CABO DE LA VELA
After a day of recuperation Narid, Joule and ourselves continued our journey west along the Colombian coast. One of the yachties at Monjes Del Sur had recommended Bahia Honda as a good anchorage and since it was only 56 miles away we decided to head for that. Narid was the first boat in, only to find 35 knots of wind and a very lumpy sea. there was no indication of depth and nobody had a proper chart for the area. I think due to the fact that they don’t exist. We decided to abandon that location and go for the recommended anchorage as mentioned in the cruising guide, Cabo De la Vela, which seems much more suitable. It looks as if we will be holed up here until Wednesday as they are predicting 35 knots winds and big seas.
The coast line along this part of Colombia is desolate and exposed – not the most hospitable of cruising grounds, but you do feel that you are part of an adventure!! One of the local fishing boats came up to us and offered us 2 lobsters for 10 dollars – we decided not to purchase them as we didn’t have any small currency notes. Also Anika said that the going rate last year was 5 lobsters for 10 dollars!!
we ended up spending 3 days at Cabo de La Vela waiting for the wind to abate. We managed to get ashore to check out the local village which was very poor. There have been attempts to encourage backpackers here but so far they don’t seem to have much luck – probably the 100 kilometre journey from Santa Marta, the largest town in the area, in the back of a truck on dirt roads which can take up to 6 hour would put people off.
The only sour note of the stay was when the Colombian coast guard boarded and searched the 6 yachts in our anchorage. They seemed all very friendly when they came on board. The Lieutenant stayed on deck talking to the captain of the yacht checking his papers, while his two crew searched the boat with the other yacht person followed behind to make sure they didn’t get up to any mischief. Although we didn’t have any problems ourselves a couple of the other boats had mobile phones and a camera stolen during the search. I don’t think the Lieutenant was in on the scam as he spent most of the time telling me how they wish to encourage yachts people to come to Colombia and not hesitate to contact him he we required any help!!
