Preparing to leave – just the old hitch! Tuesday 30/08/2022
Have been spending the last few days in Cartagena packing and thinking about what I might need for the next 11 or 12 weeks. I had some unfortunate news today – the boatyard to which I was supposed to be taking Manuka on Thursday morning have decided that they don’t have a space. I’d been chasing them to confirm what time I should arrive on Thursday, and after three unanswered calls this morning I finally get a “sorry” message. So that’s a pain – but fortunately I have managed to arrange to leave Manuka here in the marina temporarily. This means that I’ll have to fly down on a Friday afternoon or evening sometime in the next few weeks to move Manuka on a Saturday. Irritating, but not the end of the world.
While it might just be typical Colombian vagueness and unreliability, I suspect that something else is going on here. I reckon that my place has been given to someone else – probably a much larger boat for which they can charge much higher fees, or possibly a good existing customer who they didn’t want to disappoint. The reaction of the young lady in the marina office here when I told her was interesting: when I suggested those two possibilities she laughed and vigorously nodded her head, with no further comment. Well, as an outsider and the owner of a boat that is only 40 foot, there’s not much I can do about it. There’s no point even getting angry with them – that might hurt my interests even further. You’ll be happy to hear that I’m sitting here with a smile on my face writing this! As I’ve said before, if this sort of thing is the worst that happens to me, I’m a lucky man.
On the other hand, good news: the administrator of the Spanish course emailed me today with details ahead of next Monday’s start. So that’s all fine. It will be good to have a change of scene – although I do feel a bit of trepidation regarding the course: it’s going to be hard work, even if it’s good for me!
One thing that’s been nice in the marina here is the people. The Colombians are a lovely lot, they really are. From those working in the marina office to the night security guards, all friendly and full of smiles. Even guys working on boats around me are very pleasant – yesterday a guy called to me and gestured towards the bow – one of my fenders was slipping, the rope tying it on having become loose. That was undoubtedly the result of the storm we had in the middle of Sunday night. I was awoken after midnight by the most incredible rain (which is saying something, this being the tropics) – it was just bucketing down, plus thunder and lightning very close by, and wind – Manuka was bucking up and down at her moorings. Probably lasted an hour or so – I went back to sleep but was woken a couple of times more. Just a passing tropical storm – would be very unpleasant if you were at sea, but no problem in the marina – even if lightning struck, the chance that it would strike Manuka is greatly lessened by all the other boats around. Would be a much higher risk if your mast was the only target on an open sea.
Well, I’ll post an update early next week reporting how I’m getting on…