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November, 2007
We left Bocas del Toro, Panama on Friday, November 2nd, expecting a fairly non-eventful trip and planned on arriving in Cayos Albuquerque, Colombia (small islands south of San Andrés) on Saturday around noon. We anticipated the wind to be on our nose or close to it, so sailing was not an option. The trip began as expected light winds and waves and motor/sailing. However, around 1 am Saturday morning squalls started rolling in one after another which means greater wind and waves, unfortunately, still on the nose. The increase in wind and waves meant slower speed and a more uncomfortable trip. We were hoping the weather would settle down by noon for our entry into Cayos Albuquerque which requires good light to maneuver around the coral. Unfortunately, we weren't that lucky and the visibility was so poor we couldn't see the island of Albuquerque much less coral so we diverted to San Andrés only another four hours away. We arrived in San Andrés on Saturday afternoon around 4 pm and were greeted by our friends Walt and Pat on Centime. We had Centime and our new cruising friends Chris & Laura from DivOcean aboard for cocktails before we crashed for the night. Unfortunately, Centime had to leave the next day for La Ceiba, but hopefully we'll be cruising with them again in the future. We haven't given up on visiting Cayos Albuquerque, but the weather has not been cooperating lately with squally weather the past two weeks. So we've been hunkered down in San Andrés with a couple of other cruisers (Chuck & Pam on Helen Louise, Bob & John, not a couple just friends, on Zippidee Du and Bruce & Pam on Aquabi). San Andrés is a beautiful island with low palm-covered plateau and transparent blue-green waters which are surrounded by coral reefs and isolated cays. It is owned by Colombia and tourism is more developed than it's counterpart Isla Providencia (our next destination). San Andrés is to mainland Colombia what Hawaii is to the US -- a favorite vacation getaway, so weekends are very busy especially in December and January. Though the weather has not been the best, we ventured out to a few restaurants and toured the island with Diego (314.300.5388 or 316.757.1523) who's quite an entertaining character. During our tour around the island, Diego drove us to the home that Pablo Escobar was constructing in San Andres and to the cave where Captain Morgan hid all his loot ... no, we didn't find any loot. We visited a popular snorkeling spot which includes a powerful blow hole and we tried Nooney wine made from the nooney plant. From our tour guide (Diego), we learned that several buildings have been confiscated by the government due to various illegal activities by the building owners, U.S. citizens cannot buy property here and small quantities of marijuana are legal (allegedly) ... a lot of valuable information. Some additional history about Isla San Andrés -- Henry Morgan used this island, like Providencia, as a base from which to raid the passing Spanish treasure ships. It was first settled in 1629 by English Puritans and later by planters and woodcutters who brought slaves from Jamaica. The descendants of the latter are the majority of present inhabitants. Isla San Andrés was awarded to Spain in 1786, but in 1821 after the Spanish-American Wars of Independence it became part of Colombia which is 440 nautical miles away.
On
Thursday, November 15th, we had a nice weather window and decided to sail to
Isla Bolivar with Chuck & Pam on Helen Louise. Isla Bolivar is a small
island located about 15 nautical mile Isla Bolivar is occupied by the Infantia de Colombia Marina the equivalent to the Colombian Navy. Once our anchor was set, we dropped the dinghy, packed up some sodas and a few beers and headed to shore with Helen Louise to say hello. We were greeted by three young men, one named Carlos who spoke English fairly well. We offered them sodas, beers and cigarettes and they welcomed us into their temporary home. They took time and patiently answered our questions about their lifestyle on the island. There were nine young Colombian men originally from various parts of Colombia (i.e. Bogota, Cartagena, San Andrés, etc). They spend about 30 days at a time on this island before being transferred out. On the island, they have a about 4-5 buildings, a generator, electricity, communication via VHF with San Andrés and even Direct TV. The island is very well maintained with painted conch shells of various colors outlining paths to different parts of the island. The beach is clean, white and pure probably one of the most pristine beaches we've seen during our travels. If the men need assistance, they call the base in San Andres and it takes about 25 minutes by boat before someone arrives. The young men seemed very happy here and mentioned that it wasn't bad. They gave us a tour around their island and mentioned that lately they've had strong winds and seas which has caused the tide to eliminate part of the beach. It took about 15 minutes to completely circumnavigate this small magnificent island. The rolly anchorage caused everyone to have a sleepless night, so the next morning (11/16) Rankin and Chuck took the dinghy out to explore other possible anchorages in the area. Unfortunately, they couldn't find a comfortable anchorage. Around 1 pm we raised anchor and sailed back to San Andrés with similar conditions to our sail out to Isla Bolivar. We arrived and anchored at Cayo Córdoba (N12.33.081, W081.41.501) around 3 pm while Helen Louise went into the San Andrés main anchorage. It was Rankin's birthday, so we celebrated in this beautiful anchorage and enjoyed a nice peaceful dinner of homemade meatloaf (one of Rankin's favorites) and German Chocolate Cake (which is our favorite really who can resist chocolate). We spent a few more short days in San Andrés getting last minute provisions (groceries and little bottles of rum ... you'll find out why later - read about the Hobbies), helping our friends on Helen Louise (Chuck & Pam) med moor so they could top off their fuel (they returned the favor for us), enjoying internet access, assisting our friends on Cyrano (Tom and Cassie) with hoisting their foresail and other various things. On Thursday, November 22nd, around 6:30 a.m. we raised our sails and had a nice day sail to Isla Providencia, Colombia. If you wish to continue the adventure, click here to read about our experiences in Isla Providencia or take a look at What's Happening to get the latest scoop. |
