GALACSEA'S ADVENTURES

We leave the marina in Le Marin in Martinique on 1/11/14 and arrive in Santa Marta in Colombia on 1/26/14.  First stop in Ste Anne Bay and in Anse Mitan for some stainless steel work on the davits.  We are perilously attached to the barge that serves as shop.  With 30kn gusts, the  barge starts dragging.  Panic!  Thank god, the work is done.  Meanwhile, JP finds out that the solar panels no longer produce electricity.  It would seem that the electronic part of the regulator is no longer functional.  It's installed in the locker in the back and may have suffered humid conditions.   Why is there always something wrong?  JP is very depressed.

 

Anse Mitan:  Latitude:14.55304W

                         Longitude: 61.08212N

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Martinique-Bonaire - January 13, 2014

 

Distance: 440nm

Time at sea: 60h

Average speed: 7.3kn

 

Bonaire: Latitude:12.15498 W

                  Longitude:-68.27982 N

 

Later that day, January 13, we leave for Bonaire island to meet with our friends Hervé & Corinne on MAX.

 We leave with beautiful rainbows all around us and dolphins jumping around the boat.  It's a good sign!  We sail with 16-18kn of apparent wind at 180 degrees, just behind us.  The first 24h are hard.  The wind is blowing hard and the seas are rough.  We arrive in Bonaire in the middle of the night, january 15, and have a hard time seeing a free mooring buoy.   By sheer luck, the one we find is next to MAX.  In Bonaire, you cannot anchor.  It's both pohibited (protection of corals) and too deep. Three hundred feet behind us, it's 300 ft deep.

 

Clearance procedures are simple, free and cordial.  Go to the customs/immigration building next to the cruise ships pier.  There is a charge for the buoy (US$10/night)iwhich you must pay at the Village Harbour marina within easy reach by dinghy.  We enjoy a snorkeling outing on Kleine Bonaire -- pretty scenery and pleasant outing despite strong winds and currents. A quick tour at the local supermarket, well enough stocked for such a small island.  Even more miraculous, we find a replacement regulator for the solar panels at the local Budget store.   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bonaire-Curaçao - January 19, 2014

 

Departure: Sunday, January 19, 8:00AM

Destination: Spanish Water, Curaçao

Distance: 40nm

Time at sea: 5:30 hours

Average speed: 7.3 kn

 

We leave with good weather.  It's been dry for several days now.  The boat is getting dirty.  Nice and fast passage, with winds behind us, 150-180 degrees.  We spot several pink flamingoes flying over the water en route to Bonaire.  Pretty sight! We also spot turtles.

 

As we approach Spanish Water, we enter the lagoon through the channel.  It's not well marked, but it's not as hard as we thought.  It's narrow but there is good visibility of the shoals.  We find the anchorage area easily.  Not very crowded.  Most boats are already gone to Panama.  We get organised right away.  There is an excellent internet site managed by the boat SOL, which provides a lot of useful information.  There is also a daily net on channel 72 at 7:45AM.

 

Sunday January 19 - wednesday January 22

 

• We buy one week worth of internet access for US$10.00 from the catamaran SOL.  Excellent connection 

• We rent a car from Mark (Best Value Car Rental, 510-3487, on Santa Rosaweg) for 2 days - US$68/day, unlimited mileage, no security deposit.  Mark picks us ip at Norman and drops us off.

• We go to Willemstadt for our clearance.  Customs lets us do a simultaneaous entrance/exit. but not immgration

• We buy lots of fruits and vegetables from the Venezuelian market.  Expensive but excellent.  Avocados are enormous and superb.  Pineapples are averagi.

• We go to Island Water World and ask from Jamie (based on Sigrid's recommendation, whom we met in Bonaire on Lucky Bitch, which JP and Herve helped secure a mooring buoy) who helps us locate an electrician.  He arranges for Hans Groot, on Sol, anchored 50 yards away from where we are in Spanish Water.  How lucky!!

• While I go to the supermarket, Hans Groot et JP spend the day installing the new regulator next to the battery park.  It works!  great, we can leave!

• Hans Groot, who lived Avenue de l'Abrevoir in Marly-le-Roi for several years, accepts to mail several pieces for us.  The next day, he returns with the return receipt.  Really nice!!

• On wednesday, we go to the immigrtaion office to get our passports stamped.  On our way, we watch the huge cruise ships maneuver in the very narrow channel in willemstadt.  Amazing.  

• At noon, we return the car and at 1:00PM, we're on our way.

 

Spanish Water, Curaçao:  Latitude:12.04.48

                                                 Longitude:-68.50.48

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Curaçao-Santa Marta, Colombia - wednesday, january 22 / sunday, january 26

 

Destination: Santa Marta, Colombia

Distance: 360 nm

Time at sea: 9h + 4h + 42h

 

The weather forecasts are good fr the next few days.  So, we decide to leave for Colombia right away, with 2 stops in Santa Cruz Bay (Curaçao) and in the north of Aruba, next to the wreck of Antilla, a german boat sunk during the WWII.

In Aruba, we install the pole for the genoa and, vamos.  We are going to sail past the frightful Cabo de Vela in Colombia.  Mountains 18,000 feet high dominate the cape, creating violent willy waws and bad seas.  We expect the worst.  However, saturday afternoon, as we sail past the cape, the winds die and we have to start the motor.  Apparent wind is at zero knot.  Unbelievable!  Late evening, the wind returns.  We stop the engine and back to the sails which carry us to the corner of Santa Marta.  It's 2 in the morning and winds peak at 35 kn, but we're almost there.  We turn the corner and suddenly, the wind dies.  We're not sure where we're going nor what kind of anchorage we're going to find.  But with depth sounder, radar, maps, GPS and my eyes at the front, we find the marina entrance across from the cormercial harbor, totally lit up, which helps us find a spot.  We anchor at the marina entrance.  We figure that, since it's sunday, there won't be too much traffic.  MAX drops anchor next to us.  They caught 2 tunas.  Lucky them.  We didn't even get the line out, such lazy bums!  We crash in bed, happy to have arrived in Central America and to have left the Antilles behind us. 

 

Santa Marta:  Latitude:11.24484

                           Longitude:-74.21741

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sunday January 26- Thursday February 6, 2014

Stay at the marina de Santa Marta - excursions to cartagena and to the Parque de Tayrona

 

Formalities: Expensive and byzantine.  You need an agent.  The best known is Dino, but the marina sends us another one, who seems OK.  He speaks a little english.  The fact is that we leave tomrrow and are yet to get our papers in order after 1 week.  It's OK, because it did not keep us from coming and going on land. It costs US$230 altogether. 

 

Marina: Modern, roomy, quiet.  The staff is very helpful.  Diana Guttierez speaks French and English and will help you organize hotels, excursions, bus rides, etc. Winds are fierce -- 30kn gusts, but not all the time.  Boats get dusty.

 

Cost: US$.61/ft/day (including a 20% discount based on the Compass ad) + a US$6.00 flat daily charge for water & electricity.