Cabo de la Vela, Columbia

Bienvenidos a Columbia. Welcome to Columbia. When you think of Columbia, what comes to mind? Drug cartels, kidnappings, guerillas in the jungles, cocaine? Here's a new picture: beautiful blue waters, a scenic coastline, Amazon rainforests, friendly people proud of their country, snow-capped mountains, backpackers and quiet anchorages.

We are now in a new country, Columbia, after a night's sail from Monjes del Sur. We untied from the "anchor line between the rocks" at 1800. The engine was off four minutes later with the genoa filled. Seas were relatively calm - a three to five foot swell on the beam - but not too awful. We sailed much of the night until the wind died and we were slatting about (for our non-sailing readers - that means the sails flogging and banging around - because there is not enough wind to keep them full. The seas cause the sail to collapse when it gets into a trough and when it comes out of the trough it re-fills creating a big bang - not good for the sails or the rig.) Lots of big ships passing in the night - again the AIS system came in very handy. We sailed and/or motor-sailed through the night and arrived at anchorage at 1030 this morning (Wednesday). As we were anchoring a boatload of fishermen came by whistling and yelling hello and waving. What a nice warm welcome to Columbia!

More bad news on the fishing front - lots of fishing - not a lot of catching! We had both lines out - two different lures and we were going fish catching speed (or so we thought). We even got rid of the bananas on board! (There is a theory that if you have bananas on board a boat - you won't catch fish. We're going to test that theory. Day one's test results: bananas or no bananas - makes no difference - NO FISH.) "Tumshi," the catamaran traveling with us caught a tuna. Hopefully we'll get to enjoy fresh fish with them tonight! We may not be good fish catchers - but we're excellent fish-eaters!

We are anchored in a place called Cabo de la Vela - Cape Sail - and the wind is supposed to be quite strong through here. The good news is there is not supposed to be any swell - so it should be comfortable. It looks like a beautiful day here and we'll probably go snorkeling or for a hike (there is a hill with a monument and light on it afterall).. Our goal on night sails is to stay up all day - even though we're a bit sleepy from three hour watches (and not much sleep). That way we'll sleep really well tonight.

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