The day before yesterday southerly winds were predicted, so we took Pitufa to the northern side of the island to search for the pass through the reef we had discovered by dinghy. Our findings seemed to agree with our C-map charts, so we were optimistic. However, on the way we encountered some spots where the reef came up to three metres with C-map claiming that we were in more than 10 metres of depth–not as reliable charts as we had hoped for… We proceded very slowly and cautiously, but where C-map indicates a pass, we couldn’t find any. Finally we gave up, anchored in our old spot on the southern side and spent another night on anchor watch in thunderstorms with winds around 25 knots from the south, waves building up and a threatening lee shore behind Pitufa’s stern. Pitufa pitched so violently that the bow roller dipped into the waves and water splashed over the deck. As lovely as the island is, we can’t really recommend anchoring here, without a plan B in case of southe rly winds or thunderstorms (which happen frequently).
We spent another day waiting for wind, getting some little jobs done yesterday and lifted the anchor today at 8 o’clock. We’re now leaving the archipelago through a maze of shoals and will hopefully find some wind outside to sail towards the Colombian border.
