Cruising Colombia

Cruising and boating in Colombia is becoming more and more popular. Many Marinas have been built in the last few years and new ones are in construction. Earthling was docked at Santa Marta Marina (IGY) for 11 days, which is too long for us being tied at a dock, but we had a great experience. STM Marina is located perfectly by the city and is one of the nicer marinas in the area. It’s just a couple years old and getting more completed; a marine store, restaurant, bar and haul out facility will be available at Santa Marta Marina in the near future.
In order to promote boating tourism, the Ministry of Tourism of Colombia recently published a “Cruising Guide to Colombia” in English. The book contains detailed marine charts of the Atlantic and Pacific coast of Colombia including all the Colombian Islands, anchorages, and many additional information. It’s not written by a cruiser or a boater so it might not be as comprehending as other cruising books, but is definitely a great source for sailing these waters! As of yet the book is not available to purchase anywhere, but you can get a free issue in Santa Marta Marina if you are nice to Diana at the front desk. They do as much as they can to help and provide a good experience for sailors, but Colombia is still developing and boating is a pretty new culture!  

Santa Marta Marina

One challenging issue for cruisers to visit Colombia is the check in & out procedure. Since Earthling landed here, there has been confusion on how much we have to pay for what! All the different agents we interacted with, have been nice but I don’t speak Spanish and although my crew Hector is fluent in the language, it still has been really hazy to understand the rules and costs. The laws and rules for cruising boats are still the same as cargo ships. Every time you come in or leave a marina or anchorage, you have to check in and out through an agent. The price to hire an agent in Santa Marta is $100US, and in Cartagena between $60 to $100. If you stay in the country more than a week, you have to apply for a 90 day temporary importation of your vessel, a fee which could be included in the total $100 or the agent might charge you an additional fee of $103 (185,000Pesos). Furthermore, in Cartagena you might need to pay for a cruising permit if you are staying more than 10 days. All these rules make visiting Colombia relatively difficult for cruisers; it’s expensive, confusing, and too much of a hassle. Additionally, your agent might tell you it’s easier to take a bus to Cartagena, costing less than sailing there and going through the check in procedure. My understanding is that “Samarians” (people from Santa Marta) would like you to stay in their home town! If you want to visit Cartagena, sail your boat down and view the city entering it from water, pay the additional $60 to check in with the port captain and you are all set. The Authorities are working on making laws easier for pleasure crafts to visit Colombia, but in this country as with many other developing countries in the world, it will take time to enforce new laws and regulations.
 
All that said, small vessels like Earthling fall into a grey area. Sometimes we have to find an anchorage because of the weather, or on occasions, we want to anchor in the next bay or an island nearby! I have not heard of anyone getting in trouble and locals move around all the time without checking in and out. If there are no agents or offices close by, you are ok! In Santa Marta we hired Rafael from Agencia Maritima, whom speaks very little English and in Cartagena we hired Manfred, whom is fluent in English. We payed $100 to Rafael to check in the crew and the boat including temporarily importation and in Cartagena $60 to check the boat in with the port captain.  
The key is to be patient and not get frustrated. It is easier said than done but with kindness and patience you will get much further for less price! 

Once in Colombia, you will encounter and see many police, coast guard, and security. This is one of the solutions to reduce the crime in the country. Colombia is much more secure than it use to be 5-10 years ago, but crime still exists and a traveler must keep a low profile so as to not stand out.   

Colombia is a beautiful country that has much to offer and well worth the visit. In Santa Marta we were able to visit Minca, which is in the mountains 45 min from the city. Adventurous travelers can stay in Minca for a few days and hike up to the lost city, visit the coffee plantation, the Indian village, or my most favorite attraction, waterfalls. Furthermore, on the northern part of the country you can visit Tyrona National Park, where if you climb high enough (+20,000ft) you will step in snow. We didn’t get to do that during this trip but it’s on the list of things to do next time Earthling visits Santa Marta. 

Upper Water Fall in Minca 

Lower Waterfall

Beautiful Flowers

Love from Colombia

Martinique

Church in Anse d'arlet

Since arriving in Martinique, we have anchored in 5 different bays. The port of clearance was St. Pierre, which is a small town on the northern part of Martinique. The tourist office has computers for checking in and it was free! We love free! The anchorage in St. Pierre is deep and you have to go a few hundred yards from shore to anchor in 15-20 ft of water. There were northerly swells the night we were there which made it a bit uncomfortable!
The second anchorage was in Fort De France. It’s a relatively small place to anchor and it’s busy with ferry traffic. One night when we came back to take the dinghy back to the boat, we saw the crew of a Danish boat stranded without their dinghy. It was stolen from the dock, so we rowed them to their boat and showed empathy. Fortunately, I don’t really have to worry about Earthling 8.8, since most of the time there is no outboard on it and if somebody took it, they wouldn’t get far! Based on experience, there is more crime in big cities than small towns! I made a rule after our experience in Ponce, that anytime we anchor in an urban area, we have to lock up everything!  
Our friend on “Margaret” recommended a visit to Anse d’Arlet. There is a Grande and Petite Anse d’Arlet and we anchored in the small one since the Grande was too busy! However, there was a reason that one was busier than the other! Petite Anse d’Arlet is not as protected and can become very rolly. We could not wait to wake up in the morning and sail to the next place! There is a trail from petite to grande over the hill, but you might get lost and end up on the cliffs and rocks on the other side, which almost happen to us! Easier route is to take the major road and walk 20 minutes on the flat surface. 
The easter weekend, we were anchored in Ste. Anne, which is a small touristy town, with many small restaurants, bars, and a beautiful long beach. Ste. Anne was packed during that weekend with families camping, barbecuing, and partying on the beach. This anchorage was calm and comfortable. 
Our last stop was in Marin and it is crazy how many boat are anchored here! Marin is definitely the yachting center of Martinique and the windwards! There are boat yards and chandeliers, but the prices are based on the European standards! I was looking for a small o-ring for the sink and it cost €2.50, forget about it! Furthermore, Marin is a hurricane hole and no matter how windy it is, you don’t move much. We checked out here a few minutes ago without being charged. The French Islands are great to check in and out of! You put all your info in a computer and nobody asks to look at any paperwork, passports or boat documents! With the exception of St. Barts, the French islands have the cheapest custom and immigration fees! It’s expensive to stay in St. Barts, the charge is based on the size of the boat per day, it cost us €8.5 per day!   

The highlight of the visit in Martinique was the Easter weekend and Des Accras (Crab festival) traditional ceremony. The street stands serving fried crabs and other fried sea food have valuable deals; I bought 6 pieces of fried crabs in dough for 2 Euros outside the church in Fort de France and in Ste. Anne. Unfortunately Nico can not have any fried food because of his stomach issues (hernia)! On the other side, Nico is a great cook and since he joined Earthling, it’s been easier for me to give up the cooking responsibilities to him. I have to admit that the food served aboard is more healthy now! Some of the beautiful architectures in Martinique are the Catholic churches. During the Easter weekend, the bells were heard more often than ever, it is after all a peak season for the churches! 
“Zero to Cruising” posted a great update about the Easter crab festivities in Martinique, check it out here!

I finally found time to finish installing the AIS unit purchased a few months ago. AIS stands for Automatic Identification System and it works like a digital radar! It’s required by law for all large commercial vessels. It simply identifies and communicates with other vessels by name, speed, heading, GPS location, destination, classification, call sign, etc. There are receivers and transceivers. The unit installed on Earthling is a West Marine AIS 1000 transceiver and it’s connected to the Garmin Chart plotter. It has only one button, which is the silent mode, where you can receive and not transmit! In some waters in the world it’s necessarily to utilize that button to avoid piracy!
A common collision scenario is between commercial and pleasure craft at night or in bad weather conditions. AIS definitely minimizes that risk!
It’s important that large vessels see a small sailboat like Earthling, and if I’m single handing and asleep, it will beep till I wake up! The alarm can be set based on time or distance. Pleasure craft are not required by law to have this unit but I would recommend it to cruising boats that make long and overnight passages. In addition, it is fun to use it in busy ports or anchorages. This little project was accomplished with the help of Mike Sweeny! 

The Island of St. Lucia is awaiting our arrival tomorrow. 

Love from Martinique

View the photo album of Martinique here!

Welcoming Antigua

Jolly Harbour

When you sail to a new country, your first step ashore should be towards Customs and Immigration, where you have to check-in. This is very important, especially in the current and former British Islands. You have to fly a Quarantine-flag (yellow flag) on the starboard side of your vessel every time you enter a country. Which lets people know your vessel has not cleared customs. In some countries like Antigua and Barbuda, it is recommended that you even fly the courtesy flag under the Q-flag. A courtesy flag is the country’s flag and you fly it out of respect to the country your are visiting. Antigua is known to be strict about their check-in laws, so make sure you have all documentation needed when you come here. Our experience with Immigration, Customs, and Port Authority here in Antigua could have been worse but it turned out quite pleasant. They all treated us warmly and we even got to stay on their dock overnight.
We entered Jolly Harbour anchorage at night, after a 16 hour passage from Nevis, but it is an open and clear cove which made it easy to come into. Otherwise, I dislike very much coming into new anchorages after dark. Jolly Harbour is well protected and it’s a port of entry. Many regattas are organized here and there is a strip of shops, many restaurants, bars, a supermarket, a boatyard, and a Budget Marine. We only purchased  some cheese and bread at the supermarket since prices were on the higher end for us. When entering Jolly Harbour it has a familiar feel to Florida, with all the houses right by the water along with docks for their boats.

Kelly, Amber, and Isabella

We have already gotten to know some friendly, generous locals in this area. The other day, we met Amber at her bar/restaurant “Miracles” right outside Jolly Harbor on the main road. After a cold refreshing Wadaldi (locally brewed beer), we were ready to go back to Earthling to make dinner, but Amber insisted that we stayed and invited us for another cold one. After discussing our passion for cooking, she offered to make one of her special dishes for us and we had to accept the offer. It makes me somewhat emotional to meet all these beautiful people around us.

It’s official, we are finally out of any alcoholic beverages, no rum or beer. We are debating if we should quit drinking, since that comes high on the expenditure sheet at the end of each month! Or maybe we make drinking a special occasion like we do with red meat!?
Love from Antigua