Mistral of Portsmouth - Santa Marta

Well - what a place! Big buzz, cool vibe, super hot temperatures! We loved it. Lots of breeze in the marina which was modern, clean and friendly. The marina sits at the edge of the old town which has a permanent carnival atmosphere - loud, colourful and relaxed. The streets are narrow, incredibly badly kept (pot holes, broken pavements) and carry hundreds of mad motor bikes and many small, old and battered cars. Electric cables form a birds nest at every corner. Restaurants carry signs confirming no guns inside (thank goodness for that!). Music comes at you from every direction - occasionally, total sensory overload!

Chris and I did a half day city tour with other sailing crew … out of the city to see a national park with the Sierra Nevada mountains in the distance. The park was a monument to Simon Bolivar - liberator of Columbia, Ecuador, Venezuela, Peru & Bolivia. Quite a guy and worshipped by one and all in South America. Jane, Tim and I also took a day to go to Minca - a small town in the mountains. We visited a coffee plantation and also the local waterfalls. A delightful day - stunning landscapes, charming town, fascinating coffee tour (never buying Nescafé Gold Blend again - only grade 1 coffee for us!) and a lot of fun drowning ourselves in the waterfalls. Really good to see something of the country - truly whetted my appetite for more.

Back at the marina, social nights were a lot of fun as we got to know our fellow intrepid explorers. Prize-giving followed a formal dinner … we won a prize for arriving the closest to the time we said we would arrive - 4 seconds earlier than we planned! We’ve definitely set the standard on future ETA competitions!

And today, we set sail for the San Blas islands - reputed to be a tropical paradise. We started as usual at noon … Captain P did well as we certainly crossed the start line with the first 2 or 3 boats. The forecast is for lots of wind - 25 knots plus and gusting up into the 30’s. This will sort the men from the boys! On this occasion, we are definitely the boys as many of those sailing with us are super experienced ocean sailors.

Leg 2 Santa Marta to San Blas Archipelago

The start of leg 2 was exciting … beautiful blue skies and sunshine with winds at 20 knots … just perfect. We had all 3 white sails out in full. The yachts looked magnificent as we set off on the next leg of our adventure. Crew Mistral are fit and well and raring to go!

As forecast, the winds picked up quickly. Suddenly we were in 35 knots of wind. We reefed our main sail (the Captain looking anxiously at other yachts not wanting to be the first to be chicken!). Ongoing balance between cautious sailing and going as fast as we can … guess who is for what on Mistral?? In fact, by sundown, all the boats had spread out with no boats showing on our chart plotter. The winds continued to pick up - 35 knots plus, gusting up to 40 knots and with waves of up to 4m - technical term for this wave height is rough. We are once again rocking and rolling. We had a challenging time putting our pole out in the late afternoon. We needed to sail down wind (wind pushing us from behind) wing on wing through the night and getting the pole out requires 3 of us working on the foredeck. Jane strapped on at the mast winding the pole down as the boat rolled through the waves, with Tim and I manoeuvring the pole into position. We had 3 attempts before getting it set properly … clearly more practice is required but great team effort in tough conditions. Captain has not shared marks out of 10!

Jane and I had planned spaghetti carbonara for dinner - perfect in the conditions and beautifully cooked by Jane. So good that she is back on her usual excellent form! With the punchy conditions, night watches are active - no one got much sleep but we were safe and sound as dawn arrived - a safe night albeit a rolly one.

Today brought the same fairly sporty conditions. No attempts to fishing as it feels too rocky to be outside of the cockpit. Lots of catching up on sleep and planning our time in the islands. We aim to get to San Blas at 7am - in the light so we can negotiate the reefs. Can’t wait!

Karen, Chris, Tim & Jane