So… After searching 2.5 Months opportunity to sail or actually, Mostly Assaf searched the internet While I was busy in writing mails… Eventually we decided to fly to Colombia because we found a cheap flight and we knew there is a big port in Cartagena and because finding something like this by mails didn’t work. We arrived to Colombia in the end of March 2007 and immediately took a long bus ride to the Caribbean coast - to Cartagena. First of all, it was so different than Patagonia, where we spent the last 5 Months. Of course, we didn’t need to use our warm sleeping bags, coats, hats and so on. We had to buy some summer cloths… The first thing we had to find out about When we arrived to Cartagena was where are all the boats sailing. We found it - Club Nautico. We decided we will spend there most of our time, but then Within 2 days we got 3 replies by mail from yacht owners so we didn’t have to go anymore to Club Nautico. One option was sailing in the Caribbean with a Swedish man that sounded very nice and cross the Atlantic ocean towards Europe. The second option was to go with an American that didn’t sound so nice (if you will not be good enough, you will be dropped in some island…) to cross the pacific ocean and the 3rd option was interesting but no relevant until the end of April, so we really wanted to go with the first option. For 2 weeks we were emailing with the Swedish man. In this period we went to Taganga which is a fisherman town and we dove there. While we were there, I was thinking that maybe it’s a good idea to check if we need visa to one of the leeward islands (east Caribbean islands).
I searched the internet a lot and guess what? I found out that we need a visa to all the islands that belong to French. We started to figure out how long will it take and the told us that we have to come back to the embassy, in Bogota (again, 20 hours by bus), but we wanted to join this man so much, so we took the long tiring bus to Bogota and when we arrived there, there was no one to talk with, we had to make an appointment. It took about 3 hours to catch them by phone for this stupid appointment and in that day, Bosse (the Swedish man) already waited for us in Martinique (a French island). The conclusion from all this story was that if we want a visa, we will have to wait 2 month. No! we didn’t mean to wait and also Bosse didn’t… so we told him the only option we have is to meet him in Dominica. We waited anxious for his mail and when we got a positive answer, we were so happy and all Hostel platypus were so happy for us (everyone new our story in that point), we immediately celebrated with a beer and waited for next morning to go and buy the flight tickets. But then.. of course we had another visa problems. The cheapest flight was from Puerto Rico and since it belong to USA, Assaf can not fly from there, even if it is for connection in the airport. So we decided to split in the second flights day.
In April 17th we left Colombia and flew to Panama and from there to the Dominican Republic. We meant to see the capital a little bit (we had one night there), but when we found out that the taxi to the city is more expensive than the hostel, we decided to sleep in the airport. It was not a big fun, but we saved a lot of money. The next morning, I flew from there to Puerto Rico and then to Dominica and Assaf flew from there to Antigua and then to Dominica.
I had to wait to Assaf 2 hours in the airport of Dominica. Actually if you see this place, the last thing you will think about it is that its an airport. It looks more like a restaurant with a warehouse in the back. The 2 hours passed really fast since everyone came to speak with me and they are so nice and welcoming, especially one called Jack that explained me everything about the island, including the fact that around half of them belong to a religion something like Jewish people. They were all very surprised to hear my name, since LIAT is the name of the Caribbean’s airline company.
When Assaf arrives, we took a taxi to the other side of the island. We were so tired after 4 flights but we could not sleep since the landscape was amazing. Everything was green all the way and so many different kinds of trees and vegetation. We felt like a coconut should fall on our head and we will wake up from this dream because we didn’t believe that we are really there.
We arrived to the hotel that Bosse told us to meet him there and we found a note from him that he will be back in an hour, so we waited for him and we were sure that his boat is anchoring just near there. But no, we went around 2 km with the bags and everything and the warm shoes and we thought we will get to a dock eventually, but we arrived to his dinghy, and from there he rowed to the boat, one by one. This was an interesting beginning… but it didn’t bother us.
At first, I was really in shock, it was not what I imagined. Or actually I didn’t really think about boat life deeply. For example, we wash everything with sea water (including the teeth)… We have a small cabin, just a little bit bigger than our tent (but shorter) . We don’t have a shower in the boat, but we jump every morning, noon and whenever we want (accept while sailing) into the water and so on.
So the first evening we were so exhausted and he knew that we are hungry so he made us something for dinner, but we were so tired that the food combining with the movements of the boat didn’t make us feel so good. We decided the best thing we can do is go the sleep.
Sleeping with movements and noises from the sea and sails is something you need to get used to, but we did fast.
The morning after we went to the custom offices to pay and write ourselves as a crew and the next day (20/04/07) was our first sailing experience. We sailed from the southern part of Dominica to the Northern part.
The sailing was great, no sea sickness, the wind was perfect, we sailed fast (around 12 km/h which is great) and we started to learn about sails and sailing. Since Bosse is a retired teacher, he likes to teach and explain. When we arrived to Portsmouth, we took the dinghy and went to the shore, but this time with an engine. We visited to internet in the first time since we are here, bought some food products (that part of them fell into the water in the way to the boat, conclusion for next time - don’t put food in nylon bags but in the back bags).
Just after we came back to the boat, “Eric Spaghetti” arrived with his motor boat to offer us a trip in the Indian river. We didn’t make up our minds yet if we will do it or not but in the next morning we arrived to the shore and first we went to the market. It was a very nice experience since they are all so nice, and they are really affected from Jamaica.
They are all with rastas, wear “jelly fish” shoes in Jamaica colours and sing Bob Marley songs in the streets. After we bought a fish and some fruits and one souvenir from someone that looks exactly like Eddi Marphi, we decided we want to visit the Indian river and just had to choose who will take us there - “Eric Spaghetti“, “Ravioli Lover”, “seabird” and so on… We chose mosquito
. It was a warm half an hour by boat up the river. Then, we jumped into the river since we don’t have shower on the boat… and we came back to our boat. In the evening I made a cake with combination of products that are not really used usually for cakes (like coconut cream and flour for bread), but that’s what we had in the boat. It is eatable… While I was baking, Assaf and Bosse played chess so I had few hours of silence…
The morning after, after few security lessons from Bosse, we started sailing towards Montserrat since we had to skip on Guadeloupe (visa problems). We planned the sailing for around 24 hours, but you can never know how the wind will be. We raised the sails and started sailing. Everything went good during the day and even a group of Dolphins swam around us few minutes (around 10 Dolphins).
We also tried to fish and we almost caught one (not the Dolphins of course) but because its still new for us, we didn’t realize that the sound we heard means a fish is caught and since we were not fast enough, it ran away. When the night arrived we did watches so the others will be able to sleep. Since it was our first day and night sailing, we decided that Assaf and me will take the watch together this time, and it was a good decision since in our shifts the wind decided to stop and we were a little bit frustrated from not moving and still trying to stay in the right course. We were so slow, that we could even swim faster… but at least the sky was clear and we saw tons of stars.
so eventually the sailing took 28 hours and now we are anchoring in “Little bay” at Montserrat, very close to a reef so we will check it soon… (23/04/07)
