Albuquerque Cay, Columbia to Little Corn Island, Nicaragua- June 10-16 2009

Albuquerque Cay, Columbia to Little Corn Island, Nicaragua- June 10-16 2009

Only about 28 miles from the anchorage at San Andres and out of the tourist fast lane is another lovely, unspoiled cay with an extensive reef system. Thanks to the Columbian government the reefs have been protected and are in fine shape. The four days Sea Star and Windsong stayed anchored at Albequerque with a trawler named Tothill with Glenn and his wife, Eddie, Melina and Wilson aboard, were very full and pleasant with many reef fish seen as well as many of the docile Nurse Sharks and a few scary(to me), sharks and rays seen, but not close enough to identify.

Upon our arrival some of the young men from the army base located there, swam out to our boats, asking to borrow our masks, fins and any spears we might have and they would take us out snorkeling. Tothill understood the message first and agreed, then told us. We agreed to meet the men at 9:00AM in our dinghies as they have no transport on Albuquerque available to them and therefore no real access to the bounty available near their island base. Sea Star gathered our gear and met at the appointed time near the base camp, where four young men joined us in our dinghy to ride out to the reef.


The young men tried hard. It just was not a day for good spear fishing but from the pictures you can see we had fun watching these young men trying very hard to procure enough fish to treat us to dinner on their island. When spear fishing failed-the “big one”, a Hog fish, got away- but many conch were located, cleaned and a cerviche of conch and lobster was served to us that night. The meal was yummy! To reciprocate, the cruisers provided the ingredients and the cook for a special chicken soup meal the next evening, and between the three boats we brought enough to feed the seventeen young men at the camp. The young men appreciated the recipricating gesture especially because a young couple from Tothill who are latinoamericanos and could communicate with them, Wilson and Melina, spent a day preparing the soup.


We felt very welcomed and we would have had a more relaxing time if we could have spoken more easily in Spanish. Oh well, we’re working on it.

underwater photos by Glenn on Tothill-thanks!

Drop Box

After a few days Alison, who had just returned to San Andres from a side trip to visit a scientist friend at the Smithsonian Institute on Gatun Lake in Panama, and Randall on Tregoning rejoined us and we all prepared for an adventure suggested by Dan, to sail to Little Corn Island, Nicaragua where Dan and I and our boys, Steven and Tom visited by plane a few years ago.


The way over from Albequerque provided good sailing. I threw over a fishing line where the water depth came on soundings, and caught myself some kind of tuna. We arrived at the anchorage at Little Corn Island at about 2:00PM after 30 hours. I know it is said that you can’t go back, but sometimes things work out that way just fine. Little Corn has grown in amenities and services since our trip ther in February of 2004. The people are still very friendly and helpful. The resort, Casa Iguana, is still there, though under different management, Elsa’s on the beach restaurant was still there with reasonable prices for lobster and fish, and the number of island restaurants has grown dramatically. There were too many for us to explore in the short time we stayed. Little Corn Island had a number of backpacking and low key resorts and small hotels, and it appeared they were improved and newly discovered by tourists from Europe, China and the United States. Elsie treated me like an old friend when I showed up with pictures for her of our earlier visit at her restaurant. I couldn't resist having grilled lobster, again, and it was fantastic.

Elsa's at Little Corn Island

We walked around the town and up a new concrete walk decorated with messages and pictures of fish and island scenes which made climbing the hill much more enjoyable, and visited the water tower look out from which a marvelous view of the island was available. Little Corn had a new ball park and seemed much cleaner than when we visited before. As cruisers, no one came to the boats to check on us or “officiate”. We decided not to press our luck about being sent to the Big Corn Island to check in officially, and after a visit of three days, which we all felt was too short, we moved on to our goal of Panama at Bocas del Toro.

Little Corn pics:

Little Corn Island

Isla San Andres, Columbia May 30-June 4 , 2009

Isla San Andres, Columbia May 30-June 4 , 2009

The crews of Sea Star, Tregoning and Windsong left Providencia Saturday morning at 6:00AM expecting to possibly need 10 hours for the 60 mile trip to San Andres. The wind was steady and 15 kn. and we were able to beam reach at 7 kn. And at times even pick up more speed. It had been a great sailing day, and very relaxed. Sea Star was looking at the San Andres sea buoy by 3:00PM. The entry to San Andres showed reef all along the coastline but a small area clear into the harbor. Both Providencia and San Andres have been buoyed and so the entry was straight forward although care was needed to approach the buoys from the correct orientation. Sea Star arrived first and was greeted by the Columbian Navy as they asked the usual questions by radio from their open boat pulled along side of us. This time Dan answered and we were understood. He dictated our last Port (Providencia but Zarpe from Jamaica), and repeated our Documentation Number and Zarpe number in Spanish. We wound our way through the fishing boats and found a good sandy spot to anchor in the mostly grass bottomed harbor, and were about to settle in when the radio message came in from Tregoning.


We had communicated with the other boats about the information needed by the Navy and were waiting for them to come in when Tregoning called us and said they had water spraying all over their engine and were about to drop anchor outside the sea buoy and maybe call the marina for a tow into the anchorage. Dan and I hurried then to get our dinghy down and by the time we had it in the water and the motor attached, we could see the sails of Tregoning coming by sail into the harbor.
Dan thought they would have trouble avoiding the shoals while trying to enter under sail only, and so we were off in the dinghy to see if we could pull them in safely. Another boat, Rigga ll, heard our radio communication and they followed us out to Tregoning who was already through the buoyed area and near the shoals under sail. With Rigga ll behind Tregoning pushing from their dingy and Allison and Randall handling the sails and steering, Sea Star’s dinghy passed a line up and began to pull the Morgan 40’ to where she needed to turn to go to anchor. They managed to sail into a deep enough spot to anchor, drop one, play out the line and get the sails down safely. Whue!

While this was all happening, Mr. Rene, the ship’s agent, called and expected us and the three other boats to come immediately to NeNe’s marina for check in, so we hurried to gather our papers. During that process, he called back saying he couldn’t come that day and we were to be in the marina at 9:30 AM the following day. Much better! We all just rested aboard and uneventfully checked in the next morning. By that time Randall had diagnosed part of his engine problem and used Rene to purchase the needed replacement antifreeze and belt. Then we were off to find the places that Rey, the Providencia restaurateur recommended to us. While walking along the coastline and the beach, Dan and I noted that many of the buildings had changed in the last ten years, but it was basically the same; the beach with the ticky-tacky beach shops, women carrying sweets on their heads, a beautiful, white sandy beach with blue tarps to cover sun bathers, and lots of uncovered skin.

We found that Rey’s recommendations were quite close to this area of the beach, and tried the Italian gelato -a wonderful treat in this very warm climate, then in a bit, the excellent pizza at Margarita and Carbonara. We walked some more. As it was Sunday all the stores and outlet stores, banks and duty free shops were closed, but for us who had not seen “stuff” stylish clothing, electronics, kitchen ware, in the likes of Perry Ellis, Beneton, Champs and USA Outlet we had a great time window shopping, knowing if we wanted, we could return when the places were open.

The next day we connected to the internet and it actually works, well, almost always. It is purchased from the Sunrise Hotel, one of many beachfront, gorgeous and probably expensive places where the vacationing Columbians stay, rent jet skis, sail boards, kite surf and blast around the harbor and beach.

We brought our dinghies to Club Nautico where by purchasing the berth for a dinghy, a sailor is given access to the beautiful club amenities such as tennis, pool, showers, bar-restaurant, TV, ping pong and lounging. Club Nautico is cleaner and appears to be a much safer place than the pleasant NeNe’s Marina and quite a bit closer to the town so we have been using the facilities and swimming in the fresh water pool to cool down each late afternoon before hitting another of the restaurants on the list. It’s a tough job but somebody has to try them all! They are a bit less expensive than US prices, a nice meal can be had for $30,000 pesos and less, the equivalent of $15 US. Of course there are more pricy meals, too.

Here is a picture of the transportation we rented for a day to tour the seven mile long island. You start it up and hold your foot on the “Go” pedal and ride around. Hills are a challenge, but the island is relatively flat. Most of the other pictures are of touring the island. The last two are video.

San Andres June 2,09

From San Andres June 2,09

We may have to wait as much as a week for good weather to leave for Bocas del Torro in Panama, perhaps our next stop. We are getting excited that Sea Star will soon have another visitor- our younger son, Steve, in a month.