06/02/2012, Providencia, Columbia
Friday, June 1. This morning, Lorenzo & Joyce took us to the dive site they had gone to yesterday. They used tanks and we used the hookah. The site was about 1/3 of the way around Providencia island (as opposed to the much smaller Santa Catalina we had been diving around.) and then about ½ mile off shore. We eventually found the dive site – marked by an orange fuel jug – but it had a boat on it. Anchoring our dinghy in 20' seemed unlikely to succeed, but Lorenzo said he had plenty of chain and we could tie off to him (he had a hard dinghy that was more like a panga). As we got to the site, however, it was obvious that their dive was over and they were exiting the water. We just waited a few minutes and the the buoy to ourselves. We dropped about 20' on to a sand bottom. The reef ran out at an angle rising maybe 10' to its top which was covered by soft coral. The walls were mostly rubble with some live coral structures, but the FISH. It was amazing. Huge schools of fish that you could swim through the way you usually can little bait fish schools, except that these were schools of grunt, snapper, school master, chub and more. Usually the schools had one fish predominant with others mixed in. The fish numbered in the hundreds for each school! Swimming through them you would be surrounded, but none of them actually bumped you – they separated for you and closed back behind. Many pairs of angle fish and one large Queen Angel. We saw several electric rays hiding on the bottom and several spotted moray eels in crevices of coral. It was really a spectacular dive. We followed the reef until Lorenzo was ½ through his tank and then worked our way back. Running out a ways from the ridge, I spotted a flounder on the bottom and irritated him to where he fluttered and turned bright blue around the edges. We saw a large scrolled file fish who allowed very close approach. There were many different grouper and none seemed as wary as grouper usually are. Lorenzo & Joyce were certainly right – the site was really nothing much in terms of coral, but the inhabitants were unbelievable. By the time we got back, it was 1:30; three hours had elapsed and we were starving. After lunch we went in to town to see what fruits or veggies the boat may have brought. The selection was pretty sad. Maybe they won't get the new ones on the shelf until tomorrow. We did get a nice avocado, some limes and tomatoes, and a melon, all of which were good. At the bakery we got a loaf of “integral” bread that weighed nothing but was the best there was. We also got a baguette (also quite light) to go with the spaghetti Deb was making for supper and two “dulce” turnovers for breakfast. It was really hot in town and by the time we returned to the boat, we both needed to soak in the water to cool off. The water really doesn't even feel cool when you dive in, but if you stay in long enough you begin to equilibrate and cool off. We were going to go in for happy hour, but decided against it and just stayed on the boat. June is apparently the Columbian equivalent of Spring Break and lots of college age kids arrived yesterday and today. They had a tower of speakers set up in the plaza by the dinghy dock and had what was either a really poor live performer or a karaoke who had more enthusiasm than talent. About the time we were ready for supper, we also heard what sounded like the sound track of an old movie blasting from the general direction of Bamboo. We couldn't see any screen or lights to indicate a movie, but it was loud enough that it had to be coming from some type of PA system, not just a TV turned up loud. In an attempt to cover both that and the “music” from shore, I put on our “Original Jazz Masters” CD fairly loud. It was only moderately successful, but close enough. We enjoyed our dinner. Fortunately both forms of entertainment ended quite early and we were able to get to sleep without problems.
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06/01/2012, Providencia, Columbia
Thursday, May 31. I like slow mornings. After juice, coffee, and another delicious mango for breakfast, I changed the fuel filter on the port engine. (I had had to change the starboard one underway as the engine was stalling.) It, too, was quite clogged. Glad I have plenty of spares. Then I filled the dinghy gas tank from the jug. I have an extra tank as well, but I will refill the jug before we leave to be sure we have plenty for exploring around the Albuquerque Cays. Deb wanted to get some more “fish tail” seed pods for a craft project, so we took dink around the point to a sandy beach that provided the closest access to the path out to Morgan's Head where she had found the pods originally. We collected a whole bag full in no time. As we were finishing, three other dinghies – from the three other boats in the harbor whom we hadn't met – arrived to walk the path. We exchanged greetings and “Do you know..?” finding we did, indeed, have a few friends in common. The cruising community is really quite small and everyone is connected somehow. After lunch we went on another hookah dive, just the two of us. Lorenzo and Joyce had gone on a two tank dive that morning with a local guide. They were real excited about the first dive – feeding lion fish to sharks! - and told us that the second dive would be a perfect place to hookah – about 20' with lots of great fish. We may go there with them tomorrow, but today Deb just wanted to do a short dive and not go far in the dink as it was a bit rough out so we just dove on the reef on the leeward side of Santa Catalina. The coral was heavily covered with algae (or whatever it is) but, especially in the deeper sections, the architecture was great with lots of caves and canyons, arches, and swim-throughs (but watch out for the hoses!) There were lots of fish too. I even got a trunk fish interested enough to keep swimming back to look at me. Big schools of tangs and even a school of small chub. I is weird, you usually see big chub, but these were juvenile, the first we had seen. We had agreed to meet Lorenzo & Joyce at Bamboo for happy hour, but when we got there Orville said, “No cervesa.” The truck hadn't come today and he was all out. But he promised us enough for a good happy hour tomorrow. We returned to our boat and I made Deb & I each mojitos from the new batch of mojito juice I had cooked up this morning. Steaks on the grill and nearly fresh broccoli. Hopefully we can get more veggies tomorrow as I think the boat came today.
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05/31/2012, Providencia, Columbia
Wednesday, May 30. I called Aurelio this morning to see what he had found out about fixing our watermaker. Sadly, he informed me that it would take too long to get the parts. They did not have them at the office in mainland Columbia. So he cannot fix our watermaker, but he is happy to give us more water if we need it. OK, so we can leave here (whenever we leave) with full tanks of water. If we are conservative, that should give us as long as we want in the Albuquerque Cays before heading to Bocas. So for now, we won't worry, we'll dive. We went out again with Lorenzo & Joyce, this time to a place they had snorkeled and wanted to dive. The site consisted of two small barren rock islands and the surrounding reef. We anchored between the islands in the lee of one and began our dive. At first it was boring - piles of rock and dead coral. As we got to the outside, however, it got considerably deeper and had nice healthy coral – lots of brain coral, some elkhorn and lots of soft coral and fans. And lots of fish. We saw a huge ocean trigger, almost as big as the Jew fish we saw yesterday. Hiding under a reef was a red fish I had never seen before – sort of grouper shaped but with big eyes. (Looking it up in the book back at the boat, I now think it was a glassy eyed snapper.) I played with the angel fish again – hands by my side just face mask to face, letting the bubbles out as gently as I could. They are just so curious they cannot help it. They would swim away quickly, only to drift back. At one point on nearly bumped my face mask. They are such fun. Again we saw no nurse sharks or lobster, but plenty of places for them. On one side of the larger island, the current got pretty strong (actually a combination of underwater current and wind on the hookah), so we turned back to where it was easier swimming. There were plenty of the non-stinging “X-wing” jellies, but they just bumped you and kept going, no big deal. At times they were in great clouds, scary if you didn't know they were harmless. At other times, there were none at all. When we finished the dive, we realized that we were more than ½ way around the island so finished our circumnavigation by taking the shorter, Eastern (windward) side home. Back at the boat, Deb did her craft stuff while I took a shower and then had a beer in the hammock (and then napped in the hammock). She eventually had a shower too and then we had dinner – Mexican burgers on the grill with guacamole on the side. We had to look up Pablo Escobar on the internet. (He was the Columbian drug lord who headed the Medellin cartel. He had a house on Santa Catalina that we saw the ruins of.) Then I enjoyed some of my Medellin rum in the net before going to bed.
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05/30/2012, Providencia, Columbia
Tuesday, May 29. The weather remains blustery and overcast, but no rain today. After breakfast I took the dink over to the landing nearest the gas station, about ½ nm across the harbor. From there it is ~1/4 mile walk to the gas station. I carried all 4 jerry jugs for diesel. As he was filling them, the attendant told me that they hope to get a marina with a fuel dock so we wouldn't have to carry them. Someday. I left two with him, carried two to the dink, returned and got the other two. Dinghy back to the boat and fill the tank. It took all 20 gallons, but it was full (so we had used 40 gallons). I did not have enough money to get 20 more gallons so we had to go in to town to the ATM. While we were there, Deb got a few groceries and I bought some good rum (Medellin 8 yr old) and Scotch which for some reason is cheap here. When we got back to the boat and were putting things away, I remembered that I had not gotten our papers from Mr. Bush yesterday. I called him on VHF and he said he was in his office so come now. Back to town, walk to his office, get our stamped passports, tourist cards, and boat papers from him and return to boat. After lunch I made the return trip to fill the 4 jugs with diesel to have for our return trip to Bocas. I guess I got my exercise for the day. But then we decided to go for a dive. The wind had dropped a little and we figured that in the lee of the island it might be OK. Lorenzo & Joyce of Elaine Farrel were anxious to try the hookah too so we invited them along. I was a bit nervous as we had not yet really tested it since the repair – I just ran it on the deck. It worked beautifully. The wind was OK and the dive was great. We went out just beyond Morgan's Head where we had been before and initially swam away from the point, against the wind. It was fine, the hookah pulled without difficulty. The coral had more algae than I remembered, but the formations were great and there was lots of fish. When we got beyond the next point, the wind began to affect towing the hookah so we circled back. By the time we returned to the dinghies,everyone was still ready for more so we swam around Morgan's Head to the other side and back. Again great fish. I played with two angel fish that just couldn't pull themselves away. I hung motionless except for my bubbles which I released as slowly and gently as I could. They would swim right up to my mask, dart away, and come back. They were so curious. Finally I swam away – just in time to see a huge Goliath grouper (also known is Jew fish). He was just free swimming and didn't seem to care about anything. Not really frightened of us, he just kept his distance. Deb found a beautiful Triton's trumpet. It must have been 14” long and gorgeous. But it was alive and she didn't want to kill it for the shell so she put it back. That side of Morgan's Head had lots of caves (“where they obviously stashed the loot.”) I was able to swim in to one of them ( a bit tricky with the hose, but you can't get lost!) I couldn't find any loot, but it was still cool. By the time we got back to the dinghies, we had been down over two hours – not a problem as we never hit 30' so down time is unlimited. We used less than a half tank of gas. What a cool toy this hookah is. I can tell Lorenzo is going to buy one, he liked it so much. We had invited them to come for sundowners at 5:00, but it was that now, so after everyone got organized and cleaned up, they came over and brought some jambalaya Lorenzo made. Hey, there are some benefits of having lived in Louisiana while fixing up his shrimper! We had apps and dinner but everyone was tired from our long swim so they went home early (Well, 8:30 is actually LATE for cruisers.) and we all went to bed.
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05/29/2012, Providencia, Columbia
Monday, May 28. It rained and blew (mostly blew) for most of the night. By morning it had stopped. Our water tanks barely registered the added rain. I called Aurelio and agreed to meet him at 10:00 although it looked like it might rain again. It didn't and he did, so we took the dink to the sand beach next to the commercial dock and pulled it up backwards so he could work on the motor. He dropped the lower unit and extracted the impeller. For those of you that don't know, an impeller is a paddle wheel that has 6 rubber blades that move the water. This had one blade and it looked about ready to die! Problem found. Now can we get an impeller? The Yamaha 15hp two-stroke is the work horse of all of Central America so surely someone on this island has a spare impeller. But who? Where? And how do we find him? Aurelio jumped on his scooter and went off in search. I stayed on the beach (like I had an option?) and waited. I talked with a local fisherman who had decided it was too rough to go outside the reef today to spear fish. He showed me his arm and told me the story of how a shark wanted his fish and got his arm instead. He had to beat it on the head with the butt of the gun to get it to let go of his arm. Then his friend hauled him into their boat (just a 24' panga). He saw the spear gun resting on the bottom. The shark was no where to be found so he jumped back in and retrieved the gun. Then he had a four hour ride in the boat through open ocean to get to San Andres to get his arm fixed, bleeding all the way with a tourniquet bound around his upper arm. Amazingly, they managed to salvage everything and his hand still works normally despite a bite that must have severed most of his tendons. We then talked about our families, the weather, diving and spear fishing, etc. In about an hour and a half Aurelio returned with the impeller. In five minutes it was back together and good as new. While he was working, I asked him about the possibility of getting water. “Oh, I can help you with that. I fill up some barrels and bring it down to the dock in my pickup. You tie up to the dock and we fill you up.” “How much would you charge per gallon?” “Oh, I don't charge you for the water. The Lord, He give it to me so I give it to you. You just give me a little something for gas for my truck.” Deal. Then he asked what brand my watermaker was. I told him Sea Recovery. “Oh, I am the local agent for Sea Recovery. I just installed a big one in a local hotel. Maybe I can help you.” At 5:00 PM we weighed anchor and motored in to the dock. The end of the dock is a huge concrete affair, not very inviting. It was still blowing 17+ kts but at least it would be blowing us off the dock, if only I can get to it without ramming it. I swung out and approached with my starboard bow. If we can get a line on, I can power back to secure the stern. There are always guys hanging out n any commercial dock and this one was no different. Several cam out to help. I approached faster than I wanted, but necessary to avoid being blown off. When we were way too close for comfort (but not close enough as it turned out), Deb threw the line and missed. I immediately let us be blown off and came around again. This time Deb's throw was better and the guy caught it and secured us to a bollard that would have held the Queen Mary. He left enough slack so that I could back around without hitting the concrete. It took all the port engine had, but slowly we came around and started pulling in to the dock by the stern. Deb threw another guy a midship line and he secured it to an equally large bollard on that side of the dock. We adjusted the lines so our bow was almost, but not quite touching - with Big Bertha (our giant fender) there just in case - and the stern was 5-10' off the dock. When Aurelio arrived, he had two 50 gallon drums and several smaller ones. Using a 1” ID hose that he brought, we filled the tanks. It took just over 100 gallons. While it was filling, Aurelio came to look at the watermaker. Now Aurelio is a large person and the watermaker is tucked into the lazaret by the port engine bay and he could barely squeeze in to look. I told him that if he thought he could fix it, I would remove it and bring the ETD in to him as he clearly was not going to accomplish anything in that space. He took down all the numbers and said he would call the mainland tomorrow to see if they had the parts and let me know. He asked how long we were planning on staying. I said originally, about a week; but without the watermaker we would need to leave earlier. “Oh, don't you worry about water. You have my phone number. Anytime you need water, you just give me a call. I'll check on the parts and call you tomorrow.” They cast us off, bow first then spring. We drifted away from the concrete, motored over to the anchorage, and re-anchored. Now we have a fully functional dinghy and outboard, a fully functional hookah, and enough water to stay and enjoy some diving. If the wind will only calm down a bit, we'll be all set. Things look a lot better today than yesterday. And possibly Aurelio can fix our watermaker. Life's good.
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