Our journey is taking us near the ABC islands, Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao. Previous colonies of the Netherlands they are north and a little east of the massive Gulf of Venezuela. We are still regarding them , particularly the last one Aruba, as a bolt hole if the weather becomes too rough.

The weather broadcast this morning was rather better that yesterday's, still forecasting 30 knot winds on Saturday but moderating throughout the day, easing to 20 – 25 knots Sunday and easing further on Monday. This probably means that we won't break the voyage but we wait to see what tomorrow brings. The next part of our passage is supposed to be one of the 5 roughest in the world. The trade winds accelerate as they near the land and are further enhanced by the funnelling effect produced by the Colombian coast. The forecast went on to say there would be an unusual 2 or 3 days of calm weather later in the week so hopefully we will not arrive too early, although as I write we are storming along in the dark at 9 knots under reefed twin foresails.

This morning we were visited by a Coast Guard plane spanning low over the sea. They took a look and flew off. It may be part of a search and rescue that is going on for a single handed boat. This is the 3^rd of these we have heard about: the first we heard of when crossing the Atlantic was missing on passage between New Foundland and Bermuda, next a fisherman from Grenada who set off in his boat and hasn't returned and now this recent boat which has been missing for several days, let us hope he is found. We are quite pleased the Coast Guard has seen us, they must have picked us up on their radar, perhaps they will keep an eye out for us.

We haven't caught any fish yet this trip but we did have a tiny one swimming in the heads this morning, he was pumped out and hopefully was able to cope with being flushed round the U bend! We also still get the odd few flying fish on deck in the morning but so far too small to eat. A pilot book we have on board suggests that we will be overcome with fish as we approach the continental shelf where upwelling waters bring cool nutrient rich water to the surface. We will report on our success.

Saturday, 20^th February

As we leave the ABC islands and Venezuela behind to the east we are sailing further in toward the coast. We crossed most of the Golfo de Venezuela far out during the night, here there are many Venezuelan oil platforms and installations, we thought we might see tanker ships in the sea area but saw only one which quickly passed us. So far we haven't met the 30 knot winds predicted for today but we are only just coming into Colombian waters north of the Peninsula de Guajira which forms the north western headland to the Golfo de Venezuela. The boat is sailing beautifully under goosewinged foresails, steered by George the windvane and carrying us along at 6.5 knots.

We have sailed from St Lucia on a course of 270º for 613 miles with 24 more to go to our first way point just north of Punta Gallinas lighthouse on the tip of Peninsula de Guarani. We then must change course to follow the coast to Punta Hermosa at Barranquilla then another course change to scoot down to Cartagena giving us a further 300 miles to go.

Land Ahoy! We have seen the coastal strip of the Peninsula which is very low indeed 4 miles to the south of us. We can see a trawler with trawl booms out much nearer in to the coast. There are hills or mountains in the background but they are vague with distance and haze. Apparently some of the mountains further inland are so high they are permanently covered in snow, it is the only snow that can ever be seen from the Caribbean Seas. It is really exciting to have made this new land fall, especially one so different from the towering windward islands that we have left behind.

The wind is a perfect easterly of about 25 knots and the sea has calmed right down now that we are in the lee of the land. Let us hope “one of the 5 worst passages in the world” remains so benign. (I think the person who suggested that had not tried a summers day on the North Sea.)