We’ve left the realm of the reliable trade winds we enjoyed so much since leaving the everchanging winds of the Med. The trades don’t reach southern Columbia, without wind it’s incredibly hot and as a prelude to the sailing in this area we had to motor against a very light southwesterly wind to reach the archipelago of the Rosarios, about 17 nm southwest of Cartagena.… Continue reading »
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2012
08
Aug
2012
07
Aug
Sailing down the Colombian coast
Setting off from Cartagena we’ll next cruise the Colombian coast and islands to the south. We enjoyed the bustling city life, but are now looking forward to anchoring in quiet bays again
2012
04
Aug
Photo Gallery of Cartagena
Here are some impressions of Cartagena — on time for a change
2012
03
Aug
Long overdue photos of Grenada
We realized we’ve never uploaded pics of Grenada and as we try do finish all internet-related projects before leaving civilization next week we make good for that now. Here is the Grenada album:
2012
01
Aug
South America meets Europe in Cartagena
We’ve now spent a week in Cartagena and we absolutely love it. The anchorage is protected and even though the water is slightly smelly fish are jumping around the boat with dozens of pelicans plunging noisily down to catch them–so it can’t be too bad. The only nuisance are the taxi boats and private motor boats that heedlessly go through the anchorage at full speed.… Continue reading »
2012
31
Jul
Article on Suriname in All-At-Sea Magazine
The All At Sea Caribbean magazine has published our article about Suriname in the current (August 2012) issue. Those of you who happen to be around in the Caribbean can grab the magazine for free at chandleries, marinas, etc. It can also be downloaded for free from the All At Sea webpage (or just click here). Birgit Hackl, Christian Feldbauer: Suriname — a path less… Continue reading »
2012
28
Jul
Pics from Los Monjes
Here is a mini gallery of the Monjes:
2012
28
Jul
Photos of Curacao
Better late than never, we’ve just uploaded some pics of Curacao.
2012
27
Jul
Pitufa en Colombia!
After visiting some islands in the southern Caribbean between February and July (Tobago, Grenada, Bonaire and Curacao, we’ve now left the “beaten tracks” again and have reached Latin America. Colombia used to have a bad reputation, but now traveling is supposed to be safe. Cruising Colombia means lots of bureaucracy (instead of checking in yourself you need an “agent” to deal with authorities), but the… Continue reading »
2012
25
Jul
Cartagena, Colombia
This morning we reached Cartagena–Pitufa’s first anchorage between skyscrapers!
2012
24
Jul
On the way to Cartagena
We passed near the Five Bays north of St. Marta this morning, but decided against stopping because of a favorable weather forecast for today. There is less wind now, so we’ve slowed down a bit. A group of dolphins is taking a joyride on Pitufa’s bow wave, sitting under deck writing this blog entry we can hear them whistling We havn’t seen dolphins for ages.
2012
22
Jul
Cabo de Vela
Yesterday we started out at dawn from the tiny island “Monjes del Sur” and managed the 85 sea miles around the northern cape of Colombia in only 12 hours. Either the cape is better than its reputation or our timing was perfect–we had a wonderful sailing day with 20 to 25 knots of wind and moderate waves (depending on the ground between dark blue and… Continue reading »
2012
20
Jul
Los Monjes
The “los Monjes” archipelago off the Colombian coast looks like some rocks from the moon fallen into the Atlantic… There’s only a small military station on these tiny, white rocks, which offer no protection from the howling wind and no anchorage. We have tied to a line that is spanned across an artificial bay. 4 people from the coast guard welcomed us to the station… Continue reading »
2012
19
Jul
Off to Colombia
We’ve spent the last “florines” in Willemstad, tidied the boat, said good-bye to our friends (that’s the sad side of the cruising life: many of the friends we make sail into other directions…) and will get up the anchor in one hour. The weather forecast looks ok, if it gets too rough we can still anchor in some safe spots along the way
2012
15
Jul
Anchoring games
We spent the last 3 weeks in a little side bay of Spanish waters that is quite protected from wind and swell, but experiences gusts from unpredictable directions, so most boats have either a stern anchor, or a line ashore to keep them from swinging against each other or the shore. While our engine didn’t work we had 3 anchors out which kept us in… Continue reading »