[pe2-image src=”http://lh4.ggpht.com/-wBfxZwnLllU/UW2KSrQ4ayI/AAAAAAAAUqw/u_wLpnQeAxA/s144-c-o/P4150022.JPG” href=”https://picasaweb.google.com/112133179186774955122/SouthAmericaSection2Stage14Colombia2BoarderPanamaToBoarderVenezuela#5867497942989433634″ caption=”My friendly welcoming coast guard crew of Santa Marta” type=”image” alt=”P4150022.JPG” ]

Pos: here
Loc: San Fernando
Acc: Coastguard room Santa Marta
Dist: 31,2 km
Start: 10:15 End: 16:05

The guys were looking after me yesterday well, asking me what I liked to eat – meat, fish, chicken… thanks! I really appreciate your attention! But as I saw no kitchen in the small station, I was wondering what they came up with? A while later, they offered me one of those sealed army ration packs, chicken flavour…thanks a lot, but I rather eat my regular self cooked pasta then! They smiled, as they obviously thought the same of the attractiveness of that food, and soon I saw two guys with one of the boats heading off, making some eating signs.

Meanwhile, I was invited to make myself at home in one of the stock beds of the one and only sleeping room, with air condition. Rather having one bed out of ten with eight other guys in cool conditions than putting up my private tent out there in the heat in the marsh with no breeze at all! I got the free stock bed in the very last corner and felt all right. The guys also seemed to like me being “one of them”! At least I could chose to sleep on top or on the bottom bed, the top had the air condition and ventilators cooling straight on me, the bottom was a bit more sheltered. I noticed during the night my blanket wasn’t enough to warm me on the top bed, and I had to move down.

The guys came back later with some nice take away food – chicken with rice and beans plus a chicken soup with potatoes. Also some juice, which they transport here in very thin, condom like plastic bags simply knotted on top! I am even sure they were able to drive with the boat close to the take away shop…Thanks for the food, guys!

The constantly running TV in our room I am already used to ignoring once I write my update, being able to concentrate despite of it, and I fell asleep early around 7 pm. But when I woke at night around 10 pm to go to the bathroom, and the TV was still running, I was asking the seemingly last guy awake who played on his cell phone if he really still need to run it… thanks for some quietness eventually! Earplugs are not working enough if your bed is right besides the TV…

We also had some kind of a debriefing over Google Earth and my GPS track, just the four guys on the boat and me, the boss seemed not interested in what had happened. I am not sure if the guys blamed themselves for the failure of not around the river mouth as they asked to stop and turn around – after seeing my GPS track I need to emphasize I am quite convinced I would NOT have made it around. The current pushing out and the wind I had to paddle against was stronger than myself. The waves were huge, but that didn’t bother me too much being used to that and being quite cold blooded :-). Despite I was wasting simply paddling energy and distance vertically…The person who will invent a “GPS” measuring also the distance you cover vertically up and down on such conditions would do a job I’d gratefully appreciate  for my needs 🙂
The coast guard boat was rather bothered by the size of the waves and scared to flip over due to it’s shape and size. They couldn’t use their engine power enough escorting me, and to move as they needed with such a boat. Wind and current are the least problems if you have an engine!

The options for tomorrow are simple: To my honest judgement, there is no chance for a kayak to paddle around this river mouth, at least not from west to east. Tide here has no effect with maybe 10-20 cm differential…the low wind window in the morning is the thing which may make the sea a little bit lower. Still the current is too strong. This large river has no delta, but comes out between the breakwaters like stepping on a tube of toothpaste.

“Maybe” I could have sneaked close to the breakwater head into the river, paddling a bit upstream, then ferry gliding across, hopefully ending at the other breakwater head, and then sneaking out very close to the other breakwater head to the other side. So far another theory. But I doubt it would work, as the current would have probably pushed me out right into the huge breaking stuff and then I’d be f…. The same with the the possible widest berth – once going up again on the other side, if the wind would be pushing me then into the line of massive breakers and I also would be in trouble. No coast guard boat could follow this line anyway. I simply have to admit defeat on this river mouth!

The only options now re driving around the river mouth with the coast guard boat, and dropping me on the coast in the wide bay once the wave size is reasonable. Or taking a truck on the road to drive where the road hits the beach. But as the coast guard has no truck, this is not working either. They also can’t follow a possible inland water way with a bunch of portages. So we will be driving with the coast guard boat around the river mouth today!

Overall, I woke all right at 4.30 am, happy I would be getting out of this “trap” today, leaving at 5 am as planned. We all five got up, trying to keep the rest of the guys not on duty asleep. But then came a call from the boss – “my” boat, all fuelled up with six huge plastic barrels and ready to go, had to leave for an emergency case somewhere south now…well, what shall I say? Surely I was asking when *then* I may be able to leave, as the weather window for me paddling after the loop around the river mouth in the boat is limited as usual.

The boss said they will make ready another boat of the other five moored up ready asap. This means we had to wait for a truck coming with six fuel barrels, and a new crew coming from home. They loaded the fuel barrels with some effort, dusted off the boat, the guys got their gear ready, and eventually we could leave at 7.40 am. Thanks for the effort! It was though 2.40h later than planned, and the wind would pile up the waves very soon.

I noticed my new crew was not happy to leave that late, but they decided it would be possible. Still I saw at least two of the guys crossing themselves before going out…and mentally I may have followed suit.

My kayak got padded with fenders, many spare PFD’s and a truck tire in the middle as well as we could. They also needed to strap it to the boat. I think it looked all right. But I was expecting a heavy ride, knowing how the boat would be riding in the waves I have already seen…I was really worried more about my kayak than about myself. Still I put also a PFD on, and attached epirb, GPS and phones to it. But if we crash – who will be picking us up out there, and when???

The driver looked a bit older and aka more experienced to me – but he was very short! On an open motorboat of this size, maybe 12-15 meters long, the bow is always in the way of the proper sight line anyway, and he barely could reach with his bum the standing aid bench behind the wheel. All four guys had goggles on, but I missed to put on my diving mask… a bad mistake! The speed out of the calm river inside was 60-70 km/h, and the average speed in the waves later was 30 km/h. The spray on riding and later on bumping through the waves made my eyes sore, and I kind of had to ride almost blind which surely added to the stress.

The driver took a berth which took us 8 km out and away from the coast for a long while, but still…this ride was a HORROR TRIP! It was hard physical stress for the four of us standing close to the wheel clamping very tight with both hands to the bars around, bending the knees all the time to absorb the shock each time the bow was jumping over a huge wave. The driver did his best to avoid jumping, but there is no chance at the speed he obviously needed to take the boat into such eventually massive 4 m waves. Once, we were not only heavily jumping, but the boat came fully free and we were literally flying for a second or two, until we crashed down with the whole surface of the heavy boat again.

It is hard to describe such a ride. I think it can only be done in the Caribbean. Here are no smooth running big swell waves, here is a 4m+ wave hell, bumping up and down anywhere. The ride on the boat would be even stress if – yes, if my poor kayak had not been strapped in at the front. The kayak was jumping when we jumped on it’s padding, and at some point we needed twice to stop somehow to adjust the strapping and padding.

Still, with every crash down I only thought about my poor baby, crying loud inside. Myself, I felt out of space, riding almost with closed eyes anyway, able to take the heavy physical stress with mentally being away, not thinking about the danger we were all in. I could even avoid getting over the peak of sea sickness somehow, despite there was also no escape of the constant intense fuel smell coming from the six plastic barrels in front of us. It is so disgusting, and probably very unhealthy too.

But there was nothing what I could do now for my kayak, and I really think we did a good padding and strapping job with the means we had. But thinking back now, may it have been done even better…? The guys probably don’t know how fragile my kayak is, it’s only up to me to look after it’s well being.

Once we had the short “flight”, I was now crying out loud in pain, the guys probably thought it was about me, no, it was for my poor kayak…the coast guard boats are obviously built for that crashing, but my kayak rather likes to bump down waves in lower speed 🙂

After an endless about 1 1/2 hours, I eventually saw some coast in the far distance and the waves calmed down slightly. It only meant the driver could speed up now back to his 50-60 km/h, but the jumps were nothing now compared to what we had been in. I kept on riding with almost closed eyes, not able to see anything any more from the constant wind and sea spray. I kind of felt paralyzed to just even try to seak a peak at my GPS, which would be tricky on this high speed with bad vision anyway. Let him drive, drive me out of here, best right until Buenos Aires, and then straight back home!

At some point, it looked like we reached somewhere the coast in the bay, the waves became lower, they stopped briefly to chat on the radio. I dared to ask how long he needed to drive…I understood something like “until we meet the boat coming down from Santa Marta, as we need to go back as soon as possible” – or such, and I was so physically and mentally worn from that ride, I thought ok, if it has to be…let him ride…ride…ride…maybe another half an hour…I only enjoyed the ride on now calmer water with a bit of recovery from my sea sicky feeling, as far it was possible with the constant fuel smell. But eventually I woke up out of my absent state, realized on my GPS we already had reached the point where the big inland lake starts, and I said it’s high time I’d really need to *paddle* now again myself!

We unstrapped my kayak and I prepared myself to get back on the now fully calm water, away from the fuel smell and the cramping to the bars, and the continuous spray and the wind in my eyes and the constant thought of “what, if…”. Thanks, guys, to have brought me here safely! I am hoping your way back will be reasonable…no caring about a strapped fragile kayak…

My plan to get the heavy loaded kayak over board was the same as getting it up – means stern first, holding the bow line, and it almost dived vertically over board, surely with that ugly noise on the crackling hull when the heavy kayak slid over the railing. No other option. I jumped in, and happily pushed away, out of the reach of the fuel smell and into a clean, salty air!

Free again! I made a joke that my kayak would hopefully be still floating after that heavy ride, but do you think I made an effort to check the hull properly? I simply didn’t, as the bad treatment was already so far away now…

I happily paddled along in here in the bay low wind and seas, playing here and there with some tiny breakers on the shallows. The coast guard crew eventually changed, and it felt kind of ridiculous to me to have a boat in these baby easy conditions besides me. But well…thanks!

I was now able to eat and drink enough, but also made easy distance here in the sheltered bay. At some point, when I was nearing some industrial harbor and mooring area, a bit before the airport starts, I saw a perfect remote beach corner, and thought this may be the last chance before the heavily inhabited area around Santa Marta to camp in peace and freedom. It was only 26km left to Santa Marta, a distance I could do tomorrow with (hopefully) no problem, even in stronger winds. Today, I felt I had enough, and I decided to go in.

The spot was perfect, even with some shade under a tree. I started unloading, and once opening the stern hatch I saw the bummer – the compartment was almost half flooded I unloaded the bow, but this had only three spoonful of water, also too much. I didn’t even look into the day hatch (where there was about two liters in there I saw later…), but now quickly turned my kayak around. What I spotted on my stern was the worst damage on the gel coat I ever had…it was chipped off fully down to the cloth on a size of about three hands, being soaking soft now and it wouldn’t have taken much my rear end would have been hanging down, I think 🙂 There was a long crack in the area of the bow hull, obviously bad enough to let a bit water in. The day hatch area I did not inspect now after that shock, but there must be something broken also with so much water in it!

I took a picture, and was wading out to the waiting coast guard boat. I climbed on board, and explained with the picture that this is a damage which would be not good to repair on the beach. In an emergency by myself, I may have smeared it somehow with my epoxy and cloth, but this would have been stupid, taking time to dry and it would have to be done properly again anyway. The only reasonable way was to jump on this boat and to get the repair done in Santa Marta by a hopefully skillful guy. I don’t blame the coast guard at all for the damage, it just happened despite all the care we took in those conditions which were not easy for any one. But I do appreciate help to do a proper repair….

We loaded the bags and kayak separately which worked well in this shallow calm water with a reasonable small coast guard boat. The coast line turned from low sandy in the shallow bay to some desert mountains, looking actually quite pretty again! Though they reminded me a bit of the endless Atacama desert in the Pacific, just prettier! After that industrial area and before Santa Marta, the water was still calm, and they had many pretty beaches with fancy apartment buildings for tourist. Not a bad place to be! The bay of Santa Marta itself was very windy and unsheltered, and the driver had to ride slow again loaded with my poorly patient.

Santa Marta has a small yacht and a big industrial harbor, but the coast guard station had only a windy jetty to tie up the boat. Eventually, the whole coast guard station was running up the jetty, and I was honoured by their nice welcome! Thanks! But I’d rather have paddled up here… A group picture, and my gear got quickly transported into the station. I finally got a nice air conditioned room with three beds just for myself, thanks again to the one guy who moved temporally for me! If it would have been my choice, the cute boy could have stayed… :-))

Just joking, I have no problem to stay with other people in one room, but rather appreciate my privacy where I can spread out my gear how and where I want to. And now I had to spread out a lot of the soaked stuff 🙁  Thanks to the coast guard station in Santa Marta to help me and hosting me so kindly!