haven't seen in four years. Time to get the boat all cleaned up and gear stowed.