February 3, 2001
Cartagena, Colombia

Greetings from Cartagena, Colombia!                  

                    

           

 



We arrived here on February 1st at noon.  We are very happy to be here in Cartagena.  It is a beautiful city and we like the cruising atmosphere at the Club Nautico.

We are also very relieved to be here.  The night before we arrived was very long, with all hands on deck.  No one slept before morning. We encountered a force 9 storm, gusting to force 10, off the coast of Barranquilla.  Now we’ve “been there, done that” and NEVER want to see these kind of seas again! Fortunately, Pacific Bliss and her passengers arrived exhausted, but sustained no damage or injuries.  The windows leaked through the rubber on the starboard side as Pacific Bliss saw waves crashing into the side, above the dagger boards. Following seas rose higher than our dinghy, but fortunately never broke into it.   We ran with the wind, staying 60 miles off the Columbian shore, giving ourselves plenty of sea room.  “Ray” tells us that we reached a new maximum speed for Pacific Bliss, 25.8 knots!  That’s with a triple-reefed main. More details on our night of sheer terror to come in future postings. 

We are safe, well, recovering here and seeing the sights, and will most likely have our zarpa and be ready to leave at dawn Monday morning.  We plan to anchor in a small Colombian port overnight.  Then we have a passage across a supposedly calm bay to the San Blas islands, where we will spend a few days prior to our transit through the Panama Canal.

More Photos from Cartagena, Colombia.
Lois and Phyllis in Courtyard, Cartagena
Cartagena, Juxtaposition of Old and New
High Seas at Sunset This was before the storm off Barranquilla


 


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