Isla Providencia, Columbia
18 May 2017 | Isla Providencia
Virginia and Dennis Johns
We arrived here at Isla Providencia, Columbia (island quite a bit offshore of the east coast of Nicaragua which belongs to Columbia) around 1:30pm today. We motor sailed the whole way from Grand Cayman. In fact, we had a false start when we left on Monday. About 3 hours out we were beating into a south wind and getting nowhere - only able to make about 3 knots. So we turned back to Grand Cayman. With the wind at our back we had a very comfortable and quick sail back to Grand Cayman - about 2 hours. When we had the island in sight the wind suddenly did a 180 turn and was now strong out of the north, so we turned around again. Although it was tempting to continue on that southern course, we decided it was silly to have returned within about 30 min of Grand Cayman and not take a bit of a respite. So we turned yet again north to Grand Cayman and anchored off the southwest corner for about 2 hours. We straightened out the boat a bit, had an early dinner, and took off south as the sun was setting.,
We had a few squalls during this 3 day passage, some with high winds and rain, but some light rainfall.
Weather predictions are that a trough that will bring lots of squall activity has been settled in a North-south direction from Cuba down to Jamaica and is moving west. Isla Providencia is to be at the center of the squall activity tomorrow so we will likely stay a day or two here until forecasts are for better weather for heading south.,
As we entered the anchorage, the first boat we saw were some friends we made on an Amel Santorin, Kali Mera. Tadeja and Herbert are from Vienna Austria. We first met them in Morocco, again in the Canaries, then this season we saw them in San Antonio on the eastern end of Jamaica and then again in Montego Bay on the western end of Jamaica. We were both headed for Panama, but they were doing it via Honduras and down the Central American east coast. We were making a quick trip north to Caymans and Cuba. We didn't expect to see them again. As soon as the rain stops, we will hop over for a visit and get info from them about checking into the country here.
Estimated load date for putting Libertad aboard the freighter is still May 25-30th. Homeward bound!
All's well aboard.