Category Archives: Columbia

Columbia: Santa Marta, Cartagena, Minca

Our Dinghy, Sweetie, Gets a Face Lift

As a cruiser, you rely heavily on your dinghy as it is your “water car”. The only time you don’t need your dinghy is when you are in a marina.

Our dinghy, “Sweet N Low” or “Sweetie” as she is now referred to, has been in dire need of some lovin. We have needed to work on her for a while, but didn’t have several days in a row where she wasn’t in use.

List of ailments:

Rub rail was coming off
Velcro holding chaps was peeling off
Chaps needed mending (several tears, velcro, patches, and seams)
Slow leak, somewhere

Dinghy tubes are typically made from two types of materials: PVC or hypalon. We have a hypalon dinghy which requires a specific type glue. Matt found a glue used for escalators, Cement SC 2000 which is a two-step gluing agent that requires several days to cure.

Several chemicals can be used to remove this type of glue. MEK, acetone, and mineral spirits. They are wicked on your skin and have a pungent odor. Several videos show you how to remove the glue as well, but they require tools that we don’t have on the boat. We had a few ounces of MEK to test in small areas. We had less than a liter of acetone and about 3.5 liters of mineral spirits. All three seemed to do the same thing, none better than the other. Since we had more mineral spirits than the other two that became the solvent of choice.

My first thought was to find out where we could get more MEK or acetone so I went to Facebook. I know, you are thinking she’s lost her marbles. Maybe–probably, There is a really good Facebook page for Columbia cruisers and I thought I’d ask them where to get our supplies. I explained our project and what I was looking for and within an hour I had a reply. Just not the reply I expected. I was told to “never, ever ask a local Colombian for acetone as it is a key ingredient used to make cocaine. And if I were to ask around, they would think I was part of the Pablo Escobar family.” What the HELL! Yikes! Won’t go down that road. So, we will make due with what we have on board.

Typically, we would avoid showing pornographic images on our blog, but for the sake of education, we will show you Sweetie without her chaps on. She looks so very sad.

Note the velcro coming off both inside and outside the dinghy, the rub rail (gray & white below the velcro) is coming off and she is all around a mess.

Sweetie’s bow with velcro coming off & rub rail on

Matt removed the rub rail with little effort and looked mournfully at the mound of glue that had to be removed from the entire circumference of the of the dinghy and the rub rail. All that brownish yellow stuff is old glue.

Sweetie with rub rail off and side velcro in pieces.

The port side of the dinghy had been repaired in the past using Matt’s escalator glue (it dries black) so it was a bigger mess. Matt tackled the dinghy first while I worked on the rub rail. We both started with the worst part of the project-the port side.

The troughs had a combination of glue, dirt, sand, and muck. They didn’t need to be totally glue free, but the chunks had to be removed. The two gray outer rails and the white center had to be 100% cleaned with no sticky residue as that is where the new glue would be applied.

Rub rail being cleaned. Top cleaned, guck in crevices and bottom full of glue.

It was frustrating because it took a lot of work that garnered very little progress. It takes a lot of patience and elbow grease. You can see that what was once yellow is now almost white again.

Matt finishing up removing large pieces of glue by hand.

After removing the large chunks of balls of glue, Matt used a flap wheel. This removed the last residue of stickiness.

Matt removing last sticky residue with flapper.

The process for the rub rail was a little different I used a small brush and mineral spirits in a circular motion to loosen up the glue and remove the large chunks. Then I used the scraper to remove the chunks in the troughs on either side. Then I used a bristle pad to get the rest of the glue off.

Cleaning the rub rail. Top cleaned, bottom not.

After the chunks were gone, I used the flap wheel to remove the last of the residue.

Rub rail before sanding begins.

It is amazing how nice it looks once all of the old glue is off. The flapper wheel really cleaned it up and removed the last bits of stickiness.

Matt and I talked through the gluing process several times before he mixed the compound. We had a lot of area to cover and a limited amount of time to do it in. First, you mix the two elements together, then you spread a light coat over the dinghy and the rub rail, and then wait an hour. It took us 50 minutes to cover all areas with the first coat. So we had 10 minutes to get a drink, rest, and pat ourselves on the back while the compound sat in a bowl of ice water to prevent it from curing.

The second step required us to reapply another light coat over a 3′ section (both the dinghy and rub rail or both the dinghy and velcro), wait 15 minutes until it’s tacky and then stick the pieces together.

Remember how nice it looked all clean and white – now it is all black and gooey.

We were both working with 1/2 kg can that had to cover the exterior rub rail, exterior velcro and interior velcro. And it had to be applied to all pieces. Did I mention that the temperature speeds up the process and hardens or cures the compound? And did I tell you it is HOT!?

Somehow we managed to squeak every drop out of the can to cover everything we needed. We destroyed several brushes, but it was done.

The only unfortunate thing is that we came up short on one side. We should have started in the middle and worked our way down each side. Either the dinghy was super inflated due to the heat or we were supposed to stretch the rub rail more to make it fit. Too late now, we cannot start over–it is stuck on good!

3″ section that came up short.

We let her dry overnight which gave it strength of 32 lbs per square inch. Pretty darn strong.

A Cartagena Fort, Castle, and Bastion

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The Walled City is a giant fort in and of itself. The construction of the Walls of Cartagena lasted nearly two centuries, ending in 1796. The historic center is complemented by fortifications and bastions, where you can watch sunsets. The Walled City being the largest Cartagena Fort.

In addition to the 7 miles of stone walls that make up the Walled City, you can also visit other forts. Matt and I had fun exploring several of them.

One of the largest structures built in Columbia is Castillo San Felipe de Barajas which is a World Heritage Site. San Felipe de Barajas castle was the only access to the city from the mainland. Not sure if a castle constitutes a Cartagena Fort, but just go with it.

We arrived at the Walled City just as a tourist bus unloaded its passengers. Drat! We bought our 15,000 peso tickets and scurried up the hill to get in front of the crowds. Most of the people were not the “scurrying” type so we had some time to explore on our own. This was a very large castle. It just kept going and going and going. We were able to stand on the walls, check out the bastions, and go on a quest underground. They opened up several underground tunnels where we believed the soldiers slept. We were not sure as we did not buy headphones or go on an official tour.

Images: Matt inside a bastion, me next to one, shot between the walls. Matt in a tunnel, fort walls with modern city in back.

Castillo San Felipe de Barajas

Images: Fort entrance, me with a pretty view, me locked up, sleeping quarters, and wall exterior.

Castillo San Felipe de Barajas

As we were coming out of one of the tunnels, a tour group was at the entrance. The guide was showing how they built the tunnels in such a way to always protect them from intruders. He joked, in English, that we were pirates so when we came out, I said “Argh, give me all of your money” which garnered muzzled laughs.

On the far end of the Walled City, we discovered a construction zone. They are building an huge entertainment area. New restaurants, bars, shops, and an enormous round outdoor theater are being built. I sure wish we could see this completed – what a hoot it would be to see a play here!

Round theater being built above and image of completed project below.

The Baluarte El Reducto is part of the walls of the Historic Center of Cartagena. It is a fortification bastion facing the lagoon of San Lazaro. It was the first work of fortification enclosure built as a result of the enlargement of the city. On top of the fort is Casa Cerveza, a restaurant that has a beautiful view and a great name! Who wouldn’t want to live in a Beer House? (Casa Cerveza=Beer House)

View from Casa Cerveza.

EL fuerte de San Sebastian del Pastelillo is where Club de Pesca is located which is one of the 5 marinas in Cartagena. Even though there is not much left of the fort, it makes for an impressive entrance to the marina. I can imagine you’d feel safe keeping your boat within Cartagena Fort waters.

Fuerte Sansebastian

We visited several bastions:

Baluarte Santa Catalina
Baluarte San Pedro Martir
Convento de San Diego

Walking around town we found this cool world map

World Map – where are we?

End to a perfect day – Matt and Teo

Matt and Teo walking and talking. Photo credit: Jon Wright

Día de la Independencia de Cartagena

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Columbia offers many beautiful destinations, but bring Sugar Shack will only see Santa Marta. We originally thought about sailing her down to Cartagena, but after arriving in Santa Marta and doing a little research, we felt it’d be best to leave her in Santa Marta and take the bus into Cartagena.

Cartagena in the distance.

Our twelve year wedding anniversary is November 11 which also happens to be Cartagena’s Independence Day celebration. Seems like a perfect time to go on a new adventure, don’t you think? Jon, Mia, and Teo on “Itchy Foot” decided to come on this journey with us.

Pedro de Heredia, a Spanish Commander, founded Cartagena de Indias in 1533. Its rapid growth began after the establishment of the Viceroyalty of New Granada in 1717. The Silver Age of the city is the period between 1750 and 1808. Cartagena became the richest city of the colony at that time.

On November 11, 1811, Cartagena declared its independence from Spain amidst the Peninsular War, which became Latin American Wars of Independence. Cartagena’s Independence is an important milestone even though the city was almost destroyed in 1815 and Columbia didn’t gain full independence for several more years.

Twenty people were took the Marsol to Cartagena which took a little over 4 hours. It was a nice bus with reclining seats and AC and it made one stop for food and bathroom breaks.

Comfy little buses transporting us to Cartagena.

We checked in to our respective hotels and set a meet up place and time. Matt and I stayed at Casa Ebano 967 for a whopping $35 per night. Matt is almost touching both walls under the AC unit and the bathroom wall was not much bigger. It wasn’t big, but it was clean and safe.

Entrance to hotel, two pics of small room, street of our hotel and bathroom in our room.

We walked to the Walled Colonial City or “ciudad amurallada” which consists of the historical districts of El Centro and San Diego. It is a real gem of colonial architecture, packed with churches, monasteries, plazas, palaces, and mansions with their overhanging balconies and shady patios.

The old town is surrounded by Las Murallas, the thick walls built to protect it against enemies. Construction began towards the end of the 16th century, after the attack by Francis Drake; until that time Cartagena was almost completely unprotected. The project took two centuries to complete due to repeated damage from both storms and pirate attacks. Only in 1796 was it finally finished, just 25 years before the Spaniards were eventually expelled.

Entrance to Walled City.

Walled City from the parade route.

The streets are lined with colorful store fronts, offices, apartments, cafes, hotels, hostels, and more. Several have over scale wooden doors with ornate knockers or smaller doors built into them. Some are topped with beautiful flowers crawling below their roofs, and yet others sit vacant and alone.

Pedro de Heredia was a Spanish conquistador, founder of the city of Cartagena de Indias.

University of the Arts located in the Walled City.

Beautiful Colored buildings inside the old city.

Tons of flowers grow on and around the buildings.

Many buildings had large wooden doors with smaller doors built inside and large knockers.

Church dome at sunset.

Another beautiful dome at sunset.

Love these buildings sprouting with blossoms.

Matt, Me, Teo, Mia, and Jon. Photo Credit: Jon Wright

Playing with the shadows. Photo credit Jon Wright.

As we made our way to the parade route the crowds great louder. We saddled up to the crowded barrier and waited for the parade to start. Evidently, Columbians like to celebrate with foam. They sell foam canisters for 5,000 pesos and everyone is fair game. It did not take long before we were covered in a soap type foam that dissolved into a bit of a sticky mess. Nothing mattered, everyone was fair game and everyone got hit or sprayed, many times.

Oh ya, this tastes good! Photo credit: Jon Wright

There is a parade in the back ground. Photo Credit: Jon Wright

Mia and Jon have been foamed.

The parade started and captured our attention. It was a beautiful display of costumes, music, beauty contestants, culture, and history. Many men dress up in female costumes which is part of their heritage. There were also many men dressed as woman celebrating LGBT we assume since they were out in full force too.