The Trade Winds

It looks like the trade winds have finally returned and should be fairly consistent for the next five or six months. The trade winds here are typically from the northeast at 15 knots. We love them as they not only provide enough breeze to keep us cool and to keep the bugs away but it keeps our wind generator turning filling the batteries with lots of electricity. The trade winds also keep us pointing in a northerly direction which means our solar panels are pointed in the right directions, towards the south somewhere, and giving us the greatest output daily.

Many of the boats that were here for Christmas have left the bay, some returning to Cartagena while others left for Panama. A lot of our items that we ordered have arrived in Colombia but we're still waiting on two more shipments before we can haul out to take care of some repairs and maintenance items. We're now on the calendar with Manzanillo Club Marina to be hauled out on January 24th. We hope not to be out for more than a week before we get back in the water, at which time we 'hope' to be on our way to the San Blas Islands in Panama.

Its a beautiful day today, a lot of sun and a nice breeze. A perfect day for taking our laundry in to Maria.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to all.

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Crowded Cholon

More and more sailboats keep pulling into Cholon and dropping anchor, there are now 26 boats anchored here. And most of them we have never met before as they're new to the area so we've been meeting a few. Its strange as we've grown so accustomed to our 'usual' crowd, but its nice as well. There are over 50 people now expected up at Robert's house for Christmas pot luck dinner. David and I won't be going though, we'll remain on the boat and enjoy a nice quiet day together.

We did get our Christmas presents a day early, two shipments arrived to our boat from the states and two more shipments are expected before we haul out to do some repairs and maintenance. Lets see, what did we get this year? New gas tank for the dingy, four gallons of antifouling bottom paint, three tubes of sealant, new thru hulls, metal polish, wax and the list goes on. Oh, I did get David a surprise and non-boat related gift. I got him a new cover for his Kindle e-book reader. He'll be very happy.

Potato Balls

This morning we had a traditional breakfast that David bought from the town of Baru this morning. A potato isn't something that your doctor would recommend you eat every day, but it is a very delicious treat. To make a potato ball one starts out with a hard boiled egg (or half of one depending on the size of the ball), then a ground meat mixture is wrapped around the egg to make what looks like a large meatball. Then mashed potatoes are packed up against the meat and egg ball to make a larger ball about the size of a softball. Then with a little bit of batter it is deep fried. It really is excellent and even better with a little hot sauce. I thought about taking a picture of mine before eating but I couldn't wait. Maybe next time.

White caps in the bay

Its not often that we get white caps in the Bay of Cholon but we've had them now for over 24 hours. There is a front moving through bring with it winds steady at 25 knots with gusts over 30. Our batteries were full and the wind generator was just pumping in more and more amps so we turned on all sorts of lights and plugged in both our computers just so that we wouldn't over charge the batteries. Its not often we generator more electricity than we need but today was an exception. By late afternoon I ended up tying off the wind generator, I'll let it go again tomorrow to charge the batteries back up. The forecast is calling for a few more days of strong winds so the boats that were hoping to sail to the San Blas are continuing to wait. They're more concerned about the high seas created by the winds than the winds themselves. Fortunately the holding here is excellent so no one has had a problem staying put on their anchors.

Anchored a few hundred yards in front of us a small sailboat with a Colombian lady and her two sons living aboard. Late this afternoon they were ashore behind us and began to dingy back to their boat when their outboard quit. Despite their furious attempts at rowing they could not make any progress against the wind and current and eventually they drifted close by our boat. The older boy jumped into the water and swam to Bruadair towing his family in their dingy. We tied them up to our boat and brought them aboard for a half hour, when the rain quit David and I launched our dingy and I towed them back to their boat. It was a challenge launching and raising our dingy in these conditions but it was the right thing to do. I'm glad they got home safely.

Spirit in Cholon

This afternoon the sailing vessel Spirit made an all ships call on the VHF radio to the boats in Cholon, they had left Cartagena and was a few miles out of Cholon and had never been in before. For the first timer entering Cholon can be intimidating with its shallow water and numerous reefs. Even though Spirit had waypoints for entering he was calling asking for advice as the seas out there were big and confused only adding to the intimidation. Mike on Astarte had offered to guide him in on VHF but Spirit's vhf radio is down below in the cabin and no forms of communications existed in his cockpit. For a solo sailor this makes navigating and communication impossible. So after some further discussions I launched our dingy, went over to Astarte and picked up Mike then we headed out into the sloppy seas where we met Spirit. I came alongside Spirit and Mike jumped aboard with his handheld vhf radio, then I took off in front of Spirit and guided them in with occasional instructions on the radio. Spirit made it in safely and the day ended well, though I did get pretty wet out in the confused seas. Small price to pay in helping someone out.

The sunshine went away today and we thought it might rain but it never did. We watched numerous squalls skirt us in every direction except for right over us.

Five Canadian Boats

Early this morning five Canadian boats left Cholon for the San Blas Islands. There are a few more boats here waiting but I think they're waiting for a better weather window which might be another week. At this point I'm not sure there is a big hurry to get to the San Blas Islands as the boats there are reporting non-stop rain now for over a week. I think we're going to have to make a trip into Baru today, we have two bags of garbage that need disposing of and that will give us a chance to get a few things from the tienda. Last night neither of us were very hungry so we didn't have dinner. I did get a little bit of the munchies so I had a bowl of popcorn while we were watching a movie.

Today is yet another beautiful sunny day. Not sure what is on the agenda for today but we'll probably go over and visit Hello World and Astarte for a little bit.

Christmas already?

I went to a few stores today looking for some odds and ends and I was amazed at all the Christmas trees, decorations and gift packs that are displayed in every aisle. I know its December and that Christmas is only a couple of weeks away, but when its 80 plus degrees outside its hard to think Christmas...

Guess I should think about buying a gift for David. Maybe a new thru hull or seacock, or how about that expensive water pump for the engine? Maybe not, maybe something not so boat related. Hmmmmmm

Arrangements Made

I'm in the big city of Cartagena for a couple days and headed back to the boat in Cholon tomorrow morning. I had a chance to visit the Manzanillo Marina Club and we've made an appointment in January to haul the boat for a week. We'll get our engine repairs done then I hope, and we will strip all the old bottom paint off the boat and replace it with new, and Bruadair will get a good washing and polishing. We had hoped to get everything done sooner but with the upcoming holidays we had to wait until after the first of the year. Until then we'll sit anchored in Cholon.

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Not going anywhere

Five boats left Cholon yesterday for the San Blas Islands and we weren't one of them. During our normal engine inspection that we usually do before going offshore we noticed that our raw water pump was leaking. This pump provides sea water for cooling the engine so it doesn't over heat, without it we can't run the engine which we depend on when maneuvering in tight quarters or areas where there are a lot of reefs (like the San Blas). Unfortunately our engine is so old that Yanmar no longer makes spare parts for most of it including the raw water pump, and there are no aftermarket options for this particular engine. We're stumped on how to proceed in getting our engine up and running again and buying a new engine is quite expensive so for now I guess we'll just sit here in the Bay of Cholon until we can come up with a plan. On the down side we have a very limited time that we can stay in Colombia as Immigration only allows one to stay 6 months in a 12 month period, we're close to exhausting our time so we may put Bruadiar up on the hard for a while and have to leave the country. Its frustrating but it is what has been dealt to us so we'll hang in and see how it plays out.

Looks like Sunday

As of today it looks like we'll be leaving Sunday for the San Blas Islands. The forecast is calling for moderated seas at 3-6' and winds out of the north to northeast 10 to 15 knots so it should be a good trip, provided the forecast holds true. We will be sailing to San Ignacio de Tupile which is about 160 miles away and we expect it to take around 32 hours plus or minus. If we have any current on the nose it'll take longer but we hope not. Ken and Marilyn on Dream Ketch'r will be sailing to San Ignacio with us while Solange IV and Five Islands will be sailing a little further south to Isla Pinos. We'll probable see them again some place in the San Blas.

The only things we have left to do before leaving is to go fill up a jerry can with gasoline at the nearby tienda, take the outboard off the dingy and stow it on the rail, clean the propeller and check the bottom to see if it needs any cleaning, finish stowing a few things down below in the cabin and lay our jacklines from the cockpit to the bow. The jacklines are lines on either side of the boat that we clip our harnesses into so that we don't fall overboard in the event it gets rough. We hope we don't have to use them! David will probably do a little bit of cooking so we have some easy to eat meals while we're underway. We'll probably wait until Saturday to do all of this. Fingers are crossed for a steady forecast...