Cruising to Cartagena, Colombia

In February we said goodbye to our friends in San Blas after a week long stay in beautiful Cambombia.

Unfortunately the native people show no inclination to keep their islands clean and many items like chairs and shoes and plastic items can be found littering the island and beaches. Most cruisers take care to burn their trash, but the Kuna indians just dump everything in the ocean. They live primitively and have not yet figured out how to deal with plastic and non-recyclables. 

At anchor near Cambombia with S/V Prism.

Selfie on the beach. The teeny tiny island behind me was a nice daytime trip for snorkeling.

Ninja hangs out on deck and occasionally (below) hunts the birds who are daring enough to visit.

A find on one of my daily snorkel trips.

Yes, conch is edible, just not much to look at!

Before heading out we stocked up on fresh veggies from the "veggie boat" and moved up to the Holandes Cays to enjoy the last spearfishing expedition we would have for a while. 

We waited for the next good "weather window" to make the upwind journey of 27 hours to Cartagena, Colombia with our buddy boat, S/V Gaia. Averaging around 7 knots we had an enjoyable day of sailing before the winds kicked up just after sundown. Along the way we did not see any dolphins or whales like we are used to seeing in the Pacific. But we were joined by a masked boobie who hunted flying fish alongside our boat for about an hour.

Masked boobie hunts alongside Sirena

Masked boogie diving for flying fish.

Evening brought 20 knots steady with occasional gusts to 30 knots, and the swell picked up accordingly, so we slowed the boat down to 6 knots to keep from bashing through the waves on our port bow. It was an uneasy night, but by dawn things had calmed down a bit so we picked up the pace and made landfall around 9am.

Approaching Cartagena with S/V Gaia

Approaching Cartagena Outer Bay

San Fernando Fort on Tierra Bomba island to our port side as we enter the outer bay of Cartagena, Colombia

We had to stand off a while to wait for a submarine and a US Coast Guard boat to leave the outer harbor since the entrance is narrow. Early settlers of the area built underwater fortifications in the northern opening to the outer bay of Cartagena so as to force enemy ships to enter though the southern gap where we made our entry.

US Coast Guard ship exits Cartagena, Colombia outer bay.