Four days crossing the Caribbean, and no sign of Johnny Depp.

On Monday morning we cleared customs and immigration, Monday afternoon we got the boat ready to depart, and Monday evening and night we motor sailed round the western end of Jamaica and eastwards along the south coast. The idea was to have a better angle for the winds when we set out across the rougher waters of the southern Caribbean.

We stopped on Tuesday morning and dropped anchor to give a break for lunch, dinner, and snorkeling at Alligator Reef. It was a longish swim from the boat to the reef, but worth the effort. I was able to sneak up on a couple of roosting Magnificent Frigate Birds.

“Magnificent” is part of the name, so even if one of them wakes up in the morning with a hangover and is having a bad feather day, they are still officially Magnificent. It’s kind of like being born a Kennedy.

The reef was shallow and we had to snorkel in between coral heads.

A question for my marine biologist friends. If you find a bottle that had been in the ocean long enough for coral to start growing on it, is it better for the marine environment to leave it there or take it home and throw it in the trash?

On the way back I spotted a great creepy crawly. Sherri, who had gloves on, dived down and picked it up. She also looked up the species in a fish book, and it is apparently a Fire Worm.

We also spotted a couple of species of eel that were new to me. They were wriggling along on the in the sea grass looking just like terrestrial snakes.

This one is a Goldspotted Eel.

After lunch on Tuesday we set out further east along the Jamaican coast and then turned south for Colombia. We arrived Friday evening. The winds got stronger, and the waves got bigger the further south we got, so by this morning we were dealing with 10 to 12 foot waves and winds gusting to 30 knots. But the boat is sound, and the skipper and crew know what they are doing. We all did fine and are still married.

This part of the Caribbean is empty. Not only was there no sign of Jack Sparrow, we only saw one other boat and about three seabirds the entire crossing. There were however many flights of silvery flying fish skipping above the waves.

Living on a sailboat in heavy seas gives you all the lack of coordination and nausea of being blind drunk, with none of the euphoria. Cooking became impossible. By the third day we were living off ship’s biscuit and weevils. (OK, granola bars and cheese sandwiches.) Tonight we are anchored in the harbor. Tomorrow the fleshpots of Cartagena await.