Islas Fuerte is located 20 miles off the Columbian coast 40 SW of San Bernardo. It makes for a good sail with the NE trades.
Along the way we saw only two other boats. One was a fishing trawler anchored in deep water and just covered with birds. It was an interesting site. The other boat first seen on the horizon was coming straight toward us, exactly on our reciprocal course. There was something familiar even at a distance, Gary recognized S/v Pangea with our friend Captain Tristan whom we met months earlier in Cartagena. We had lost contact with him and as luck would have it, here we are, miles from anywhere, sailing right past each other. It was a ‘grey poupon’ moment.
After abandoned attempts at ‘rafting’ due to the afternoon swell, we settled on radio contact. We used the VHF and ‘caught up. After a great chat, we set sail and watched Tristan sail in our wake into the horizon.
Two hours later we arrived at Isla Fuerte. This anchorage was pretty much as Tristan had just described, having just spent a ‘rolly’ night. We confirm his findings.
We were greeted by a ponga with a group of local fisherman. They saw that we carried a spare outboard motor. They wanted it!. Over the next couple of days they tried to ‘acquire’ it. It was friendly enough and some cash was offered. It was yet another good reason to have our chief of security ‘Doc’ aboard to discourage any ideal hands of those passing close in the night. A few days later another vessel in the anchorage was boarded and ‘lost’ their outboard. This is not a place we would recommend.
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