Westward routing around Columbia: Hug the coast, or out to sea?

[boatman61]

I did SXM direct to Colon but that was in April.. personally I'd head offshore for the reasons you stated.. winds were never over a F6 (twice in 7 days) and the last 50 miles to Colon were very light.. had to motor the last 20..

[Ryban]

Interesting, it seems like a lot more people than I expected do the coastal hop. I went ahead and read through the Colombia cruising guide I have last night, and a direct hop to Cabo La Vela might be a good option. What's the internet/phone situation like there? If I'm waiting on a weather window, I'd like to be somewhere where I can receive accurate forecasts. I have a shortwave receiver, but it isn't always reliable.

I've heard different things about crossing the mouth of the river. Like you said, crossing close gives me fewer debris to contend with, but I also keep hearing to stay outside the 1000m depth contour.

What's the situation like near Santa Marta and Barranquilla? It seems like the worst of the gusts are right there, and near shore.

I'm still leaning towards going offshore because it keeps me away from land, where things can always be complicated even in favorable conditions. But the coastal route is definitely on the table now.

[belizesailor]

Originally Posted by captlloyd

OP is looking for navigation advice, not shipyard advice mates, we seem to be drifting off course.

Pfft...thats a very minor and somewhat related drift...leasts its not already devolved into a gun thread!

[robert sailor]

Originally Posted by belizesailor

Pfft...thats a very minor and somewhat related drift...leasts its not already devolved into a gun thread!

Funny

[hellosailor]

I had a nagging memory of official warnings about piracy off the Columbian coast and sailors being advised to stay offshore. Also to avoid being stopped as potential drug runners. But the funniest thing happened on the web. Searching for "piracy off Columbia" brings up hits up Columbia, the division of SONY, and FBI copyright piracy warnings instead.

Some days....

[El Pinguino]

Originally Posted by hellosailor

I had a nagging memory of official warnings about piracy off the Columbian coast and sailors being advised to stay offshore. Also to avoid being stopped as potential drug runners. But the funniest thing happened on the web. Searching for "piracy off Columbia" brings up hits up Columbia, the division of SONY, and FBI copyright piracy warnings instead.

Some days....

That's probably because you didn't search for COLOMBIA

[KWISPEL]

Indeed we drifting. There are nice bay's just inland after the cape where you will find a good anchorage for the night. No idea if this really between the rules is?

You will have the wind from behind and you will ride it out in a gentle way. I had there the same concerns and even my wife had fun with it and love normally only a flat sea.

Just before the cape where the wind start is a little rock island with militaries from Venezuela. We did make there a overnight and had there a good and nice time. Have no idea how the admosfere there now is on this island? I was hanging between the pier and the rocks, but you need well 100 meter rope for this trick. Maybe can you there olso stay on the hook or on the pier by a VERRY flat sea?

Bonair is beautiful for bike riding and Diving, Aruba nice to spot airplanes and hiking while you wait for a good wether window with 20 Kts wind.

A small front sail will do a perfect job to ride it out! Enjoy it.

COLLOMBIA HAVE A REALLY GREAT CRUISING GUIDE WITH SEA MAPS, … . IF YOU LIKE TO HAVE THIS IN PDF SEND ME A PERSONAL MESSAGE!

[hellosailor]

As the old joke goes, what do you call a person who speaks three languages? Triliingual.

A person who speaks two languages? Bilingual.

A person who only speaks one language? American.
Yeah, my spelling is no good in Spanish either.(G)

[El Pinguino]

Originally Posted by hellosailor

As the old joke goes, what do you call a person who speaks three languages? Triliingual.

A person who speaks two languages? Bilingual.

A person who only speaks one language? American.
Yeah, my spelling is no good in Spanish either.(G)

Meanwhile ... most Australians are barely monolingual.......

[cyan]

Originally Posted by mesagoat

it ain't the District o Columbia, it's Colombia. geography is a language Americano, git wit the program.

My charts say "New Kingdom of Granada".
I have some pretty old charts.

[robert sailor]

Originally Posted by El Pinguino

Meanwhile ... most Australians are barely monolingual.......

Too funny

[Hobie_ind]

Originally Posted by Ryban

Interesting, it seems like a lot more people than I expected do the coastal hop. ......

I've heard different things about crossing the mouth of the river. Like you said, crossing close gives me fewer debris to contend with, but I also keep hearing to stay outside the 1000m depth contour.

What's the situation like near Santa Marta and Barranquilla? It seems like the worst of the gusts are right there, and near shore.
.

We did the coastal route in 2014 when we went from Bonaire to Columbia and had a much more pleasant ride than friends who went offshore at the same time. The seas and winds we experienced were much less than they reported. We had mid 20's to high 30's for most of the trip with a few gusts around 45 just north of Santa Marta (5 Bays).

I'm not sure which guide you have, but be sure to look up cruising notes from Pizzaz on the area. There's some on Noonsite, but a Google search will also turn up a few others they've published in a few spots. Here's a couple of links referencing their notes:

http://www.caribbeancompass.com/colombia_two.html

http://www.noonsite.com/Noonsite/PDF...ColombiaGuide/

https://www.medelhav.se/file/article...20Colombia.pdf

One note though, the waypoints they list are getting dated. Of particular note is the sandbar at Punta Hermosa. We found the bar extended over a mile out past their 'safe waypoint', and that was only 3 or 4 years after they'd published it. Now it could even be worse.... or better, depending on how the bar shifted. The water was pretty silty, so you couldn't actually see the bottom, just the breakers where they reported safe passage into Punta Hermosa.......

[belizesailor]

Originally Posted by hellosailor

I had a nagging memory of official warnings about piracy off the Columbian coast and sailors being advised to stay offshore. Also to avoid being stopped as potential drug runners. But the funniest thing happened on the web. Searching for "piracy off Columbia" brings up hits up Columbia, the division of SONY, and FBI copyright piracy warnings instead.

Some days....

Certainly plenty of unsavory characters in the District of Columbia, but things are much better in Colombia these days. See CSSN for most recent reports:

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sour...6vGSpkKEh49BMB

Also see NoonSite for more info about ColOmbia. www.noonsite.com

[storyinframes]

Originally Posted by Ryban

Weather for a westward passage isn't looking great right now, but it's never super great northwest of Columbia anyway, and I'm trying to decide whether it would be better to stay really close to the coast, or head far out to sea, and then work my way back south.

Out to sea would mean a few hundred extra miles, but would keep me far away from land and presumably boat traffic, which is important to me as a singlehander.

Really close to the coast might keep me from the worst of the winds and waves, and give me a shorter passage, but I would also risk losing a lot of sleep, and that could be much more dangerous in the end.

What are people's opinions?

The passage from Bonaire to Panama is considered one of the 5 roughest passages to undertake.

We sailed from Haiti to Cartagena, Colombia in 3rd week of Jan. Blowing 25+kn most of the time. The boat did better than me. I was seasick :-) made landfall on the 4th day.

Your boat is good.

The waters off Colombia will have some waves. not to worry. The moment you round off the northern most point and get in the lee, things will improve a bit. :-) suggest stay close to shore.

Senor David is a good clearing agent. He will handle all your paperwork. Señor Manfred Aldwart is no more. He passed away in Nov 2016.

Cartagena is an amazing city. I got my whole boat refitted at Marina Manzanillo, few kilometres from Club Nautico.
taxi would charge about 12,000 pesos or maybe 15. A bike ride will be cheaper.

There is a foundry close to Manzanillo. they can do all kind bronze, steel, copper works for you.

Anchor chain is galvanised at Barranquilla. One of the local guys can take your chain on a pickup truck. cost of truck and galvanisation is equal :-)

There are three marine stores around club Nautico. If you want really tough rugged blocks, pulleys, etc you can get from local fisherman's stores. I saw one in the favela next to marina Manzanillo. they had some really good stuff at cheap price.

Club Nautico charges 20$ every week for dinghy dock and water from the docks.

Aguila is a good Colombian beer.

There are plenty of people on the docks who are 'experts' in something or other. I am forgetting the name of the young kid who is a good electrician, Professor Elvis the mechanic, Zimmerman the radar and electronics repair guy.

Once we left Cartagena, we didn't go seaward. most backpacker boats after leaving Cartagena go a bit south and then head for the eastern most edge of Western San Blas islands - Cayos Holandes. These island chains are beautiful but strewn with dangerous reefs. DO NOT TRUST digital navigation apps. They are about a cable or two off the mark and thats enough to put you on a reef. Get a hard copy of Michael Bauhaus's Panama cruising guide. costs about 70$.

Every year one or two boats hit the reefs.

We sailed down to Gulfo de Uraba to a small beautiful fishing town called Sapzurro. Surrounded by Darien forest. Easy entry in daylight. if you are familiar with the harbour you can enter in the night too.

Instagram - @storyinframes lots of pics

And then we sailed to Puerto Lindo, Panama, keeping 20-25 miles off the coast. the mountains are still visible.

Going West you will encounter a 1 kn current against you.
Panama is expensive. hard to find trained techs.

In late summers the thunderstorms can be really nasty.

hope these tips help.

[belizesailor]

Ive been watching the weather in the area while planning to head to the San Blas for this season.

The Colombian Low related weather has been wide spread and pretty intense for a while now. Today the area has winds of about 30 knots and seas of about 4 meters...today is not the day to go.