Category: Cruiser Guides

Sailing in Colombia

Sailing in Colombia is different from the ideal conditions in the Eastern Caribbean: trips are a lot longer and other cruiser boats not as common. Conditions can be rough, with strong winds, and navigating is challenging with incomplete charts. Because of these difficulties, some cruisers don’t stop here at all on the way to Panama, and others only visit one port: Santa Marta or Cartagena. As longtime fans of Colombia, we spent extended time in both! Here’s what our experience has been sailing in Colombia.

Western Caribbean map including Colombia
Colombia in the Western Caribbean

All information in this post is based on our experiences sailing the Caribbean coast of mainland Colombia. The country is vast, with Pacific coastline and occupied islands alongside Central America, which are not discussed here.

Welcome to Colombia

Arriving in Colombia on our boat was different from other sailing destinations. Colombia is so big that we saw the country a full day before we could enter a port. And the conditions are rough. Santa Marta, Colombia is infamous for heavy winds and rough seas, so much so that many sailors coming from the ABC Islands or further choose to skip the port entirely and head straight to Cartagena.

rough seas Colombia
Rough seas in Colombia
Continue reading “Sailing in Colombia”

Cruiser Dos and Don’ts

Brian and I made our first crossing a year ago and have made mistakes, many mistakes. For those interested in exploring a life on board a boat, this post is for you. I don’t claim to be any sort of expert here, in fact, I started out as a complete novice. Maybe you can avoid our mistakes through my cruiser dos and don’ts to hopefully help you slide into this lifestyle with ease!

Boat Ownership Dos and Don’ts

Do Like To Fix Things

If Brian wasn’t so handy, and didn’t enjoy fixing things and working with his hands, we wouldn’t be here. If you already like to fix things, you are golden, but if you don’t, or don’t know how, take a class in mechanics or something before you buy the boat.

The sea finds out everything you did wrong.

Boats are more likely to break when and where no one else is around, so you will have to fix it or at least stop it from getting worse. I am not handy at all and even I am getting better at that stuff. In my opinion, people who can’t or don’t want to fix things won’t be happy in this life.

Do Lock Up Your Valuables

If it’s something you need, lock it up. Dinghies get stolen all the time, and we even had our gas tank stolen out of our dinghy in Martinique. It sucks, but people need money (or gas, when there was a strike in the French islands) and if you make it easy for them to steal, they just might.

Locked Dinghy Cruisers Dos and Don'ts
Lock Up!
Continue reading “Cruiser Dos and Don’ts”

Ranking Grenada Anchorages: Pluses and Minuses

We’re looking back as our time in Grenada ends. Three months have flown by, as we’ve kept busy with cruiser activities, guests and boat projects. As we say goodbye to a wonderful place to spend hurricane season, we’re ranking Grenada anchorages.

Cruising Grenada

Southern Bays of Grenada

The majority of cruisers park their boats on the southern shore of the island. Each bay has its pluses and minuses: some are more comfortable, others more convenient. All of the bays are busy this time of year, since we’re all here for hurricane season but different cruisers have different priorities and comfort levels. As a result, these observations and rankings are ours alone and you should bop around the bays yourself and make your own decisions.

In my descriptions below, I move around the Grenada bays from northwest to southeast. These are not all the places to anchor in Grenada, simply the most popular as well as those we have personally tried. Now, on to ranking Grenada anchorages.

Please note that some of this has changed due to Covid and time, so always check with the relevant authorities before entering a new country.

Continue reading “Ranking Grenada Anchorages: Pluses and Minuses”