Cartegena
January 15th, 2005
Cloud 9 leaves Columbia with stories to tell
Well, it seems that many cruisers have stories associated with their passage through or around Columbia. In that light, we are no different than anyone else. The “drug lord” system of doing business is pervasive, seemingly part of the normal everyday life of everyone. Everyone expects a “regala” (gift) in exchange for services.
As you probably remember, our modem, which allows us to send and receive e-mail to the boat, broke over a month ago. We really debated whether we wanted to take the time and the risk of having mail sent to Columbia, but were assured by several people that Fed Ex was reliable here, soooo we placed the order, had the boat hauled out of the water to have her bottom painted as well as her topside wood varnished and waited with great anticipation for our Fed Ex, 2 day delivery, package to arrive. While we waited we learned a bit about the runnings of this country. The package was insured for its full value, $1200, by the sender, and indeed, it made it to Columbia within 2 day. Unbeknown to us, it was sent to Bogata customs office, not Cartagena where it was supposed to go. The declared value stated on the exterior of the package must have caught someone’s attention because 5 days later we were notified that to release the package from customs we needed to send an additional $150. Well, at that point the system had us by the short ones, so we paid, assuming that it would be delivered the next day as promised. Well, we don’t know whos pocket the money padded, but the next day, no one knew anything knew about our package or when it would be delivered. Meanwhile we worked heartily on the boat, enjoyed the wonderful people we were meeting and the beautiful, historic city of Cartagena. After 10 days of being told different stories every day we were assured that our package would finally arrive the next day. We provisioned for the start of the long haul back to the U.S. and prepared to leave Columbia, only to discover, no package. At that point Michael was livid, so we went ahead and left Cartagena, taking our young workers, an endearing set of twins, to nearby Rosario Islands as their “regala”. On the way to the Rosarios we encountered yet another Columbia blunder………
The Rosario Islands are a beautiful, pristine group of islands about 20 miles from Cartagena with extensive reefs shallowly submerged only feet under the surface. The charts are somewhat limited and not especially useful, so local knowledge is essential. We were entering a very narrow opening in a reef after the idea sun hours so I was unable to see into the water as well as necessary to assure safe passage. We entered the tricky area through a set of markers, proceeding to the next, very narrow set, only to learn later that those markers were actually designating the reef’s borders. Well, we found ourselves “hard a ground” within seconds! Reverse would not free us so we started to sweat and swear. At that point I looked up and saw a man standing on a surf board, paddling as fast as he could towards us jabbering and signaling with his arms like crazy. And that was the beginning of chaos on Cloud 9. Before we knew it 5 local guys were on board, 3 nearby cruisers were circling us in their dinghies ready to help and lines were being thrown in an attempt to release Cloud 9 before damage occurred to her bottom. One cruiser had our main halyard and was pulling as hard as his dinghy could pull in attempt to tip her over a bit on her side while another more powerful boat was backing her stern away from the reef. In all of the confusion someone removed our jib furrowing line from the rail, threw it into the water, which promptly wrapped around the prop as Michael was driving her hard into reverse. The engine seized rendering it useless just after the power boat had released our lines and headed home, assuming all was well. We had to hail them back and be towed to a safe anchorage area. Now, it seems like all should be well, but, one of our twins must have been intrigued with our anchor system and jammed the chain while experimenting with one of the foot controls, preventing release of the anchor chain. After some more help, everything was sorted out, the boys had a “once in a life time experience” with the combination of all of that excitement and being in the islands for the first time. Finally, all of the previous stress began to melt away…. that is until the next day when we learned that our package still had not been delivered. Knowing that the fellow cruiser who was going to bring our package with them when they sailed to the islands was not going to be able to do so, we had to return to Cartagena to once again engage in the battle for the package. By now you are undoubtedly overwhelmed, confused or just plain bored with this story. In the end, two weeks late, we received our modem and I am once again sharing my stories with you.
We are leaving tomorrow, heading first to an island about 24 hours away, San Andreas, then possible to another island Providencia, both still Columbia, and then on to the Bay Islands off the coast of Honduras. This part of our trip may be somewhat challenging because of the conditions associated with this time of the year. I will try to let you know when we are safely in port at our different destinations.
Happy to be back in correspondence….
Jeri and Michael
