We departed at 0742 and arrived in Catagena at 1350. AÂ few fishing boats came quite close to us at times, but other than that, nothing but really ugly coastline, with try sunbaked shores and an uninspiring buildings.
Seven hours of motoring it took to get the Cartagena. We need to get some maintenance work done on the the boat and deflate the dinghy so it can be put away for our Atlantic passage down to the Canary islands. If we don’t need it to dinghy ashore then we may as well pack it up and put it away so that the foredeck can remain clear. Currently it is lashed down to the deck on the bow.
When we arrived in port there were a lot of Spanish naval vessels and a super yacht owned by the Dallas Cowboys owner. We got the masthead finally fixed, and also got the bow flood and steaming lights back to their correct switches. A shower fitting was also fixed, and though he tried his best, the maintenance guy diagnosed the stove top issue but did not have the part to fix it.
We walked around the old town, visited some ruins and went to the top of the hill for some panoramic views. Really nice city, and if you didn’t go to the top of the hill you wouldn’t know that the city stretched many, many miles inland.
Really nice place and really happy people. Such a tonic. By this stage in the journey, I had gone through and broken 4 sets of sunglasses so needed to find one pair more to get me through the next part of the journey.
There was a huge redevelopment taking place on the harbor side of the city near the marina. A lot of time and money going into it and it will look beautiful. Should be similar to the Malecon in Havana and Puerto Vallarta.
Very happy people, nice stores, good restaurants, and the National Museum of Underwater Archaeology and Historical Military Museum of Cartagena were both worth a visit.
Cartagena Calling
Cartagena’s location was formed around a very protected bay allowing marine traffic a good place to load and offload their wares and it soon became an important commercial hub.
The harbor has 5 large hills surrounding it and this gives the occupiers great strategic advantage for looking out and defending the port and its city. In 1944 during World War II, a huge 100m long undergroud submarine complex was built to house Spanish submarines. The work was never finished and though it is still on military property the u-boat pens are easily seen from around the harbor.
Cartagena also has another famous submarine story. You can read more about it here.
