Pooped and Dieseled N10 24 W75 33
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Famous last words! We closed the coast of Colombia and the seas became increasingly confused with a light following wind. The swell, squeezed up by the rapidly shoaling but very uneven bottom, became steeper with white caps . There was also a possible counter current and some mixing from a large river that enters near here. The upshot was that we were eventually pooped. I was looking astern and saw an unusually steep wave approaching that broke just as it reached our stern and exploded over the rear coaming and in through the transom gangway. The cockpit filled with water nearly to the level of the bulkead into the saloon. Fortunately the small window into the stern cabin was shut..something we rarely close, and the only damage a very salty cockpit, a slightly salty saloon from spray that came in and a bedraggled skipper. The beauty of an open transom like ours is that the water drains quickly away with little to slow it down. No damage done. Starting the watermaker up again after its biocide storage whilst in the Windward Islands where it wasn't needed.
We stopped overnight at an attractive bay 50 miles north of the city to avoid reaching Cartagena in the dark. It was surrounded by fishing camps and there were men standing up to their waists in the water throwing circular Seine nets to try to catch small fish lurking in the shallows. At the same time a jet ski-ier appeared and roared around towing someone on a wakeboard. We are learning that Colombia is a country of big contrasts between the rich and poor, the old and the new. The next day, having had a good full night's sleep after all our night watches, we started early and in a light mood looking forward to an easy sail and a calm sea. I needed some milk for coffee and opened the bilge to find diesel running through it. A panicky investigation proved that it was not the engine but a 5 gallon spare diesel can in the aft locker. Almost 2/3 of the diesel had leaked away. The plastic can was one of two bought new only a year ago at great expense because we wanted extra strong ones that could be stored in the bilge. However, this one had split along the weld on the bottom edge. The diesel was everywhere and it took the rest of the day to bail, sponge and wipe out the mess. A faint smell lingers despite our best efforts and Lorraine's back has paid the price of spending hours cleaning the cabin floor and the internal bilge. The joys of Cruising. Much damage done.
On a lighter note we have started to catch fish. We caught a beautiful yellow fin tuna weighing in at 5 lbs, which fed us for a 4 days. Unfortunately the next fish we caught was a barracuda twice the length of this fellow. We threw it back, the danger of ciguatera is increased in barracuda over 3lbs in weight and it was much too big for us anyway. It was tricky getting the hook out of the fiercely toothed mouth but we managed with pliers and heavy gloves before holding it's tail waist and sliding it back. Hopefully we will catch many more tuna as it saves us a lot of money and is delicious when served up by our haut cuisine chef. |
