06 December 2011; Cartagena, Colombia.

 We made it on time to Cartagena, although the wind against us kept blowing and thus the lessening I had hoped for in the early morning hours did not occur. Not unusual; wind that reaches the Columbia Basin tends to be quite strong and can last a long time for it has lost all its momentum. Still I was happy, we were on time, even a little bit early, so we tried to get the pilot out a bit early as well. However all well laid plans fall apart if the navy decides to interfere. As we all know, wars start around 8 am in the morning and that was thus the time that the Columbian navy set sail to protect the motherland. They ordered port control to keep the fairway clear as two small navy ships were coming out. Nothing I can do then, they have got guns and I don’t. So we had to wait until the first one made it leisurely through the channel into open waters. By that time the pilot got involved and as the 2nd navy ship was way behind on its schedule, he simply told that ship to wait. Maybe he does have a big gun somewhere. Still it cost us 20 minutes; time I could not really afford to lose as it is a long way in. Luckily it was the senior pilot we got on board and he knows his Holland America captains, so he left it all to me and we could sail with maximum expedience through the lake and were docked by 0915. So only 15 minutes late but now it was time for the hotel manager to get upset. He wanted his hotel cleared but the authorities were next door on the Celebrity Infinity having breakfast and they were in no hurry to leave the table. Finally the agent went over and got verbal clearance for us to start, while the paperwork was going to be dealt with later; after breakfast. This was not one of Columbia’s better days in welcoming eager tourists with lots of dollars in the pocket. If It had been a long stay, it might not have mattered that much but we were only scheduled to be here from 0900 to 1500 hrs and thus every minute counted. Luckily the tour operators were very efficient and the tours were off in no time. We were warned for delays as there was a “Freedom March” going on in the city that might have interfered with the return of everybody, but all were back on time without delay. Those on the Freedom March were probably having breakfast as well.

So we raced out of port again, swinging off the berth in dense rain, so dense that we had to sound the fog horn, to comply with the reduced visibility rules. Navigationally zero visibility does not really matter. Chart/GPS and Radars are now so good these days that you can sail on the inch without even looking out of the window. You DO though have to look out of the window to see the small boats that do not reflect an echo on the radar. If visibility is zero, you sound the horn to warn everybody of your presence and go very slow. So we did for 5 minutes and then we were through the rain cloud and went back up to speed again. Inland it must have been raining considerably as the lake looked like a floating forest with full trees, part trees and lots shrubbery.

By 1600 hrs we were outside, turned to the north with no navy to bother us this time and cranked up the engines. We will now have two days at sea before we come to the end of this cruise. I was supposed to go home in Fort Lauderdale but I have to stay longer. My relief cannot make it before the 16th and thus I will do a week longer. Seven extra blog days including another Panama Canal transit will come your way.

The weather tomorrow is supposed to be great as the strong winds are supposed to die down during the night. They were supposed to have done that this morning already but did not do, so I will wait and see until it really happens.