22nd April

Psyche Blog
Christian Koefoed-Nielsen
Tue 24 Apr 2012 14:37

April 22nd   CARTAGENA

 

Reasonably early start at 09.25, after a really good shower/shave and general clean up. Again, sea like glass, virtually no wind, the coastline various shades of fading blue in the haze. Lots of fishing boats, dots here there and everywhere, often in pairs. About half of them sports fishing, the others working.

 

Very relaxing. Genoa out, motoring. Approaching Cabo Tinoso the chart plotter went mental. Speed over ground, course over ground all over the place. Had to cross check GPS with my hand held Garmin – that was OK. Read later of magnetic anomalies about 3 miles S of the Cape. Certainly something very odd going on – though steering compass didn’t seem affected, and iPad GPS and plot seemed fine. Everything OK at and past Cabo Tinoso.

 

You could hardly believe there was a city the size of Cartagena hidden behind a fold in the hills if you hadn’t been told where to look. As usual you see the place you’re going to, you think it’s a mile or two away, it turns out to be 5 or 6, but eventually you get there. It was almost in the last 5 minutes that we crept past a Spanish navy vessel at the entrance, weighing anchor with black smoke rising, and actually got a view of Cartagena in front of us. I had read somewhere that the Red Ensign should be dipped for warships – but it wasn’t clear whether that is just for British warships or any warships. Given we were right in front of the Spanish vessel, and we were entering her harbour, I dipped out of courtesy, cringing as I thought what Drake would have thought of such behaviour.

 

Yesterday we had a whole series of calls on Channel 16: “Securite securite securite. This is coalition warship no 21 in position xyz. We are conducting live firing excercises. All ships should stay clear 5 nautical miles”. This was in an American accent. It was a woman’s voice.

 

So, into Cartagena – and, much to my surprise, berthing at a pontoon, necessitating a rapid redeployment of fenders and lines as Graham sped about the boat sorting everything out. The marinero met us, took the bow line, Graham the stern and we were fast just as a lady in the vessel adjacent leaped up from below in search of fenders for fear we’d be blown onto her. Sorted at 15.10. The marinero even took me to the capitania in his golf cart, and brought me back! Really good service.

 

Graham off for a wander and recce while I sorted some stuff out (he had tidied everything up while I was at the marina office, sorted springs, everything. He comes highly recommended to anyone else looking for crew!).

 

Into town in the evening, a couple of beers and a load of tapas, and, stuffed once again, back for an early night. Usually going to bed about 10 (9 UK time!), but usually horrendous noises from stern lines groaning in the aft cabin. If people realised how useful being deaf in one ear is, they’d be asking for it on the NHS.

 

Today did 36.5 NM