Passage weather and Buoy weather was showing 18 to 21 knots for our area and we decided to leave Santa Marta Saturday morning. I was thinking we should wait until Sunday for the winds to ease a bit, but we already had our departure zarpe and also the marina gets very noisy Saturday nights, in the end we decided to leave decision until Saturday morning. Saturday morning we were up at 5:30am and there was a somewhat strong wind still blowing through the marina but we decided to go for it. Jimmey Cornells world cruising guide says world sailors often find the passage along this coast to be among the worst in the world.
We had a bit of trouble getting of the dock with the wind blowing, and almost hit another boat before we finally got under way. Out in the bay it was blowing 20 to 25 knots and then eased some as we left Santa Marta behind and we thought, nice we were in for a pleasant passage or so we thought, it actually turned into one of our 5 worst passages ever.
After an hour the winds started to increase and soon it was blowing over 30 knots, then 35 and I had 3 reefs in our main. Then the wind increased to 40 knots at times and occasionally a wave braking behind us would have spray blown of it into the cockpit. We also shipped a lot of water over the sides when we occasionally did a deep roll as the waves were on the stern quarter and not directly behind us. Our little 36 footer has always tended to get water on decks easier than most boats. I eventually put our 4th reef in which we have only used once before, and all the head sail in except for the 2ft going out to our running pole still in place. We were still doing 6 to 7 knots in seas that were very close together and steep.
Our plan was to do the 110 miles to Cartagena over two days and spend the night at a anchorage about half way. As we neared the Magellina river, which is about 14 miles from our intended anchorage, the wind eased a bit to about 30 knots. We could see the condo hi-rises of Baranquilla in the distance. We rounded the headland where the river comes out about 4 to 5 miles offshore, the water turned a dark brown from the river outflow. There is a reputation of junk coming down the river, but we saw no trees, dead cows or bodies, we saw nothing but one tiny tree branch, perhaps because it had not rained much lately. The sea state did not get any worse because of river, and conditions eased a bit more as we rounded the headland. The wind dropped down to 20 to 25 knots and we had a good sail to Punta Hermoso where we intended to anchor. We motored around point and into bay which was still windy but had no sea state.
We motored up bay and anchored behind the only other yacht anchored out, and this was just across from the new marina. Hook down about 5pm. A navy launch followed us up bay and after we anchored came along side us and two men came aboard and checked our papers and filled out a couple of forms. The other person went below for a quick look. They were all polite and professional.
Even though the wind blew hard for part of the night, we had a great sleep here and left at 6am in the morning to do the remaining 50 miles to Cartagena. The wind started out in the 20 knot range but in a hour it was up to 25 knots from NE and we had a rough sail again for a few hours until we rounded a major headland and started heading more South and then the wind and seas eased and as we neared Catagena the wind was down to 12 to 15 knots. We ended up motor sailing the last 10 miles so we would get in at a good time.
We took the Northern small craft entrance into the city which is much shorter. As we motored between the two red/green buoys the water briefly got down to 11 feet for a few seconds, which caused a bit of worry but then it got deeper again. The city is huge, hi-rise condos everywhere. As we motored into our anchorage 20 minutes later we were surrounded buy huge office towers, and condos, also navy ships tied to docks and container ships on other side. It is a stunning backdrop. This was Sunday afternoon and the there were constantly speedboats and tour boats going buy. The water did not appear to be as dirty as people had said. We dropped anchor around 4:30pm and cleaned up the boat and then relaxed, we would deal with our check-in in the morning.
Next morning we dinghied over to say hello to the Mojombo's and to pump them for information on the local scene. Then we dinghied over to club Nautico and payed our dinghy landing dock fee of 58000 pesos for a week and this includes garbage and water. Then they called up the agent suggested by our Santa Marta agent to come and clear us in and then we were free to explore the city.
INFO
- About 1900 peso's to a dollar
-Left Santa Marta Nov 30 2013
-We noticed no adverse currents along our route to Cartagena, and possibly a favourable current for part of the way. Talking to other yachts and our own experience, it seems the stretch of coast around Santa Marta to Baranquilla (or Magallena river) has its own local conditions and the winds are typically 15 knots or more stronger than forecast, so 20 knots forecast may turn out to be 35 to 40 knots in reality. Probably want to leave Santa Marta on a light wind forecast.
-Rounding the headland with the Magallena river was a non issue, no problem in the strong winds we got and we were 4 to 5 miles off shore, the sea-state did not get any more difficult. Also saw no debris in water, but water colour was muddy. Though we were getting into the dry season. We did see a big log and scattered tree branches a few miles South of Punta Hermosas bay, the next day on our way to Cartagena.
Both us and another yacht we talked to that rounded a week earlier in similar conditions, found the winds eased as we neared the headland with the Magellena river.
-Anchorage at Punta Hermoso is 60 miles from Santa Marta. The sandpit that forms the bay extends quite a bit further than the chart shows. Use this waypoint for turning in 10 56.07N 75 03.22W I got this from another writeup and it worked fine, lots of water under keel. Then we anchored in 24 feet at 10 56.44N 75 02.41W.
This is not necessarily the best spot to anchor, the head of bay may be better, but it was fine for us and even though wind got up to 30 knots during night, the chop and boat motion was fine and holding excellent. A great anchorage and room for a 100 boats, nothing much in here and it is half way between Santa Marta and Cartagena. We never checked out the new marina, there was about 10 yachts in it that we could see. Marina is called Marina Puerto Velero.
-We stayed on the edge of the bank marked on charts has we headed south from Punta Hermoso to avoid the heavy ship traffic, and were in 50 to 60 feet of water.
-As we neared Cartagena we took the small craft entrance to city. Use waypoint
10 23.4N 75 34.4W as initial approach until you can see the two red and green bouys that you go between. The water depth shallowed to 17 to 25 feet and then as you go between the bouys drops to about 11 feet for a second or two then gets deeper again. After that is easy to get to anchorage near club Nautica
We anchored in 47 feet at 10 24.46N 75 32.50W
-Clearing in. Turns out our agent did a good job in Santa Marta because we had no paper work issues. The Cartagena Agent "David" showed up 15 minutes after being called and he had good English. His phone # 313-523-0742 and he charged us 140,000 pesos or about $70.00 to finish our clear in and for our exit zarp later. He charged less since we had done most of the paper work in Santa Marta. So our total paper work expenses was $220 plus $70 or $290. Expensive if you only staying about 3 weeks, like us, in the country. But with this fee we were good for 3 months at least and we have the paper work to visit the outer islands as well.
-Provisioning in Columbia. We have noticed the selection of canned goods is very small compared to anywhere else. So good to stock up ahead of time. The prices of groceries is not too bad, similar to the ABC's and some things cheaper. Fresh fruit and veggies are often very cheap.
_Cartagena is a World Heritage site and seems pretty clean compared to Santa Marta. The water in the anchorage is not too bad, definitely cleaner than Chagaramas in Trinidad. I think people sometime mistake the discolouration of river outflow into a harbour for polution.
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