A voyage to Colombia
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On 26th January Saecwen slipped her mooring off St George’s, Grenada heading due west. After a couple wonderful months in the islands of the Eastern Caribbean, it was time to head back out to sea.
Conditions were near perfect for our departure. Around 15kns of wind from the east were forecast for the coming days and with such ideal trade wind conditions anticipated, as soon as we had cleared the wind shadow of Grenada’s mountains, we set our twin foresails and off we went.
The only initial complication we faced was political given the first 500 miles of the voyage would take us within 50 miles of the Venezuelan coast and offshore islands. Before departure we duly submitted a “Float Plan” to the US Coast Guard – which essentially said “we are a small British yacht and not drug-runners – so please don’t shoot at us”.
On our first night out during Heloise’s watch, we were buzzed very closely by a helicopter – which we assumed could only have been US military. However, after this somewhat disturbing incident, we saw no further evidence of the political upheaval unfolding in Venezuela. So we happily carried on our way seeing only the occasional ship in the distance, including the extraordinary sight of the huge “Disney Princess” a cruise ship lit up like a Christmas tree on the horizon.
We did have some other interesting visitors along our route. On Charlie’s night watch on the second night out a pod of acrobatic dolphins were leaping all around the boat for about 20 minutes in the moonlight. And then just after sunset on Day 3 we heard a whoosh of air accompanied by the smell of very fishy breath. A group of killer whales had surfaced alongside Saecwen and were swimming along a few meters off our stern. This was the first time we had encountered Orcas in the flesh and whilst they were clearly very curious about us, they thankfully showed none of the anti-social behaviour of their Iberian cousins.
The first 4 days of the passage were idyllic. We hardly had to touch the sheets of our twin foresails and the boat maintained a steady 6-7 knots of speed. The absolute highlight of the passage was the waxing January moon – which by our last night at sea reach its full status. Sailing down the “moon glade” at night in the tropics has to be one of the most magnificent sailing experiences possible.
By day 5 the weather was clearly starting to change. We had cleared the Dutch Islands and on reaching the Venezuelan - Colombian boarder we needed to alter course to the southwest to follow the coast round. With 12 hours we had had to alter the sails no less than six times, taking down the twin foresails, setting the mainsail and mizzen, jibing the main and then progressively reefing it as the wind gradually picked up in strength.
Our destination was the Colombian port of Santa Marta – where we planned to leave the boat for a few days to do the famous 4 day hike through the rainforest and up to the Sierra Nevada to visit the Tayrona ruins of the famous Cuidad Perdida (otherwise known as the lost City), in the heart of what are now the lands of the Cogi and Wiwa communities.
Some strong northerly winds were forecast, but we were confident we would be able take shelter in the port’s marina. However, this was not to be. On arrival at around midnight the Columbian coastguard authorities gave instructions via the VHF radio that under no circumstances were we to enter the marina until the morning and that we were to anchor outside in the port. With the wind now building up from the north, this left us anchored on a totally exposed lee shore. The next morning, to our growing horror conditions rapidly deteriorated further. A huge surge was now running into the marina caused by the 2-meter-high swell and the authorities then confirmed to us that we could not enter the harbour and that we had to take our chances outside. At around midday we noticed that the swell had suddenly increased by at least a further meter and we were in danger of being overwhelmed by what was now huge breaking surf waves just a few metres away from us. We immediately got the anchor up and moved further out into the deeper water.
During the next 24 hours the marina clearly started to break up. Throughout the night the VHF was reporting pontoons breaking, mooring warps snapping and the dockmaster calling for yachts to put out their anchors (in the marina!). A dawn we were presented with the sight of huge waves breaking over the marina breakwater and surging into the habour and a huge hole having been punched clean through the break water.
Whilst the experience of having to ride out the storm at anchor with no shelter was a deeply uncomfortable experience, we counted our blessings that we had escaped being trapped inside the marina, where we heard reports of boats flipping over and sinking. A few hundred meters down the coast a large cargo ship has dragged her anchor and ended up on the beachOur next priority was to get away from this place as soon as possible and head back out to sea.But that was also not an option. A small craft restriction has been imposed along the entire Caribbean coast of Columbia – forbidding boats to go to sea. When the one other yacht who shared our fate out in the anchorage tried to leave they were chased out to sea by a military craft and escorted back. The coast guard meanwhile informed us we were breaking the law by being anchored out in the deepwater channel of the port and that we needed to move back into the designated yacht anchorage or the marina. When we politely informed them that the marina had more or less broken up and was in any case refusing to allow us entry and that the designated anchorage was now a surf beach, we reached something of an impasse. Heloise’s fluent Spanish thankfully prevailed and she managed to persuade the coast guard to grant us an exceptional dispensation to depart.
At midnight we raised our wonderful trustworthy anchor – which had solidly held Saecwen in place during the last crazy 48 hours – and we sailed back out to sea. Despite a horrible wallowing residual swell from the storm it was a huge relief to be back out in the open and under sail again.
Dawn found of the Bocas de Ceniza the mouth of Magdalena River – Columbia’s largest watercourse. Here the torrential rain of the last 48 hours had produced a vast slick of coffee coloured water and debris pouring miles out into the ocean. However, once past this, the sea turned a beautiful colour of jade green, and we ran all the way down the coast anchoring in the vast natural and extremely well protected Cartagena harbour at one in the morning.
This was the longest passage Heloise and Charlie had undertaken together thus far: just under a thousand miles. 7 nights at sea and two nights at anchor on a lee shore in a near gale. It gave us huge new confidence in Saecwen, (and not least in our anchor) and our ability to handle her together.
