Passage from Bonaire to Cartagena: 3 nights, 500 miles and only one little drama!

Winding our way from Bonaire around the ‘A’ (Aruba) and the ‘C’ (Curacao) components of the Dutch ABC’s was about playing dodgems with large ships. At one point on my night-watch, the AIS told me there were 113 ships within a 12 mile radius. Most of them were anchored off the islands but many were on the move and so constant vigilance was required…

This passage is a little notorious. The weather as you round the point (Cabo Santa Martha) is famed to be predictably windy and somewhat challenging. We met people who did not go to Columbia/Panama from the ABC’s and instead headed north-east to Central America/Mexico in order to avoid these waters. Overall, our passage was smooth but, we did have one drama- it was short-lived but terrifying!

As predicted the south-west side of the cape was windy- gusting to 35 knots. In a split second Tika started shaking like crazy and all hell broke loose. Russ was outside in a flash. Our furled, 70sqm, code zero sail had become unfurled in the high winds and was flapping and jerking like a demented demon and unwinding itself more and more as way too much wind filled the sail and took hold of the whole boat.

The code zero is a large, light-wind sail not intended for more than 20 knots and we were in danger of losing the sail or worse. The rig was convulsing violently and various thoughts went through our collective minds. Russ was wondering if he needed to grab a knife and cut the sail away while I was desperately donning my life jacket/tether so I could get out to help. I dropped the halyard a few metres. The demon gained some freedom and ballooned out flogging itself wildly. But the slack meant that Russ, hanging off the port bow, was able to grab the sheet and get it around a cleat. From there we managed to contain the monster, bring it in and lash it to the tramp. Phew!!!  lesson learnt. We now have a new and improved way of finishing off a furl and we take the code zero down completely (as opposed to leaving it up and furled) as soon as we start seeing 20-25 knots. After that interlude, we went back to enjoying our uneventful sail to Columbia…

We slipped into Cartagena in the still, misty, early dawn- she greeted us with the twinkling lights, unusual smells and looming high-rises of a big city …

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