bocas de ceniza

on top of the strong wind and rough conditions we had to cross the mouth of the magdalena river, at a place called bocas de ceniza which is known for constant formations of sand banks, strong currents, rough and confused seas, and even debris floating around such as tree trunks and dead cows. not a place we were looking forward to sail through. but we had to inevitably. So we set a course to sail 3 miles from land and passed the mouth of the river there. when we got close, we saw waves crashing against what it looked to us as sand dunes!! our harts stopped when we thought we were sailing directly towards land. fortunately we soon realized there were no sand dunes. rather, there were only waves crashing against the strong current of the river and the totally brown color of the magdalena not mixing with the blue ocean, made it look as land. the boat moved so much when we were crossing that half of mile stretch that we decided to strap ourselves to the boat, something we never felt we needed to do before. After the experience, the seas started to calm down (to still rough conditions), but under the circumstances, it seemed to us the seas were actually smooth. sadly the color of the water remained dark with a hint of green or brown. it seems the river darkens the waters of colombia from its mouth to the west all the way to cartagena and probably beyond.