Sunday 4th December – And we are off!

Wow the past 6 months have flown by. Hard to believe we are back on PolePole heading for our next adventure – crossing the Pacific.

We packed a lot into our travels home….. a 60th celebration, 3 glorious summer months at Mettingham. In September we explored the stunning fjords of Norway in the Campervan. En route we finally connected with my nephew Lovat in Denmark with his baby, we were meant to meet him in the BVI on our first year sailing, Covid interfered and he moved to Hong Kong. October we explored Zimbabwe in a rented 4×4 with a roof tent, with some very exciting safaris in the National Parks. Han popped over from Botswana to join us. Phoebe and Daniel flew out from New York, it was quite an introduction to Africa for Daniel. November we spent visiting family in South Africa, Rowan spent two weeks looking after his aged parents who have reached a great age, he helped get 24 hour carers sorted, so they can stay in their own home. I had two blissful weeks at the farm I grew up on.

All these months the delivery vehicles have been beating a well worn path to Mettingham as Rowan and I order things for the boat. It wasn’t surprising when we did our manic pack up, in our week back in Mettingham, to find we had 4 enormous bags each weighing around 30 kgs and an air con unit for our cabin! We barely fitted into our taxi from Mettingham, full of trepidation we set off to Heathrow. Luck was on our side, by the time Rowan had moved 20kgs of books (all Pacific cruising guides!) into hand luggage, we made it through with – 5 kgs of pecan nuts from the farm in S Africa, 2kgs coffee, 20 bags of tea, 6 jars of homemade marmalade …..

We arrived in Santa Marta marina in Colombia early Friday morning, a great flight and all 5 bags cruised out on the conveyor belt, giving away none of their contents. Guiltily we ambled through nothing to declare and we were soon reunited with PolePole. Hector and Oscar the boat guys from the marina had done an excellent job of looking after her, keeping her clean, and running motors and pumps.

In Santa Marta marina

Unpacking and provisioning!

We had planned to do a few maintenance jobs, but the howling wind meant it was not going to be possible. We soon realised we had a weather window coming up to leave on Sunday or Monday and after that a big weather system was forcast which would clash with picking Luke and his friend up in Panama on Saturday. That just left us getting everything operational and doing a huge provisioning for the boat. Supplies in the San Blas islands are scarce and we plan to be there until the end of January, with quite a few visitors along the way. We organised Hector’s wife to take me to the fruit & veg market, but it all got lost in translation, we took a taxi to a manic part of town and I bought rather third rate produce from street vendors. She insisted there was no big market, contrary to our cruising guide book.

Saturday afternoon we were getting under control, everything unpacked and put away, water maker working and sails up. We made the decision to leave Sunday, Rowan handed in our passports to customs to get our exit papers for the next day. We caught a taxi to a big supermarket and did an enormous shop, 3 trolleys worth. Loads of booze for Christmas! We had a last walk into the old town for supper, we have grown very fond of Santa Marta, we really enjoy the buzz and the friendly locals. It feels a lot more vibrant and busy compared to June, maybe just the Christmas buzz. The marina is full of cruising yachts, before it was just a handful of boats.

We woke up to calm conditions which was a huge relief, as getting out of tight marinas in a howling wind is not pleasant. After a bit of an Argie Bargie, Rowan finally got our passports and exit paper just after 11am. Some rather stroppy Frenchies had barged the queue, demanding to be released, so delayed us a little bit. It was all a little tense as we had to be crossing the huge Magdalena River outlet in good daylight to avoid hitting logs and debris. A German sailor had told Rowan it was like going through a maze avoiding debris, which rather put us on edge. Hector and Oscar came to help us off, which all went well, and after a brief stop at the fuel dock to top up the tanks we were on our way.

Leaving Santa Marta with our new ensign

We had dolphins escort us out of Santa Marta, which was a lovely way to depart a place we had got to know so well. The wind picked up to mid 20’s, the sails went up like a dream and we were off. The poor old main sail had obviously been sitting in water so looks a bit grimy but otherwise it was a huge relief to have everything working. Rowan was very chuffed as after about an hour we shot past the Frenchies, who are in the exact same model as our old boat. Thank god the blog is password protected so I don’t have to worry about outsiders reading it!

Our escort out the bay

After a couple of hours we suddenly hit this dramatic line in the sea changing from deep blue to pure brown, reminded me of the river water on the farm I grew up on. It was about 3:30pm and we had reached the Magdalena river outflow, thankfully we still had daylight although quite tricky looking into the sun. I was chief spotter, I sat up front with binoculars, gripping on furiously as the water was a vicious cauldron of choppy waves, from the meeting of current, river outflow and wind. Rowan had me come back to the mast as it was getting a bit hairy. Luckily I never spotted a thing, so we must have caught it right. There are two options for crossing it, either close to land so less distance to cross or to go miles out to sea. We went the shortest route and left the Frenchies way behind!

We had a gorgeous sunset to celebrate being safely out the other side of the river mouth. Just amazing as everything calmed down the other side, the wind died down and the waves flattened out, which was a good thing for our overnight passage.

Sunset, with our fresh fruit and veg provisioning

With steady winds just below 20 we had perfect easy sailing with just a few cargo ships to pass. We were both pretty knackered, I just managed to stay awake for the first shift to midnight.