190nm to CAYOS CAJONES

To break up our transit to the Bay Islands we decide to stop in the reef ringed cays of Cayos Cajones (The Hobbies).

Thirty two hours after leaving Providencia we are surprized to see what looks like a cay full of buildings? We were told to expect a couple of caretakers on one of the cays and be sure to take cigarettes and Rum as they like to trade for lobster and fish. Unfortunately it's turned out lobster season is closed causing the "buildings" to appear that are in fact stacks of lobster traps.

Time to do the mainsail repair.

Another beautiful sunset.

We did a bit of snorkeling and exploring. After two days we decide we need to carry on to the Bay Islands taking advantage of the settled weather. We would definitely recommend other cruisers stop in the Hobbies and if we make it back this way we'll make sure it is during Lobster season.

OUR STAY AT PROVIDENCIA

Once we were settled at anchor we hailed Mr. Bush, the mandatory agent to clear Customs and Immigration. He advised us not to go ashore. He stated he would come out to the boat at 1300hours. And come out he did; along with a panga full of people. First, we were seen by a Doctor who asked to see our Immunization Cards. This is a first and thankfully we were given one in Grenada when we had our yellow fever shots. She was concerned we had not had flu shots. She took our pulse and asked if we had any ailments. Next, was a young gentleman from Sanitation who turns on our taps, checked to make sure the toilets worked, checked out our freezer and said we could not leave any garbage on shore. Okay. Immigration was next who took our passports and said we would not get them back until tomorrow evening..1800hours. Lastly, was a woman who we are not sure knew what her responsibility was. She certainly did not seem too interested in being on the boat, but was told to take copies all the copies I had made of our paperwork. Maybe she was in training? Mr. Bush explained that when we go to shore tomorrow evening at we would receive all the paperwork along with the passports. He also told us there is NO CRIME here.

Providencia known as The Pearl of the Caribbean----(we did not find or hear of any pearls---Must be one of the Captain Morgan stories?,) is located 240km East of the Central American coastline. There is a 32km barrier reef on the N, NE, and S. sides of the island. Isla Providencia also includes the renowned Isla Catalina plus a number of Cays. These Islands are in fact part of the San Andres archipelago and belong to Colombia. Daily we saw the army patrolling both Providencia and Catalina as there has been talk that

Nicaragua wants to over take these islands.

Isla Catalina is joined to Isla Providencia by a low floating bridge over the 100 meter artificial channel, dredged in the XVII century by pirates to protect the possible invasion of these islands. The infamous pirate Henry Morgan in fact used Providencia as a base for his raids on the Spanish empire.

The majority of the 5000 people live close to the main town of Isabella. We found the people very friendly and helpful. All the Island’s supplies come from the sister island of San Andres, 72km to the south which explains the expensive and disappointing quality of the fruit and veggies. Actually in general we found the Islands to be expensive. We did however find the Islands incredibly clean. Every few yards there were blue water barrels used as garbage cans.

Our personal priority was to get on the internet to communicate with family and friends to let them know all was well. Randy tried from shore with High States in background. We found one wi-fi business but unfortunately they are not licensed to let us use our own computer.

Needing to purchase diesel we rented this golf cart for 4 hours at a cost of $75.00 US. Ouch!! The fuel ended up being over $6.00 a gallon totalling $181.00 Ouch again!!

But we did enjoy circling the island making a number of stops to take in the beautiful views. We stopped for a cold drink at Manchaneel Bay and then lunch at Don Olivio which was very expensive: 24,000peso or $15.00 for one small fajita with a bit of pork on it and very small portions of salsa, beans and guacamole and two glasses of juice. Thank goodness we shared the meal and were not too hungry.

Here we are sharing the road...Well, it is not like we are in a hurry as it will only take us about an hour to get around the island.

We found Orville at his Bamboo Restaurant over on Santa Catalina very friendly. He was born and raised on Providencia and spoke fluent English. He has a dinghy dock in front of the restaurant.

This is the fabulous walkway along Santa Catalina’s waterfront that takes you to the Fort.

Hiking up and over the hill to Fort Warwick was great exercise.

Corsairs Henry Morgan and Luis Aury constructed the fortifications of Fort Warwick.

Swimming was great in the protected waters of Morgan’s Cove and the snorkelling was pretty good. It was just nice to get into the water after Bocas.

This unique natural sculpture is called Morgan’s Head.

One of the many caves we found. Alas still no treasure to be found. Mind you there are many types of treasures.

We’ve got a weather window to head further north west. We must meet Mr. Bush again to pick up our Zarpe and passports. Again we are told to meet him and the Immigration Officer at 1800hours. There are in fact three boats checking out heading the same general direction. We all get to the shore on time and Mr. Bush is there however we had to wait until 2000 hours before the Immigration Officer showed up with our passports. Now it is really dark and we all need to stow dinghy’s etc. As soon as we have our passports in hand we get back to High States, get the motor off the dinghy, secure the dinghy when we get a call from Hooligan (Tim and Paula) asking if we still have our dinghy in the water. They have also hoisted their dinghy and upon checking their passports they have not been stamped…Another cruiser comes and picks Tim up to get him back to shore while Mr. Bush finds Immigration. Very frustrating needless to say.

ON OUR WAY: SAN ANDRES OR PROVIDENCIA

After an extra month at Bocas Marina while Randy's injury healed we're ready to head further north. We anchor in Bastimentos Bay "staging" for our trip either to San Andres 200 nautical miles or Providenca approximately 260 nautical miles.

We leave the anchorage by 0715 the next morning. (April 27th). We have light winds and a gentle swell. We decide to fish which usually causes the winds and seas to pick up. Five miles out we get a strike!!! Rats-- wire leader, lure and fish gone.

After two hours of motor sailing we finally have enough wind to actually sail. Unfortunately with the current against us we are traveling at 4 knots.

We knew we were going to be in for a challenge leaving from Bocas to head North. The breeze shifts from the west right onto our nose..You probably know the drill now.. Motor back on, adjust our course and pull in the jib.

1340hours; 161 nautical miles to go and we continue to motor sail 4.6 to 5.1 knots SOG and we've got company and not just this dragonfly but a very large navy patrol plane circles us twice. All we can do is wave.

By 1855 hours we start getting prepared for the evening..the main is reefed, life jackets on, flare gun, ditch bag and harnessses are out.

Throughout the night we check the radar at regular intervals. We've got a sliver of a moon, 15 knots of wind and a choppy sea.

Friday April 28th. By 0700 hours we've got enough wind to shut off the motor in a 6 to 9 foot swell. We're still heading east to try and find the north west current and we're still averaging only 4.5 knots.

1220 hours we are becalmed. Randy is putting 5 more gallons of fuel into High States.

2350 hours and we finally have the current with us.

Sat. April 29th 0600hours. We had a calm fairly clear night. The stars were quite bright.

We see one freighter about ten miles off our port. First boat of any kind we have seen these past two days.

0915hours, finally the motor is off and we are doing 7 knots with San Andres a few miles off on our port. We decide we may as welll take advantage of the wind and seas and head for Providencia.

 

1300 hours and we are still doing 7 knots; what a great ride. We've still got 35 miles ahead of us just to reach the Southern tip of Providencia. It doesn't look like we are going to make the anchorage before dark. We also were circled again by the navy plane. We wave again and commented to each other it's nice that they know we are out here.

By 1730 we put the motor on to try and give us more speed. We're on the West side of Providencia however the entrance to the anchorage is still 15 miles away.

Sure enough by 1950 we are still a couple of miles from the sea buoy so we decide to anchor on the bank for the night.

Sixty hours since we left Bocas.It really feels good to have the anchor down.

 

Sunday. Last night was a bit rolly but we've anchored in worse seas. We're ready to enter the harbour and see a large freighter heading for the harbour too, so we decide to let the freighter go first....she's alot bigger than us. We heard the Captain constantly challenging the Port Captain on the harbours depth.

Finally we start working our way into the Santa Catalina anchorage. The entrance is very well marked and we can see if we ever return we can actually enter in the dark, By the time the anchor is down we have 2.7 feet under the keel. We haven't been in shallow water like this in a while.

Randy takes time to lubricate our mast mainsail slides and finds a small tear in the mainsail. I know what my job will be tomorrow.