Mola's, panama hats, fava beans & Kuna Indians...

I'm so excited to be spending the next few weeks in the San Blas Islands, and I'm looking forward to exploring Panama with Bob, Danni, and then Frieda at the end of the month.

Despite everyone and his wife with a boat going there, I'm sure it will be wonderful. I have my camera batteries charged ready to take a million photo's. I have a cupboard stocked with toys and candy for the Kuna Indian San Blas children, fishing hooks for the men and sewing materials for the woman, hopefully we'll be graciously received.  I may have to buy some mola's.

I won't have an Internet signal while I'm there, but I will write my blog and post it around the last week in January, so this will be my last post for a while.

Happy New Year to all my readers.  God Bless

Heather, Bob, Niki, Scoop, Edi & Danni

Please pray for a safe passage for us!

Cartagena

Yes I must agree with everyone who told me Cartagena Old city was beautiful, it truly is, I loved it, the history, the lovely old architecture, the colors in the city, it’s breathtakingly beautiful.  I loved the fabulous old buildings, the fun atmosphere, the wonderful restaurants. The wall surrounding the city where you can walk, take a drink at a chic bar or a meal at a fun restaurant, it's all fun.

 As for the little I saw of the rest of Cartagena I found it to be somewhat chaotic, streets filled with  garbage, more street vendors than stores, selling God only knows what, we didn’t stop to ask.  Maybe it was just the small amount of the city that I saw, I'm sure there is more to Cartagena, I just didn't have the opportunity to explore as much as I would have liked.

 The harbor didn't impress me, no matter where you drop anchor the speedboats will get you.  They seem to take delight in seeing how much they can rock the boats as they tear past at full speed creating huge wakes.  We had water coming in through the portholes from some of the wakes, Daniela's bed was soaked, and my galley flooded.  At first I thought it was just where we were anchored, but having watched the speedboats as they weaved in and out between the anchored boats, it was so obvious they were deliberately rocking them. 

They start around 8am each morning, then it’s constant rocking until around 6pm, some of the speedboats came so close I thought they were going to hit us, it was quite scary.  There is no doubt that they do it deliberately, and if their aim is to scare off the tourist’s then they are successful, at least in my case as I would not wish to return to this anchorage.  

I would however return to the Rosario islands, they were so beautiful, but even there everyone told us of the high crime rate, and that you must lock everything up, especially the dinghy’s, they will disappear in a heartbeat if left unattended.  It’s very sad that such an incredibly beautiful part of the world is so tainted by bad behavior and dishonesty. 

Shopping nightmare

We needed to finish our provisioning today, so we were ready to head out with a fully stocked boat.  Having read the boaters information about Cartagena, Carrefour appeared to be the place to go.  For those of you unfamiliar with Cartagena or planning a trip here BE WARNED!

Our experience shopping in Carrefour was not a pleasant one.  The cab drops you off in a huge underground parking lot of the mall, where you really have no clue where you are.  Finding the Carrefour was not particularly easy, thousands of people and screaming children bustled around everywhere, it was noisy, hot and confusing, no one speaks English, and of course we speak no Spanish, so asking for help was impossible, everyone we tried to ask just laughed at us.

Eventually we did find the store.  The selection of foods and beverages was limited and expensive, obnoxiously loud music was playing and really getting on my nerves, the isles were full of people, which made moving our 2 carts through very difficult, it was a shopping nightmare, I couldn’t get out of there fast enough.  It took us about 90 minutes to get only ¾ of the things we needed, so we left.  We were helped with our carts down to the underground parking lot where you ask at a desk for a ticket for a taxi, then you stand in the stifling heat while an attendant takes your ticket and puts you in a queue for the taxi’s which arrive about every 10 minutes, there were at least 50 maybe more people ahead of us, not counting the ones who jumped the line.  This was an example of disorganization at its finest. There was a group of small children playing while their mothers stood and chatted, the children were running around with a ball all screaming as loud as they could, I had to cover my ears the noise was so bad. We stood and waited for over an hour in intense heat while we were passed over by people time and time again pushing in front, before Bob lost his cool and demanded the next taxi.  Our taxi was the typical Cartagena tiny bubble of a car, and getting 3 cartloads of groceries and the two of us in was a challenge to say the least.  I was wedged in the back, crushed by the bags of groceries, and holding 60 eggs in my lap, an accident waiting to happen.

Our relief at finally getting a taxi didn’t last long, because then we had to get out of the parking lot.  The roads were crammed with vehicles all stopped, no one could move and a policeman trying to direct traffic was being totally unsuccessful, motorbikes were flying past in both directions over the sidewalks, people were getting out of their vehicles and moving the bollards so they could drive over the sidewalks, everyone was blowing their horns, quite why, I have no clue, it had no effect other than to add to the infernal noise.  Our one saving grace was that our cab was air-conditioned.

The direction we needed to go in was completely jammed with stationary vehicles, so the cab driver drove in the opposite direction, and took us through an area where he had to lock our doors because it was dangerous.  The streets were full of people, hundreds of them everywhere you looked, the roads were just jammed with vehicles in all directions, and we barely got out of first gear.

Carrefour was only a 3-minute cab ride from the marina, but because all the roads were jammed, we had to drive all the way around the city, which turned into a 30-minute cab ride to reach the marina.

We left to do our shopping at 3:30 in the afternoon and arrived back at the marina at 8:15 pm.  Our shopping trip had taken almost 5 hours. I was thoroughly exhausted.

For those of you that may come here in the future, there is a perfectly acceptable supermarket just a 2 minute walk from the marina, it’s a little more expensive than Carrefour, but with none of the hassle. I can honestly say Carrefour was not worth the trip, it will be a cold day in hell before I ever return there.

Beauty and The Beast

The old city of Cartagena is absolutely beautiful, with its flower strewn balconies and brightly painted houses, it truly is a city of color.  There are many emerald stores, all offering a “special promotion” today. The streets are overflowing with vendors selling everything from fruit and vegetables, to designer knock off sunglasses and watches.  It’s a fun city to explore, and eat in, there is an abundance of restaurants to suit every taste and pocket, we found all the food to be really good.

The one thing that upset me was all the horse drawn carriages, I have never seen so many poor, starved, sad, emaciated horses, it made me cry to look at them, you could see every rib, and the poor things looked so dejected, most of them were lame and covered with sores from the harsh ropes used to harness them. We saw them whipped mercilessly while pulling heavy carriages filled with overweight tourist’s that probably didn’t give the poor creature a second glance, as they jumped in to take their horse drawn carriage ride”.

If any of these people had an ounce of compassion they would be unable to condone this cruelty, their selfish ignorance insures the continued abuse of these animals.

Who is worse, the guys who abuse and starve the horses, or the ignorant tourists who fund the abuse by taking the carriage rides, keeping the demand high. 

Would you take a pleasure ride in a carriage with a horse that looked like this?
Notice the poor starved horse and the fat, overweight carriage driver!

I’m sorry to preach from my soapbox, but animal cruelty is something I simply can’t stand.

Yo Ho Ho and a bottle of Rum! Revenge is sweet.

I needed rum today, despite the fact that it's the one drink I really don't like, yet more testament to the fact that I am not a natural sailor.  The short (3 hour) passage between the Rosario islands and Cartagena was  horrid, everyone felt seasick and Nicolette actually turned green as the boat bounced around up and down over the huge waves in 22 - 25 knot winds, we were all soaked and cold. Edi still has pain and sinus problem with his water-logged ear, and the motion of the boat wasn't helping at all.  Danni was cheerful and doing her best to keep everyone positive, it was a HORRIBLE leg, I'm praying the passage to Panama will not be like this one.

We eventually arrived back in the harbor at Cartagena safely without anyone actually being sick, following what seemed like an endless trip, and headed over to the fuel dock, we were out of fuel, water, beer, wine, food and just about every consumable item on the boat.  Coming alongside on the small dock was surprisingly easy, but it took a while to fill both fuel tanks.

We wanted to wash the boat off before leaving the dock, but there was only one available water hose and dive boats were coming and going washing off their boats after their trips.  We were waiting for the hose pipe which was being used by one of the dive boats when another dive boat came in.
The guy serving us at the fuel dock told the guys in the dive boat that we were next in line to use the hose pipe. Not knowing that Scoop spoke fluent Spanish, the dive boat captain said that they wanted to use it next and that we had to wait, what did we matter!
The service attendant on the fuel dock waited for the first dive boat to finish then took the hose from him as the other guy attempted to take it.  The hose was brought around to us as the other guy cussed us in Spanish.
Danni started washing off the decks and Scoop told her to take her time, the guy had been so rude we would make him wait, and we did, it was really funny watching his expression when we eventually handed him the hose and Scoop told him in Spanish what a jerk he was, and we all stood and laughed, that will teach him, maybe he will be a little more respectful next time, but I doubt it. Revenge is sweet!

Scoop took us to a lovely outside restaurant on the wall surrounding the old city for dinner, where we sat next to the old cannons and overlooked the ocean on one side and the beautiful old city on the other.  We were served huge platters of food which we devoured with gusto not having had anything other than cup-a-soup, crackers and cereals all day.
Tomorrow we go sight-seeing again.

Coconuts

Christmas morning, drinks in coconuts

Boxing Day

Yesterday was Boxing Day in the UK, a National holiday, but not here in Cartagena.  Bob decided to fit the new alternator, so he and Edi worked on it all morning.  Just when we thought the work was finished!

The water was unbelievably clear in the bay this morning, we could see all the way to the sea bed.  Niki, Scoop, Edi and Danni decided to brave the jelly fish and snorkle off the boat, they swam all the way to the shore. We had planned to join them, but by the time Bob had finished clearing up, and I had tidied the boat they were on their way back.
About 30 minutes after they returned, the tide turned and washed a ton of debris into the bay, trees, shrubs and a floating piece of grassland the size of a ship, the water turned green and murky, the skies darkened and a thunderstorm rolled in.
Bob decided to test the new alternator only to discover that it didn't work arhhhhhhhhhhh...

Danni and Edi washed the deck in the rain, and Niki, Scoop and I played rummy.

The weather stayed gray for the rest of the day.

What is this?

Does anyone know what sort of fish this is?

This fish washed up on our deck while we were sailing, it was already dead when we found it, so too late to put it back. I can't find it in any of the books I have,  It weighed about 3 - 4 Lbs, and was 15" long.  

Ed

 Edi at the helm

Food, food, food

 I hope everyone had a great Christmas, ours was very different this year.  Now Christmas is behind us I can safely say there were no disasters, possibly because we had so many last year we are finally being given some down time.
On Christmas eve we visited a beach on one of the islands, there are not a lot of beaches here, but the snorkeling is good, the water very calm and the breeze's wonderfully cooling.  In the evening the people who have been bringing us food, once again invited us to their house.  The one tiny problem we had was that our dinghy seat had broken that day, and as the water around the other side of the island was rough we were worried about traveling there with all of us precariously balanced around a rather uncomfortable metal seat frame, so instead we sent Edi and Scoop with our apologizes.  This wonderful family were not taking no for an answer and sent a boat to pick us up.

They have the loveliest vacation home set on the end of one of the smaller islands, with the boat dock on one side and sea views all around.  The house had a Polynesian feel about it, and was open on both sides letting the breezes blow constantly through the house. In the garden there was a large circular eating area under a palm fringed roof, with tables and chairs, and we all sat around the table for drinks and lively conversation, before going into the house where we were served lobster and popcorn, an unusual but thoroughly delicious appetizer. After a few more drinks we returned to the tables in the garden where the staff served us a flavorful Hungarian Goulash.
Nicholas and his family were so gracious to spend their Christmas eve with us, rarely do you meet people who are so kind and giving.  One of their son's, Jose, turned out to be a chef which explained the delicious food they had been sending us.

                 Nicholas and Espranza

On Christmas Eve they sent us half of a freshly caught 30lb grouper.  The fish was beautifully prepared and ready for the oven, we ate it yesterday for our Christmas lunch, I had planned on serving roast beef for the guys, and crab cakes for Danni, Niki and me, but the grouper looked so good I decided to serve it instead.  I made some coconut rice, pureed yucca, carrots, sauteed squash, and white asparagus, with chocolate covered marzipan fruits for desert.  A very different, non traditional Christmas lunch, but wonderful all the same.
Nicholas sent his boat over this morning with corn fritters for us to have with our breakfast, like all the food Nicholas has sent us the fritters were delicious, and thoroughly enjoyed by all of us.  He and his family came by later to take us all snorkeling off one of the other islands.

Everyone leaving for the snorkeling trip

When everyone returned to Daisy from their snorkeling trip they all came aboard for drinks, I had no food left on board to serve as snacks, an unusual situation for me who normally has a full pantry, but feeding 6 people for the last 6 days has thoroughly depleted my stocks.  I did have rum punch served with the last of the ice, and lemonade.

We have to leave here either later today or tomorrow, we are almost out of drinking water, our food supplies are running very low, and we want to see more of Cartagena before Edi, Niki and Scoop leave on Wednesday.

Christmas

Happy Christmas wishes to all my readers, family and friends...  Thank you all so much for supporting my blog, I really appreciate it.
Love from Colombia
Daisy at Sea
x

The Aquarium

Thursday 23rd December
So we decided to visit the aquarium today, everything we have read about it said it was worth a visit.  It took us about 15 minutes in the dinghy to reach the island, where we were immediately swarmed by the island vendors selling necklaces and other items, they were not happy that we didn't buy anything, although I did buy a dish of some delicious fish.  We enjoyed a beer before walking around to the entrance of the aquarium, only to find they closed for lunch from 1:30 till 3:30, it had only just passed 1:30 so we asked if we could go in, but no one paid any attention to us, we may as well have been invisible.  Scoop attempted to talk to a number of staff but they paid no attention to him, they were obviously not interested in taking our money. So we left.
There is nothing in any of the literature about the aquarium telling you that they close for 2 hours each day, so if you want to visit be sure to get there well before 1:30.

Fun on board, in the islands of Colombia

A friendly boat vendor Nixon, selling his wares.

Edi up to his usual antics swinging from the mast and dancing on the water...

One of the incredible birds at the sanctuary

Murdering Crustaceans

 Wednesday 22nd December

The boat vendors continued to visit Daisy, and we bought jewelry, and stone boxes and carvings from stone and yes, even lobster.  I usually don’t eat lobster because I can’t bear to think of them being boiled alive, but I thought if we kill it quickly and hopefully painlessly that would be OK.  I had no idea of the trauma it would cause me, Danni and Edi.

We filled our large cooler with seawater and put the lobsters in, leaving the lid open so the air could circulate and we wouldn’t end up boiling them in the sun.  Danni took particular interest and gave the small one a name (I knew this would be disastrous especially as we were going to murder and eat it later).  Having read the instructions on how to kill a lobster quickly, and armed with my sharpest chef’s knife Edi volunteered to do the evil deed.  I put a large pot of water on the stove to boil, and with Bob on standby Edi removed the first lobster from the cooler.  I stayed below while Bob and Edi performed the executions.  Poor old Ed was not prepared for the brick hard shell and struggled to insert the knife.  I brought all my children up to love and respect animals, and have consideration for all living things, consequently killing the lobster quite unsettled Edi, Danni was disturbed by it all and when Edi and Bob brought the dead lobsters down for me to cook they all moved as I put them in the water and that made me cry.  Bob assured me that they were actually dead, so I wasn’t boiling them alive but the movement really upset me.

We all ate the lobsters for dinner, but I honestly don’t think any of us really enjoyed them; it wasn’t a pleasant experience, and not one I will repeat in a hurry.

Photo's to follow

Sorry, but the Internet signal here in the islands is so weak it won't cope with posting photographs, but as soon as we get another good signal I will post pictures, and I have lots of great one's...
Thank you for following my post's

Love from the Islands of Colombia :-)

Emeralds and Barracuda's.

Tuesday 21^st December

We arrived at Cartagena 5 days ago, and I absolutely love it here, most of all because the temperature is perfect, well not exactly perfect, it’s bloody hot during the day, but there are wonderfully consistently cool breezes which make it very comfortable, and the nights are lovely and cool, so no more hot sweats throughout the night like I’m used to in the rest of the Caribbean.  Also, there are absolutely NO mosquitoes, what absolute bliss.

Having my children and Scoop here with us, I am in Heaven, all the work is behind me (for now) its just vacation time. 

Heather, Bob, Niki, Scoop, Edi & Danni

We arrived last Friday following another very windless rolly crossing, we managed to avoid all the floating debris from the river Magdalena, and arrived unscathed.

The water in the bay was pretty bad, but I honestly don’t think it’s any worse than Simpson Bay, St.Martin, or the bay at Curacao marina, anyway we didn’t want to sit in it for too long having just had Daisy’s bottom painted and all the through hole’s cleaned.  We spent a day exploring the old city of Cartagena, which was really lovely; unfortunately a cruise ship had arrived in the port that morning so the city’s narrow little streets were bursting with people.  Danni, Niki and Scoop had spent the day there yesterday and Danni said it had been very quiet, I wished the cruise ship had come in a day later.  We browsed the emerald stores, Scoop’s fluent Spanish really helped as we bartered for the precious stones.  One of the storeowners offered to close his store for us to stay and have lunch, and drink whisky with him, the atmosphere was very friendly and warm, and I was really enjoying myself trying on all the jewelry. But I couldn’t help but picture the very friendly store owner closing his store and getting his customer’s legless on whisky while selling them thousands of dollars worth of emeralds… hmmmm !  It possibly works well with cruise ship guests but not Bob.

We had a deliciously decadent lunch at the restaurant “Juan del Mar”, a lovely little restaurant set in a quiet street in the old city opposite one of the small piazza’s.

I would have quite happily spent another day exploring the old city, but everyone was keen to get to the islands, and Bob didn’t want to spend any longer than necessary in the bay growing nasty stuff on Daisy’s hull.

 So we left on my birthday Monday 20^th and headed over to the islands Rosaria, off the coast where the water was clean and clear and we could all swim.

We had quite a few boat vendors approach us with lobster and fish for sale, and one boat came over with jewelry.  The boat vendors name was Nixon, and his jewelry was made from local materials, such as mother of pearl, red coral, brightly colored stones, pearls and beads.  We each chose a couple of necklaces, which weren’t expensive; I think the 8 items we bought cost around $120.  It was lots of fun sitting on board trying on all the jewelry, and letting Scoop haggle over the prices for us.

posing for a picture with Nixon,  wearing some of our purchases.

Later as we were getting ready to go snorkeling, we were approached by a family who invited us to join them for lunch, at their house on the island.  We declined and thanked them, explaining that we were going snorkeling.  A couple of hours later as we were returning to Daisy they came back with food for us.  They had prepared a whole barracuda, coconut rice and the most delicious dish of sauteed onions. 

The delicious baracuda

 They told us that they had caught the fish that morning but had too much.  Along with the food they also brought a bag of coffee and a bottle of a local drink called “Aguardiente” which tasted like Pernod.  I was amazed by these people’s kindness, it’s rare today to find people who will do something for you, especially if they don’t know you, and expect nothing in return.

Two of the nicest people I have had the pleasure of meeting, and the providers of the fabulous food we all enjoyed

Anchor fun at Monjes Del Sur

Monday 13^th December.

With lots of help from our wonderful neighbors we happily pulled away from the slip and around to the fuel dock.  Edi brought the dinghy around ready to bring it up on the davits while the diesel tank was filling.

I was so excited, it actually looked as though we were leaving and could even arrive in Cartagena on Wednesday, in time for Niki, Scoop and Danni’s arrival.  Why was I so excited, I really should have known better. 

All our neighbors stood on the dock ready with any assistance we may need, Andy filled the tank for us while Bob did a systems check, and Edi brought the dinghy up, or should I say, tried to bring the dinghy up!  The port davit didn’t work.  Edi started to dismantle the davit to check the wiring, then XJ arrived to tell us there was a fishing boat coming in for fuel and we had to move off the dock. 

We motored around to the bay and dropped anchor, where we spent the rest of the day and evening working on the recently fitted brand new alternator, which had also decided to stop working.

Tuesday 14^th December

We weighed anchor at 7am and headed out with flat seas and absolutely no wind.

The passage was uncomfortable because Daisy was rolling from side to side traveling under motor with no sail.

For a short time we raised the sails in an attempt to use the 5 knots of wind that had picked up, but it was hopeless, without the motor we were only traveling at 2 knots, it would take us until Christmas to reach Cartagena at this rate, so the sails came in again and we continued under motor.

We reached the rocks called Monjes Del Sur at 4:30, and motored slowly around to try and get an idea of how we should tie up.  A fishing boat was pulling up so we hung back and watched them; it looked fairly easy (I thought).

Monjes Del Sur are two rocks in the middle of the ocean about 20 miles off the Venezuelan coast, there is a coast guard station and a lighthouse.  A man-made stonewall connects the rocks creating a small bay, and a line has been attached on either side for boats to pick up and tie up to. The idea being you drop anchor and motor back to pick up the line which you tie to your stern, hahaha yeah right!

I dropped the anchor a little too early and as Bob reversed I ran out of chain, so he said, “just attach the emergency line, that will give us another 300 feet”.  Well I’m not the tidiest of people and my emergency anchor line was in a big mess at the bottom of the anchor locker, I got all flustered trying to get it out and untie it, eventually we were able to attach the shackle, and in my haste I pushed the button to let out more line and almost went overboard with it.  I’m sure the fishermen who were all stood watching found the spectacle very amusing.  Being such a dumb blonde at times provides endless entertainment for anyone who happens to be watching my clumsy efforts at crewmanship!

Thank God for Edward who came running to help as soon as he heard my screams.

After a few moments of heated discussion we decided to bring up the anchor and try again, with me waiting this time before dropping it.  Second time around it worked like a charm, although the coast guard watching us from the shore indicated that we should attach a second line which involved Edi having to get in and swim to reach the line.  He wasn’t excited about it as the water was black because it was so deep, and the fishing boat next to us were cleaning their fish catch and casually throwing the fish remains in, a great way of attracting sharks!  Despite the freezing water, and the possibility of big bitey things circling underneath Edi swam to the line attached it and was back in a heartbeat.

By 6pm we were settled and relaxing  with a beer, hoping for a good nights sleep before we head out in the morning.

We're in Santa Marta, Colombia

Bob and Ed catching Tuna

Well we made it this far, despite all odds against us.  We have had absolutely no wind, and had to motor sail, the passage was as rolly as could be, I felt sick every time I stood up.  Daisy rolled from side to side tipping the toe rail into the water, it was ugly.
We have dropped anchor in the bay at Santa Marta after a 22 hour passage so we can grab a few hours sleep, and a cooked meal, then we plan to leave at 2am to make the crossing of the Magdelina river in daylight, hopefully enabling us to see and avoid all the debris that's floating around following the heavy rainfall Colombia has had.
We have passed whole trees floating, if we had hit one of those we really would have been in trouble.

I managed to grab an Internet signal here in the bay, but it's not strong, so I will write more tomorrow, we hope to arrive in Cartagena around lunchtime, God willing.

 Niki, Scoop and Danni arrived safely in Cartagena yesterday and are enjoying themselves in the city.

I'm praying for a little wind and a smoother crossing.

Until sometime soon, bye for now :-)

Why would anyone buy a boat?

When you can use someone else's?

A couple of reasons I can think of; they have nothing else to do with their money, and they have a deep rooted need to spend all their time maintaining, restoring and repairing, thereby keeping the marine industry in business.

Before we bought Daisy we used to charter boats for our vacations, sometimes we would bareboat, which was lots of fun but hard work, and a couple of times we took a crewed charter, which we did with Jerry Blair, who owns Braveheart charters; now that was a real vacation. Captain Jerry and Dawn his first mate/chef, do all the work, while you have all the fun, and they are both great at making sure you have plenty of relaxation and lots of fun.  It’s a really fantastic vacation, and I miss that. Here's a link to Jerry's website

http://www.sailbraveheart.com

The day we bought Daisy, everything changed, it was fun in the beginning, but owning a boat has evolved from being a vacation to becoming a vocation.

The money we spend each year on maintenance and insurance alone would cover the cost of a couple of really luxurious vacations.

Owning a boat and taking to the seas has been the demise of many marriages, it’s a true test of patience, tolerance, forgiveness and stamina, sadly most folks fail within the first year.  Bob and I have lasted four years, and by some miracle we’re still happy together, but Daisy has endless ways of testing us, and she does every single day.

This past month has been the most difficult so far; we have had countless problems and maintenance issues, none of them easy and all of them exhausting both mentally and physically.

Note: for all the boat owners, if you need a welder, you really couldn’t find a better more honest one than Caezar, from Caezar Welding, here in Aruba.  He did a truly great job for us, he was extremely fair with his charges, and a nice guy to boot. His contact numbers are:  Cell: 297 563 1903  & Home: 297 582 5392

Time To Go!

Saturday 11^th December

 So it’s only 4 days until Niki, Scoop and Danni arrive in Cartagena, Colombia and here we are still in Aruba!  Running late again.

However, yesterday was a good day, lots of jobs were completed, Edi fixed the dinghy, and repaired the broken davit.  Bob managed to get the heat exchanger welded, and the engine put back together, and our new satellite system installed, up and running.

I managed to complete all the provisioning, finish the last of the laundry, and help Edi with the wiring for the new speed sensor

We have a few odd jobs to finish today, and I still have to bring all the beer, wine, water and spirits that are in the trunk of the car, I was too tired last night to bring it all aboard, I’m hoping to use Bob’s workshop to store everything but he is still working in there, so I’m currently using one of the guest rooms, but when everyone arrives those rooms will have to be clear.

This afternoon we plan to move out of the marina and over to the anchorage in the bay, ready for an early start tomorrow morning.

I haven’t had time to worry too much about the crossing lately, because we have been so busy, but this morning I’m nervous again, I continue to hear things that scare me. To add to all the normal worries, there has been dreadful flooding in Colombia, many of the hillside villages have been washed away leaving many homeless, desperate people, and there have been several reports of boarding’s along the coast, and the welder whose brother lives there told Bob yesterday  of people being shot for their jewelry. 

Even though Ed’s not said much about it, I know he too is very nervous, I’m wondering why on earth I decided it would be a good idea for us to make this trip.

I will not have the Internet again until we arrive in Cartagena, which may be as late as Wednesday 15^th when everyone arrives, so this will be my last post for a while.

So many people make this trip, I’m sure we’ll be fine, at least I keep telling myself that, but I’m such a nervous ninny I just can't help worrying, I am truly scared.

Please pray for us.

 This little finch has visited us every day, he fly's in and out of Daisy looking for scraps of food, and fights with his reflection in the davits.

                   Crazy Finch

Almost there !

Having the heat exchanger welded for the 2nd time, I'm praying this time it works without leaking, if it does then we hope to leave this weekend, and my next post will be (God willing) from Cartagena.
Edi and I are in the meantime tearing the boat apart laying wires for the new speed cable.

More later

Happy days!

One Reason not to take a cruise

This is one of those things I really hope to avoid while sailing across to Colombia.
Pacific Sun Cruise liner in very heavy seas

Cruise Ship Guest’s

I’m always looking for things that amuse me, and living on board they’re not always hard to find, particularly when we are in a port where cruise ships come in.

The arrival of a cruise ship to an island resembles a crowd leaving a stadium, the quiet little streets are suddenly swarming with people; Bob jokingly refers to it as “the invasion of the body snatcher’s.  Cruise ships are wonderful for the local economy, but they’re arrival creates an entirely different atmosphere on a small island.

 I apologize now for those of you that like cruising, because I know that you don’t all fit into the category I’m about to write about.

We’ve all seen the commercials on TV and in magazines, and the billboards promoting cruise’s, the beautiful people, strolling the empty decks, with a cocktail in one hand while watching a beautiful sunset, the gorgeous girls in bikini’s lounging around the pool, all glamorous, gorgeous and young!  Where do these people come from because I can tell you they are not on any of the cruise ships I have seen, at least not in the Caribbean? 

Typically a cruise ship guest will fit one of 3 profiles;  the overfed, newly wed and nearly dead. The nearly dead being obviously quite old, ancient even, frail looking and thin, with beige pressed shorts and brand new white socks pulled up over their calves, and large brimmed hats protecting their whiter than white skin.

Then there’s the overfed; middle aged and overweight, with obscenely bright floral Hawaiian shirts, baseball caps, and shorts that they really shouldn’t be wearing, they resemble the colorful characters in a Beryl Cook painting, in fact I’m sure cruise ship guests are where she got much of the inspiration for her painting’s. 
Then there's the newly wed ........................... not much to say about them, no one ever sees them!

Cruise ship guests also typically have very pale skin with scattered patches of painfully bright pink sunburn, strap marks and bald patches that look like the target on a dart board.

I see them in their hundreds being shuttled ashore in groups, and piling into the islands colorfully painted tour bus’s lined up waiting on the dock.

I’m not trying to offend anyone, my intention really is not to be cruel, and I did start by saying that not everyone fits these three profiles.  However after 4 years of living in the Caribbean and having seen thousands of cruise ship guests, I have to say the vast majority does.

I love people watching, and watching cruise ship guests provides me with endless entertainment, but also I’m constantly searching for the beautiful people, they must be there somewhere, they can’t only be on the billboards and commercials or can they?

This scares me

I copied this from the cruisers network, when I read stuff like this I become more and more frightened.

The daughter of a Canadian tourist who was killed after a gang of men swarmed their small yacht in Honduras is safe and unharmed, relatives said Saturday. 

Milan Egrmajer, 58, was shot and killed in front of his daughter Myda, 24, on Thursday night aboard his sailing yacht Adena as it lay anchored in a small cove on the Caribbean coast of northern Honduras.

Blog Delay

The weather here in Aruba is expected to be wet, wet, wet for the next week, so it's unlikely that I will have anything to write about.
We have to be in Cartagena, Colombia by the 15th of December, at which time I hope to be able to report a safe and pleasant crossing, until then I am trying to be be positive about the crossing, despite all evidence to the contrary.

I may still quietly try and find Bob a crew, so that Edi and I can fly there, Edi is no more enthusiastic about the crossing than I am.


Is anyone interested??? please let me know

Thank you for reading my blog, I will hopefully have something interesting to write about very soon
Pray for us

Friday 3rd December
Today is “catch up on lost sleep day”.

Daisy alongside at the Renaissance Marina Aruba, it's good to be back...

We arrived at Aruba late afternoon yesterday, following a double fly by, by the coast guard, who then called us on the vhf to get our information.  Customs and immigration at Barcadera was easy, Curacao had already faxed them our information ahead.  There was also room for us to come alongside this trip, last time we were here we had to raft up against one of the Venezuelan fishing boats. It was only 4:30 so we still had plenty of daylight.  I called the marina to let them know we were coming in and make sure they still had a slip for us.  We were both very tired after only a couple of hour’s sleep, followed by a very long day, and were looking forward to a few hours rest before having to go and pick up Edi.  Unfortunately when we arrived at the marina they had mistaken us for a cat, and the T-Dock allocated to us was too shallow for Daisy, so we had to come stern to on the dock, in 18 knots of wind and current, it was not an easy maneuver.  Fortunately we had plenty of help from our neighboring boats, and Sanders the friendly marina manager, but it still took us about 45 minutes to get Daisy into the slip and safely anchored at the bow.
As per usual for us, there was no time to rest, it was getting dark and we still had to get the dinghy down, put the passarel out, and empty everything out of the lazarette to make enough room for Bob to get in and re-wire the electrics so we could plug into shore power.  All this took us until 9:45pm by which time we were about ready to drop.  Bob just had time for a quick shower, before leaving for the airport to collect Edi, who was arriving at 10:45.  I stayed behind to clean Ed’s bathroom, make up the bed, and get dinner.  Wow it had been another really long day!
Edi and Bob arrived back about 11:30.
It’s now 9:45am on Friday, and both Bob and Edi are still sleeping, Bob has a lot of lost sleep to catch up on.  The sky is gray and its pouring with rain, but we are planning a quiet day resting, I think we have deserved it after the last two and a half weeks.
We spent the morning (what was left of it after an 11;30 brunch) adjusting the lines, it was hot sweaty work, the sun was finally out after a rainy start. Edi was sweating up a storm, and still suffering from the after effects of his cold.
We did manage a very lazy afternoon, playing games on the Wii, taking a nap and messing around with the Internet, which, YEAHHHHHHHH we get here…

The bee in the Candy Jar

Thursday 2^nd December

Following another day that ended at 3am, we were up just after 6am and pulling away from the boat dock at 7:20am.  I took photographs as they opened the Queen Emma Bridge for us, and we headed out to sea.

As usual when leaving Curacao the sea was quite choppy and Daisy was rolling around doing her fairground thing, with all my carefully stowed possessions crashing and banging about below.

Fortunately the waves smooth down a little, the farther you head out.  The weather was lovely, and there was no rain, which was a very pleasant change, although I could see gray skies forming over the interior of the island, it looks as though they are in for another day of rain. This past month has been the wettest in Curacao’s history.

It wasn’t a pleasant sail for me, despite the furling gear working like a charm, it seems as though every time we head out now I become less and less confident and more and more easily scared.

We had an occasion where Bob headed up to make an adjustment to the sails, and the boom started swinging violently back and forth and all the lines were thrashing crazily around and I panicked.  I think because I have been told so many horrific tales of disasters at sea, I now see every little glitch as a possible imminently major disaster, and I seem totally unable to respond with anything resembling sensible seamanship.

I am growing more and more concerned with regard to our crossing to Cartagena, and seriously question whether I will be able to do it.  If I break into a panic and come unglued so easily over something as simple as a crossing from Curacao to Aruba, how on earth am I going to cope with three and a half day’s at sea on one of the world’s renowned worst crossings, and I get that little tit bit of information from sailors I have spoken to who have made the crossing.  Everyone has a tale of horror that they seem unable to refrain from sharing with me.  No one has anything good to say about the crossing, or at least no one I have spoken to.

It’s difficult to describe my fear, how do you clearly define or even understand an irrational reaction? Unfortunately because the majority of the people I come into contact with are sailors, and love sailing, none of them understand my fears.  I know they all think I’m just a pussy, well maybe I am but it doesn’t take away from the fact that I am a nervous wreck and getting worse each time I set sail. When you love something you naturally expect everyone else to love it, and if they’re scared of it that just doesn’t make sense.

Since I started this adventure 4 years ago, the majority of my sailing experience has been in the BVI’s, which, let’s face it a 5 year old could sail there, the waters are so calm, even in bad weather (hurricanes excluded).  It was a great place to learn to sail, as it offers no real challenges!

Considering my life long fear of water, my confidence with sailing has grown tremendously over the last 4 years, because I really have had nothing to frighten me, or difficult or rough conditions to cope with.  But as the years have passed I have undertaken more and more passages that I would previously never have considered, and I have to wonder considering my more recent frequent attacks of abject terror, just how much more of this I can stand.  

I love the benefits that come with living on a boat, the friends I make with all great people I meet, the fabulous places I get to see, the freedom of the lifestyle, everything is great it’s just “the getting there” bit!  Bob is all about the journey; while I’m all about the destination.

I keep telling myself “this time it will be OK, this time nothing bad will happen”, my fear is irrational and I just have to learn to manage it, and everything will be OK.

I’m like a child who wants candy from the jar, but there’s a bee in the jar, so each time she puts her hand in the jar she gets stung, but she wants the candy so she keeps putting her hand in the jar!  How many stings can she stand before she learns to stop taking the candy?

Aruba here we come!

Wednesday 1st December

Yesterday Bob worked from 7am till 3am this morning, a 20-hour day!  I couldn’t keep going I had to grab a couple of hours sleep between 11pm and 2am, but then I got up to help Bob again.  I don’t know how he keeps going, I am so physically exhausted, and have constant back pain I just can’t do it.

Our day started today at 7:20am after only 4 hours sleep. Cecil came knocking on the boat to drop off the cables for Bob, and woke us, I really didn’t want to get up, but my conscience won’t allow me to leave everything to Bob.

Today we only had a couple of jobs, fitting the windless, and bringing up the dinghy.  Well the 2 hour job of fitting the windless took the entire day, we didn’t even look at the dinghy until 6pm, and just to make matters worse it rained all day, it’s now 11:30pm and Bob’s still working and I feel as though I’m in a trance.

We are on schedule to leave at dawn tomorrow for Aruba, thank goodness as now we absolutely have to get there because Edi arrives tomorrow night.

To all those people who tell me how lucky I am to live on a boat, if you’ve read my blog over the last two and half weeks I’m sure you will feel differently now.

On a brighter note, our mast is no longer at an angle, our furling works like a dream, the engine is good, the generator is good and the insulation panels look brand new, the refrigeration and air conditioning work brilliantly, the battery charger is working perfectly, the manifold has been serviced, cleaned and repainted, all the through hulls are working, the windless works, our diesel tanks have been cleaned  and the fuel filtered, the hull has been repainted. My kitchen tap no longer leaks.  There are still dozens of jobs, but they are all small in comparison.  The boat may be in great condition, but I am not, I need a week at a spa, LOL, I can but dream.

Well off to Aruba tomorrow…  More later,  watch this space

Kiva

A favorite visitor to Daisy, Kiva Louie's dog

Dog Fights & Dispair

Tuesday 30^th November

The weather continues to be truly miserable, this morning we have heavy dark gray skies, with not a threat but a promise of heavy rain, poor Bob has to get the windless motor back into the chain locker on deck today which isn’t going to be easy in the rain.  We have used up all our days, and have no choice but to leave in the morning.  I’m just praying the rigger arrives today, we have to get the sails up, and the dodger.

I finished all the work on the dinghy, but as the fork lift tried to put it back in the water we noticed that the steering had seized, OH another job. 

Louie brought the windless motor back this morning but I still have to get the epoxy on it, and that needs hours to dry before Bob can put it back in.

The Internet at the boat yard is still not working, this is 4 days now, the marina in Aruba are expecting us today, I really need to let them know I have to change our reservation again! I have only changed the reservation three times already, if we can leave in the morning we will only be a day late, I hope they will be forgiving.

The rigger arrived and left again, the splicer still couldn’t be found so we had to get a brand new outhaul line.

He returned mid afternoon and he, Bob, Cecil and I managed to get all three sails up and in 18 knots of wind.

We started to put the generator covers back together, the boatyard spray-painted the final coat for us, and they look almost new.  I still have to cut and fit the insulation foam.

My arms and legs are totally covered with mosquito bites, I ran out of refills for my protection device, and can’t find any here. The bites are making me miserable, I scratched them in my sleep and some of them are bleeding, so they don’t only feel nasty, they look nasty…

The boatyard has quite a few large guard dogs, they are a type of Pitbull mix, and they roam the yard day and night.  I love them, and have made friends with them all, but today two of them got into a really serious fight, Gyest (the boatyard owner) had to jump in and tear them apart before they killed one another, it was bad, she was bleeding from her chest, and had large tears and gashes all over her body, she had trouble standing on one of her front legs, and was obviously in a great deal of pain, it was horrible to see.  The poor thing looked so helpless, Gyest immediately called the vet out, and then came back out to the dog to comfort it, and the dog wagged its tail, that made me cry.  All the pain the poor creature was in, and yet she could still display happiness when Gyest comforted her.

The vet took her away, and late afternoon I was there when Gyest brought her back, she was stitched up and on pain medication but looking much happier.

Well its now 7:30pm and Bob still has to drive over to Louie’s to collect the wires for the windless, fit the windless motor (about a 2 hour job), repair the dinghy, bring it around to the boat and get it up on the davits. Cut and glue the insulation to the generator panels, put all the tools away, and return the rental car, and those are only the jobs I can remember, I know there are more.

We also should have re-fueled, but we haven’t.

9pm, Well the dinghy appears to be well and truly “broken” the steering is totally seized up and the engine won’t start, Bob worked on it for over an hour without any success.

I am absolutely exhausted, filthy dirty, my back aches, my ankle is swollen again, and the mosquito bites are driving me nuts! I really would love an early night but that’s not going to happen. It’s like taking 3 steps forward and two back with every job we undertake, I am so dejected, and beaten, I’m about ready to give up

This has been two of the most grueling weeks of my life.

Hopefully my next post will be from Aruba, but that looks to be probably Thursday now…

Sinking Boat

Sunday 28^th November

While I was washing the decks this morning, John from the sailboat Entrada, walked down the dock and stopped alongside Batavia the boat on the T-Dock in front of us.  I carried on with what I was doing, but John stood there for quite a while, eventually he looked up and said “Good Morning”, I smiled and replied, then he said “this boat’s sinking”.  I looked across at Bataviaa and couldn’t believe I hadn’t noticed she was going down.  I jumped off Daisy and went over to where John was standing, and sure enough she was slowly sinking, the cockpit was almost full of water.

There was nobody on the boat, it has apparently been left there for some time, no one remembered seeing the owners.  I said we should do something, so John went across to Pier’s boat.  Pier is one of the owners of the boatyard. Bob came over and climbed into Batavia’s cockpit, he peered through the window, and saw that the cabin was completely full of water.

A few minutes later Pier came over and brought a pump, he broke the lock off the door to access the inside of Batavia, and started pumping out the water.  It took over an hour to empty all the water.  Pier left a pump aboard that would automatically switch on should more water get into the cabin.

It scared me to see how fast she was sinking, if John hadn’t spotted it when he did, I am sure she would be on the ocean bed right now…

Boat Thieves in Caya de Agua

A friend recently regaled me with his experience of a piracy attack, I do not like to refer to these people as pirates, that would give them some sort of romantic dignity, these people were quite obviously nothing more than common thieves.

To protect the privacy of the person involved, I have changed both the name of the person and the boat.

While sailing through the islands of Los Roques, off the coast of Venezuela, in his sail boat Whisper, Charlie had dropped anchor for an evening in the beautiful bay off Caya de Agua, there were no other boats within sight when he arrived.

Caya de Agua is a small isolated island, the furthest island west of the Los Roques chain. 

Bob and I have visited this island several times with both Daniela and Edward.  It is remote, but it’s far enough away from the Venezuelan coast that one feels safe, at least we did, but having heard this story I would think twice about going there again without at least one other boat to accompany us.

Edi walking between the two islands of Caya de Agua

Charlie was relaxing on board, when he spotted a small fishing boat with two men coming in his direction, they pulled alongside Whisper and the man at the front held up his bow line and spoke to Charlie in Spanish, it was a dialect Charlie was unfamiliar with and couldn’t understand what the man wanted.  Before he could do anything to stop him the man leapt up onto the deck and pushed past Charlie, the other man also leapt out of the fishing boat up onto Whisper’s deck and pushed roughly past Charlie almost knocking him over.  The second man disappeared below decks and came back a moment later carrying a television.  Within minutes another couple of fishing boats appeared, each with three or four men aboard.  They all came alongside and boarded Whisper, Charlie helpless to stop them and in fear for his own safety abandoned Whisper and motored across to the island in his dinghy.

Powerless to do anything to stop them he could only watch as they ransacked his boat taking everything they could carry.

Charlie stayed on the island until he eventually spotted another sail boat approaching, he waved frantically at them from the shore.  The people on the sailboat were kind enough to pick Charlie up and take him to Grand Roques where he reported the incident to the imparques and the local coast guard who said there was nothing they could do. 

Whisper was no longer at Caya de Agua, she had vanished from sight.  Charlie flew home and a few days later received a call from a friend to say that he though he had seen Whisper abandoned at Grand Roques.

Charlie immediately flew back to the island, not an easy trip involving many flights and lay-over’s, he arrived back at Los Roques two days later.

He was so excited to see Whisper, although she was in a sorry state, she had been totally stripped bare, nothing was left except the shell.

Unfortunately the Coast Guard could not release the boat to Charlie without him first seeing a person of authority (who shall remain nameless), they combed every bar on the island before they eventually found him, Charlie showed his ships papers proving ownership, and the person said he would release Whisper if Charlie would pay for their out of pocket expenses.  Naturally Charlie agreed, but it really stung when they demanded $50,000.  If he wanted Whisper back he had no choice, so he arranged payment and immediately set about getting Whisper ready to leave.  The sooner he was away from there the better.

A year later and Charlie is still working on the refit of Whisper, but at least he and the boat are now in a safe location.

I was so shocked to hear this story, both Bob and I felt Los Roques was a safe anchorage, it just goes to show, thieves can attack anywhere anytime.  What would you do in that situation, when you’re outnumbered, and approached at anchor?  It scares me to think just how vulnerable you are when alone on a boat.  I suppose the lesson is to always try and sail with another boat, and not anchor where you are alone.  Otherwise it’s all in the hands of the God’s.