Fire!

"Sarah, Quick! Hand me up a fire extinguisher! " cried Bob

Fire on a boat is never a good thing, and we had a fire!

Animals in Cartegena

Sloths and monkeys,
Pigeons wearing spats
Bright red squirrels
Parakeets and Vultures
These were some of the animals we saw deep in the heart of the city of Cartegena in a three block square park.

Road trip to Cartegena

The bay is dirty and crowded
You will have to hire an agent to check you in and out
It is not safe

A New Continent for Rhapsody

It's Colombia, not Columbia, something I never realized until someone pointed it out to me. It is an important distinction to the Colombians (no one likes their country spelled incorrectly) and there are even t-shirts pointing out the distinction. 

A Wet Windy Ride to Colombia

"It's one of the five most difficult passages"
"Plan carefully"
"Wait for a weather window"
"Be careful of the katabatic winds off of Santa Marta"
"Don't arrive at night"

This was some of the advice that we received when planning our passage from Curaçao to Santa Marta, Colombia, so let me explain...

Curaçao in pictures

Our first night in Curacao found us in the main town of Willemstad, the capitol of Curaçao. Willemstad is cut in two by the Saint Anne Bay.

As Long As The Signal Lasts......

By Bob

Heading west to Columbia on the way to Panama meant a stop at the middle island in the ABC group of Aruba, Bonaire, and Curacao. As usual something necessary had stopped working on the boat. Actually 2 things were on the fritz.  The watermaker doesn't desalinate quite enough, and our depth and speed instruments have gone incognito. So we came here hoping for solutions from a couple of trained technicians who turned out to be the same guy, and who in the end couldn't help us with either problem, but that's another story...