Once again I’ve been bad about updating the blog but after staying in one spot for 3 months, I don’t feel as if I’m cruising anymore but rather just working! I got a job in the sail loft down here and love it. Not a big fan of sewing but love learning the trade. The biggest news is that I went back and got my Captain’s license. I passed all my exams last week and plan on sending in my paperwork this week. I’ll definitely get what they call the “6 pack” which means I can up to 6 paying customers out on a boat. I also passed the Master’s tests and will be given a 50 or 100ton license. Since most of my time at sea was on my 37 footer, I think I’ll most likely get the 50ton. That means I can take a 50ton vessel out with as many passengers as its capacity states. Not sure what I’ll do with it but time will tell.
The other big news is that I have a broker coming out this week to take pics and list the boat. Not sure if it’ll sell fast or not but I have friends that sold their 34 foot sailboat in 3 weeks. If it sells, I’m going to try to get on a megayacht for the summer and go to the Med. If it doesn’t sell, I’ll be heading North looking for jobs somewhere out of the way of the hurricanes.
So with that said, all you deadbeats who said you’d visit and never showed up better hurry, not sure how much longer I’ll be living this lifestyle!
Dan (well….Captain Dan I guess!)
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Working in St. Thomas
It’s been a bit since my last update so I thought I’d let everyone know what I’ve been up to. I’m still in St. Thomas but I actually now have a “job”. I’m working for Quantum Sails as a “sail-maker”…doing repairs on old sails and selling and installing new ones. The owner of the loft (in this industry, they are called “sail lofts”) is a great guy and has been doing it for 11 years here in St. Thomas. I’m learning a lot and if I continue to sail, the skills will definitely help me down the line.
Christmas was spent on other boats with friends. I had brunch with my friends on s/v Ketching Up (Noel, Ashley and their 3 boys) and dinner on s/v Astor. Richard and Lany on Astor are the ones that so gratefully donated their old auto-pilot and SSB tuner back in Panama City when I got hit by lightening. They were here in St Thomas and put on a great Christmas dinner. I plan on heading to Antigua for the classic boat races in April. Astor asked me to crew for them and seeing it as a chance of a lifetime, I committed. The raceing lasts for 4 days, then I’ll most likely work my way back North and make plans for hurricane season come May.
New Years: It was time to get out of St.Thomas for a bit so I headed over to Foxy’s on Yost Van Dyke for their infamous New Year’s party. The anchorage was parked full of boats and the party lived up to its reputation. My parents read my blog so I can’t tell too much but if you ever have the opportunity to be there in the future, make it happen! I stayed for 4 days and let the crowd disperse before I attempted to raise my anchor. I was afraid that I probably had 3 other anchors on top of mine.
Anyway, I plan on heading to Puerto Rico next month to visit some friends from college. They’re staying in a 5 star resort and I can’t wait to take a long, hot shower! It’s been 1.5 years since I stood in a shower and could let the water run….needless to say I’m looking forward to it.
The boat is doing great. The water is clean enough that I can make water here in the anchorage. I’m anchored right outside a new marina that’s filled with Megayachts. We’re doing some work on two of them now. The larger one is the 2nd largest in the world. It belongs to Larry Ellison, founder of Oracle. It’s appx 420 feet and stores a helicopter below deck in the bow. We got to see very little of the boat while on board but they have 5 tenders with one of them costing 1.5million (just for the tender!). To think that I’d love to have a new 15hp Yamaha on my dinghy but I’m too cheap to buck up.
Anyway, the owner is selling the loft and if it goes through, I may take some time off and get my Captain’s license. I’ve been making a lot of contacts and think I could get on one of these megayachts for the summer, maybe try to get on one gong to the Med or something. Who knows, tomorrow’s a different day.
Just spoke to my very good friends, The Millers, in California. They plan on coming down sometime in March or April and I’m already looking forward to it. This will be their 2nd trip (Steve’s 3rd) so I guess they enjoy the boat and island lifestyle. Depending on where I’m at, we’ll hit all the best anchorages and see if we can find some trouble at the same time.
I think that just about covers all my updates. Sorry I don’t have any new pics but I’m too cheap to buy a camera (but always willing to accept donations!). If anyone wants to visit, it would be great to have you all!
Dan
Christmas was spent on other boats with friends. I had brunch with my friends on s/v Ketching Up (Noel, Ashley and their 3 boys) and dinner on s/v Astor. Richard and Lany on Astor are the ones that so gratefully donated their old auto-pilot and SSB tuner back in Panama City when I got hit by lightening. They were here in St Thomas and put on a great Christmas dinner. I plan on heading to Antigua for the classic boat races in April. Astor asked me to crew for them and seeing it as a chance of a lifetime, I committed. The raceing lasts for 4 days, then I’ll most likely work my way back North and make plans for hurricane season come May.
New Years: It was time to get out of St.Thomas for a bit so I headed over to Foxy’s on Yost Van Dyke for their infamous New Year’s party. The anchorage was parked full of boats and the party lived up to its reputation. My parents read my blog so I can’t tell too much but if you ever have the opportunity to be there in the future, make it happen! I stayed for 4 days and let the crowd disperse before I attempted to raise my anchor. I was afraid that I probably had 3 other anchors on top of mine.
Anyway, I plan on heading to Puerto Rico next month to visit some friends from college. They’re staying in a 5 star resort and I can’t wait to take a long, hot shower! It’s been 1.5 years since I stood in a shower and could let the water run….needless to say I’m looking forward to it.
The boat is doing great. The water is clean enough that I can make water here in the anchorage. I’m anchored right outside a new marina that’s filled with Megayachts. We’re doing some work on two of them now. The larger one is the 2nd largest in the world. It belongs to Larry Ellison, founder of Oracle. It’s appx 420 feet and stores a helicopter below deck in the bow. We got to see very little of the boat while on board but they have 5 tenders with one of them costing 1.5million (just for the tender!). To think that I’d love to have a new 15hp Yamaha on my dinghy but I’m too cheap to buck up.
Anyway, the owner is selling the loft and if it goes through, I may take some time off and get my Captain’s license. I’ve been making a lot of contacts and think I could get on one of these megayachts for the summer, maybe try to get on one gong to the Med or something. Who knows, tomorrow’s a different day.
Just spoke to my very good friends, The Millers, in California. They plan on coming down sometime in March or April and I’m already looking forward to it. This will be their 2nd trip (Steve’s 3rd) so I guess they enjoy the boat and island lifestyle. Depending on where I’m at, we’ll hit all the best anchorages and see if we can find some trouble at the same time.
I think that just about covers all my updates. Sorry I don’t have any new pics but I’m too cheap to buy a camera (but always willing to accept donations!). If anyone wants to visit, it would be great to have you all!
Dan
Monday, December 29, 2008
Still in St. Thomas
Just a quick update. I picked up a job working for Quantum Sails in their loft here in the marina. It's a fun job and I'm learning a skill that I can use to make money no matter where I cruise in the future. It covers the beer tabs and takes away my need to hit up the ATM machine so I can't complain.
I'm taking off today and making the short trip over to Yost Van Dyke in the BVI's. It's about 20 miles away and home of Foxy's, the famous bar down here. www.foxysbar.com I'll be there for New Years, then back to St. Thomas to work some more. There'll be about 4000 people on this small remote island and I hear the anchorage becomes a parking lot, with some boats "rafting" to others since there's no room to drop anchor. With that said, I'm taking off early to hopefully set up shop w/o difficulty.
Everyone have a great New Year!
Dan
I'm taking off today and making the short trip over to Yost Van Dyke in the BVI's. It's about 20 miles away and home of Foxy's, the famous bar down here. www.foxysbar.com I'll be there for New Years, then back to St. Thomas to work some more. There'll be about 4000 people on this small remote island and I hear the anchorage becomes a parking lot, with some boats "rafting" to others since there's no room to drop anchor. With that said, I'm taking off early to hopefully set up shop w/o difficulty.
Everyone have a great New Year!
Dan
Thursday, December 4, 2008
St Thomas Update
I pulled anchor on Thanksgiving and left Venezuela, heading for St. Thomas. My plan was that if I missed St Thomas, I’d go to Puerto Rico for a few days, then head east to St Thomas. On the day I left, winds and swell were coming from the NE and I made my first mistake, I continued NE towards St Thomas. My boat got rocked for about 20 hours and I was not covering much ground. Looking at the chart plotters reminded me of when I was a kid and how I felt when we used to drive cross country camping. After a day, you’d look at a map of the US and realize you only went a ½ inch or perhaps an inch. After 20 hours, I only made 65 miles. At that point, I turned east and decided to grab as much East as I could, then head north…hopefully with a better angle on the wind and seas. It worked and half way in to the 2nd day, I made my turn north.
I had 2 days of great sailing, never touching the engine. I will say though that it was a hard sail, a lot of crashing and blue water over the bow and rails. The winds change velocity pretty quickly. One minute you have 15 kts, then, within a few seconds, it hits 30! Rails get buried and you can wash your hands in the ocean while it goes past the cockpit. Pretty scary but fun! Anyway, my only scare was when I went down below on the 2nd day and had 2 inches of water on the floor! It was all on the port side since I was heeled over and I immediately went into troubleshooting/survival mode.
First, I tasted the water to see what it was….salt, fresh or fuel. It was salt water…not good! I previously closed my thru-hulls forward before I left. They’re for the head, sink drain and saltwater intake. So, I knew water was not coming in there. I also noted the bilge pump was not going off, even when I turned it on manually, it was dry. Ok…now what? Water was not rising but I will admit I looked at my ditch bag and Ephirb and mentally rehearsed a plan just in case something gave. It didn’t and I manually pumped the water out and all was good. A few hours later, I had water again! I found out that although my boat floats, it’s not completely waterproof topside. Like I said before I had blue water coming over the bow and had my rails in the water. When this happened, salt water snuck in around the toe rails (I guess) and got into the cabin. It’s the only thing that it could possibly be. I pumped the water out immediately, then tested my theory by trimming in the sails and turning to a beam reach (wind perpendicular to the boat). Rails went into the water immediately. I held the course for a few minutes, then eased the sheets. Sure enough, water down below. Although not what you want, I was relieved to say the least!
Outside of that, the passage was pretty good until about 100 miles out. My jib (front sail) is a big 130 and in anything above 20kts, I’m way over powered. Well, I had about 20 the entire trip and just prayed the sail would hold together. About a year ago, I hand-stitched some repairs and was watching the repairs closely throughout the passage. They held but unfortunately, the halyard snapped and the sail went limp. I was having some pretty large seas picking me up and literally putting me down wherever they chose. I should rephrase that….dropping me would be more appropriate. After what felt like a 5 foot free-fall, the boat crashed and the halyard snapped. The halyard is the line that holds the sail up at the top of the mast. I thought about using my spinnaker halyard as a back-up but the seas were pretty rough and I’d need to drop the jib and attach the new line. I didn’t feel like going forward and playing around so I simply fired up the engine and motor-sailed with just the main for the last 100 miles. It worked out good as I needed to charge the batteries and make some water anyway.
My first day’s error pushed out my arrival time and when passing St Croix, I knew that I’d be arriving at St. Thomas at about 2 in the morning. I dropped the revs but still arrived before sunrise. The approach is pretty simple but I don’t like going in to new ports at night so with that said, I spent 6 hours bobbing around outside of St Thomas waiting for sunrise. It was a beautiful night so I drank tea and stared at the stars. The only place that had better stars than that night was Kirkwood’s parking lot in the winter. Anyway, the sun came up and I entered the harbor and dropped anchor.
I checked in and it hit me that after 15 months, I’m back on US (sort of) soil! Pretty cool, plus they take dollars and speak English here! I treated myself to a few drinks and some chicken fingers. After 4 days at sea with nothing but Ramon, oatmeal and Tuna fish sandwiches, I was ready for some real food. Today I’m cleaning up the boat, tomorrow, I’ll start the job search. There’s a small marina here but I will most likely change anchorages and make my way around to Brenner or Redhook Bay. They have a lot more boat facilities that hopefully need some help. More later!
Dan
I had 2 days of great sailing, never touching the engine. I will say though that it was a hard sail, a lot of crashing and blue water over the bow and rails. The winds change velocity pretty quickly. One minute you have 15 kts, then, within a few seconds, it hits 30! Rails get buried and you can wash your hands in the ocean while it goes past the cockpit. Pretty scary but fun! Anyway, my only scare was when I went down below on the 2nd day and had 2 inches of water on the floor! It was all on the port side since I was heeled over and I immediately went into troubleshooting/survival mode.
First, I tasted the water to see what it was….salt, fresh or fuel. It was salt water…not good! I previously closed my thru-hulls forward before I left. They’re for the head, sink drain and saltwater intake. So, I knew water was not coming in there. I also noted the bilge pump was not going off, even when I turned it on manually, it was dry. Ok…now what? Water was not rising but I will admit I looked at my ditch bag and Ephirb and mentally rehearsed a plan just in case something gave. It didn’t and I manually pumped the water out and all was good. A few hours later, I had water again! I found out that although my boat floats, it’s not completely waterproof topside. Like I said before I had blue water coming over the bow and had my rails in the water. When this happened, salt water snuck in around the toe rails (I guess) and got into the cabin. It’s the only thing that it could possibly be. I pumped the water out immediately, then tested my theory by trimming in the sails and turning to a beam reach (wind perpendicular to the boat). Rails went into the water immediately. I held the course for a few minutes, then eased the sheets. Sure enough, water down below. Although not what you want, I was relieved to say the least!
Outside of that, the passage was pretty good until about 100 miles out. My jib (front sail) is a big 130 and in anything above 20kts, I’m way over powered. Well, I had about 20 the entire trip and just prayed the sail would hold together. About a year ago, I hand-stitched some repairs and was watching the repairs closely throughout the passage. They held but unfortunately, the halyard snapped and the sail went limp. I was having some pretty large seas picking me up and literally putting me down wherever they chose. I should rephrase that….dropping me would be more appropriate. After what felt like a 5 foot free-fall, the boat crashed and the halyard snapped. The halyard is the line that holds the sail up at the top of the mast. I thought about using my spinnaker halyard as a back-up but the seas were pretty rough and I’d need to drop the jib and attach the new line. I didn’t feel like going forward and playing around so I simply fired up the engine and motor-sailed with just the main for the last 100 miles. It worked out good as I needed to charge the batteries and make some water anyway.
My first day’s error pushed out my arrival time and when passing St Croix, I knew that I’d be arriving at St. Thomas at about 2 in the morning. I dropped the revs but still arrived before sunrise. The approach is pretty simple but I don’t like going in to new ports at night so with that said, I spent 6 hours bobbing around outside of St Thomas waiting for sunrise. It was a beautiful night so I drank tea and stared at the stars. The only place that had better stars than that night was Kirkwood’s parking lot in the winter. Anyway, the sun came up and I entered the harbor and dropped anchor.
I checked in and it hit me that after 15 months, I’m back on US (sort of) soil! Pretty cool, plus they take dollars and speak English here! I treated myself to a few drinks and some chicken fingers. After 4 days at sea with nothing but Ramon, oatmeal and Tuna fish sandwiches, I was ready for some real food. Today I’m cleaning up the boat, tomorrow, I’ll start the job search. There’s a small marina here but I will most likely change anchorages and make my way around to Brenner or Redhook Bay. They have a lot more boat facilities that hopefully need some help. More later!
Dan
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Bon Aire Update
It’s been a little since my last update. Out of the “ABC’s” (Aruba, Bon Aire and Curacao), Bon Aire is by far my favorite. It’s a huge marine park so anchoring is illegal. Mooring balls are available for $10/day right off the beach. I’m in about 10 feet of water and can watch fish all day from my boat. Had a turtle and a spotted ray swim by the other day.
Bon Aire is known for diving but I was more interested in kite-surfing…a little more my speed. Unfortunately, they only had wind-surfing so I signed up for some dive lessons. After 2.5 days, I am now a certified diver. Had a great time learning and it’s pretty simple. The hardest part was going down to 60’ and watching huge snappers swim by and not shooting them! Like I said, it’s a marine park, thus no spear-fishing. Those snappers had no idea how close they came……
I met some crew on one of the mega yachts here and scored an invite to a BBQ. Got the tour and learned quickly that the current owners bought this boat from Tiger Woods! It was pretty cool throwing down beers and shrimp knowing that Tiger sat at the same table…..let alone thinking what he did in the living room with his wife!
Ketching Up and I are waiting for a weather window to form for our departure. They’re off to St. Kitts, I’m off to find a job in St. Martin. It’ll be a 4 day sail and I’m far enough East that it should be a beam reach the whole time. Unfortunately, the wind and swell are both out of the ENE thus, pretty much on the nose. Their additional crew member came in today so as soon as the weather shifts, we’ll be off. The good news is that the crew brought down my camera so photos will start appearing shortly.
That’s it for now, hope everyone is doing well in the States,
Dan
Bon Aire is known for diving but I was more interested in kite-surfing…a little more my speed. Unfortunately, they only had wind-surfing so I signed up for some dive lessons. After 2.5 days, I am now a certified diver. Had a great time learning and it’s pretty simple. The hardest part was going down to 60’ and watching huge snappers swim by and not shooting them! Like I said, it’s a marine park, thus no spear-fishing. Those snappers had no idea how close they came……
I met some crew on one of the mega yachts here and scored an invite to a BBQ. Got the tour and learned quickly that the current owners bought this boat from Tiger Woods! It was pretty cool throwing down beers and shrimp knowing that Tiger sat at the same table…..let alone thinking what he did in the living room with his wife!
Ketching Up and I are waiting for a weather window to form for our departure. They’re off to St. Kitts, I’m off to find a job in St. Martin. It’ll be a 4 day sail and I’m far enough East that it should be a beam reach the whole time. Unfortunately, the wind and swell are both out of the ENE thus, pretty much on the nose. Their additional crew member came in today so as soon as the weather shifts, we’ll be off. The good news is that the crew brought down my camera so photos will start appearing shortly.
That’s it for now, hope everyone is doing well in the States,
Dan
Monday, October 20, 2008
Colombia to Aruba Passage
I woke up at 6am to help a friend do some varnish work on his boat. He mentioned a weather window that just opened for Aruba. Colombia to Aruba is a “beat”, nearly 400 miles against the wind and current. It’s rated as one of the top 5 worst passages to do. I was thinking about heading to Jamaica/Cuba just to eliminate this sail. However, with the recent hurricane that passed through, the winds changed and so did the current. We had a window of about 2 days before normal weather patterns resumed.
At noon, I was having a beer with some friends and they informed me they were going to take the window and leave. I decided at that point I’d better do the same as windows like this don’t happen too often. I contacted immigration, got my Zarpe, topped off diesel, hit the grocery store and had the bottom of the boat cleaned. At 5pm, I was pulling anchor, setting out for possibly the worse sail I’ll ever do.
Everything was going fine until 2am the first night. My autopilot, recently fixed after the lightening strike, went on the blink. I started to hand-steer and thought about my options. I have a “wind vane” that can steer my boat if the wind is right but knowing that I’d be motoring most of the way with little to no wind, I knew that I’d be steering by hand most of the way. 350 miles by hand, doing about 5 miles an hour makes for a long, long 3 days. I called the other 2 boats that I was traveling with and informed them of my situation. At that point, I decided to go for it. Getting my autopilot fixed in Colombia was not an option, thus I’d need to go back to Colon. If I did that, I’d never make the Eastern Caribbean this year. So, with that said, I grabbed my ankles and decided to proceed. In the meantime, I was working desperately on the autopilot. 4am, after disconnecting everything and power cycling the thing, it came back online! I was back in business and had a beer to celebrate.
The next night, about 3am, the engine died. I figured it was bad fuel (water or air in the lines). I quickly set the sails and was able to maintain my course surprisingly well. I decided to wait until sunrise to tackle the engine. Reason….give the engine time to cool as well as gain some natural light from the sun. I once again called the other two boats and told them I may be sailing the whole way which would turn a 3 day trip into a 6-7 day trip (but at least I wouldn’t be hand-steering!). At 7am, after being up for 48hrs straight, I changed all filters and bled the engine. I couldn’t get the fuel to the filter so I completely removed the bleed screw. I just sat there and watched, waiting for diesel to appear. Finally, it spouted out. I went to put the screw back in and dropped it! It went..plunk plunk splash….right into the bilge. On some boats, you can retrieve items from the bilge. On my boat, it’s a one-way trip…nothing returns. Now I did it. It’s a British engine so I new the threads would be metric. I dug through all my bolts and screws and found one! I took some measurements and dug out the hacksaw. In 15 minutes, I had a new screw and was back in business. I was able to bleed out the engine and fire her up. Time for another beer!
That afternoon, a little bird flew down below. I chased him out 3 times but failed to see him go in the final time. I went down below and found bird crap all over my settee! I threw a towel over the little sh!t and gave him a proper burial at sea. About an hour later, a big dove like looking bird was catching a ride on my bimini. He too left a mark so I chased him off. He returned to my dodger without my knowledge and shortly thereafter, I had a nice steamer fall on my shoulder. He too joined his friend in a proper sea burial. Basically, I just grabbed him with my hand and threw him as hard as I could into the ocean. The world is down 2 birds but Dan is only 90 miles out of Aruba. That’s when the weather window closed.
We had about 20kts on the nose and I was making about 3nm/hour. Basically, turtles were waving to me as they passed me. I got into Aruba around 4pm, checked into the country, dropped the anchor and had cocktails on a friend’s boat. I was out by 8pm, didn’t wake up until 10am the next day. From here, I’m off to Bon Aire, then going to make the last, long passage up to Puerto Rico or the Virgin Islands, basically as far East as I can sail.
Finally, I woke up this morning and my batteries were surprisingly low. I’ve been having fridge issues but thought I had the leak fixed in Colombia. I guess not. It ran all day and night and couldn’t maintain temperature. I’m heading out to the boat now to see if I can find the leak. In the meantime, it’s a bag of ice and a cooler to hold me over. Note to self: Next boat, save some more cash and buy a newer boat!
Dan
At noon, I was having a beer with some friends and they informed me they were going to take the window and leave. I decided at that point I’d better do the same as windows like this don’t happen too often. I contacted immigration, got my Zarpe, topped off diesel, hit the grocery store and had the bottom of the boat cleaned. At 5pm, I was pulling anchor, setting out for possibly the worse sail I’ll ever do.
Everything was going fine until 2am the first night. My autopilot, recently fixed after the lightening strike, went on the blink. I started to hand-steer and thought about my options. I have a “wind vane” that can steer my boat if the wind is right but knowing that I’d be motoring most of the way with little to no wind, I knew that I’d be steering by hand most of the way. 350 miles by hand, doing about 5 miles an hour makes for a long, long 3 days. I called the other 2 boats that I was traveling with and informed them of my situation. At that point, I decided to go for it. Getting my autopilot fixed in Colombia was not an option, thus I’d need to go back to Colon. If I did that, I’d never make the Eastern Caribbean this year. So, with that said, I grabbed my ankles and decided to proceed. In the meantime, I was working desperately on the autopilot. 4am, after disconnecting everything and power cycling the thing, it came back online! I was back in business and had a beer to celebrate.
The next night, about 3am, the engine died. I figured it was bad fuel (water or air in the lines). I quickly set the sails and was able to maintain my course surprisingly well. I decided to wait until sunrise to tackle the engine. Reason….give the engine time to cool as well as gain some natural light from the sun. I once again called the other two boats and told them I may be sailing the whole way which would turn a 3 day trip into a 6-7 day trip (but at least I wouldn’t be hand-steering!). At 7am, after being up for 48hrs straight, I changed all filters and bled the engine. I couldn’t get the fuel to the filter so I completely removed the bleed screw. I just sat there and watched, waiting for diesel to appear. Finally, it spouted out. I went to put the screw back in and dropped it! It went..plunk plunk splash….right into the bilge. On some boats, you can retrieve items from the bilge. On my boat, it’s a one-way trip…nothing returns. Now I did it. It’s a British engine so I new the threads would be metric. I dug through all my bolts and screws and found one! I took some measurements and dug out the hacksaw. In 15 minutes, I had a new screw and was back in business. I was able to bleed out the engine and fire her up. Time for another beer!
That afternoon, a little bird flew down below. I chased him out 3 times but failed to see him go in the final time. I went down below and found bird crap all over my settee! I threw a towel over the little sh!t and gave him a proper burial at sea. About an hour later, a big dove like looking bird was catching a ride on my bimini. He too left a mark so I chased him off. He returned to my dodger without my knowledge and shortly thereafter, I had a nice steamer fall on my shoulder. He too joined his friend in a proper sea burial. Basically, I just grabbed him with my hand and threw him as hard as I could into the ocean. The world is down 2 birds but Dan is only 90 miles out of Aruba. That’s when the weather window closed.
We had about 20kts on the nose and I was making about 3nm/hour. Basically, turtles were waving to me as they passed me. I got into Aruba around 4pm, checked into the country, dropped the anchor and had cocktails on a friend’s boat. I was out by 8pm, didn’t wake up until 10am the next day. From here, I’m off to Bon Aire, then going to make the last, long passage up to Puerto Rico or the Virgin Islands, basically as far East as I can sail.
Finally, I woke up this morning and my batteries were surprisingly low. I’ve been having fridge issues but thought I had the leak fixed in Colombia. I guess not. It ran all day and night and couldn’t maintain temperature. I’m heading out to the boat now to see if I can find the leak. In the meantime, it’s a bag of ice and a cooler to hold me over. Note to self: Next boat, save some more cash and buy a newer boat!
Dan
Friday, October 3, 2008
Colombia
After a few weeks in the San Blas, it is time to go. If Erin was still on board, I certainly could have hung out in the San Blas for a lot longer! It was beautiful but a bit quiet for only one person on the boat. Dave on m/v Jenny and I plan on buddy boating over to Colombia but before we do, we’ll get some snorkeling and spear fishing in.
Spear fishing…my new addiction! Dave and I ran into another cruiser who spear-fished for just about his whole life. We went out with him for the morning and I nailed my first fish! Sharks were around so you had to be a little cautious. They’re not any harm to you but if you’re holding a dead fish in your hand underwater, well…..enough said. You keep the dinghy near by and if you get one, you get the fish up and into the boat as quickly as possible. I was down around 30 feet and a brown grouper swam right at me. I held my breath (joke) and pulled the trigger. Got him right behind the gills. It was so violent but fun, only wish he was a little bigger!
Dave and I threw him on the grill that night and I found my new favorite fish to eat. White, flakey…perfect with a little lime and a cold beer. We pulled anchor on the 29th and decided it was time to make the 200 mile passage to Colombia.
Colombia, back in the day, was known for pirates and violence. In the past 5 years, it cleaned up (well at least Cartegena) and is now a favorite stop for cruisers. From there, boats hop off to one of 3 main destinations: The ABC Islands, Jamaica or back towards the Canal and up to Bocas del Toro and then Belize/etc. I plan on the ABC route but just like I’ve been running it for the last year, I’ll decide when I get there. I really need to start planning on how I’m going to leave this lifestyle. Although I have another season of cruising, I need to decide where to bring my boat for the next hurricane season. At that point, I’ll most likely be selling her and with today’s market in the US, not sure if that’ll be the spot. A lot of Europeans are buying boats in the Caribbean and taking them across the Atlantic, making the most of the Euro and low dollar. We’ll see…tomorrow’s a different day.
It’s 1:00am and I’m about 60nm’s out from Colombia. My ETA is about 9am. We plan on anchoring outside of Cartagena, scoping out some local anchorages that cruisers retreat to when they want to get away from the city. Plus, you don’t swim inside the bay so many take their boats out once every 2 weeks to swim and clean the bottom. Anyway, I’m going back topside to have a look. I lost my radar during the lightening strike and I’m truly missing it. Dave gave me a 2hr head start this morning, leaving him about 5 miles ahead of me now. He’s been giving me updates on the SSB regarding traffic as my VHF doesn’t’ reach out that far. Lost that antennae as well during the storm. Hopefully, I can fix that in Cartagena but I have a feeling the radar may need to wait until I get somewhere that carries such items. Anyway, I’ll write more later!
Dan
Spear fishing…my new addiction! Dave and I ran into another cruiser who spear-fished for just about his whole life. We went out with him for the morning and I nailed my first fish! Sharks were around so you had to be a little cautious. They’re not any harm to you but if you’re holding a dead fish in your hand underwater, well…..enough said. You keep the dinghy near by and if you get one, you get the fish up and into the boat as quickly as possible. I was down around 30 feet and a brown grouper swam right at me. I held my breath (joke) and pulled the trigger. Got him right behind the gills. It was so violent but fun, only wish he was a little bigger!
Dave and I threw him on the grill that night and I found my new favorite fish to eat. White, flakey…perfect with a little lime and a cold beer. We pulled anchor on the 29th and decided it was time to make the 200 mile passage to Colombia.
Colombia, back in the day, was known for pirates and violence. In the past 5 years, it cleaned up (well at least Cartegena) and is now a favorite stop for cruisers. From there, boats hop off to one of 3 main destinations: The ABC Islands, Jamaica or back towards the Canal and up to Bocas del Toro and then Belize/etc. I plan on the ABC route but just like I’ve been running it for the last year, I’ll decide when I get there. I really need to start planning on how I’m going to leave this lifestyle. Although I have another season of cruising, I need to decide where to bring my boat for the next hurricane season. At that point, I’ll most likely be selling her and with today’s market in the US, not sure if that’ll be the spot. A lot of Europeans are buying boats in the Caribbean and taking them across the Atlantic, making the most of the Euro and low dollar. We’ll see…tomorrow’s a different day.
It’s 1:00am and I’m about 60nm’s out from Colombia. My ETA is about 9am. We plan on anchoring outside of Cartagena, scoping out some local anchorages that cruisers retreat to when they want to get away from the city. Plus, you don’t swim inside the bay so many take their boats out once every 2 weeks to swim and clean the bottom. Anyway, I’m going back topside to have a look. I lost my radar during the lightening strike and I’m truly missing it. Dave gave me a 2hr head start this morning, leaving him about 5 miles ahead of me now. He’s been giving me updates on the SSB regarding traffic as my VHF doesn’t’ reach out that far. Lost that antennae as well during the storm. Hopefully, I can fix that in Cartagena but I have a feeling the radar may need to wait until I get somewhere that carries such items. Anyway, I’ll write more later!
Dan
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