It was almost fun in the Force 6 lulls!
'Sarf & West mate, Sarf & West'
Pete Bernfeld
Thu 7 Jan 2010 16:50
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10:56.426N 075:01.838W
At anchor in Punta Hermosa.
Well.......TWO forecasts said yesterday that the
wind en route would be around 18kts with 2 metre seas, the NOAA site gave winds
20-30kts with 2.5 metre seas. Guess which one came closest? Yep, got it in one.
Mind you, they weren't entirely accurate, we enjoyed F8's for about 20% of the
hours of darkness and fairly consistent F7's (with lulls) the rest of the time.
Interesting. Simon was wondering how the boat would handle in slightly heavier
weather. I think he now knows......better than the crew at times.I would ask him
but he's asleep, not sure he's adapting too well to this watch-keeping lark, or
maybe it's to do with the fact he swam ashore in Rodadero last night and had a
quick tour of the fleshpots. However, moving swiftly on....
I was reflecting this morning, as Dawn's rosy
fingers finally got a death-like grip on the eastern horizon, hoisted themselves
up, gently caressed the back of my neck then clipped me round the right ear'ole,
that I had been expecting a bit of a kicking on this section of the trip. To be
fair, it was more of a slightly girlie slap, but we have been incredibly lucky
(SO FAR) with the weather off the Colombian coast, given it's reputation.As we
now have only 53nm to go to Cartegena we can stay here for a day or so until
this lot blows through. Not sure what Google Earth will show, but we're anchored
behind a 1.5nm long reef, in 2.5 metres of water. Not too bouncy but plenty of
wind. To get out of the wind I'd need to anchor in about 1 metre of water,
looking at the people on the beach which unfortunately, I can't do.
There is another boat in here. It came through the
Panama Canal on the 1st of Jan and is bound for St Vincent. Bloody good luck to
them!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Talking of other boats, I think I mentioned 'Cocquie'
yestreday. As we left, we had a word with a local night watchman who was
sleeping onboard. Not really any the wiser what happened except that the skipper
(and crew?) were staying ashore in Santa Marta, a small town just 'round the
corner' from Rodadero.
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