Greetings from Cartegena Columbia! We left Curacao Thursday evening the 18th in the company of Independence and Uliad bound for Monjes del Sur, a jaunt of 120 miles. Beautiful breeze calm waters and a great sunset made for a great start of the 400 + mile journey to Cartegena. It was lovely until the auto-pilot gave out. Of course this was as we were coming out of the lee of Curacao into the larger seas and winds. Nothing like hand steering at night with seas and winds on the stern! Needless to say it was a long and exhausting night but we were still able to catch a nice Mahi in the morning. We pulled into the 'anchorage' at Monjes del Sur (aka the rock), around midday - finally. The rock is literally 2 rocks belonging to Venezuela with a breakwater between the two to form a bay. Of sorts. It is not possible to anchor so they have strung a huge rope between the rocks that boats tie up to. Let's just say it was a unique experience, and that one night was plenty.

Day two had us leaving before dawn bound for Bahia Honda on the coast of Columbia, about 60 miles away. Having come to grips with being forced to hand steer it was a much better trip. However, Bahia Honda was definitely not the place to stay as it had a 3 foot swell and ugly brown water. Not sure where the brown came from as the terrain looked like we were in the Arizona desert with no towns or anything for miles around. We pushed on to try Cabo de Vela 25 miles down the coast, but with beautiful weather and good attitudes we opted to go all night to 5 Bays. The night was fairly easy and dawn brought us in view of the Sierra Nevada mountains. At 18,900 feet they of course had snow! It looked a bit like summer sailing in Seattle with the Olympic's in the background. The mountainous coastline also reminded us of Desolation Sound. Getting into the middle bay of the 5 Bays was a bit exciting with the wind hitting 35 knots, the rollers growing and us doing 8-9 knots. About 100 yards inside the headland the wind shut off and the bay turned into a very peaceful and beautiful spot with steep hillsides and a small fishing village. Getting ashore to stretch the legs was a top priority after a 200 mile leg and the locals were very friendly.

We thought we would spend two nights here recuperating but the weather window was going to close in a few days and we still had 112 miles to go. Not wanting to do any more overnights without our good friend auto-pilot we set out at first light for Punta Hermosa. 25 knots of breeze with 8-10 foot tightly spaced waves was not what we were expecting but we slogged through and made it to a very calm peaceful bay tucked behind a long spit of land with little fishing/beach shacks all along it. Mind you this spit of land is not on our electronic charts at all. In fact, every bay we hit along the way had no chart datum. One of the benefits of going where few boats go is you get to discover first hand how old and inaccurate some chart datum are! We relied on hand sketched charts and e-mail notes (and our eyes), that get passed around among the cruisers headed this way. Many thanks to Pizzaz and all the others that have contributed to the info on cruising Columbia.

With Cartegena only 55 miles away we decided to get going by 5 am so we would have plenty of time to get ashore and celebrate arriving. This day brought very light winds and by ½ way dropped all sail and just motored in. 'Just get there' was there motto, and when we finally got the anchor down the relief was palpable. Cold cervezas ashore had to wait an hour or so while we cleaned the boat and ourselves up a bit, but when we did get ashore to Club Nautico (a marina serving as cruising headquarters), they sure did taste good!

So what is Cartegena like you ask? So far after two days words can't quite describe how amazing, cool, exotic, ancient, kind, vibrant, awesome or phenomenal it is. The old city is indeed that, being founded in the 1500's. It is filled with many cobblestone streets, piazza's surrounded by café's and restaurants and shops. Small balconies overflowing with flowers are everywhere. A very European feel to it but with a unique flair that makes you realize you sure are somewhere unique. We look forward to celebrating Christ's birth in this very special city!