Cabo de la Vela: the Cape of Sails

John & Aly on SunRunner

(Continued from previous posting):

The next morning we awoke around 4am.  Surprisingly, the weather forecast from the day before was correct.  I couldn’t believe the drastic change in conditions.  The howling 30 knot winds had just abated.  The seas were reasonably calm.  It seemed so unreal that weather could switch from such harsh circumstances to practically nothing in under an hour.  It was as if someone had flipped a switch.  Afraid that it was too good to be true, we didn’t waste any time.  We pulled up anchor and ‘got the hell outta Dodge’.

With renewed spirit we set off for the small Colombian village of Cabo de la Vella.  As I said before the winds had seriously dropped, and SunRunner was making only 4 knots under Genoa and mizzen.  The roughly 40 mile trip would take us a little over 10 hours, but we didn’t mind.  Better to be going somewhere than sitting in Bahia Honda.  The sun was bright.  The skies were clear and blue.  It was a nice, lazy and relaxing sail. 

Alyson tanning on deck.

By mid afternoon we had cleared the Guajira Peninsula and sailed into the nice little bay off Cabo de la Vela.  It was an interesting little place.  The village was settled by the Wayuu indians, and now the town functions as a fishing village and ecotourism destination.  Yes, now we had arrived in backpacker country.  And every year dozens or perhaps even hundreds of backpackers venture to the tiny village of Cabo de la Vela to enjoy the beach and sleep in authentic Wayuu indian houses (they are made from the hearts of cactus, you know). 

We spent a day walking around the small town looking for groceries and supplies, mostly Coca-Colas.  It was a cute place.  The dusty city street was lined with little tiendas and restaurantes.  We were surprised to find such an abundance of hostels and hotels in town.  The buildings were extremely basic.  They were made from compacted mud, rough brick and plaster.  Fishermen worked on their wooden fishing boats along the shoreline.  Dogs and burros napped lazily in the shade.  It was real picturesque.  We stopped in one small tienda to cool in the shade and have a cold drink.  The little boy running the store liked Paul’s mustache so much that he created his own from shoe polish and masking tape.  Here’s a few photos from our stay in Cabo:

Skipper Paul and his new friend.

Hiking into town

Cabo de la Vela: Traditional Wayuu houses

Hotel & Restaurante

Lil' Paul's Tienda

Checking out the action downtown.

the main road into town

Alyson posing with a dug out canoe

Shark skin drying in the sun

A local fishing boat. Can you believe they go out to sea in these?

I'm cleaning some squirrel fish we bought off a local fisherman.

more Wayuu homes

an expensive lobster dinner in the home of Senora Gomez.

Alyson eating here lobster. The couple behind her are our friends from the Dutch sailboat Kaat.

Lobster, Rice, & Fried Yucca (which is my new favorite fried vegetable.)

After a couple of days enjoying the peace and serenity of Cabo de la Vela, it was time to move on.  We had to take advantage of the good weather window and get as far as we could before things got worse.  Unfortunately, if its not blowing like stink off the coast of Colombia then its not blowing at all.  No wind is a real bummer when you travel by sailboat.  We were lucky enough to catch a gentle breeze in Paul’s giant spinnaker sail during the over night passage heading west to Riohacha, but by morning the wind had just died.  We were forced to motor the rest of the way. 

I don’t have much to say about Riohacha.  Its kind of a typical beach town.  Motoring in the water was as smooth as glass.  It rested like a mirror beneath us and sheared off a flat line at the horizon.  The water was filled with literally millions of jellyfish.  Before I realized what they were the small, little yellow orbs made me begin to wonder if a crate of tennis balls had fallen off a cargo ship during the night.

Motoring into Riohacha

Alyson on lookout

Waiting to drop anchor

Riohacha Beach

The dinghy dock in Riohacha is acutal a giant pier that requires some degree of climbing skill to get up top.  Not suitable at all for your typical cruiser.  We were only in town long enough to anchor, go ashore, find an internet cafe and then a restaurant for lunch.  Really we were only in port for a few hours.  The reason we left so quickly is that while we were eating lunch we could see our sailboat out at anchor.  The sea states had dramatically changed from the smooth, ripple free surface and into pounding, white capped waves.  The bow of SunRunner was nearly being submerged in the pitching of the brown water.  Being haunted by the memory of Bahia Honda, we decided not to stay the night on anchor.  We quickly paid our bill and left. 

Climbing ashore at the dinghy dock.

The dinghy dock in Riohacha

When we returned to the dinghy, we noticed that it was full of children.  They were riding on the rough wave action like it was an amusement park ride.  Climbing back down in while it rose and fell was a bit tough.  We wasted no time getting back to the boat and hoisting the dinghy.  We made things ready as fast as we could.  The bow was pitching so terribly that the anchor chain would jerk on the electric windlass in such a way that it kept slipping.  Eventaully, I had to resort to the manual hand over hand method to pull it in.  Soon we were back out on the water, relieved and glad to be on our way.  That evening we enjoyed a late night thunderstorm and rain shower.  New bays and new adventures lay ahead.

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