Christmas Night

After walking all the day around the Cartagena BRONX looking for a present for Belle de Lune I was ready to start the preparation for my first Christmas in the Caribbean Sea. Everybody knows that I'm not the best chef in the world so I made two of my short list of specialities: Guacamole and a lemmon cake that my great-grandmother teached me a long time ago and that so far got me out of some hooks. After the dinner Marie would baptize it as "Gâteau Espina" in her honor. Charly made Thonnade, his speciality, and at Belle de Lune foie gras, salmon and of course Champagne André were waiting for us on a nice table under the moon of "Manhattan de Indias".

After the aperitive we took a break to diggest a little bit and make space for the main course that the captains were preparing: Souffle de Beef. While it was in the oven we decided to open the presents that Noel brought us.

First of all Charly got a hook to continue fishing tunas, a beautiful tablecloth to serve them and a bag to put the bread that he makes the mornings that I'm lucky. Luké recieved a  multiprupose piece of cloth that Marie sewed to make him comfortable and fresh while he's working on Belle de Lune and she was really glamorous with her new dress-skirt-shirt. Then it was my turn and I got a beatiful convertible bag that depending on which nods you do, different models of bags appear. Noel couldn't be better!
Most of the presents were things that can be used in many different ways because when you life on a boat you don't have too much space for clothes or this kinds of accesories, all the place is to stock food, fuel, water and many many tools and materials to repair the boat. As Marie and Luke spent all the time in the streets of Colombia drinking juices we decided to give them an authentic colombian squeezer that we found after hours and hours walking under a blazing sun. They were really happy so it was worthy and we enjoyed a lot the BRONX.

Opening the presents gave us appetite so we attacked the Beef with Jamon Serrano and mushrooms wrapped in a puff pastry. Ai Ai Ai la Cuisine Française! We even got space for the "Gâteau Espina" with crème pâtissière, cream or both at the same time!

The leftovers

It was a great night and at the end I got a really special present: the captain entrusted me the mission to take him home with the Dinghy and the new engine of 15 horsepower. Full speed and full adrenaline, ohhh yeaahh!

 

After 5 months in Curacao and unforgettable experiences I decided to undertake a new adventure in my life. There I left many good friends that helped me a lot during my days on board of Windsong, the Phantom of Spanish Waters. Thanks guys!

Everything started when I visited a friend in Piscadera Bay, where the boats are taken out of the water to repair and make them ready to sail. There I saw for the first time MOJITO, a  Jenneau Sun Odyseey 39 feet, and Charly the captain who had to scrape off all the antifouling and epoxy. He asked  me to help him so I spent 2 days working hard but with time to have fun and meet Marie and Luke from Belle de Lune, a huge  49 feet catamaran where they make you feel that you are in a restaurant.

When everthing was done, MOJITO was ready to sail but he needed some crew so after thinking a lot I decided to jump on board and start my voyage to Panama, sailing through beautiful small villages in Colombia, Cartagena and San Blas.

On Tuesday 7th of December at 6AM I woke up hearing the weigh of the anchor, together with Belle de Lune we were leaving Spanish Waters heading Aruba on a nice sunny day with a flat sea. On the way we decided to pass Aruba and go straight to an island called Monjes del Sur, an ancient military base. Unfortunately the bottom wasn't deep enough to anchore so we continued for 10 more hours until we got Bahia de Honda in Colombia. Finally after 2 days of sailing we anchored, I took my first hot shower in a long time and we ate a delicous tuna that we had fished on the way. 

Next morning, while enjoying the home-made bread just done, I saw a big boat full of militars and coastgards approaching us. It was incredible, we where in the middle of nowhere, no boats, no village, nothing! They were really nice, they just wanted to check the boat and the papers, as usual, but the sea was a little bit rough so they couldn't visit MOJITO.

We spent there 2 nights resting and then we were ready to go through El Cabo de la Vela, a difficult passage according to the experts, but the weather was good so we had no problems and in 8 hours we arrived to a nice village where indigenous colombian fishermans were visiting us and asking for some water, flour, hooks or coffee. Some were selling huge lobsters so we bought 2 and I can say that on Friday 10th of December I had my Christmas dinner.

After this luxuorious night we were ready to sail for 30 hours to Santa Marta. Once we were there, we decided to enter to the Marina because the bad weather was comming so we had one week to visit the village, clean MOJITO, refill the tanks with water and make the innox.

The next stage was Cartagena de Indias but we decided to stop one night to avoid to sail during the night. On the way we crossed the Magdalena river, the most important  in Colombia that carries plenty of trunks and makes big waves when it meets the sea. Really impressing!

MOJITO managed without problems and after one night in Barranquilla we arrived to Cartagena de Indias, the New York from South America. 

Here I will spend my first Christmas on water even if I don't know exactly in which day I'm living and the 30 degrees doesn't fit with my idea of Noel visting me. Anyway I wish to everybody a Merry Christmas!