Cartagena, Columbia to Aruba?

[Maineiac_sailor]

Has anybody done this trip headed east? Im curious about weather conditions and safety. Ive heard stay offshore at least 100 miles, but also hear you can make hops along the coast? any thoughts?

[imagine2frolic]

That's one tough sail. A very accomplished sailing friend of mine did it. It took him several months, a lot of hassles from govt., and a robbing to finish the trip..........i2f

[Maineiac_sailor]

Was he robbed in Aruba? or somewhere along the way?

[jkleins]

We motorsailed it fairly easily (except for bad fuel in Cartegena). We had the fortunate circumstances of three hurricanes active in the Caribbean so the trades were blocked and the going was pretty easy. Sailing it would be tough. We got a few miles from Aruba and since we were running low on fuel we just thought we would tack up to the harbor entrance so we could make sure our last few gallons would be enough. It took us all day tacking into the trades that had freshened toward the end of the trip. We were glad we didn't have that the entire way of we would have probably headed off to Guatemala or something.

Jim

[Maineiac_sailor]

What the temperature during the summer months? hot humid?

[jkleins]

When we got to Aruba it was hot and the mosquitos were horrible at the anchorage but once the trades filled back in fully I don't remember suffering. We moved on to Bonaire at a moderate pace and got stuck there for a while where we definitely didn't suffer.

Jim

[imagine2frolic]

His misfortune was actually in Venezuela.......i2f

[beachgirl1952]

I have a few sailingfriends who did it (Cartagena - Curacao) rather easy, depending on the weatherwindow ... so it all depends ...