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20th March - 3rd April 2005
America. We spent a day preparing for the ocean passage (re-fuel, water, provision, stowage
etc) and acquiring an additional crew member; despite Tristan's intention to return to London
(after his spontaneous plan to join us for a week in the BVI’s), we applied sufficient pressure to
kidnap him and set off for Columbia!! He was convinced to go AWOL from the Army for another
week by the opportunity to experience some full-on offshore sailing (particularly having missed
out on the leg from Gibraltar to the Canaries due to engine failure in October). It's about a week's
sail to Cartagena in Colombia, and the waters can be pretty rough down there, so it was great to
have an extra pair of hands, especially with Q’s sprained ankle.
We departed late Saturday into the dying post-sunset glow, and the next day provided the perfect
offshore sailing experience... we found the trade winds at lunch and set the twin-headsail rig (it
took us a couple of hours to get the cats-cradle of extra lines and the repaired spinnaker pole
deployed), then flew along at over 7 knots, surfing down building waves... great sailing! Then at
6pm we heard the exciting whizz of Freddie screaming out as a big 'un took the lure - half an
hour of heroic struggle by Mark & Tristan on the rod finally landed our biggest catch yet: “Thor”,
a 27lb, 1.3 metre long Dorado (Mahi Mahi) - stunningly beautiful blues and yellows glistening in
the evening light. It took two to hold it up by the tail, and to put the scale in context it was twice the
size of the swordfish we caught in Ibiza!!! On the rolling aft-desk, it took a couple of hours to gut,
clean, fillet and cut Thor into king-sized steaks - we had the biggest feast that night, and still had
enough fresh fish to feed a platoon of Tristan's Ghurkas, so no more lines out for quite few days
to come!!!
Well, the next episode was drama indeed... we thought we'd give Tristan a taste of real life at sea,
but got served rather too large a portion this time!!! After a fabulous start, with twin-headsails
flying, and reeling in "Thor" the mighty Dorado, we thought we were on to a winner. We thought
too soon!
Conditions 'picked up', first a bit, then a lot, and we ended up heavily reefed being tossed about in
a very large sea, with winds gusting to Gale Force (>35 knots). The wind wasn’t a major
problem, but the Caribbean Sea is notorious for rough seas, and we found them - think 20-25
foot waves crashing over the boat and knocking us around! Awe-inspiring and humbling for
sure, but also somewhat concerning in a 41-footer. Oh, and tough, wet, tiring work too!
Early Wednesday morning Mark and Tristan had been trying to capture the size and drama of
the waves on camera, but failed to do justice to the kinetic scene. Finally Mark saw a very large
one approaching, and he was heard to exclaim "How come I never have my camera when the
big ones come along?!" The next moment, without warning, this rogue wave rose above us and
broke over our stern. It crashed into and flooded the cockpit, rolled Skardu to starboard and
knocked us over 90degs, turning our world upside down. We dipped our mast & sails, plus a
third of her starboard side in the water, until the surge of the wave passed and she righted herself
- thankfully! Mark & Tristan were in the cockpit and despite being thrown about, managed to cling
on as the cockpit filled with water. Tristan's lifejacket inflated as he got dunked & submerged
beneath the leeward side’s surge, but he emerged ok. Quintin was off-watch and therefore
asleep in the saloon below, and got thrown 10 foot across the saloon from port to starboard,
along with everything else loose (including books, electronics, broken cupboard doors, food,
drills + tools from the pilot berth, floorboards, settee cushions etc etc). Q burst through his lee-
cloth, hit the mast-post on his trajectory, spun 180degs, bounced off the far side book-shelf, then
landed back-to-front and upside-down on the ceiling: an alarming way to be woken! His first
thoughts: “Ouch!! Where are the others? Why are we upside-down? There's a lot of water
everywhere...I've got to get out of here! Where's my life-jacket?”
We’ve been flipped many times in smaller boats, so it didn't feel too alien, but then it quickly
dawned that this was a 41ft yacht, our home, and not a dinghy, and that we were 200miles
offshore...that was one big wave!
10 seconds later and the drama was over, but the threat of another wave kept us on edge while
we assessed damage: firstly we three were bruised but ok, the hull, rigging and sails were ok,
the engine started, and the laptop & navigation equipment was fine, so continuing was not a
problem. Whew! But havoc was in evidence: below-decks looked as if someone had let loose a
team of drunken chimpanzees, and everything was wet, as in soaked!! Fortunately only a small
portion of the wave got into the saloon, which was easily pumped out, but the roll-call of damage
was painful:
- 'Roger' the radar not working;
- 'Lucy' the auto-pilot on the blink, and only working intermittently;
- 'Scarlet' the windvane twisted out of alignment and unusable;
- 'Suzie' the solar-panels smashed and swept away from the backstay!!
- the bimini bodily ripped from its fixings, frame and all, and the canvas shredded;
- the danbuoy flag broken, and life-ring ripped from its s/s bracket;
- one window in the aft head smashed by the force of water on the leeward side;
- one portlight in the cockpit smashed by flying tools in the pilot berth;
- the weather-station external sensor drowned;
- plus a bunch of other smaller items, incl. teak floor grills and cockpit cushions, lost overboard.
The next 24hours were hard work: having lost Scarlet and with Lucy playing up, we had to hand-
steer throughout the day & night, judging every threatening wave looming over us as the seas
boiled in fury all about, while those off-watch assessed damage and cleared up below.
Thankfully conditions eased just slightly the next morning, Lucy came back to life, and we were
able to celebrate Mark's birthday somewhat exhausted but without fear of a repeat. Q even
cooked up a red-Thai-curry beef stir-fry in the afternoon and we popped a half-bottle of bubbly to
celebrate; both the birthday and our survival! This birthday on the high seas will certainly be a
memorable one: a few gifts from home included precious jelly babies and liquorice allsorts, and
we indulged ourselves by eating sliced apples dipped alternatively in nutella and dulce de
leche.... much appreciated in the circumstances.
So, we made it into Cartagena midday Friday, in double-quick time, to a great welcome: cold
beers on the dock for 3 needy boys!
AHHHH, CARTAGENA… what a fantastic place! This is a great and beautiful city: exceeding all
our expectations. The marina is old and quirky, but very friendly. There are loads of long-time
cruisers (Harry, one resident cruiser came here for 3 weeks, and has stayed 3 years!). On
arrival we treated ourselves with some very large steaks, and then set off to explore around
town. We found one of the most gorgeous, homogenous, and attractive old cities any of us have
ever been to – a delight to the architectural sensibilities, and a joy to wander around. The
architecture is a mixture of old Spanish forts and colourful balconied buildings, dripping with
pristine memories of it’s fantastically wealthy colonial past, when the Spanish made it the center
of their expanding empire in South America. Consequently it’s history is full of stories of naval
battles between the European powers as the British and French attempted to seize control of the
lucrative supply of treasures from the New World. Due to their impressive fortifications around the
city, the Spainish managed to cling on to power between raids by Sir Francis Drake, Admiral
Vernon and other great naval fleets, building a lovely city in the process.
On top of this, the Colombians are the friendliest most helpful people, giving us the warmest
welcome we’ve had anywhere on our travels... for supposedly one of the most dangerous
countries on earth, we had one of our safest experiences here. Mark always waxes lyrical about
the Argentines; well, the Columbians may not be quite as stylish, but they more than make up for
it by being incredibly friendly and fun instead. Our first few days on land felt like weeks… OK, so
our sleep-patterns were shot to hell, but we jam-packed three days worth of action into every 24
hours… it’s that kind of place! Sightseeing by day, and exploring the sizzling nightlife from
midnight ‘till dawn; sexy, sultry, seductive dancing by stunningly beautiful women at the latino
bars and salsa clubs made us look distinctly amateur! The music was addictive – Reggeton has
become a firm favourite aboard Skardu – but alas, some impromptu salsa lessons did little to
improve our dance moves (not helped by the fact there’s a different set of formal moves to
virtually every song!) Plus, we’re told, they have more Miss World titles under their belt than any
other country; it's enough to make you want to learn Spanish!
After our first few days break, it was back to business again as we ran around town trying to
source people to help us repair all the damage we had sustained during our knock-down.
Tristan finally and reluctantly flew back to London, while Mark and Q knuckled down to some
hard work. Amazingly we managed to fix almost everything, as well as getting someone to re-
varnish the teak on board, and an upholsterer to make new cushion covers for our saloon; it's
now a manly blue rather than a soothing corally-salmon colour!
We were very sad to leave Cartagena... in fact, it's probably been the hardest place for us to
leave so far, but we did have to leave, to keep on schedule with our itinerary, and head onwards
towards Panama and the Pacific.
