July, 2010

Bay of Cholon

Colombia

It is July, 2010 and we just arrived back in the Bay of Cholon, about 20 miles south of Cartagena, Colombia.   We plan to stay here through the hurricane season and work on Valentina and do some boat projects.

This is our travels over the last 2 1/2 months.   We left San Blas, Panama and went directly to the Hobbies, Honduras to fish.  We stayed there for five weeks, then went to Providencia for a month, then returned to the Bay of Cholon.

It is the rainy season, which means, storms come through at night.   Usually at 2 a.m. it starts lightning, in the distance.   Then by 4 a.m., it is on top of you and blowing wind and rain.   It keeps us awake and our water tank full.

It had so much rust on it that it would not go through the hawse pipe on our windlass, so we took out as much as we could and Sonny cut the chain.  Then, down below, he loaded the rest of the chain in two buckets, then took it to dispose of it.

Now, we have our v-berth totally apart and rust in the bottom of the anchor locker....so it was time to clean it.  After much vacuuming, soaping and scrubbing, we removed the rust and then cleaned the bilge.

Finally, we replaced the mattresses in our v-berth and made our bed.

Robert had a get-together on Manatee tonight.

Our bodies ached.   A good night's sleep in just what we need.

No work today.....we called David on S/V Bruadair and asked if he wanted to play Baja Rummy with us......he did.   Sonny beat us though.

At 4 p.m. we did a dinghy float in the Bay.   There were four dinghies that participated and it was very relaxing and fun.  It was a small enough group that you could talk and listen to everyone.

God Bless America....Land that we Love

This morning, after we woke up, we raised the big US flag to the top of our mast. (Actually, not the one in the photo above).

We grilled chorizo and wrapped them in tortillas with cheese, onions, bell peppers and mustard.   One of our favorite meals.  In South America, they call these 'choripan" (chorizo and bread).

 

Today, is also another holiday weekend in Colombia, so we watched the boat traffic in the bay of the tourist who are down for the weekend. Boy, you just can't leave your hammock for a minute....or someone will jump in it.....(hold your mouse on Sonny's picture in the hammock to see who sneaks in......).

   There are a lot of good people here that we have come to love.

Today is the last day of the holiday weekend.  We are thankful.  The locals that come down play extremely loud music all night and ski very close to the sailboats.   Just like a holiday weekend at the lake in Texas, right?  Did I mention the jet skis that circle you?

I made a pot of spaghetti today, so we will eat on that for several days while we were working on stainless.

We got in the water to relax and help our sore hands.

Early this morning, the clouds rolled in, some rain showers sprinkled on us and we saw the most beautiful rainbow.....so near.

No cleaning today.....they are building a new road from Cartagena to Baru.  They have been working on it for years, but now it is near where they are working.

They have taken our beautiful walking path and are constructing the road.  It will be good for the people of Baru to have a good road, as they mainly travel to their home on the peninsula by a water taxi from Cartagena.

We asked Dave and Judy on S/V Fia if they wanted to get off the boat today and go walking with us.  They thankfully did.  They have been cruising for 20 years and are without a dinghy at the moment, so getting off the boat sounded like a good idea to them.

When we dinghied over to Fia's boat, the mullet fish started jumping out of the water.  When we got to their dinghy, two mullets had jumped inside.

We walked along our old path, to the other side of the peninsula, and on the new road.  We walked a couple of miles.

Jaime and Maria had some nice, big mangos they have grown, so we bought some for $.75 each.  We love mangos.

We made a quick run into Baru this morning.   It is about a 4 mile dinghy trip through the mangroves to the small, poor village.  We needed to take our garbage, buy some bread, potatoes, and cookies.

We worked on the bow sprit this afternoon to continue our stainless cleaning and polishing job.

Sonny's cousins, Ronnie and Ricky are connected on Skype.  It was good to see and talk to them tonight.  They are currently in Sapulpa, OK.

We had unloaded our quarter berth to do the radio test, so Sonny checked the water in the batteries while we had it unloaded.

He rigged a light in the cockpit so we can play Baja rummy at night.  We need to purchase some wire when we go to Cartagena, so we can wire it directly.

Today, Robert and Carmen returned home after almost a week in Cartagena, so they invited everyone to the Manatee tonight.  We went and played farkel with Dave and Judy on S/V Fia.

Then, I made some potato salad for tonight's pot luck and Sonny started cleaning on the bottom.

We both started back on the stainless for a few hours until the wind picked up.

 

Pot-luck on the Manatee

So, we lowered the dinghy and happily went to greet and pick up our new live aboards.  We brought them to Valentina and set them free.

It is four new geckos!

On boats, geckos are great house guests.  They eat insects, which we detest.  It is so easy to bring insects/bugs on board, as you shop in local markets and have to be very careful with cardboard, bags, and produce.

After our saltwater crossings since April, we have not seen our resident geckos.  Our favorite one, "Tex" would come out, when we would make his noise to call him, and eat at our buffet.   We enjoyed watching him.

The World Cup is very popular in Central and South America.  When Colombia voted for a new President last month, they were concerned the voter turn-out would be low due to the World Cup games.

Robert and Carmen invited the boats in the anchorage up to their house to watch the final game.   It was not a real exciting game until the last few minutes, but, the view and fellowship was fun.

We get numerous emails from friends who say they are living vicariously through us on our website.   That is very encouraging and keeps me working on the website, trying to keep it interesting for you. But, while we were still preparing Valentina for cruising,  and  still dreaming of cruising and wondering what it is 'really' like....Sonny faithfully read the logs of Dances With Dragons, a couple from Kemah, Texas who had already cast off their dock lines. He was dreaming vicariously through them and their adventures, so we know how important websites are to friends and family back home. Well, finally, I got to meet Wayne and Nancy in the Bay of Cholon.  What a nice couple and fellow Texans.  She is even a UT fan.....gotta love her!

This morning at about 7:30 a.m. Sonny and I jumped in the water and snorkeled over a few boats to S/V Virgo's Child.  A nice morning swim and good exercise.

I worked on the stainless some and we read and worked on the website.

Robert, our friend who lives in the big house on top of the hill, called on the VHF to all the cruisers in the anchorage.   The sky was getting dark to our northeast and he said he could see rain on the way and for everyone to get out our rain catchers.

So, we rolled up our awning over the front, and started shutting up the panels in the cockpit to prepare for the rain.

Just in time, the rain began and Sonny started cleaning the deck so we could start catching water in our water tank.

People always wonder, "Just what do you do on the boat all day long?"  We open the hatches inside Valentina, raise the enclosure panels in the cockpit, and open the awning on the front......just in time to put it all down for the next rain shower.   Then, you open them up again......and....

We were hungry for some biscuits and gravy.   So, I made some homemade biscuits (that you could actually eat.....usually I do not do very well on these), and Sonny made some gravy and fried eggs. We cannot eat like this very often, but it sure is a treat when we do.

It continued to rain on and off all morning.  After a game of baha rummy, we put the dinghy down and drove over to the small tienda and bought some potatoes, tomatoes, onions and chips.

This evening at sundown, a sunfish sailboat with four people sailed by and asked to come aboard.  Of course....they pulled up beside Valentina and climbed aboard.  It was the sailing instructor, a father, his daughter and her friend from Medellin, Colombia  We had a good visit with them.

 

Some new friends sailing by....

An exciting night.....at 12:45 a.m. Chuck on S/V Changing Tides got on the VHF radio and announced that he had an attempted boarding.  Damon, on S/V Bruadair, then said the small boat with a motor just passed the back of his boat.

Then, it started raining, very hard.   One boat drug, almost into another cruiser, but managed to get away and anchor farther away.

Then, around 7 a.m., we were sitting on the deck, Sonny drinking his morning coffee, when the Colombian Coast Guard came by.  We did not know who had called, but guided them to where Chuck's boat was anchored.

Later, we were told that another boat, S/V Gusto, had a 15 hp motor stolen while on their dinghy, on their arch.  So, the Coast Guard was out trying to help.

Just like everywhere, some people are very poor, and will steal to make some money.  We have to take extra precautions.  We are so thankful for our arch that raises our dinghy very high.

In this anchorage of 12 boats, three are Tayanas.   Ours is the only 37', the other two, S/V Dances with Dragons and S/V She Wolf, are Tayana 42s.

We have always been told how many Tayanas are out cruising, but this is the first time we have had three in the same anchorage.

Our friends, Dr. Gilberto and Martha came down to their house for the weekend, so we spent some time with them today.

 

Our friends, Yvonne and Emma from Cartagena, sail in the bay frequently.

Martha had finished her project of trimming some plants at their house and started swimming out to the boat.   She had a bowl on top of her head with a melon inside.

Damon from S/V Bruadair saw our heads in the water and came down to join us.   It was a nice relaxing swim, and some more time learning English and Spanish for all of us.   Dr. Gilberto's English is improving much better than our Spanish though.

They invited us to their house for San-Cocho, which is fish soup.  You add rice and avocado to the soup....delicious.  They also had patacones, our favorite.

We went for a walk later to the new road.

Damon went home early in his dinghy and we told him we would just swim to the boat because it was near.

But, after our walk, it was dark, and we had realized we did not leave the swim ladder down on Valentina.   Climbing out of the water, onto Valentina is not easy.  I tried first, and Sonny tried to push.....but, no luck.   Then, Sonny tried to climb up and me push.   He managed to get up and put the ladder down for me. 

Sonny and Ray (S/V Adventura) blowing the conch horns. But, Wilso, a local, was the real pro.

It is 20 miles to Cartagena, but takes 2 hours by road.   Although they are working on it to improve it dramatically, it is still very rough.  You have to have a 4 wheel drive to get through.

They dropped us off at our bank after 8 a.m.   The launcha to return to the Bay of Cholon departs at 10 a.m., so we have two hours to take care of our business.

After the bank, we walked to the electronic repairman's store, but he was not open yet, so we walked 3 blocks to the Carulla supermarket.  Sonny put some time on our phone while I grabbed some cheese, meat, tortillas and chips.

Then we walked back to the electronic repairman's and Sonny talked to him about some wire for our radio.

At this point, it was already 9:30 and we only had 30 minutes before the water taxi left, so Sonny grabbed a taxi and headed one way to another electrical store and I grabbed a taxi and headed to Mega Tienda, another store.

We both got back to the water taxi as they were getting ready to leave the dock.  Whew....a quick trip, lots of running, but we got a lot accomplished.

Except, while returning in the water taxi, I asked Sonny about our green bag....if he had it.  "No, I just had the bag with cold food and my electrical wire".   Oh no....we have left a full bag somewhere.

After we got back to Valentina, Sonny called the electrical repairman, whose office is 'very' full of stuff.  He looked around and said, "Yes, I see a green bag".   So, now we will have to get it back to Valentina.   Another adventure.

Tonight we had a treat, we got to talk to Judy, Leisa, Royce, Dorian, and Mamaw on Skype.  It is wonderful to be able to see our family as we talk to them.

We washed our rugs, sheets, and clothes then hung them up on the lines on Valentina to dry before the next shower arrived.  We had our flags flying today......

But, now it is clean and new again.   Much better!

We had Damon and David (S/V Bruadair) and Kate and D.J. (S/V Hello World) over this afternoon for fried fish.   We caught a mahi-mahi on our trip from Providencia, so we wanted to share it with them.  We had french fries, corn on the cob, David's bean and corn salad and Kate's brownies.   What a treat!

Early this morning, the Coast Guard boat came cruising through the anchorage.  They had found a dinghy on one of the nearby islands and was checking to see if anyone was missing one.

Norm and Pops, S/V Silacia, had returned to the Bay of Cholon from Cartagena the previous day and when they arrived, they told us their dinghy had come untied while underway.  So, the Coast Guard was guided to their boat to give them details for retrieving it.   What luck!

It was another gathering this evening on the M/V Manatee.  It is so good to have a place where everyone can gather and swap sailing stories....or rather....boat project stories.

We love the early mornings in the Bay of Cholon.  It is so tranquil.  Sonny is enjoying his coffee on the deck.

By 10 a.m. we had already jumped in the water to swim twice.  It is a hot day with little wind.

Then, I cleaned a little stainless.  Maybe someday I will get around the whole boat.  Probably just in time, to start over.

We are still not able to use our SSB radio.  So to troubleshoot and rule out problems with our grounding, antenna tuner, and backstay connections, Sonny made a dipole antenna out of wire and we connected it to see if the would have reception.

It did not work, so we strongly feel it is our radio that is still the problem.

 Another gathering on Manatee this evening.   There were probably 30 people, including four children there.   Very nice group.

We went over to Kate and D.J.'s (S/V Hello World) for afternoon tea with Damon and David (S/V Bruadair).  Today is Damon's last day before making a trip to the US.  Kate had made scones which were very tasty.

David (S/V Bruadair) came over this afternoon for a game of farkel.  He beat us though.....but it was still fun.

We walked up to Robert and Carmen's house to watch the sunset from their view.  It is good to be with them.  Robert has such a heart for cruisers and does so much for all of us.

It started getting darker and darker, along with some lightning and thunder.   So we walked fast back to our dinghy to return to Valentina before the rain reached us.

But, this afternoon, he started drooping again.   There is some little bug going around, as two other cruisers in the anchorage has the same symptoms.   Very unusual for us.   I think this might be the first time he has run fever since we have been out cruising.  It has been a very healthy lifestyle for us.

A good day....Sonny feels good, back in the water again cleaning the bottom and felt good tonight.  No fever. 

I think we are getting used to the wind and lightning because we haven't thought it has been bad at all, but our friends in the anchorage have been talking about the bad storms we have been having.   Its all in perspective, I guess.

As long as I feel confident our anchor is dug in, we have out more than sufficient scope, and there are no boats anchored nearby to drag down on us, I am fine. 

But, we are spoiled.   We have been without an internet or cell phone signal for three days now.  Evidently, the tower got hit by lightning or they are doing an upgrade, but we do spoil easy.

The houses on the island have been without electricity the whole time also.  Not good for refrigerators and freezers.

It started out a beautiful day today, with sunshine and a nice breeze.  Then, we spotted the waterspout to our north.

		The Nearby Village of Baru

Then we came back and swam.

We have heard the saying, "Cruising is enjoying life, living on a sailboat in beautiful places, on a budget below poverty level." 

We can attest to the fact, you can live on whatever you have.

Sonny and Kay