Seeking Santa in Santa Marta

Aruba to Santa Marta 300nm

Our planned route from Aruba to Santa Marta, staying out wide

​The passage from the ABCs to Columbia is rated as one of the toughest and trickiest in the world for cruisers. The section from Aruba to the Columbia / Venezuela border is still part of “pirate alley”, although it has been a while between reported attacks. The winds around Punta Gallinas are regularly much stronger than forecast and as you come in closer to the Columbian coast there are underwater channels that cause strong currents. The Sierra Nevadas run close to the coast here. The highest peak, Pico de Columbus 5775m, is located only 42km inland. This is the highest coastal mountain in the world. This mountain range – Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta – stops all small systems from the East and attracts its own weather system. The mountains provide a runway for the notorious katabatic winds along this part of the coastline, which generally kick in overnight. The many wrecks along the coast attest to the fact that it can be dangerous going in too close to the shore. We plan to keep well offshore (20-30nm) in very deep water (>1000ft), giving Venezuela a wide berth, sailing this leg conservatively, prepared for the worst. Despite my experience I have to admit I have gotten caught up in all the hype about this passage and my stress levels are mounting! I was less concerned about the notorious Bay of Biscay!

Hitch-hiker

We always like to arrive in a new port in in daylight and Santa Marta is no exception. Apparently the katabatics back off in the early morning so this is a good time to be approaching the coast north of Santa Marta. After pottering around in the morning, and watching Australia v Denmark in the World Cup, we upped anchor and motored around to the Aruba customs dock. The garbage pile between the anchorage and the dock is still burning and there is a lot of acrid smoke. Not so nice for the people going to the luxury resort on nearby Renaissance Island! Check-out was easy and we were off before we could change our minds! We set off with one reef in the main and full genoa on a broad reach. We are sailing nicely with good speed, getting 9-10kts, but the sea state is a bit ordinary. We have a short, beam-on chop which is not huge but forward of the wind direction so it’s uncomfortable. We had a hitchhiker for an hour or so, a juvenile boobie took up residence on our solar panels. Sadly he did not leave them clean…

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Not much in the way of scenery

​The sea state eventually settled as we got further from Aruba, leaving us with a much nicer motion in the ocean, with just the occasional rogue giving us a smack. Late afternoon I was watching a ship on AIS called Dolphin, quite a big one and right in our path. He was not moving much, but sometimes we see ships seemingly drifting at sea “waiting for orders” (it’s cheaper than waiting in a port). As we got closer and closer I expected to see it, but nothing was visible at all, even 2nm away. Very strange. Still nothing at 1nm, maybe it is a submarine? Just then a pod of small black dolphins appeared and started jumping and playing around ITIKI, leaping right out of the water and into the waves. Lovely to see, just on sunset. But what about that ship? Oh wait, maybe some crazy dolphin scientist was having some fun when they programmed the tag on one of these little fellas?! I guess we will never know…

Staying well offshore

Made our first waypoint around 11pm on day 2, due north of Punta Gallinas so we could pull away and start to go south a little, but still keeping well offshore. Having goose-winged the genoa we have slowed down, but still making reasonable time. It’s nice to have the waves with us now, although it’s still a bit rolly. We had a beautiful half-moon for a while but once that set it is pitch black. The skies are clear and the stars are absolutely amazing - this is the best part of night watch, and we love being able to see the Southern Cross. There is quite a bit of traffic around this area, and surprising to see one quite large ship without AIS. Fortunately we could track him on RADAR.

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After the morning squalls and shipping passed us by we have had a lovely reaching sail down the coast of Columbia. Not that we can see it as we are staying wide to avoid the weird coastal currents and instead have the gentle seas pushing us along. Despite some good long hours of sunshine, passing clouds and shading from sails means our batteries are not quite full enough to run our fridges and freezer overnight. Our hardest working crew member, Ellie the autopilot, is also a very thirsty gal, so if we want to make water too that means using the generator. Sadly our faithful genset is overheating and despite some valiant efforts by the skipper she can’t be sorted underway. Not to worry we have plenty of beer and rum to drink! 

Another boring sunset

Kept our goose-wing through the night and in the morning just after sunrise we got squeezed by squalls on either side that joined forces. A freighter approaching forced us to steer back into one of the squall cells to get out of its way. The windspeed shot up to 28kts very quickly as the front touched us, sphinctometer rating shot up as well! Fortunately it quickly settled into low 20s but the wind clocked south so we were able to gybe the main and come onto a broad reach which is much more comfortable with the swell. We have now set our final waypoints into Santa Marta and arrival is looking good for early Friday morning.

Approaching Santa Marta

The wee hours of Friday morning (day 3) find us about 30nm out from Santa Marta. We had quite a lively breeze along this last leg of the journey, with constant wind in the mid-20s. The moon is gone but the loom of light on the horizon shows a definite outline of land. It smells like a pine forest. Our final waypoint was reached at 3am, and we turned due south to come directly into Santa Marta. The angle was not great for the headsail so we furled it and just continued under main. We were still making 6-7kts and it is much easier to handle without worrying about trimming the headsail - no adjustments were necessary for my entire watch. At watch change we decided to put the 3rd reef in the main to slow ITIKI down, and also in anticipation of the katabatics as we come into sight of SM.  Copped the first of the katabatic gusts about 10nm out of Marina Santa Marta and although it only clocked showed high 20s we decided to drop the main and finish under motor. By 5:30am there was quite enough light to see the approach to the marina.  We went into the fuel dock and waited for someone to appear and the security guard arrived and notified the marina of our arrival. We also bought the cheapest fuel ever! While we were waiting for a berth assignment we watched the shenanigans of a pilot boat trying to come alongside to refuel, I thought they were going to take us out! Total amateurs. We got our berth assignment at around 10:30, its blowing 25-30kts in the marina, thanks to the high mountains surrounding the bay, so getting in was interesting. Keith did an amazing job and the guys on the dock were great too. We sleep for a couple of hours and after lunch head over to the marina office to commence the check in process. Everyone is really nice and helpful and the marina has a good vibe.

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Santa Marta

Santa Marta is a coastal holiday town, popular with Columbian families, and of course it is approaching Christmas and the holiday season. Its very busy with tourists, its colourful, lively and noisy. 

Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Simon Bolivar

As we often do we found a “free” walking tour of Santa Marta and joined in the fun one morning. We learned about some of the history of the town. There is a statue of Gabriel Garcia Marquez here, I was a huge fan of his novels but didn’t know he was Columbian. We also find some yellow butterflies on the street which appear around one of the characters in his famous novel “100 years of solitude”, which I re-read now that we are here. The main Cathedral is set back from the waterfront by about 4 blocks to discourage lazy pirates from having a go and coming to steal the gold. There is a big statue of Simon Bolivar in one of the piazzas. Bolivar is the hero and liberator of these parts having led the countries of Columbia (including Panama), Venezuela, Bolivia, Peru and Equador to their independence from the Spanish empire. His statue is on a horse with its front legs in the air (ie rampant), even though he died of TB and not in battle. There was a big earthquake in 1834 in Santa Marta which destroyed most of the town, so there is little left of colonial architecture. From that time on balconies were made in wood rather than concrete. The country is predominantly Catholic, hence the many churches and cathedrals. The streets are lively and colourful, with street art, street vendors, flags and umbrellas featuring throughout the town. It’s hot during the day and the beaches are popular, at night couples and families promenade along the water front, and there is loud music until the wee hours. We also have the same three Christmas songs (including a Spanish version of Jingle Bells, and Feliz Navidad) on high rotation. It is going to take weeks to get these little ear-worms out of our heads when we leave. The Christmas decorations are out of this world, with the main square replete with a replica of the town of Bethlehem sits comfortably alongside the more "pagan" European scenes with Santa Clause, Christmas trees, and various “winter” scenes through every public square and space around the town. Santa Clause is regularly positioned as the 4th of the ”wise men” overlooking the manger scene, eagerly awaiting the arrival of the baby Jesus. We had a fun Christmas and New Year here with fellow cruisers, with pot luck meals par for the course, progressive drinks/dinners hopping from boat to boat and helping each other out with boat projects, maintenance and repairs.

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Andy and Julie from Cushla, we met in Cape Verde

Santa Marta was a great base to explore inland of Columbia, as it was a safe and comfortable place to leave ITIKI. It is strange for us to be away from home, sleeping on land but a nice change to visit a big country compared to hopping from islands to very nearby island. Here we also meet and re-connect with old and new friends. The cruisers that are here are generally now on the same journey, heading west, with most of us intending to cruise to Panama, transit the canal and continue on to the Pacific +/- Galapagos. We are on a shared journey and there is an incredible camaraderie that goes above and beyond the usual FaceBook groups. We share the challenges of trying to get deliveries sent to us, get boat work done without getting ripped off, figuring out weather routing to get to the next port, where to check in and where best to provision etc. with tips and information is freely shared. The World Cup soccer is on whilst we are here and there are numerous lively sessions at various venues in this soccer mad country that make it all the more exciting. There are lots of lovely restaurants to explore as well. There are many supermarkets and stores for provisioning for the next stages of our journey. Columbian beer and Chilean wine are popular items to stock up on! We fill every available space on ITIKI but I am still not sure if we have enough chick peas to last until Sydney! The only downsides are the katabatic gusts that rattle the marina berths and the coal dust from the industrial port that coats the boats overnight. Well you can’t have everything. After a month here we are sad but ready to leave and its lovely to know we have an incredibly friendly and supportive group of cruisers networked together as we continue on our journey, crossing paths in various anchorages and sharing knowledge as we continue along the same route – fondly known as The Coconut Milk Run.

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