Nov
9 2013
Greetings,
Well, here I am again, writing an
update once a month, whether I need to or not. I’ve got a lot to share as it
has been a very busy month (hence no
updates). I’m going to start with where we are now and go back later to give
the how-we-got-here parts.
At the moment we are on anchor in the
harbor in Cartagena Colombia. Cartagena is a big city with both modern high
rises and an old colonial area. The harbor is well protected from the sea so
most of the wave action comes from the boat traffic. So far, it’s very calm at
night when the water taxis, jet skis and cigarette boats aren’t running around.
We have a varied view around us. To the E is a container loading dock, which is
interesting to watch in operation. Just N of that, a four masted, Chilean Naval
training ship is docked. Every morning and evening their band plays the anthem
while they raise or lower the colors (flags). Most of the anchorage and the
marinas are to our N so lots of other boats to look at. The old colonial part
of the city is to the NW and to the W are the high rises that line the beach. We
arrived on the 5th and have just begun exploring. It’s a tourist
area so you have to “No, Gracias” constantly everywhere you go.
Our friends, Daryl and Marcy made the
trip from Panama with us and the crossing was wonderful. We had great weather,
clam seas and dolphins on at least two watches. (Johne and Marcy saw some at
sun rise and I saw them on the first night with bio luminescent trails in the
water behind them which was so cool.) We did have a minor problem. The
starboard main engine raw water intake developed a leak, which Daryl saw on a
regular engine room check and brought to the Captains attention. After shutting
down that engine Johne set about seeing how bad the problem was. The strainer
assembly, above where it was leaking/cracked, was wobbly when he touched it and
it didn’t take much for it to break off the rest of the way. Johne had closed
the inlet ball valve but it needs servicing and there was still water coming
in. So we made a plastic-bag-and-gaffers-tap patch and got the water stopped.
The bilge pumps stayed ahead of the whole thing and it should be a pretty easy
repair. But it meant finishing the trip on one engine. Maneuvering in the
anchorage was a little more challenging that way, but no big deal.
Canal: The sequel
Backing up some more; before the trip
from Panama to Colombia we had to get back through the canal. I was looking
forward to making the transit again. Having done it once, I was much more
confident that everything would go smoothly on the return. What I discovered was
that, depending on the circumstances at any given moment (What other boats are
going through at the same time, weather, currents, how the guys on the wall
handle the lines, etc.) each lock is different and even if you think you’re
ready, things change on the fly (in one lock a tug joined our group, which
meant that instead of being tied to the big tourist boat as we had been for the
previous locks, the big boat tied to the tug and we were on the wall behind
them. And we didn’t find that out until we were at that lock).
The transit started early in the
morning. We had Daryl and Marcy aboard already but, we had other friends coming
along just for the experience (Ethan, Nancy and 8-year-old Zada who live and travel
on their boat, and Kevin, a Brit who works for the embassy here in Colombia and
his friend Vanessa). They all had to get to Second Star before 0700 when the
canal adviser was supposed to arrive. Kevin and Vanessa arrived by water taxi
just as we were getting under way to go to the coordinates where we would pick
up the adviser. We had given Ethan that location and he had arranged with
another cruiser for a dinghy ride to meet us. They were there when we arrived
and, shortly after we’d gotten everyone aboard and situated, we got a call on
the radio from the canal authorities saying the adviser was on the way. 45
minutes later he was aboard and we headed toward the canal. He said our first lock
time was 0940 so we had plenty of time. Johne ask him when we could be
expecting to arrive in Colon. He looked at his paper work and said we weren’t scheduled
for the Gatun locks so we’d be staying in the lake overnight. What! That wasn’t
in the plan. We had 9 people aboard not counting the adviser (who wouldn’t be
staying overnight) and Kevin had plans the next day. Johne told the adviser
that one of our passengers had a flight to catch in the morning and ask if
there was any way to get us through. He said he’d try but he didn’t seem to
think it was likely. Johne went and talked to Kevin about it and Kevin came and
asked, if we couldn’t get through, if there was some place in the middle he
could get off. Maybe where the tourist boat discharges passengers? Again Armado
said he’d see what they could do. Kevin was working for the British embassy in
Panama before he went to Colombia. He knows some high up people in the canal
authority and asked Armado to say hi for him (a little name dropping never
hurts, right?) After Armado had been on the radio with the canal authority
trying to make the arrangements, he asked to see Kevin and Vanessa’s ID’s. When
he saw Kevin’s diplomat ID the answers started to change. They had told us no on
getting all the way through but, when he had talked to them some more he came
and said there was good news and bad news. The bad news was they weren’t going
to let Kevin and Vanessa get off at the tourist boat stop, but the good news
was they were going to let us go all the way through as long as we could get to
the lock in time. We weren’t going to have any trouble making the time slot so,
with much relief, we cruised on though. So, I’ve decided that it’s good to have
a diplomat handy when you need to stack the deck in your favor. I now refer to
it as playing the Kevin card. Kevin says the K card doesn’t always work, but it
certainly worked well that day.
The weeks before the transit were a bit
stressful. The boat on which Johne had gotten the welding job went out to the
Perles and the Darien while the materials were being ordered and the first part
of the framing was done. They had said they would be back by the 20th
which would have given Johne enough time, even with some rain delays, to finish
the job before his Panama visa ran out. As it turned out, they didn’t get back
until the 24th, having misunderstood the time constraints. So then
it was a huge push to get the job done in time. Johne worked long days, even
welding until 9:45 one night. While all of that was going on I was trying to
make sure everything was ready to go aboard Second Star. From restocking and
stowing things aboard, to making sure all the paperwork was taken care of for
checking out of the country. In the end it all got done but it was a push and it
was good to start for Cartagena and have all that behind us.
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