Back to Cartagena

After two nights in the clearer waters of Isla Rosarios, we got some bad news and had to get back to "civilization" so we could be in communication via phone. Michael's dad, who had some recent surgery, was back in the hospital and it sounded quite serious. So we headed back to Cartagena on Friday morning. Now we had officially cleared out of the country so coming back in could be an issue. As we cleared through the Boca Chica shipping channel and had to call Port Authority, the woman who gave us permission to enter the harbour was so nice. She wished Michael the best and hoped his father would be better soon. That was illustrative of how nice the people in Colombia are. Also, another boat, Makai, entering at the same time, got on the radio and offered a phone to Michael as well as any other assistance. So thoughtful.

So we got back in, anchored and Michael headed to shore to an internet/phone café. There was a family call that afternoon at 1400 Oregon time so we made it in plenty of time for him to be on that call. He'll know more as he checks on the status this morning - and will make the decision if he needs to fly to Oregon.

After cleaning the boat bottom and chain - it's hard to come back into the "hot" harbour. You can almost hear Astarte screaming in pain as new barnacles attach to her bottomsides.

De-Barnacling in the Rosarios:

At the Rosarios, we completed the boat bottom cleaning (and boy did it need it). The waterline, the entire bottom and the prop and shaft were all de-barnacled, de-slimed and de-mucked. It was quite a job. We also dropped the entire rode of anchor and line in the water and scrubbed that as well.

Some local fishermen (Yogi and Juan) stopped by the boat on Thursday morning and offered some spiny lobsters and crabs. After some tough negotiating we got four lobsters (split with our friends on Tumshi), for an "okay" price. They were actually quite high for this part of the world - but we had leftover Colombian money we thought we'd spend. That night's feast aboard Tumshi was fabulous. Lobsters (Barbara had to give a lesson on getting the tail meat out (no jokes)) and Angelika made this fabulous chocolate ice cream and served it with fresh pineapple - yummy. We hope this is just the first of many lobster feasts.

We also did some snorkeling around the reef - it was close enough we could swim to it from Astarte - so we got some good swimming in as well.

Saturday, October 17, 2009

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