Ramble on

Ghost stories continued and other oddities

We thought we had left our Antiguan ghost behind in Bocas, last Christmas, when we released the first few meters of anchor chain with its knots. He’d been awfully quiet and we pictured him happily hanging around the little rusting pile on the sea bottom close to the Zapatillas. In retrospect, he must have just been out enjoying the Bocas nightlife and too drunk or hungover to bother us during the day. The minute he got air of our plans to sail to Colombia, he hopped back on board. Strange things started happening again…

Unexplained things attributed to the Exodus ghost:

Entrammeled anchor chain: As described in the previous post, our anchor chain got wrapped around a lone piece of coral rock in a very unlikely manner. Was it pure chance that our chain knotted itself around the only piece of rock in that area? Was it caused by some weird interaction of wind, current, and weather? Or was there more at play? It was odd, to say the least. And no explanation was satisfactory. Now, sometimes your writer has a vivid imagination, and she could clearly picture the ghost’s hand in the affair. Sitting on the sea bottom throwing 2 loops around the rock like this, and 2 more like that. Something like the first few steps in the drawing. After all, we met our ghost in Antigua, doing his favorite thing: fooling around with the anchor chain (making a double 8,). But, we’ll leave it up to you to make up your mind…
At la pirata, we strongly suspect our ghost teamed up with the ones from the island to knock down our gas bottle and rip off our broken dinghy,
Vanish: On a wind still day, when the sea was flat as a mirror, we heard the clanking sound of something metal falling. Outside, it took a while to find what was missing: a small stainless steel chain had jumped overboard. No wind. Not a ripple. Exodus was lying motionless. We normally use the chain to lock the outboard that we mount off the stern when we are sailing. It had been hanging there for a while, in the same position, with a lot more movement around it… Several sweeps of the sea bottom by our professional dive team failed to retrieve the shiny chain. Gone with the wind. Disappeared into the Bermuda triangle…
Flame killer: During one of the squalls, our anchor started dragging. Quick, quick, lift the anchor, move the boat! We had been making coffee and left the stove unattended. We averted the danger and reanchored. We were just catching our breath when we remembered the galley. We sped downstairs, thinking of fires, flames, and fire extinguishers, only to find a peaceful calm. No smoke. Nothing. The stove had switched itself off!

In Colombia we had two strange encounters:

Unidentified Flying Object: In the late afternoon, as the activities for the day were coming to a close, we were sitting and chatting. All of the sudden, above Isla Grande, a strong red light lit up in the sky. It was stationary for a long time. Definitely not an airplane or a drone. What could this be? Out came our binoculars, determined to have a closer look at the phenomenon. We have been in Central America long enough (especially in areas with little or no air pollution) to know plenty of strange things are to be observed in the night skies around here. The bright red light in the sky was flashing intermittently. Very bright for a minute at a time, interrupted by a weaker light. When the bright light went off 3 individual ones in triangular formation could be distinguished. The weird thing was that the light was static for several minutes but all of the sudden decided to move. In the blink of an eye, it hopped several miles. Three hops and it disappeared out of sight! By the way, the picture on the right has nothing to do with a UFO, but depicts a nightdive.

Naranja Furcado: Another strange encounter took place close to Isla Grande. We were minding our own business, the only boat in the anchorage, when we heard some voices ‘ola’ing’ us outside. A local boat with 4 young girls and 2 guys wanted to say ‘hi’. Turned out that the one girl has a swim wear boutique in Cartagena and came to Isla Grande with her entourage (model, photographer, make up and lighting assistant, and supporters) to catalog the latest designs. They saw our sailing boat and figured it would be a great background for the photoshoot. Here is what we saw, and what the photographer made of it…

Weather patterns

If all else fails, talk about the weather… As one of our main reasons to visit Colombia was to escape the wettest months in Bocas, a few comments on the weather are warranted.

Bocas is in the rainforest area, reigned by the rain god Chaac (Maya) or Tlaloc (Aztec), pouring down the heavenly waters by the bucket full, making everything grow miraculously. As soon as we got closer to Cartagena, his powers diminished. Colombia is a few degrees hotter than Panama. And a lot drier. Especially in Cartagena, it can be baking hot. If you are out in the islands, the heat is no bother as you can always enjoy a refreshing dip in the ocean. In the 4 months we were there, Colombia was extremely dry in comparison to Panama. We had maybe 5 bouts of rain. Each time precipitation levels barely exceeded 3cm…

In Colombia, we entered the playground of two other deities. Guabancex, the Taino wind goddess, often depicted as a furious shrew, a ranting and raving hellion; and the ancient K’awiil, the Maya god of lightening, are often seen chasing each other. Frolicing or fighting. Brewing up a storm together.

As our arrival in Cartagena announced, the area in this season is very prone to heavy squalls. You can see the clouds building up until they obliterate the strong sun.

Guabancex arrives in full force with howling wind, dragging anchors. And then you know that old K’awiil is not far behind, with a full light and sound show. Quite amazing, stunning to marvel at from a distance, but very often the thunder and lightning comes too close for comfort, and turns nail bitingly chilly especially when you are living on the only sailing boat in the area, your mast is the highest point for miles on end, and you are being dragged to the closest reef…

On many occasions, we lifted anchor and removed ourselves from their battlefield. Away from the alarming tower of pitch dark clouds, the accelerating wind, the threatening rumble of thunder, the blinding strikes of lightening. Out for a drive, until the eye of the storm has passed. Yet, often Guabancex and K’awiil caught us by surprise and left us with no choice but to sit it out. Switch off all electronics, pack away some laptops in a pelican case and put the Ipad in the oven (a Faraday’s cage). Stay indoors and don’t touch any metal. Exactly for that reason we do not have any great pictures of K’awiil’s very impressive lightening and we had to rely on the internet to provide you with an idea…

Back to Panama…

All in all we had a great time in Colombia: diving, sailing, exploring the old town of Cartagena, getting used to new people, enjoying some magnificent views like most sunrises and sunsets, the dry rainforest, the amazing corals, … To close off we’ll share some of the pictures Anne and Pepijn made of animals and plants…