Update on Cartagena

[nero1979]

Motley - Being that you live there in Cartagena - could you tell me if there is enough water to get hauled out at one of the boat yards there - I draw 8 feet. I've been sending e-mails to Ferroalquimar, but so far no reply. Anyway, I would appreciate any help - thanks, BOB

[skipgundlach]

concatenating responses, I infer:

Haul and launch anywhere from 7 to 20 a foot, storage ditto per month? OTOH, in one marina, ~10/foot at the dock? An incentive to get in the water and gone ASAP, sounds like, for those on really skinny budgets as we are.

We're interested in some significant, though not major, refit stuff there in a year or two.

Specifically, we want to add a hardtop bimini, add solar on that, either make significant alterations to or replace our arch, and, perhaps have the topsides painted (deck and house recently done) as well as a bottom job. Practically speaking, we'll not be able to carry all that stuff with us. Add to that the report of our sistership which is that while expensive in comparison to the other bargain atmospheres, the SS was of much higher quality than that commonly available in the states. Any verification on that?

If there is cheap talent in the FG and carpentry areas, we might well do more. Ideally, we'd be there in a time when it won't be blistering hot, but that may not exist at any place in the calendar, surely not in the northern summer, based on a sister boat who had two major refits in 04/07, when the yards hadn't started up with the US or higher pricing.

Despite the significantly higher SS material costs, his very nice (same boat as our Morgan 46) hardtop was all of 3K, including enclosures, less than you'd pay for a bimini stateside. His FG and carpentry guys were a lot cheaper, too, but the difference between 20 and 50 bux a day each takes a great long while to add up to anything significant in the total.

He rechromed every single piece of metal which wasn't SS already because he said it was so cheap there. Any insight on that part?

Whichever marina it was they used, both times, had very high security, with the yard arranging the contractors. The position of the yard was the presumption of theft was that a contractor personnel did it, so charged the contractor directly for any theft. With the very tight security, I guess that was reasonable, but my buddy boat told us that there was ABSOLUTELY no theft issue in that yard.

Finally, is it typical that the yard would allow living aboard during the work? My contact lived in an apartment due to the nature and depth of the work being done, and for the AC (hot season), but it's unlikely we'd need to. While I'm on the "finally" bit, how's WiFi availability there? Other threads in CF will show that I'm pretty competent at pulling signals out of the air, but if there are none to be had, there's nothing I can do about it :{))


Thanks...

L8R

Skip

[jacob30]

To reemphasis this I was personally hit with $2200 in credit card fraud charges over a month after I left. Apparently while in Cartegena my CC information was used to create a phony card which someone had a hey day with. Fortunately my bank reversed all the charges and the money was replaced.

Use cash or travelers cheques.

Great place to visit oterwise.

Originally Posted by jacob30

Was also just there not on a sail boat (a Navy ship this time) but would have no problem in coming back to visit when I retire. Good food, beautiful old city and lots of security. This is one of the safest places in Colombia according to embassy personnel and the US Navy visit had no incidents of any theft with the exception of some credit card fraud after we left so use cash as much as possible. Looked like a few good anchorages and Marinas around.