To Cartagena with Jesse and Sander

It’s exactly noon local time, and we’ve been under way since 06:00 yesterday morning, having left Aruba bound for Cartagena in Colombia. But first, a quick step back in time. After spending two weeks on the hard in the end, the boat was finally ready – I’m not complaining, since I only asked at short notice whether it could be done, and it was carnival as well! Still, it was nice to be back in the water. Straight back to the spot officially called Paardenbaai but known to everyone as Surfside Beach. There I was immediately welcomed again by Stefan of the Intrepid Bear, whose son was now visiting too. A great lad who is training to be a dentist in Germany, and was doing a few weeks’ internship here with Enrita’s daughter-in-law. In the end I ate with them every day until the new crew arrived from the Netherlands.

Picked up Jesse and Sander in the rickety little car. I know them both from Harlingen. Oddly enough they only knew each other by name, but on the plane they had already discovered that they share a huge number of acquaintances. Sander is a true “Oude Seun”, i.e. his passport says Harlingen as place of birth. Jesse’s doesn’t, but he has lived in Harlingen for decades too – among other things he once ran the local Hema department store, and then you naturally get to know a lot of people. His parents used to own the house Marion and I now live in. I didn’t actually know Sander all that well either, but that doesn’t always matter. Together with his brother he runs a shipping agency, i.e. they handle the logistics and paperwork for ships calling at Harlingen. From the very first moment it’s good fun, and we talk about everything from Harlingen and its residents to the state of the world. If we could run the world for a bit, it would all be sorted in no time.

Of course I took Jesse and Sander into the national park. Then on to Zeerovers, the no-longer-so-secret spot on Aruba for eating local fish. Fortunately there were still plenty of locals for the real atmosphere; Americans aren’t really our thing. You do see them spreading out a bit more across the island – six years ago they still stuck to the high-rise hotels. After that we went snorkelling, which was a big step for Sander, as he doesn’t consider himself much of a swimmer. That turned out to be no problem at all; unfortunately the water wasn’t very clear, so the underwater life was a bit disappointing. After that we also, among other things, had another barbecue at Ingolf and Enrita’s, and ate at Elements again. See the photos!

Since Panama is only a few days’ sail away, we’re first planning a stopover in Colombia. That doesn’t work here the way it does back home in Europe, where you can simply decide to put into a harbour whenever you like. Had a quick look at https://noonsite.com, and in Cartagena you’re required to hire an agent. First, ask the marina whether they have room. They reply to the e-mail almost immediately, and an hour later a berth for five days is arranged. Step two is the agent; I picked one from the list in the cruising guide on the marina’s website. E-mailed them, no reply. So I had Sander, who is an agent himself, send them a WhatsApp. Still no reply. Just as we decide to move on to the next one, Sander gets a call from the agent. And sure enough, for USD 250 it can all be arranged. Oh well, it’s a local business model, but fine, go on then. You’re not allowed to contact the harbour master yourself; he considers yachts beneath him. Then again, we think the port is the biggest in Colombia, with a sizeable container terminal, though it’s certainly no Rotterdam. It’s supposed to be a beautiful big city with a large old quarter. We’re curious!

Meanwhile, since last night we’ve been sailing with the first reef in and the jib fully furled, because the wind and current are so strong that without slowing down we’d arrive at midnight. A new experience doing that — usually it’s full speed ahead.

Hmm, and I’ve just received some annoying news: the friend who was going to sail with me from Hawaii to Japan has just pulled out. That’s rather inconvenient, a mere three months ahead. So, is there anyone out there who’d like to join me for this long leg from the end of June?