Let me preface this entry by reiterating that we loved Colombia. The people are friendly, the climate is perfect, there are lots of amazing things to see, do, and eat, and it’s safely out of the way of any potential hurricanes. But we arrived back in January 2017, stayed until March, returned to the boat in July and stayed until the beginning of September. We had seen more of Colombia than any Colombian we had spoken to. In our eyes, and the eyes of the department of immigration, we were getting close to outstaying our welcome.
Which is why, when discussing how we were going to get from Panama to our post-hurricane season destination of Jamaica, we were hesitant to make any plan that included the word Colombia in it. Our initial plan was to sail to the offshore island of Providencia which is under jurisdiction of, you guessed it, Colombia. From there continue north to the Cayman Islands, then turn into the wind and current to get to Jamaica. At this time of year (November) this should have been a perfectly feasible plan. But as usual the weather was uncooperative and the winds were blowing hard in exactly the direction we were headed. Those winds were uncharacteristically providing a smooth ride back to good old mainland Colombia and from there a nice sail up to Jamaica. It seemed like a no-brainer so we stocked up on cheap liquor, checked out of Panama, and set our sails for just south of Baranquilla where there is a quiet little bay where we could rest between passages.
We were enjoying a very pleasant two-night passage when on day two the wind dropped and the sails hung motionless. We fired up the engine to keep up our progress and were shortly greeted with silence again as it sputtered and died. We were exactly halfway between Panama and Colombia, over 100 miles from any land. Recognizing this as a fuel issue, James changed the fuel filter and bled the engine. It started up and shortly died again. We repeated this several times with the same result and upon closer examination the fuel filter bowl was full of not fuel but dirty water! As everyone knows, fuel and water do not mix.
Thank goodness we have sails and the wind was starting to pick up again. After much discussion we decided to adjust our course towards Cartagena since we knew the city would have the services we needed in case this was a serious problem. In what was one of our best passages for sailing we arrived at Cartagena in the early morning hours and waited outside the harbour since we did not want to enter in the dark under sail. In the morning after several more filter changes we were able to limp into the anchorage at a very slow speed and drop the anchor. We were back… in a country that we loved but didn’t want to see again anytime soon.
They say cruising is a series of high highs and low lows with not much in between. It’s true. Although we didn’t expect any sympathy from back home where it was becoming chilly and getting dark at 4:30pm while we were “stuck in paradise”, we commiserated with our fellow cruisers that understood what it’s like to be broken down watching others come and go and having your home torn apart in shambles while you desperately try to find the cause of and solve your problems. Trust me, we were not sitting on the beach sipping cocktails - we were busting our rear ends trying to troubleshoot our engine problem.
We changed the other engine filter and the engine would not start no matter what we did. James disconnected and reconnected all of the fuel lines and we pumped what looked like the rest of the dirty water from the bottom of our fuel tank. It still would not start. Recognizing that we were over our heads we asked around to find a good diesel mechanic. We were recommended to a group of guys that maintained the engines on the submarines for the Colombian navy. It sounded like a good shot so we gave them a call.
The first mechanic to come out was able to determine without a doubt that we had water in the system and this was the source of the problem. Another mechanic would come out to work on solving the problem. But after what seemed like hours of just cranking and cranking we were no further ahead. The new mechanic then suggested that the fuel injectors needed cleaning in a shop. But even after a good clean, nothing.
The next group of mechanics (yes, three of them) made no more progress other than to suggest taking the injector pump to the shop to be tested and repaired. In the diesel world this is a fairly big deal, requiring sophisticated timing devices and knowledge well above our heads. Oh and they also needed to tear out part of a wall to get this pump out!
