ROCKIN’ AT RONCADOR April 6, 2010

ROCKIN’ AT RONCADOR April 6, 2010

It is certainly moving-on time in the Caribbean. Many boats that had visited Cartagena for long or shorter times from all over the world have moved or are moving on. The San Blas Islands of Panama or Kuna Yala might be the most popular spot but others are heading for other parts of Panama, Rio Dulce, Guatemala, coastal Mexico and the Atlantic- or Curacao, Aruba or Bonaire if they aren’t planning to cross the Panama Canal and explore the West coast, or perhaps heading for the Galapagos Islands or Ecuador.

Sea Star was able to re-connect with the weather provided by Chris Parker by the time we planned to leave Cartagena. Dan and other cruisers considered the forecasts and picked their best time for the direction anticipated. April 3rd we thought we had the best “window” for our anticipated 50 hour passage time. We completed all our last minute details, repacked every cabinet as we had been sitting still for four months, provisioned as I had just about forgotten how to do by now, rechecked everything we could think of, had Estuardo remove the plastic bag from our propeller and at 9:15AM we drove out of Club de Pesca into the channel with help releasing our stern dock lines from Mary and Mike from La Serena, and Kathy on the bow untying the two bird guano encrusted dock lines from the bow post, while Dan held the bow in place using the (wheue! It still works!) bow thruster. Luckily there was little wind while we pulled out.

Soon it was time to drive through the anchorage and weaving through the tied dinghies say good-bye to the remaining boats, receiving their well-wishes for “fair winds and following seas” as we made our passage. We arrived at the main Boca Grande Channel just as I had finished the stowing of lines, fenders and the gear below, and Dan called to unfurl our genoa.

We needed to tighten the genoa halyard and went forward to the mast do so. Just as we finished that task the traveler on the mid-coach roof unexpectedly let go the mainsheet with a noticeable noise. As I held the boom, (luckily the preventer was on) Dan scurried to look to see what had happened and found that a nut holding the sheet block to the traveler was actually gone, with the sheet blocks swinging a bit in the gentle breeze. I suggested that we go back, but Dan thought he could fix it. The neatly stowed contents of lockers came flying out while we perused every nut on board, the spare traveler rig and finally put three shackles into use to attach the wayward sheet block, so the three shackles allowed twisting and were held by the original pin and a circle pin- and under low loads Dan felt we could again use the main.

The coast area of Colombia is notorious for its swirling high winds caused by an area of low and thus confused and high seas as the wind pushes the water towards the shore and they pile up. It’s rare to have seas less than 6 feet but you can hope for lighter winds so less wind chop. The day was bright and sunny, the seas modest and we were sailing by the genoa alone in 15-17 knots of breeze-and that went on as predicted and expected until around 7:00PM when the wind began to become stronger than expected by the forecast and the seas higher. We were sailing at COG 305 degrees. The winds were 25 knots and gusting a little higher from the NE and ENE. Accordingly, the seas rose higher and the foam on each crest was visible even at night in the light given off by the moon. We were traveling quite fast at 7-7.5 knots and heeling to our port and coming back upright as the 8 foot seas rolled from the starboard beam, a rather uncomfortable motion, also spraying sea water over the bow and from the beam into the cockpit, wetting anyone trying to sit out there.

Well, the least said about that 24 hour the better. We did keep a radio schedule with the Southwest Caribbean net and a friend who was traveling to Providencia who had lost a rigging stay on their trip from the San Blas. We couldn’t walk, eat or sleep and we worried a great deal about our seemingly ill pilot, “Auto”, who did not seem to like being asked to give up the wheel when we were still near Cartagena. When we went to “standby”, the boat wouldn’t steer. Somehow after Dan muscled it a few times it seemed to be working again. There were ships seen on our radar keeping us on our toes, but nothing came too close for comfort.

By 9:00AM on Saturday, we had been underway 24 hours and we were still moving along well at 6.5 knots in 6-7 foot but receding seas and 15 kn of wind. The boat was dryer although salt-encrusted allowing us to emerge from below and enjoy the beautiful day. By the time we approached Roncador on Sunday morning, Easter, 11:15 the wind was 9 to 10 knots. We only had to use the engine two hours during the entire 340 nm trip of 50 hours.

Upon arriving we talked to the Naval detachment stationed at Roncador and within a few hours had rested a bit and visited their Commandante who was happy to have us stay at the Banks for a few days as planned.

As I write this we are the only boat here- we are resting and we found that surprise of surprises, the Sirius radio we have been paying for for some months was actually available to us out in the boonies of Roncador. We could catch up on news, Tiger and golf and comedy central.

- we snorkeled yesterday, but the wind is up today, seeing a variety of reef fish; parrot, butterfly, tangs, black durgeon, tunny, squirrel etc. and seeing the reefs protected by their masters. One small patch reef had a silently gliding barracuda, and one closer to the outer reef a rather curious and watchful shark. Not having been in the water either swimming or snorkeling since November, the water feels good; warm and inviting and the brilliant blue we remember. Dan has to go a bit careful with his knee as managing fins is exercise when there is current. We are rested and eating normally again. Our plan is to leave on Thursday.


Now we are not the only boat at Roncador. The Guarda Coasta has arrived bringing people to work on the generator on the island and some supplies. Only problem was they seemed to have "holed" their smaller delivery boat and called Sea Star for a bit of help. Dan ferried the workers and supplies in our dinghy and met some very nice Coast Guard men, one who spoke English.

Roncador April 2010

Hasta Luego, Cartagena March 31, 2010

Hasta Luego, Cartagena March 31, 2010

There are sometimes reasons for good things to come to an end. The ending I now refer to is Sea Star’s stay in the beautiful and entertaining city of Cartagena. We arrived in Cartagena on November 28th 2009, enjoyed Christmas, New Years and now Semana Santa, or the week before the Easter holidays. The plan is to watch for a weather window and leave for Roncador Banks.

We’ll be exchanging email addresses and either visiting or radioing “ good bye” to our friends still in the anchorage in front of Club Nautico as well as visiting vendors of movies, fruits and vegetables who exchange pleasantries with the cruisers who are coming and going for the last time.

We will joyfully say good bye to the sea life that grows on the bottom of our and all boats -and when in the anchorage, on the anchor chain and the propeller.

I did one more tourist attraction. I hadn’t visited the San Felipe Castillo or Fort. One Tuesday morning, Suzi and John on Cabaret were looking for a tour for their visitors from the States. Oscar Quintana, our teacher was asked to narrate a tour and so I went along to the fort and a walking trip through the Walled City. The fort has miles of tunnels going under it and that had been used to hide the treasure of Cartagena from the invaders. The restoration of the Castillo and lighting at night were great to see.
Below I have included a few shots of the tour.

Dan and I attended a birthday celebration at a local restaurant for our friend on Cabaret, Suzi. See pictures of her riding the bull outside Quebracho.


Probably April 2nd we will say good bye to Club de Pesca; our rather expensive “peace of mind” concrete dock that allowed us to use our needed air conditioning and not worry about our own or Sea Star’s, or her dinghy’s security all the while we stayed at the club while meeting yet another group of friends on boats. Here we met two Island Packet crews among others, sail and power, who pass through and make Cartagena their home for awhile. Some, like IPer’s La Serena or Solange IV, with crew of Kevin, Melissa and their interesting teenage kids, who are leaving their boat to fly back to their land bases and re-enter their past lives for awhile, while others, like Judy and Dave on Fia, and some ex-pats simply remain, enjoying the country and the culture of Colombia, launching themselves into helpful fundraising for country projects and new cruisers to find what they need in Cartagena.

We said “Good bye” to our teacher and new friend, Oscar, already today. Some of the best times I can recall involve him setting the scene for us; New Year’s in his town of Turbaco, a great futbol game and a trip to Turbaco to some natural pools to get away from the city. Dan especially enjoyed political and cultural discussions from a Colombianos perspective. Both Dan and I improved our ability to communicate our basic needs in Spanish and found the challenge rewarding.
Below are some pics of the Matute natural water area for the town. We had a blast! The place was great for all ages.
So now we look forward to a rather long-320 nautical miles- passage to the Colombian reefs of Roncador, where we have previously visited, Serrana, and Isla Providencia to actually check out of Colombia.

Matute + suzi bd

UP IN THE AIR at Club de Pesca March 20, 2010

Up in the air at Club de Pesca, Cartagena, Colombia March 19, 2010

Sea Star and crew, Dan and Kathy are still in Cartagena, Colombia. Day to day fun and games continue with visits to other cruising boats, daily chores, restauranting-but we just took four days off to live up-in-the-air mechanical lift at the haul-out facility at Club de Pesca.

Dan, who is walking much better now-thanks for asking, "Sea Star recoated decides that needed her bottom from the waterline down to better repel the nasty is growth, barnacles, mussels and slimy grass, in these warm, tropical waters. She also the max-prop needed through hull fittings greased and checked. We arranged for a haul-out on Monday, March 15th. Today is Thursday and we are back in our slip with the job, Which we feel was a good one, completed.

The preparation for having the work done on Monday morning was the same as if we were going to go to sea, make an appointment with the boss and pay the bill, check the weather, tides and wind to determine feasibility of the maneuver, remove the plastic bag that was covering the Max-prop propeller to protect it from the above named is growth, open the cooling water is cock for our Yanmar engine, and close the sea cocks for the water maker system, generator and sinks.

As we climb out into the cockpit Monday, a bit later than the 8:30 time but not bad time by Colombian standards, we unplug our land lifelines-electricity and water hose, adjust the fenders to make sure that if we are pushed by wind as we exit our slip we do not do too much damage to another boat - and bring to life Sea Star's engine for the first time in quite a while. A feeling of relief occurred for both of us when she started up as Dan turned the key, just as she should do. Other days while listening to our radio we learned of many finicky engines that just start to refuse to allow their owners to leave Cartagena!

The next step is utilizing Dan's expert piloting, dock with two men aboard to cast off our two long bowlines attached to two different pilings by edging the boat slowly forward and sideways crabwalking her with the bow thruster to precariously balance the coiled lines on the poles and ready for our return. My jobs among others were to untie our neighbor's sailboat from ours while releasing the two stern lines from the cleats on the concrete piers and receiving them onto the boat. Meanwhile our two dockhands two additional lines attached around the base of our mast. For what we did not know until we arrived in the slip and realized that those two lines only when tied to the cradle would support and balance Sea Star while we were lifted.
After we were free of our dock slip, Dan drove the five or six boat lengths to the lift.

Then it became interesting as the dock on the lift equipment men shouted instructions in Spanish of course, to those of us on the boat and basically Dan was driving blind as men scurried around our deck grabbing, adjusting and tying lines multiple times until they were satisfied Sea Star that was centered correctly in the heavy, awkward and dangerous looking, black metal cradle. One pictures a soft and comforting item when one thinks "cradle." Well, not really. Along both sides of the sailboat the 6 "diameter cylindrical metal pipes of the cradle could be seen just a foot away from Sea Star's fiber girth. The wind was directly over the port beam of the boat, pushing strongly and making it difficult for the men to steady her in the cradle so the rest of the adjustments could be made and the metal floor lift the entire boat, all 18 tons of her, well out of the water. I hurried along those sides trying to install rubber fenders between the boat and cradle, especially on the four vertical columns Cubical that attach to the bottom plate of the metal floor.

At last a diver was sent into the water to install three wooden blocks of proper size and thickness to support the boat hull as it rests on the metal floor. That must have been quite a job with the boat gently rocking in the bulky cradle. The diver did not wear dive tanks, just a snorkel, mask and fins and I often gasped for air after trying to arrange just the right size and shape wooden block. He worked under the hull with others on the boat holding the bow steady and stout tying lines to the cradle

The final step was the Dockmaster pushing the button to ever so slowly lift the boat. Like Neptune emerging out of the water in her cradle Sea Star was pushed up out of the sea. At that point the dockmen told our interpreter, Oscar, that usually Gringos buy soda and snacks for the dock boys. We were especially glad To provide sustenance to the diver who by then was very tired. By about 11:30 dock our hired men were hosing to wash, and wet-sand the bottom and shapely hull of Sea Star To make a long story shorter, three men over three days full three roller applied coats of red paint at about Hempler ablative $ 130US/gal, using the full 5 gallons in the pail. Dan and I greased the Max-prop, spray-painted the propeller, shaft, and strap with zinc-coat paint Pettit (3 light coats), supervised and in general got in the way of our workers who were always all smiles. Then we let it all harden and reversed the process to move gingerly out of the cradle and back to our boat slip at the dock. If you were a fish you would know how great-looking Sea Star is now. We will be attentively watching to see if our barnacle and sea life incubation site is growing less friendly to the creatures with the copper residue applied.

There were of course inconveniences. Maybe the biggest was not being able to keep the refrigerator and freezer on as we had anticipated Because there was electricity. But with a keel-cooled refrigerator system it could not be run when out of the water. We had to impose on our fellow cruisers frozen goodies and buy ice from the gas station next door to keep the cool boxes as well as cook some foods from the freezer as they thawed. After cooking there was no way to use the water in the boat through the sink, the drains had to be shut to protect the drying paint, so water was dumped from a bucket off the boat and into the water from our 10 foot height. We were high enough to enjoy a hell of a breeze each night and see lots of new birds.

Every time I climbed the ladder my baseball-type cap would leave my head and land on top of the bimini. An inconvenience of the ladder connecting the boat to the dock below, was that the ladder stood inside of the cradle causing us to limbo under the cylindrical side greasy pole to arrive in the cockpit-difficult carrying the bags and bundles of tools, paints, rags , sandpaper and so on. down the ladder and back up at the end of each day. The dock men warned us not to leave anything off the boat. I hid the 5 gallon can with the last gallon of paint in a black plastic garbage bag like the Stealth bomber Camouflaged by the black metal cradle and it was still there for the last morning's work.
Dan's recent surgery made a bit difficult climbing ladder. He avoided the issue by making fewer trips up or down on the ladder, so there were more for me. I valiantly soldiered on with his jobs, sitting on a kitty-litter bucket avoiding kneeling or rolling around while working in tight spaces.
The last inconvenience when the water is out of the bathroom plumbing. Well, suffice it to say there are simpler systems than Vacuflush heads. The marina has full facilities also, so just one more trip down the ladder.

The workers at the marina have a concrete floored, roofed gazebo with picnic tables where they rest and eat their lunches. Where is this facility? Right beside the lift. We provided many happy hours of entertainment for the boat dockmen and especially the boys at exclusive fishing club who are hired by the dozen for the Colombian or Panamanian motor boats-washing, waxing and boat care for a full time job on one boat! They rarely see especially boat owners and owner's wives doing any of their own work. Someone at the club has hired an Français teacher for the boys. During their lunch break they practice how to interact and "eempof comuneecasheen" with the new crop of Gringos or English speaking owners. Instead of "like this" you ", after they pass the class by saying," Hauwa doeeng already? "They are doing great and we are all a little friendlier to each other on the dock as we understand how hard it is to learn to language for both sides. For the workers it may mean the difference between a menial job of boat boy and a higher paying job such as line handler or even a chance to become a "substitute Captain."
For me continuing to study Spanish might mean a reasonable haircut Next time, instead of the butcher job I just got.

Here are just a few "Lift" pictures.
Click on the blank square-not sure what happened.

Up in the Air-OL Soccer! Feb. 2010 Fo’tbol in Cartagena February 25th 2010 As in all Latin American countries, fotbol is king in Cartagena. When your home team, Real Cartagena, is doing well in a championship everyone turns out-even three scared Gringos with our protector, Oscar. Oscar,helped us buy tickets to the Real Cartagena/Medellin soccer match in the local stadium. Real Cartagena was the number one team and Medellin the number two team in the Liga Postobon which is the Colombian "Major League". He said the game was sure to be exciting but it could be dangerous for us, and of course Dan was on crutches at the time but we went to the game. If you think that security is tight at U.S. airports, you should see what its like at a big futbol game in Colombia. Thousands of Police and army special forces--many in full armored riot gear--looking very serious. They do a very thorough job of searching every person entering the stadium for guns etc. When we arrived into the stadium the excitement was palpable. The brilliant colors of yellow and green dominated the stands. Vendors of foods, hats, twenty on top of one head, neck cloths,programs, beer, soda, chicolets gum continuously forced their way through the crowds to sell their goods. When the first goal was made by Real Cartagena we were showered with beer from above us in our bleacher seats. I stood up to cheer a play with others and spilled part of my beer on the guy in front of me- a quick turn, a smile and it was "play-on". The teams seemed evenly matched with certain players to focus on who were the stars. We had a great time! Oscar suggested we get out of the stadium ten minutes before the game ended, but the excitement built just then and we took our chances. The game had exciting points throughout with two goals scored, one for each team! The Real team even played with a man down for awhile but still was close to scoring. Near the end, the last five minutes, we thought surely the home team would score. Gary looked over at the few fans that had attended from Medellin to see them being marched out ten minutes early by the riot police to protect them! They couldn’t even watch the end of the match which ended in an unbroken tie. Oh yeah, we arrived home to Sea Star safely and Oscar spent the night on the boat as Turbaco was quite a distance away. Enjoy the photos and movie. Click on the photo to see the slide show. the game Tuesday, February 23, 2010 Barranquilla Carnaval February 15, 2010 Barranquilla Carnaval February 15, 2010 One of the festivals I heard about in Colombia quite a while ago is the Festival at Barranquilla, a large city of friendly and active people who apparently like to Party!! It’s a few hours bus trip from Cartagena and is held four days before ash Wednesday to have a good time before the restricted lent before Easter, as the once pagan festival has had a bit of a religious significance added, but not an overabundance as you will see in my pics. Dan and I had planned to go for some time. We were going to go with a very small group and stay in Barranquilla for one overnight. Plans changed to a one day trip when we all found that reservations were not to be had. The prices would perhaps triple during festival and it was first come in the few hotels! We also had the small complication of Dan on crutches..and he decided not to go. (news flash: He has started almost daily therapy for 20 days and will be rechecked by his doctor soon. He’s sick of not being able to move and walk normally.) Barranquilla was described as an awesome festival and after viewing pictures on-line I decided I would not miss it despite Dan’s not being able to go. It is a four day long festival that has a great deal of history – only I can’t figure the historical part out. There is a series of animals like the “marimonda”, spider monkey, and special dances such as the conga, gaita, cumbia , paleta and others that had significance to the various participating cultures, as well as salsa and champeta, marimba and others. It apparently was a slave festival of freedom and gaiety where “anything goes” was once the expectation. It has evolved into a presentation of blended cultural beliefs. One of them is that the King? Josalito dies of overdoing the partying on the last day of Carnaval and all the wives-every woman- mourn and cry. The last day of the festival is a funeral for Joselito. The Google translation to English from the website Spanish is very difficult to decipher. Check out the website. When it comes up it will be in Spanish, but Google will translate. http://www.lasmarimondas.com/historia.php THEN THE OFFICIAL SITE http://www.carnavaldebarranquilla.org/previo/tradicion.html if after the viewing of my latest set of pictures if you care about the history. So Let’s Party! Preparation: The day before there was an optional morning dedicated to decorating our tee shirts. Once we got the spellings of carnaval and Barranquilla correct it was all color and glitter after that. In my pictures Jan, our paint and marker supplier and artista extradinar, is modeling her hand-painted tee. Mine wasn’t quite as pretty, in fact it is rather pathetic-but I like it. Two small buses arranged by Sharon and Jim picked up our group in the morning. Sharon added more glitter to our outfits by supplying any willing cruiser with a brightly colored bead necklace- she and others had been to other Carnavals like Mardi-Gras and Trinidad and felt we needed a day out of cruiser drab. The buses brought around thirty cruisers from the anchorage at Cartagena to the city of Barranquilla. We left at 9:00AM and arrived about 11:00AM under the watchful eye of our guide Rafael in bus number one and Alex in bus number two. Rafael was our guide. He told us a bit about the city and made it a point to suggest we whoop it up on the bus, asking if we knew any songs and if we wanted to stop for “Ron”! (rum- it’s 9:00AM- I want Dunkin Donuts but that wasn’t available either, of course.) Rafael asked if we had any questions and I asked about the figure called “marimonda”, the symbol of the festival- and got a very vague answer. I chalked it up to language barrier and asked a follow-up question about the origin of the festival. That brought up the reference to Joselito and something about slaves, but was another not too helpful answer and so I figured I’d look it up later. I did look it up by following the link above. What a shock! We had been warned to carry no more than was needed with us, not even to take a camera was suggested. “Pick pockets are everywhere! They might slash your pocket to take anything you have.” http://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/culture/8267-murder-rate-low-at-2010-barranquilla-carnival.html Barranquilla Festival includes parades, with costumes and floats. None of us were going without a least a pocket camera, although my friend Cindi do lose hers from her pocket! We stuck the family money in our bras and in our shoes, tied cameras to a belt-loop and hoped for the best. The ringing sound of “stay together, stay together “was heard as we exited the buses, were supplied with a cellphone number for Rafael and herded on down the busy street toward the location of the parade route. (We had been told not to have extra stuff so few people had defied that order and brought their cells.) We had arrived early and were looking to find good seats for the 1:00PM start of the awaited parade. A set of plastic chairs was rented to us for the equivalent of $2.50 each. No problem, it was under a red Aguila tent, so we’d have shade-NOT! The locals were charged $1.00 for the same chairs after the military stationed every few feet along the parade route bodily picked up the red tent and moved it way back and the beer venders and locals moved in, leaving our chairs near the front but no cover at all. By waiting by the parade barrier fence in the sun, I was able to perch myself right up front. Since the beer vendors moved near us, and by that time it was 1:00PM, there was nothing to be done but have a beer and buy fried food. Then have fried food and a shaved ice treat. Then……what????? I was just standing there minding my own business gawking, when one of the fun lovin’ locals -Whoosh! sprayed me and lots of others with a shaving cream like stuff from a can. Soon it was every man, woman and child for themselves as the spraying continued with sneak attacks for the next two hours, ammunition supplied by willing vendors of the foam and silly string stuff, leading up to the carnaval parade we had been told was to step off at one- it was 3:30PM before the first marchers danced down our way. Foam fun, drinking and eating all made the wait in the hot sun more bearable, not shorter. Then young boys, faces painted black with shoe polish, circled around the group menacingly, carrying sticks. The “game” is to scare you into giving them some change or they will put black polish on you! We heard from other cruisers it was really harmless, although in the later evening you could expect the participants to be older and carrying machetes! “Just go along with it, maybe hug them”, the experienced festival goers said. They had brought towels because they knew about the foam, the finks! When the parade did finally start, it was worth all the wait and more. I had a fantastic time and was totally awed by the Carnaval Fantasy parade; the costumes, the energy, the music and dancing, the shaking, shimmying and champeta, and the beauty of the participants who put on a 100% show over the three kilometers of the route. In my pics you can’t see the bandaged feet, the broken high heel of the dancer in red, the chafing costumes. But from behind the fence where I was sitting, what I saw was (an excuse for some of my photos)- Colombianos young and old excited about giving everyone the best show possible! Viva Colombia! Viva Barranquilla! were the words of the day. Enjoy- especially the video clips!! Don't forget to double click each picture for a slide show!! First the cruisers and the crowds.. Barr- Crusiers and crowd Choosing a Queen is important in Colombia. Barr-The Queens The first part of the 3 hour parade First Parade- Barranquilla 2010 Hopefully the videos load so you can watch without gaps Barr-movie clips Finally the second part of the parade 2nd half- Baranquilla Thursday, February 11, 2010 FUN AND GAMES AGAIN IN CARTAGENA February 11, 2010 FUN AND GAMES AGAIN IN CARTAGENA February 8, 2010 Last night (February 7) was the Super Bowl for American football. A group of at least fifty cruisers went to a local pizza hangout because the manager/owner said he would rent a 52inch TV, which made two TV’s in his open air restaurant. Oh, and he promised the cable would be on- not like other places people had tried to watch playoff games. Dan and his crutches got out to the road. We rented a taxi for the four city block trip to Paucho Y Guillos. Lots of friends were already there at other tables but we sat where we could as America the Beautiful and the Anthem were sung. Dan watched the game, chatting with the other guys and hoping for the underdog Saints. I went from table to table, chatting with people, and ordered our drinks and pizza. I chatted with Judy, the Texan who in my last post I wrote had given shots to her cattle. She also was, before cruising as crew, a telephone linesperson, and doesn’t mind climbing sailboat masts. I bought a beer for the aforementioned nurse who gave Dan his shot and just by chance had the previous night helped another cruiser to an ambulance. He had fallen in his cockpit and went unconscious. I talked with my friend Suzi (mentioned in other posts as social director)who was yelling when everybody else was-but hates football. (Kinda like yours truely) Well, it wasn’t the Patriots – I thought about how we always had our friends and our boys around for a Super Bowl party, made chili and pigged out. At Paucho Y Guillos there was a gambling pool like we would have at our house- I still didn’t win! The game progressed and at the end of the third quarter before the Saints big push, we left, thinking it’s the Colts all the way. When we got back on the boat and Dan checked on the internet- Surprise, surprise! He was able to see bits and pieces of the play later on the internet. When the crowd came back to the marina, all excited, we were sorry we had left! There’s another (well, lots of other) good place to go for a quick and cheap meal. One night on the dock we gathered for a fried chicken and baked beans get-together with Frisby Chicken-Yum! Other cruisers on the Club de Pesca dock invited us to go to the “Shwarma” place. “Uh, ok. What’s a Shwarma?” “Well,” answered another Judy- this one makes it her point to know all the cultural events in the city and tells us about the movies, fiestas and the schedule of the Music festivals, as the newspapers keep things like that a secret, “a Shwarma is like a Gyro. You choose pollo or puerco or mixto with chicken and pork. It’s tightly rolled up in a kind of pita bread thing and they give you four great sauces to put on. One is garlic mayonnaise, pineapple and sweet, flaming hot sauce and mustard based.” In pleasant company we ate our first of many meals of Shwarmas. At 8,000 pesos or $4.00US why bother cooking? Speaking of cooking- yes we do eat many meals on the boat. Sadly, they don’t do breakfasts here like we are (were) used to in the States, so all breakfasts have been aboard except for the hotel when Dan was operated on. There they served us scrambled eggs with tomato, fresh fruit juice and fresh fruit; papaya, mango, great coffee and bread. But we’ve not seen or heard of a breakfast place where one could buy a breakfast like that. On board we alternate between pancakes, French toast , egg dishes and cereal. We haven’t found a good bacon for a long while. It’s usually pressed ham or chorizo-not bad but different. Since Dan isn’t walking right now full provisioning ; buying gallons of drinking water and food is what I do. Also I haul our laundry to and from the same grocery store as there are no self-service Laundromats available. Two ladies take the time to insert a plastic stem with a hand-written number written on paper on it into each item of clothing; underwear, socks, kitchen towels, whatever. Then, meticulously, the clothing numbers are regrouped, the items counted and you go home, hopefully with everything ‘cause the paper numbers do fall off in the wash, to snip off each stem to wear the clothes. Labor is cheap. The nearby grocery store is not a Stop and Shop but certainly food is available but costs as much or more as in the States for anything packaged- like pasta noodles are $3.50 and the poor quality bacon $12.00. We had supplied well in Panama but are lowering the mountains of cans slowly and more meats and fresh products are needed. After I shop I can have a young employee push my shopping cart all the way from Carulla to our boat- a distance of perhaps a mile and pay her $2.50- and she is thrilled to be making more money than she makes at the store. I don’t see how the locals can eat for what they are paid. The internet is available here for a fee. Both Dan and I spend probably too much time on-line in frivolous pursuits. Dan is a political junkie and Sarah Palin is driving him insane as well as the stupidity and gullibility of the American public.(as he sees it) I surf a few cruising blogs of friends, do my blog and pictures which takes a long time and now Steven has gotten me on Facebook so he can put pictures there and stay in touch. If you let yourself you could spend days on Facebook and UTube videos. I became all excited when the name of an old friend came up as wanting me to call her. She had emailed, through Facebook, simply a cell phone number. I called her number on Skype - to find at the other end a lovely woman with the same name as my friend from Oregon not Colrain who thought she was being scammed! She was really nice about it- she thought I was someone else, too. Her old friend trying to find her! One more thing cruisers do to amuse themselves is Mexican Train dominos every Sunday. The game of matching little dots goes on in relative quiet for about three hours. The players have to move tables after four hands to mix up the groups. Some of the better players can be heard slamming their ivory dominos onto the table for emphasis. After the games the lowest score is recognized as the winner and the person with the highest score "had the most fun" when the results are brodcast by radio on Monday morning. John and Suzi celebrated their 19th anniversay on Sea Star. They came over to visit Dan and give us something else to do to counteract the bordom of staying aboard so much. They taught us a card game they call "Diminishing Cards." The first hand 7 cards are dealt to all. You bid how many hands you will be able to take, as one card is played by each player in a hand. If you don't make your bid you are slammed with points. The hand with 7 cards starts with a 10 point penalty. The hand with 1 card carries a 70 point penalty. We had fun and the guys won. Soon we'll have more than physical therapy and Spanish lessons to look forward to. I'll log then! Monday, February 8, 2010 Lounging at Club de Pesca February 7, 2010 Lounging at Club de Pesca February 7, 2010 Sometimes paradise is just like being land based with its problems; such as aging and finding a place to live. Lately we have had other things rather than cruising on our minds. Sea Star remains at Club de Pesca. It’s really comfortable. For a small fee (he! He!) we can use our air conditioning, lounging below while the hired boat boys clean and polish Sea Star and Dan heals and ices his knee from his recent arthroscopic knee surgery. In my last post I mentioned that cruisers often come to Cartagena to access medical services such as dentists and general health care check-ups, and also schedule Lasik eye surgeries, and plastic surgeries of all types. If one has the money health care is available, and quite a bit cheaper than the “same” surgery elsewhere. Unfortunately, Dan had one knee that was not "right" and causing him pain when walking. He had it looked at when we were in MA in November, had a shot of cortisone and went back to Panama. When we arrived in Colombia he knew he had to do something about it. I’ll abbreviate a little here but the steps went something like this- He went to one doctor, a surgeon named Valiente ($40.00) who suggested an MRI which he had the next day( $420.00). Doctor suggested surgery. Went for a second opinion($50.00). Was told to take some medication for a week and therapy and see the doctor again in two weeks. The result was surgery recommended. After Christmas and New Years struggling to walk around the Walled City, Dan decided- ok, surgery -and decided to go back to MA to utilize insurance there. We would need a place for the boat, tickets, a place to stay, and rental car but we would be “safer” with the US standards so we believed. After mentioning plans to more than one other cruiser we were given lots of moral support and heard stories-all positive- about the medical access in Cartagena. In the meantime we found a slip for Sea Star. We re-considered our options and decided to go ahead and have the arthroscopic surgery in Cartagena with the second Doctor at Medi-help Clinic in Boca Grande, a clinic with a good reputation that encourages and helps foreign tourists who are medical shopping. NEGATIVES for us were: * We didn’t get to see our friends and family in Massachusetts where three nurses are in the family. * We had some confusion because of our limited Spanish language ability. * Staff at the clinic do not speak English at all except one office girl during the day and another young man at night. When Dan ran a fever of 101.7 F and we tried to contact Doctor Rivera, his cell phone wouldn’t work and we had to call the clinic. The language barrior was significant. * We live on a boat- with stairs, that rocks. * The hospital Johny kept untying and outpatient wards seem to be unisex. BUT POSITIVES were everything else: * Dan is healing well, working on his muscles and planning our next adventures! * Total costs of operation, Doctor fees, anesthetic (local) and medication under $2000.00. Under my HNE insurance the same operation is $14,000! *Doctor Edgardo Rivera Martinez is very competent and caring. He has presented at conferences in US and spoke enough English to make us comfortable with his recommendations. * The Medi-help Services Clinic was clean, seemed well equipped, efficient, well staffed with very helpful people. *Our Spanish tutor, Oscar Quintana, gave up his entire Saturday from 10:00AM to 5:00PM to support us. He stayed with me, giving me my regular Spanish class and waited during the operation, and three hours of recovery time. He ran out and purchased the crutches and medication, and helped us get Dan into our hotel room when we arrived there by taxi. I was worried although we had reserved a first floor room, as there were three large stone steps and no railing at the entrance to the hotel. Dan did fine getting in. *We stayed at a great hotel- Casa de Las Palmas for three nights and a lavish breakfast was included- a place I could walk from to check on the boat. * IT'S ALL OVER- but for the hard work Dan has to do to strengthen his muscles around the knee and see if the pain of movement goes away- We are very hopeful. I’ll just mention one episode that seemed kind of funny to me, a difference between the United States and Colombia. Dan was still wearing his Johny, cute blue hair cap and blue booties during recovery. When he was to be released from the clinic he was handed a prescription for pain medication and for three days worth of injections to prevent swelling in the knee. When Oscar returned to the clinic with the medications, the prescription read, “inject one time a day for three days.” Duh…Who was going to Inject?! The young and pretty nurse(remember-lots of plastic surgeries are completed in this clinic) at first could not understand us, then could not understand our concern. I confessed that I had never before given an injection-and the nurse looked in disbelief. She agreed to administer the first one; I could watch and thus be ready to give numbers two and three. She took Oscar and me behind the curtain where Dan was waiting for his intramuscular injection. She took the needle (sold at the corner drugstore as part of the prescription!), broke the vial, loaded the syringe - and meanwhile Oscar is translating. She showed me how to find the proper spot, to be careful about hitting a nerve, getting the air out of the syringe - now I’m really getting nervous! "Draw a line across the rear and a perpendicular line where the nerve is and a 45 degree angle from that then get ready to insert the needle in the corner of what would be a square"….. “yeah, OK”, thought I. "Maybe I can do this." "But be careful because the medium is oil and you have to draw back the syringe like this until a little of the liquid comes out and you must release the plunger really slow or it’s going to hurt a lot and just keep it steady, but not too fast and" ….. “No way,” thought I “I really cannot do this!”I seemed to recall when my sister, Barbara, was studying to be a registed nurse and she told me "Even the orange screamed when I practiced my injections!" This was to be my first needle and given on my handicapped husband. Not a good idea. Well, shot number 1 was done- and before it was time for shot number 2,we had two options. I had located a cruiser nurse, and another great cruiser woman from Texas who used to shoot up cattle. The nurse, who is a friend, came to our hotel and gave the shot and all was well. The Doctor gave the third shot in his office and took the used disposable syringes off my hands. I wasn’t going to leave them in a hotel wastebasket! When I asked the Doctor if many patients in Colombia have people in the home to give them injections he replied, “Yes, it is very usual.” “Well”, I said to Dan, “it is Colombia after all!” My reference being to the narco-trafficers or users we hear are everywhere in the cities. The arthroscopy was on Saturday, and we stayed off the boat until Tuesday afternoon after Dan's Doctor’s appointment. We had a taxi bring him close in to the Club de Pesca where, with the crutches, he could walk down the dock about 10 boats to Sea Star. I pulled the lines in to bring the side of the boat close to the finger pier and he could step on to the rail, then hold on to the bimini supports while easing into the cockpit seat. After that it was through the hatch, sitting down and lowering himself the four steps and he was back aboard safely. A few more weeks on the crutches, probably some physical therapy and we’ll see how things are with the movement. Next post - back to fun and games in Cartagena. Pics of hotel, and Dan! 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