Tag Archives: ecuador

¡Adios Cartagena! | Sailing Zingaro – Episode 25

Dancing, with tears in our eyes… ¡Adios Cartagena! We’re leaving this dirty, cheap & wonderful place. But not without cruising the streets at night one last time.

Of all the places we have been on our journey so far, Cartegena stands out. So much culture offer during the day & the night and so many young people that build up their life just the way we do in Berlin or California, withstanding the troubled past and presence of their country.

So proud and so free.

We are thinking about visiting Colombia again, on our way to Ecuador. Just to see the differences between the coasts… We’ll see…

Hope You have a great week!

Greetings from Berlin, Kim

The ONE time a catamaran SUCKS

When trying to find a place to HAUL OUT on the pacific coast of Central America.

Why? Because I want to copper-epoxy the bottom of the boat. It’s greener (no ablative paint to fall all over the coral), it’s easier to clean (no ablative paint in our skin), it’s stronger (no ablative… you get the picture).

marina-pez-vela

BUT it’s been the biggest PITA! Listen to this BS:

  • So I went to the only marina that could fit me in Pacific: Marina Paraiso (Panama): They wanted $3500, and I couldn’t live on the boat, or WORK on my own boat. Lol. Right.
  • Marina Puerto Amistad (Ecuador): They sent us a semi-reasonable quote, told us they could fit us, then 1 WEEK later, when we were just about to leave, told us sorry, they messed up, can’t fit.
  • Marina Puntarenas (Costa Rica): FINALLY! Called them from Panama, they can fit us, at a great price! Yay! So we sailed 250nm and…. oh… oops… they measured wrong. 7m wrong. Morons. Seriously wtf.
  • Marina Pez Vela (Costa Rica): They can definitely fit us, the manager offers me $500 off if we promote the marina! Sweet. Go to do the paperwork… they require FULL COVERAGE INSURANCE. Ever try to insure a 34 year old home built boat travelling through Central America? Not going to say it’s impossible, but I haven’t found a way. It’s kinda funny, I have to explain to everyone what Airex foam is… I should just lie and say fiberglass.

So… looks like I’m holding on to the 3 gallons of epoxy I purchased for this job. Guess I’m going to have to beach her and paint her. At least it’s cheap. I’m just so sick of the paint. I have to clean the bottom every two weeks here. No shit, it’s pretty crazy. If I let it go a month there’s some big ass barnacles.

There’s one other option. Marina Caldera which isn’t really a marina, as much as a piece of land with a crane. I’m wondering what will happen if they drop my boat… Plus it’s $70/day. Damn rich guys charter fishing for Marlin here. That’s the entire Pacific coast moneymaker. Every damn boat here. Using 200gal/hr of diesel fucking up the environment for a unicorn fish.

Ok. I’m done ranting. Now I’ll suck it up and figure out how to do this by myself. Get ready for an interesting video!

-James

PS – The image is Pez Vela. See the fishing boat at the bottom? I’m anchored between him and the wall. Can’t get internet, but easy to flag down a fisherman to take my boom in to get welded… more on that later.

PPS – I’m really not trying to be a downer, it’s really nice here. Cost Ricans are some of the most helpful people in the world. Super cool. Just needed to vent. I keep getting comments that I complain too much. Well those guys need to try to find a marina to haul out a 6.1m wide cat. In Spanish.