on the high seas again

Well gang, it has been a while since we posted. I have been playing with our new, other blog http://www.svcalusa.org/ and have neglected this one. So Sorry! Well to catch up- We arrived back in Curacao mid-January and immediately began working on Calusa. We hauled out in the marine yard and did some basic and much needed bottom work; sanding,scraping,patching and finally painting. We also did a lot of deck stuff but most of it was for appearance only, like cleaning the stainless steel, polishing the old plastic hatches, scrubbing the deck "scrub ye barnacle" and four days of washing, polishing and waxing the topsides (the hull). What was most fun and rewarding was the interior work we did. The new corian counter tops are such an improvement over the old black mica. We also repaired a few leaky port lights (windows that don't open) and repaired some of the interior cabin walls were the leaks had caused rot. All in all we are very happy with the work done in the yard and Calusa looks beautiful! After we left the yard we headed to the east end of the island for a few days of R&R after 3 weeks in the yard. From there we beat against the east tradewinds back to the beautiful island of Bonaire. Bonaire is amazing and was well worth the effort to get back. We stayed for 3 weeks there just hanging out on the mooring and diving almost everyday. Incredible diving! Nancy joined us there for 10 days during her school break. It was great to have her onboard and we had a really great time alternating between relaxing and exploring (mostly relaxing). Our next destination was to Aruba. We had not planned on going to Aruba initially but, once we decided not to go to Venezuela it made more since to stop there b/c it is on the way to Columbia. I am so glad we did stop b/c the island is beautiful and we had such a good time there. We stayed for about 10 days during which we explored the island, took advantage of the Renaissance Marina for 2 days (pools, suana, gym, private island) and provisioned for the next leg. So this brings us up to date almost. We left Aruba and sailed for 5 days to get to Cartagena, stopping in a few select bays to rest up and to time the various passages. Sometimes we set sail in the morning or during the day, sometimes we left in the middle of the night b/c you have to time the distance to travel with the sun so you can enter the bay and anchor with light left. All in all it was a great passage. The Columbian coast is notorious for foul weather. In fact it is rated one of the worst five in the world. However,we saw only a little of that and we were headed the right direction for it. Calusa is such a beautiful and strong, sea-worthy boat. We love her! So here we sit now in Cartagena. It is an amazing city with a nice mix of the old, fort enclosed city and the new modern high rises and hotels. the people are friendly and it is very safe here where we are. Not so in other parts of Columbia but, Cartagena is one of the World Heritage cities and a major tourist destination for Columbians and foreigners alike. We like it very much so far. Our next destination is Panama but that will not be until May. We are getting our canvas work done here and I will keep you posted on that and other events as they unfold. Chris arrives here on April 12th and will sail with us for a couple of months. We are very excited about that! My love to you all and as you know, you are all welcome to join us anytime, anywhere. Don't forget to go to our blog for more pictures

Hasta luego Ro & JW

PS I cannot seem to attach a picture b/c my link to the web is sooo poor. I will try to edit later and add a pic or two. In the meantime go to www.svcalusa.org