Colombia to Panama

Santa Marta
 

 

 

Hello Again

Santa Marta, Colombia. What a delightful stop this was. Once again it was such a pity we could not have stayed longer and really explored the area. For starters the marina there is great. Very clean with a wonderful team of staff to look after you. They took care of all our check in and out paperwork which is really helpful as our Spanish is very limited at best. Anyway one has to have an agent here by law to do your paperwork.

Santa Marta
 

We had arrived into one of the oldest cities in South America. It was founded in 1525 by the Spanish.  Of course there are the more ancient city ruins scattered throughout South America which were built by its indigenous inhabitants. Santa Marta sits along a sandy bay surrounded by the highest coastal mountain range in the world – the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta.  Its two highest peaks are 5,775mts. National Parks and lovely beaches are also in close vicinity. We were told that for some days each month a katabatic wind blows off the mountains at up to 50kts at times, creating spray filled waves in the marina. Fortunately for us these winds did not occur during our stay. In fact it was hot and sunny. The temperature was not below 30deg. C. During the day, but in the evenings it dropped somewhat to make going out for dinner and sitting at the outside tables at the restaurants really pleasant.

Santa Marta
 



Santa Marta
 



The city really comes to life in the evenings with people coming out to enjoy the beach front promenade where street vendors set up stalls selling everything imaginable. We found the supermarket had a wonderful selection of foods at very reasonable prices on meats and local produce. We also found fruits which we have in New Zealand and not seen for ages, like feijoas, tree tomatoes, and banana passionfruit, along with another three varieties of passion fruit. Also there are the lovely purple skinned sweet potatoes everywhere.

Grenada To Santa Marta, Colombia

Hello To You All Once Again

Shamal in Grenada
 

 


Grenada
 

Well the time finally came where we were as ready as one could be ( so we thought ) to head on out for the next leg of our Adventures.  We had dived to check the hulls and give the props a good clean. The new water maker pump had been installed, and we had even delayed our departure by a day as we had an engineer on board looking at the electro magnetic clutch, which was causing a problem. Alec got the water maker sort of working, but he decided we needed to start moving and he would check it out along the way!! Then one morning just before departure my Nespresso coffee machine would not work properly. We had just had the new inverter installed, so put it down to the cloudy days, but really our 1,000 watt solar panels are pretty good plus we have the wind generator. We started an engine to boost the batteries and I got my morning coffee fix. There were the usual dinners and drinks to farewell new and old friends, then on Saturday 2^nd February we moved SHAMAL off her mooring and over to the marina to take on water, just in case the water maker didn’t behave. We check out of Grenada, then spent the last of our local money on a few more supplies.

 

Fishing on way to Bonaire
 

It wasn’t till after 1300 that we finally motored out of the bay, put the sails up, and set on a heading to the first of the A B C Islands – Bonaire. We set a course north of our rhumb line to keep off the coast of Venezuela due to the political problems they are having at the moment. Also it gave us the advantage of a lovely broad reach to down wind run. From the sailing point of view it was a great run, BUT, other issues arose which were not so great. After dark we were obviously in an area where the Grenadian Fisherman were working, but that proved no problems. It was just a case of keeping well away from their boats and set nets, which were well lit with the usual flashing lights in an array of different colours.  In the early hours of that first morning, the radar decided not to work. There was some shipping about which we could pick up on the AIS, and we were far enough off the coast not to be around small craft. We just ran an engine for a while and the radar was up and running again. So why had the batteries dropped so low? Second afternoon we did a tack and the wind direction instrument stopped working. Then about an hour later it was working fine! That night we only turned the radar on from time to time to check shipping. Later I tried to make coffee with my machine, trouble doing that again. Then to top it all off, again at night, the chart plotter dies on us. We do have a back up on the iPad with Blue Charts which are very good, but with no A I S or radar overlay. Again on another tack the wind instrument stopped working. Help the gremlins are having a field day with us at the moment. The chart plotter would come and go being quite spasmodic in working.

Grenada - USA for Christmas - Grenada

Rainbow off St George

Shamal dressed in world flags

A Very Very Happy New Year To You All.  We hope your festive season was a happy one. How time flies, here we are nearly at the end of the first month of 2019!! Yes I am  a little late with another posting to the blog, but we have not yet set sail for more adventures this season.

 

We sat out the latter part of the hurricane season in Prickly Bay, Grenada. Made new friends, and when not doing boat maintenance, or visiting the local area, we enjoyed the peace of the bay and lots of swimming. It is so nice to stop and reflect on all the great adventures we have each season. We do a trip into St George each week to the fruit and vegetable market. See photo for an example of an imported New Zealand Honeycrisp apple from the supermarket,, and yes I am talking about the price per apple.  Local money $8.22 – converts to NZ $ 4.47, so we left that behind!!  The local mango and pawpaw are much better priced, and yummy. Passionfruit are in season, so this all makes for a lovely fruit salad. The fishing is good if one knows where to drop your line, so we enjoyed lovely fish meals as well.  As our water maker pump died, I collect rain water, and we have not needed to buy water which has been great.

New Zealand Apple
 

 

Local Mango and Pawpaw

Then in early December we flew up to New Jersey to spend Christmas and New Year with our daughter and her family. After only being their three days our daughter had a work trip to London for five days. Her husband flew to the UK to meet her as he had not been to London before, and they were able to see the Grand Old City all dressed up for Christmas, and have a few days together which is difficult for them with their busy schedules. So Nana and Poppa were left with the twins, who are now six, to get off to school, and the baby who is 14 months old. It all worked very smoothly, and we were so grateful for that quality time with our grandsons.