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 fascinating metropolis Cartagena is really worth visiting. Old meets new: the impressive, walled city center with its Spanish houses is surrounded by skyscrapers.
During the next weeks we’ll sail down the Colombian coast, before heading on to Panama and the San Blas archipelago.
Our Books
Order our books at Amazon
2012
27
Jul
Pitufa en Colombia!
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 light pastel turquoise). We stayed close to the Colombian coast and were surprised how dry the landscape is. Dark grey mountains behind light brown cliffs, no trace of plants.
As we were approaching Cabo de Vela and the anchoring site right behind it in the evening, there was a sudden jerk on the trolling lure (our third try). What we thought was a “little fish” turned out to be a 40 cm yellow fin tuna–we couldn’t have picked a more perfect catch on the fish market… Leeloo had been sleeping under deck but a 6th sense told her that something interesting was going on and she turned up in the cockpit as soon as we had the fish on deck. Loudly meowing she claimed and got the first piece right then and a huge portion later on 
After rounding Cabo de Vela we dropped the anchor in the wide bay and I started cutting out fillets and we had sushi as a starter . Interesting was the sudden change in air temperature when rounding this cape. While the wind was chilly all the way from the Monjes, it suddenly felt like coming from an oven. After this strenuous day we fell into the berth and slept for 12 hours.
During breakfast Pitufa suddenly started pitching violently in the waves–the wind had shifted from East to Southeast, freshened to 30 knots and over the several miles wide bay immediately a high fetch built up. 10 minutes later the situation was already so threatening that we decided to move to another spot further in. I jumped to the wheel, Christian ran to the anchor, started the windlass–nothing. The winch made no move, but there was no time to find the reason for the failure. Christian winched up the anchor manually–not funny in these conditions and also dangerous for the fingers… Now we anchor one and a half miles closer to shore and Christian has just found the problem of our windlass and fixed it. We are watching the kite surfers close to the beach who clearly enjoy the strong blow more than we do and are waiting for the next weather window to sail down to Cartagena.
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 and insisted that we should pick somebody for a “safety inspection”. The polite, young official then invited us to take a walk around the rock and to visit the station, which we’ll do now. A small step for mankind, a big step (up onto the concrete dock) for us! After a rather calm and very quick passage to this spot we’ll wait here until tomorrow, when the wind is supposed to be lighter around the cape as well.
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 a stable position.
On Friday we took the mechanics for a test run around the bay (with the turbo now running again Pitufa does well over 8 eight knots ) and anchored then with just one anchor (free swinging in order to be able to leave anytime without a big hassle towards Columbia). That worked well on Saturday (unusually calm conditions), but this morning, right when we were about to go out hiking with friends, everything packed and ready to go we had the feeling that Pitufa was blown too close to the shore.
Safety must always come first, so we dropped the rucksack and the hiking sandals, got up the anchor and dropped it a bit further away from shore. Waited for the next gust–shit. Again too close to shore. Got up the anchor again, dropped it a bit further out. Shit. Too close to the neighbouring boat. Got up the anchor again and dropped it at the entrance of the bay. We’re safe now, but no longer very comfortable in the howling wind and waves building up across Spanish Waters. Doesn’t matter–we’re leaving on Tuesday anyway, the grib files predict fair winds for Wednesday and Thursday. Got under deck, looked at the new grib file. Shit. They’ve changed the forecast to strong winds throughout next week.
2012
13
Jul
Waiting for the “weather window”
Incredible, but we’re still in Curacao. The expected 2 weeks have already turned into 5, but at least we’ve finished all repairs and maintenance jobs on the engine. We’re theoretically ready to leave, as soon as the weather allows it. Sailing down to Cartagena is a bit tricky, because the cape in the north of Columbia (Cabo de Vela) is infamous for strong winds and high steep waves, while the coast on the way south to Cartagena is often completely becalmed, or too windy as well. We’re now checking the grib files (wind and weather forecast) each day, waiting for the “magic moment” when there’s not too much wind to get safely around the cape, but enough wind to carry us down to Cartagena…
The anchorage in Spanish Waters seems to be full of people who’ve already spent months (or years ) waiting for that weather window and have grown roots here in the meantime. There’s a cruiser who offers internet connection, another one delivers water to the anchoring boats, mechanics offer their services, watermakers are on sale–anchoring in this bay feels like living in a small town. Free shuttles from two supermarkets pick up cruisers each day to encourage them to spend money
Of course there’s also some social life going on: there’s a happy hour for cruisers in the bar twice a week, people visit each other on their boats, exchange info, charts and books. We’ve enjoyed living in this community for a while, got lots of work done, but now we’re eager to get on and explore a new country.
2012
06
Jul
Engine’s running again
After getting all the love and attention it had obviously missed, our Yanmar is now happily purring again (even the turbo works…). We’re now finishing some minor works, waiting for fair winds and getting in touch with “agentes” in Colombia (that sounds more exciting than it is. These agents don’t have the licence to kill, but the licence to speak to the harbour master to settle check in procedures and bureaucracy).
2012
29
Jun
Pitufa without an engine
We’re still in Spanish waters, but now without a working engine (vital parts of it are at the mechanic being cleaned etc.). The little bay we’re in is fairly protected from the wind that constantly howls over Curacao, but we still get unpredictable, strong gusts from different directions, so we’ve brought out 3 anchors to be on the safe side…
Another disadvantage of our little corner here is that the dinghy ride to the jetty takes longer and is even splashier than before. In the beginning we got back to the boat with soaking wet clothes, and shopping bags filled up with saltwater, but now we strip to our underwear before getting into the dinghy (we’ve spotted streakers as well and put everything into dry bags.
While we’re waiting for the mechanics to come back and finish the job we do some maintenance work on the engine ourselves (change diesel filter, impeller, etc.) and additional jobs (laundry, translations, articles, blogs!!)–the days never seem long enough to get everything finished….
2012
23
Jun
Engine service
The mixing elbow on our engine has been leaking for a while, so we seized a chance to get it repaired here in Spanish Waters on Curacao. Additionally, since it may become more difficult at our next, more remote stops, we even organized to get a proper engine overhaul. Unfortunately the mechanics are busy until mid of next week, so we have to stay in Curacao longer than planned. To have it more comfortable, we moved to another anchorage where it is not that windy, splashy and busy with speed boats, jet skis, surfers, sailing dinghies that race regattas in-between the anchoring yachts… Particularly Leeloo likes the new place.
2012
18
Jun
Review: WiFi antenna “BAD BOY Xtreme”
Long-range WiFi antenna “BAD BOY Xtreme” (bitstorm inc., www.bitstorm.com)
We bought a BAD BOY Xtreme three months ago and have had it in use almost permanently since then. We haven’t installed it permanently (yet), but only hoist it with a halyard about 10 m high and take it down for passages.
Short description
The BAD BOY Xtreme consists of a high-gain antenna directly attached to the transceiver unit. An Ethernet cable (which can be up to 90 m long, 23 m are included) connects to a 12 VDC-power injector and your computer’s LAN port. The BAD BOY Xtreme is meant for a permanent installation aboard (clamps for rail mount or flat-surface mount are included). In comparison to USB-powered alternatives, you need to supply the power injector of the BAD BOY Xtreme with 12 VDC. For more convenience, you could combine it with your own WiFi hotspot (the bad boy extreme has a built-in router, DHCP, etc.). Then, several laptops, smartphones etc. can share the internet connection without any annoying cables.
Our experiences, what we like and dislike
++ Its superb reception (-98 dBm) and high-power transmission (36 dBm, 4 W) give indeed long-range WiFi.
++ The web browser-based configuration, hot-spot selection, and monitoring does not require any drivers or extra software, so any operating system is supported. (– Even though for our version, a firmware update of the badboy was necessary to make it work with newer firefox or google chrome browsers.)
– Build quality could be better:
* After only a couple of weeks, the aluminium tube of the antenna showed already signs of corrosion even though we rigged the antenna only when in anchorages. I don’t want to imagine what it would look like after an ocean crossing…
* The housing of the transceiver unit is made of very thin and brittle plastic.
* The electronics of the badboy is very sensitive to DC power irregularities and bouncing. E.g., powering the unit via plugging into a cigarette lighter socket or using a cheap switch causes multiple short on-off instances which in turn cause the badboy to hang. A proper debouncing circuit may solve the problem. However, this is not an issue if you choose it for a permanent installation.
Our recommendation
Even though the material could be better and we had some initial problems, we are happy with its performance and can recommend it to other cruisers.
2012
15
Jun
Article on Cape Verdes in Ocean7 May/June
We’ve just got the confirmation that our article on the Cape Verdes has been published in the latest Ocean7 magazine (unfortunately available in Austria and Germany only). We’re still in Curacao working on maintenance, repairs, translations and more articles
Birgit Hackl, Christian Feldbauer: Kapverden — mehr als nur ein Zwischenstopp, OCEAN7 03 (May/June) 2012, p. 16–27. download PDF (in German only)
2012
11
Jun
One year of cruising in numbers
Today, June 11th, is an anniversary for us. Exactly one year ago we set sail towards the horizon. Browsing through our log book of this first year reveals some interesting numbers:
6746 nautical miles.
120 days at sea, of which
49 daysails.
9 countries.
65 anchorages.
36 islands.
15 days in a marina.
21 days on the hard.
406 engine hours.
638 litres of diesel.
23 litres of kerosene.
18 jars of Nutella.
15 bags of kitty litter.
24000 euros, of which
13000 euros for boat repairs and new equipment.
2012
06
Jun
Colourful Curacao
Yesterday’s sail to Curacao was a bit rough, but only took 6 hours with Pitufa making around 7 knots all the time (still slow for a bicycle, but horrendous speed for us). The waves were also building up and actually rushing along Curacao’s (supposedly leeward) east coast. We were headed for “Spanish Water”, a very protected anchorage, and we could see it clearly on the chart plotter, but not when looking along the coast. The entrance was a bit adventurous with high waves lifting up Pitufa and we didn’t feel so well surfing down a wave towards rocks on the left, a sandbank on the right and a very narrow channel in between… This channel then opens into a large bay, with little islands and plenty of yachts in several different anchoring areas. There are more of these natural harbours on Bonaire and Curacao and they seem like geological miracles: a very steep coastline all around the islands and then suddenly a small entrance to a completely protected bay like custommade for yachts or ships…
Today we went to the capital Willemstad to do the check in and also some sightseeing. The old town centre looks suprisingly Northern European with colourful facades, waterways in between the different parts of town that reminded us of Stockholm and lovingly renovated houses in colonial style. The people are also “colourful”–the population is a mixture of many cultures. We liked Willemstad at first sight and will try to see more of it and the rest of the island.