Isla San Andres Colombia
21 March 2017 | Isla San Andres Colombia
Bert - Partly Cloudy 17 kn North/East Trade Wind
We arrived on May 15, 2016 in Isla Linton in Panama and went into the Linton Bay Marina. We ended our sailing season a little earlier due to all the heavy rain in San Blas. We took our yearly trip to Texas also earlier in the expectation to make a lot of land trips after our return to Panama. It didn’t turn out to be like that. Medical and boat problems forced us to stay in Linton Bay Marina a lot longer than we ever anticipated. We made a lot of trips to Panama City for doctors’ visits, had a great time assisting a large catamaran with its transit through the canal and took a nice trip by car along the Pacific side of Panama, the mountains and Bocas Del Toro. We experienced the most intense rain storms ever in our life that means a lot for people and me who have been living for a long time in tropical climates. We endured Hurricane Otto with its consequences an event that is not supposed to happen in Panama. So you can say we had an eventful stay in Panama. Overall we enjoyed it, we met many nice and friendly people had great help from the marina staff and fellow cruisers and we thank them all.
But after 9 months in Linton Bay Marina “Island Girl” needed to be used as a sailboat instead of a houseboat. We installed all the sea and safety equipment and checked everything that needed to be checked. We checked the weather and shortly after we returned from our trip to Santa Marta, Colombia a weather window opened. It was too close after our return so we skipped this one. Another window came up and we decided not to let this one go. We got our “Zarpe” in Linton Bay Marina and our emigration stamps in “Portobelo” said goodbye to our friends and departed from the marina at 9:30 AM on February 21, 2017.
We expected very light wind but just after passing “Isla Linton” the wind picked up and “Island Girl” started taking off at a greater speed we thought was possible with what the wind indicator showed. I should have better listened to Dorothy, who told me a couple of days prior that the wind rotavecta in the mast was not running. Since we had a handheld wind indicator we decided to keep on going. Most of the cruisers we know told us that the sail to San Andres takes you close to the wind with the predominant NNE wind. But we sailed with a nice “Broad Reach” with a speed of 5 to 7 kn. It was a wonderful sail, but it did not last. In the middle of the night the wind dropped completely and we had to start the engine to continue. The next day and night was the same, no wind, flat water and blue sky. The night sky was unbelievably beautiful covered with stars and no moon. When Dorothy and I were standing outside the cockpit to admire the night sky we saw a halo on the horizon from the lights of San Andres still 30 miles away. Suddenly the halo got topped off and it seemed that a cloud level was coming over us and we saw a rain shower heading our way. I checked the radar and did not see anything except the small rain shower. An instance later the wind picked up tremendously, without a wind meter I did not know how much but the flat seas turned into large short waves of at least 10 ft. minutes later even more. “Island Girl” was pitching and her bow disappeared in the incoming waves. Our forward speed dropped at one time to 0.4 kn. and never came higher than 3.2 kn. This situation lasted for about an hour, the wind dropped but it took a long time before the waves went down. When we reached the entrance buoy of the channel along the reefs the wind was gone and the sea very calm again. We anchored and completed our first crossing since 9 months.
In the afternoon we went ashore at “Nene’s Marina” to meet our agent who took care of customs and immigration clearing. We paid for the use of the marina dinghy dock and WiFi took the needed pesos out of the ATM and ‘settled down’ in San Andres, Colombia.
The next morning we started a long walk over the north part of the island, starting in the old city with nice narrow streets and a lot of small stores with every item you may need. We found small and larger grocery stores all within walking distance. The north coast of the island has very nice beaches with crystal clear turquoise colored water behind the reefs. Along the beach is a very nice wide open boulevard with on the land side hotels and restaurants. San Andres is a very popular tourist place for the people from Colombia. It is crowded on the beach and the shopping streets with tax free shops are clearly aimed at tourists. Most of these streets are closed for traffic so if you like shopping this is a nice place to be. The type of tourist shows how Colombia is changed for the better over the last 20 years. In the past this was the place for wealthy tourists, now it is the vacation spot for the middle class that has really grown. Planes are flying day and night in and out to bring people from Bogota, Medellin and Barranquilla to San Andres. We enjoy it so much to see all these people having a good time in the sun and water. Tour boats are passing us in the anchorage with loud music and people waving at us. It seems that the tour boat captains select to come close to our boat, in case we like to interact with the passengers with waves and greetings.
San Andres is one of the islands of a Colombian archipelago which is approximately 470 mi north of the Colombian mainland. This archipelago encompasses a total area of 22 sq ml, including the outer cays, reefs, atolls and sand banks, with the area of the islands being 17 sq ml. In 2000, it was declared a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, named “Seaflower Biosphere Reserve”, which not only includes the islands but also about 10% of the Caribbean Sea, amounting to a vast marine area of 120,000 sq ml. The purpose of this declaration is to ensure that the ecosystem, which is rich in biodiversity, is well preserved and conserved.
The department's capital also called San Andrés is nicknamed El Centro and is the department's main urban center. Along the 19 mi road that circles the island there are many picturesque beaches, coral reefs, cays, geysers, and coves. The roads are crowded mainly with scooters and motor bikes. There are cars but the 2 wheeled vehicles are the most used way of transportation. And then the golf cars and mules mostly used by the tourists to cross the island. Especially on the main roads in town it looks chaotic. The marina allowed us to store our folding bikes on shore and we are mingling in the traffic with our bikes. We do our shopping and sightseeing mainly with our bikes so we can reach other places away from the marina.
My bike had a flat and we dropped it of at a repair shop. Not only did I get a new tire but my entire bike was cleaned, everything fixed that needed to be fixed and all the corrosion removed. Sometime later Dorothy’s bike also had a flat and her bike got the same treatment including a new gear selector. Both times we paid less than $25.00 for this service from a very nice gentleman and his repair staff in the shop.
We took our bikes for a tour to the north side of the island to visit the beaches, to the south side to the “Old Point Mangrove Park”. In this park a miles long bridge is built through the mangroves allowing you to be within the mangrove forest. All tourists including cruisers rent a mule, golf car or scooters to make a tour around the island along the coastal road and visit the most southerly point of the island. This is about 19 miles trip over a very nice road. We did this trip using our folding bikes with driving time of 6 hours. We stopped on many of the beautiful beaches on the north and east side of the island, hard coral west side of the island. Part of the north and east side of the island is protected by a reef while the west side is mostly the lee side of the island with the north/east wind. With the strong north/east wind the sea and the breakers on the south/east side were very impressive. We had lunch in a great fun restaurant called “Punta Sur”; it is built on a cliff and our table was next to two blow holes and although protected by a plastic curtain the spray got over our table. The restaurant is a piece of art and filled with driftwood sculptures. The way back along the west coast was tough but we stopped at many fun places, drank delicious natural fruit juices and made it back to Nene’s Marina very proud of ourselves and happy.
After this bike trip around the island we used our bikes to make a lot of trips to different places on the island, filled our propane bottle and of course grocery shopping. Our next long trip was along the north and west side of the island to “Casa Museo Isleña”. This little museum features an original typical home in San Andres nicely restored and features a display of native historical, cultural and ethnological artifacts and the tour guide gives historic information about the island. The tour guide is a very accomplished dancer and he invites visitors to dance with him. It was too early in the morning for me, but we enjoyed it a lot as other visitors joined him. One of the ladies asked me to make a video of her and her partner and she was quite a performer and this task did not allow me to join the group. Due to the strong wind the way back was a lot harder, but we received a lot of encouragement of people in golf cars, mules and on scooters and got a lot of questions where they could rent these nice bikes.
Together with our fellow cruisers of s/v “Imagine” Paul and Lori we took a bike ride to a very nice beach restaurant called “The Grog” and spent the day under a very nice tree eating, drinking and enjoying the beach scenery. The young Colombian ladies are for sure less conservative in their swimwear as you may think after visiting many places and cities on the mainland. Close to the restaurant is a sand bank which is connected to a small coral island and allows you to wade in about 4 to 5 ft. of water to walk to the island which we did and it was fun to do. Along the beach all kinds of beach toys are available for rent like hoby-cats, kite surfing, jet skis and parasailing. Many tourists from all over the world, but of course most of the Colombian Mainland are enjoying this fun and beautiful island with great beaches and beautiful reefs.
We also used the excellent local bus service and basically spent one afternoon riding the bus around the island and visited the beautiful Baptist Church in a town up on the hill called “La Loma”. This small town in the inner part of San Andrés is one of the most traditional places here. The Baptist church, the first established on the island in 1847 was in 1896 largely rebuilt in pine brought from Alabama.
As I mentioned before our wind indicator did not work since the rotavecta in the mast was stuck. I am not too crazy to just let Dorothy hoist me to the top of the mast without a safety line and a safety observer. Paul and Lori from s/v “Imagine” offered to help me and Paul went three times into the mast to test, remove and after a good cleaning re-install the rotavecta.
We had also a few disappointments while staying on this beautiful island. For close to 14 days we had a very strong wind and when a squall passed the wind sometimes blew over 30 knots and with the not so great anchor holding in this area it was sometimes a little scary especially since friends of ours had in this kind of weather a slipping anchor and nearly hit one of the shipwrecks the bay. Everywhere on the north and east coast on the reefs you see shipwrecks and these are not sail boats but large freighters and fishing vessels. Even close to where we are anchored you see sunken ships so it is important to keep a good anchor watch. During this time the coastguard did not allow any of the tourist boats including diving boat to go out. This meant that you could only shore dive from the west coast of the island, which involves a lot of swimming.
So finally the wind went down and I went out with a dive school owned by a German Dive Master who is fluent in German, English and Spanish. Since we had 3 divers in training on board we only dove in relatively shallow water. The first dive on the west coast coral plane was at 46 feet and the second dive on the north side around a coral pyramid only 27 feet. That was good for me since I did not dive for over a year due to all my medical problems. I was tired and I probably did not secure my BCD properly on the boat to let it dry and the next day it was gone. This is one of the most expensive parts of my dive equipment and I was very sad and angry at myself that I was so careless.
Just before we left I found out too late that my electronic chart did not give sufficient details for the place we wanted to go along the coast of the west Caribbean. I ordered a new chart on-line which arrived with FedEx, but I ordered the wrong media chip and the adapter I used in the past did not work anymore. Navionics allowed me to send it back and get a refund, but FedEx shipping is not cheap.
Then the internal cool fluent pump or our generator broke and we have to order a new one that again has to be shipped. We had problems with this pump before and with an old fuel pump I could rig something together so that at least in the meantime we can use the generator. I hope that this is the last of the disappointments we had and can enjoy the rest of our retirement trip in the beautiful Caribbean with all its beautiful countries and islands.