Punta Hermosa

Thursday, January 24, 2002

010-56.400 N
075-2.400 W

There's not a lot to report about Punta Hermosa other than it makes a good stopping point between Rodadero and Cartagena. It's a well protected anchorage with a long reef and spit of land separating the anchorage from the ocean. It's clearly a popular spot for locals as the beaches are lined, non-stop, with little grass covered huts that provide shade. There appear to be quite a few fishermen who use these huts too. I wanted to go ashore and explore, but it's a pain get the dinghy down and the motor on for such a short visit to shore. Oh, and the wind was blowing...

The wind is probably the most interesting aspect of this leg. David, who provides the fee-based Caribbean weather in the AM on the SSB, had been providing us with predictions of high winds for the majority of our trip down the coast. His predictions were for 25-30 kts along the coastline and 30-35 kts offshore.

We left Rodadero at around 2 AM so that we would cross the Rio Magdalena during the daylight and get in before the high winds of the PM set in. When we left we had about 20-25 kts, so I just put up the jib and we were cruising along at about 7+ kts. Within an hour or two the winds dropped into the teens and I put up a double reef main too. The winds then decided to climb back up, and by the time that Larry was due to come on shift at 5 AM, the winds were in the low 30s, so I dropped the main. The seas were in the 5-10 foot range, and turning sideways into them to drop the main caused us to take a lot of water over the deck, and unfortunately down into the salon through a leak in a hatch. I headed off for some sleep.

At about 6:30 or 7:00 I got up to check on things and was amazed to see how quickly the world had changed. We had consistent winds about 40 kts, peaking at about 44 kts, and the seas had grown to 10-15 feet, with an occasional 20 footer thrown in. But they were fairly long period seas. We were doing 9-10 kts constantly and hit the low teens on a few occasions.

While I really enjoy sailing in seas like this, it was scary because the wind was dead behind us and the waves were on our stern quarter, which would slew the boat around. The possibility of an accidental jibe was all too real, and I ended up hand steering for the next 5 hours or so. The view from on top of large waves of the wind whipping the water into foamy rivulets is a sight to be seen.

The Rio Magdalena starts about 1000 mile inland and carries with it tons of debris and silt. We were about 2 miles off shore when the water went from nice blue to dirty brown, and stayed that way for 50 miles. Lots of logs and debris were mixed in too.
Log ID: 160