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Limerence Update # 50Isla
San Andres, Colombia 12d
34.619’N – 81d 41.545’W Temperature
Air 87F – Water 80F
April and
May are idyllic months before the rainy season begins in the tropics, and the winter
storms from the north subside. The trades settle a little and at times blow more from the
east, with relatively calm seas. We found a settled weather window at the end of March and
made our 220-mile run to Isla San Andres, northwest from the Panama Canal. It wasn’t
hard to say goodbye to Colon Panama. The city of Colon is the gateway to the Caribbean,
but is economically in transition and far from lovely. We did enjoy the company of many
cruising friends during our stay and used the services in nearby Panama City for all sorts
of errands. The Cruise Ship Terminal in Colon has a good grocery store, internet cafe,
shops and fitness center that we used. Because of a nasty virus, I had the opportunity to
use a private clinic in Colon, which was professional and helpful. Otherwise, Colon is
unfortunately a place people can hardly wait to leave.
We plan to
cruise our way to Florida over the next two months, stopping along the way throughout the
Northwest Caribbean. We expected a forty-hour sail from the Canal Zone to Isla San Andres,
Colombia. The island lies a hundred miles off the coast of Nicaragua, but is owned by
Colombia. After bashing for two hours to get through the confused steep seas and strong
north winds that converge in the canal basin, Limerence finally settled down and
found her groove. The wind blew twenty knots from the east-northeast and we immediately
felt a current pushing us along. Limerence was doubled reefed with a full jib on a
starboard tack, cruising just under seven knots. We were flying!! We left Colon at 3pm on
Thursday, hoping to make landfall in San Andres early Saturday morning. Our friends Al and
Sandy on the sailing vessel Sandy Lee, followed us from Colon later in the day. During our passage the seas were calm, winds steady, and with no moon. . . the stars were bright. Limerence continued for hours to chug along like a speeding train. Even though we tried to slow her down, we arrived in Isla San Andres before dawn making a record 35-hour passage. We had a bit of excitement during the second night when the battery low voltage alarm went off and we had to start the engine to keep our systems operating - radar, computers, autopilot, navigation lights, and radios. After recharging for six hours, the engine sputtered and stopped! This is no big deal, but slightly inconvenient to clear out the aft cabin, and change the fuel filter in the middle of the night while underway. We have decided that the filter size selection for high sulfur South American fuel was too small, and in the future we will put in a new filter with a larger particle rating. We also replaced our aging gel cell batteries in San Andres with truck batteries. We’ll get new gel cells in Florida. If night passages are uneventful, you are indeed lucky.
We have
settled in for a few weeks and are anchored in front of The NauticoYacht Club that offers
services to cruisers passing through. We are able to keep up on news and watch CNN on
their television and use the club facilities. They have a wonderful restaurant, pool and
tennis courts. We rented a golf cart one day to explore the island, and another day we
toured on motor scooters with Deb and Rob. It is amazing to see the ocean side of the
island with crashing aqua colored surf, as opposed to our tranquil protected harbor inside
the reef.
Paradise was
interrupted on Tuesday. The friends we arrived with in San Andres, Sangaris and Ragtime,
had pulled anchor and moved out on Sunday afternoon heading several hundred miles
northwest to the Bay Islands of Honduras. It is a passage that requires careful navigating
because the Nicaraguan coast near Cabo Gracias a Dios is littered with coral reefs and
shoal waters. They both reported in on the SSB radio on Monday that all was well. However,
we got a distress call early Tuesday morning from Ragtime. They were stranded
aground on a coral reef! It happened late Monday afternoon. They made a mayday distress
call which was picked up by a ham radio operator in Florida. He called the United States
Coast Guard, and the ship MOHAWK was dispatched from nearby in the Caribbean.
Within hours the Coast Guard was on the scene. They stayed in the area with Ragtime
for 24 hours while Don and Patricia struggled to free their boat. By now, Sangaris
was 130 miles west and unaware of the grounding of their buddy boat.
Judy and
Doug |
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