Footnotes from Water Music

It is now 10 days since we last updated the blog and a lot has happened in that time. We didnt want to update the blog until such time as the situation dhad settled down and hence the long pause. So this blog is set out in four parts.

1. The journey from Curacao 2. The accident and consequences 3. the journey on from Santa Marta to Cartagena 4. Cartegena and where we are now.

1. The journey from Curacao

Well we knew that sailing into the "Hole" - albeit the Southern end of the Hole would lead to some bumpy seas and strong winds and with this in mind we thought we had fared reasonably well. Passing Aruba at night - some 30Nm off the Venezuelan coast was interesting - with plenty of parked ships and many others gilling around - presumably waiting to get into the port. On the very first afternoon our fishing efforts were rewarded by a double strike of Yellow Fin Tuna. We landed both of them (one about 25Lb and the second one about 20Lb) and chucked the smaller one back. That did put an end to our fishing - but did rather change the menu options for the next few days!. By the morning of our second day we were abeam of Punta Gallinas - which meant that we had left the Venezuelan coastline - not that we were ever in their waters - and so we could concentrate on sailing the boat and not whether small fishing boats were friendly or not. The rest of the journey passed pretty much without incident until we arrived at our destination. we had 15-18knots of wind and 2m seas - so very comfortable.

We had been told that the 5 Bays just short of Santa Marta were well worth a stopover and that Columbian authorities were pretty relaxed about yachts doing exactly that and so in mid afternoon we entered this large and deep bay that was surrounded on all sides by high hills. As we entered Ensenada Gayraca it looked a great place to stop and we we felt it would offer good protection from any seas building from the East, a nice spot for a swim and an opportunity to eat our tuna steaks on the BBQ. Just as we came into the bay and as we were about to drop the main we had a massive squall, combined with a huge windshift and this caused an involuntarily, crash, gybe. That meant the boom swung uncontrallably across the boat. Unfortunately the main sheet hit Gilly in the middle of the forehead. This immediately knocked her out amidst much blood. Our plans for a gentle afternoon were changed in a flash.

2. The accident and the consequences.

Grace put out a MayDay as we continued into the bay to seek assistance and we dropped the mainsail. Have secured the boat and got Gilly into as comfortable a position as possible - she was breathing and slowly regaining some consciousness - we attracted the attention of what looked like local fisherman in the bay. As soon as they were on their way, we dropped the anchor and attended fully to Gilly. Having stemmed the bleeding we managed to transfer her into the fisherman's dinghy and jay and Gillian went ashore for medical support. We did think to thrust their passports into Jay's hands before he went - but didnt have time to get any money or credit cards for them. This turned out not to be necessary as the fishermen turned out to be part of the safety support for the local sailing club and so, fortunately, we had delivered Gilly into as good hands as could be hoped for. They were bundled into the back of a car and driven at alarmingly high speeds (even by the standards of the Grenada dollar buses) to a medical clinic in Santa Marta - about 40 minutes away, where they put 35 stitches into the wound and took scans of her head to check for more serious symptoms. The locals then found the two of them a taxi to take them to Cartagena - where their University friend James Cock lived. All this was done with no money and no credit cards. The locals paid for all of the medical expenses and, by the time they arrived in Cartagena, James was at his apartment and could sort out the taxi. On subsequent investigations, it transpired that the wound was more than a flesh wound and there was a hair line fracture of the skull and there as some bleeding into poor Gilly's sinuses and so this was contributing to her headaches.

As I write this blog the stitches are due to come out tomorrow and. at that point, they are hoping that they will know when Gilly will be able to fly again. It has been a very hard time - particularly for Gilly and we are all so lucky that James had his apartment in Cartagena - where Gilly could start her recovery as doing that on the boat would have been impossible. As at last night, some of the twinkle is coming back and we can only hope for a continued and speedy recovery. Their original plans now lie in tatters as they were supposed to be sailing with us through the San Blas islands and leaving us in Panama at end of March before flying to Costa Rica for 10 days and then coming home. It is particularly galling that they had done most of the hard yards and were all set for some gentle sailing and beautiful beaches, snorkelling and so on in the San Blas. None of the could now happen.

3. Santa Marta to Cartagena.

Knowing that Gilly was in as good a set of hands as we could hope to find that left us with Grace and Stephen on the boat. We were advised by the locals that we needed to re-anchor as we were too close to the beach (a good thing we did for what was about to come) and about an hour later we were visited by the Columbian Coastguard - following up on our MayDay - since cancelled. They were very helpful and reported us into the Santa Marta coastguard - who then kept a close track of us the following day. The night turned out to be a nightmare as we had wave after wave of really strong blasts of winds that appeared to come from totally random directions. Whilst the wind at the top of the mast was recording 10-15 knots at deck level we have bullets of 50-60 knots and coming from NE one minute and SW the next minute. We doubled up on the anchor snubber and then stood anchor watches until dawn, when we left to go to Puerto Valero - some 70Nm in the direction of Cartegena and reported to be "one of the safest harbours in N Columbia. It would also mean us crossing the Magdalena River and all of the shipping traffic going into Baranquilla. We knew exactly what sort of sail we would be in for as we set out into 45knots on leaving Ensenada Gayraca. We put up a small amount of Jib and turned downwind - making sure we would be at least 10Nm off Baranquilla, which should take us North of the worst of the seas and debris piling up at the mouth of the Magdalena. Even so we had continuous winds of 30 knots and seas of 3-4m throughout the day.

Puerto Valero turned out to be very sheltered from the seas - but is is not well charted and the sands around the bay are continuously shifting and the channel markers are all but invisible. Going into the wind for the first time, albeit now under engine reminded us of how much there had been and how wet it would be to go upwnid. After what seemed like aeons we arrived in a small marina where we were expertly helped onto the hammerhead pontoon on the marina - without that help we woudl simply have been blown off. There was nothing ashore and the wind was howling all night and so, having secured double mooring lines at front, back and middle, we had a bowl of pasta and went to bed. Another fitful night's sleep followed as we wondered whether the entire pontoon might get blown away and we awoke at dawn ready to do then second, shorter, leg to re-join Jay and Gillian in Cartagena.

I am pleased to note that the further we got from Santa Marta and Baranquilla, the more the breeze dropped and the calmer the seas became. As we came into as full a shelter as possible from the land at Punta Canoas, the breeze dropped to about 25 knots and down to 2-3 m swells. What all this meant was that we had a fast passage downwind to Cartagena and we arrived at the Boca Grande (the Northern entrance) at lunchtime - to be strongly advised to go the extra 10 miles and pass through the big ship channel - the Boca Chica. Apparently we have Francis drake to blame for that as the Spaniards decided to block the man channel to stop marauding pirates. It certainly added a coulple of hours to our journey.but we had a lovely sail through the forts. Cartagena looked a beautiful city from the ocean as we sailed past the white skyscrapers and then motored through pelicans fishing in the rich waters of the bay. We were not disappointed when we moored up in Marina de Pesce, just outside the city walls.

There we met up with Gilly and Jay and were introduced to James - who by that stage had well and truly earned his nickname and Sant-iago. Given the uncertainty over Gillian's recovery, we decided to lift the boat out of the water in cartagena, redoing anti-fouling and replacing anodes. we knew we would need to do this before Galapagos and so it seemed a good alternative to having the same things done in Panama Grace and Stephen moved into a small "boutique hotel".

4. Cartagena

Grace - small boutique hotel bit of an overstatement! more of a youth hostel still in a great atmospheric area with lovely staff, very Columbian but room incredibly dark damp and dingy! However it has been great to spend some days in this fantastic city and have James as a guide. Love the live music everywhere - although sometimes at supper even I found it a bit too much! Great street artists and buskers buzzing with young. As well as the normal tourists sites the old city, the castle (tales of English Admirals - Drake took the town the Columbians don't mention him much the Spanish paid him off, Vernon with 27000 troops was beaten back by the Spanish led by Blas (who had one eye, one leg and one arm) and 300 troops - lots of mentions of this battle! We also got to see parts of the town hidden to the tourists particularly the area around the boatyard, the local markets etc..

Now just setting off for San Blas wth at the moment a pleasant 15 knots of wind pretty much on the beam - 180 miles to go and we are heading for the eastern end of Holland Cays known as 'the swimming pool' which is according to James' very charming and knowledgeable French/Columbian friend Gilbert the safest place in the islands ...... Sadly Gillian and Jay were unable to make this part of the trip and Santiago has stayed in Cartagena to look after his guests. Not quite what anyone had expected, but we are all relieved that it could have been so much worse.