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.
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| San Andres June 2,09 |
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| 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.
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