Curacao Cartagena
Serai
Jason and Emily Willis
Thu 15 Feb 2007 16:02
We were very fortunate in getting a great weather window. We left Curacao at
10 am on 14th February - I know, I know - I let 'her indoors' have a lie in
as it was Valentine's Day. We had it planned that if the weather was good,
and we were feeling good then we would head straight through to 5 Bays or
indeed Cartagena if the timings worked out right for the Rio Magdelena. The
Rio Magdelena is the troublespot in the whole thing, as this is where this
very large river exits to the sea. It deposits a lot of trash and debris
into the sea, and therefore should be tackled only during daylight. It also
creates some contrary currents across the river mouth, which cause the seas
around here to stack up - big time!
We had a fast sail for the first 12 hours, with 20 knots from the ESE on
leaving Curacao. This meant we covered 145 miles in 24 hours. The wind died
in the night reducing our speed to
around 4 knots. We had been getting a good solid 8 knots. There was a lot of
ship traffic around off Venezuela - and in hindsight we went a little too
close to this shore. At one point I
counted 7 Red Port lights around our little 38 footer! By daybreak the
engine was on and we were back up to 6 knots, and past Monjes De Sur and
heading towards cabo de Vela. Early on in the trip we had 6 to 8 ft seas,
but these dissippated with the onset of darkness and we are now motoring
along with 4 foot seas.
The great thing about this route is all the choices it gives. We know we can
stop off if we need to but whilst the weather holds, we are happy to press
on.
Will keep you posted on progress.
Lots of love J and Ems xx
PS. Caught another fish. Yippee. A Barracuda :-(Yuk)
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