San Andres - Colombia again
Innamorata
Steve & Carol
Sat 16 Mar 2019 16:27
12:34.58N 81:41.508W We left Linton Bay at first light and set off for the 220 mile passage north to the Colombian island of San Andres, we were hoping to average between 6.5 and 7 knots for the trip and arrive before dark the following evening, Incentive and Mora decided to do the trip over 2 night as they didn’t think they could sail as fast and arrive in day light so left much later in the day than us. We left as soon as it was beginning to get light with 2 reefs in the main and a reefed genoa, we were sailing into the wind close hauled for a change and so we were heeled over. After a couple of hours heard 2 of the Shelter bay rally boats on the VHF, four boats had left at a similar time to us but we were a little ahead of them, we should converge on each other as we near San Andres, the rest of the group have chosen to make the trip over 2 nights like Incentive and Mora. Later in the day as the wind and seas decreased and we were able to go to full main, genoa and mizzen - we had a really rather good sail - it's not often we spend a night with 3 full sails up, there were a few times in the night when the wind fell below 10 knots when we thought that we might be going to get in later than we hoped but we needn’t have worried as the second day saw steady force 4-5 winds and relatively slight seas so we had a great sail and made good time arriving at the entrance to the harbour at about 2pm having sailed the whole way and averaged just under 7 knots. The water colours as you come into the harbour are glorious variations of turquoise and blue - a very pleasant sight after Linton Bay!   Raven Anchored near to us.  Though we spoke to both Numa and BeBe, we only saw Numa who was catching us up in the last few hours before we arrived. There were 2 group 1 rally boats Alia Vita and Raven still at San Andres so we chose to anchor with them, soon Numa arrived followed by BeBe, a couple of hours later Schlos Ort and finally just as it got dark Picses who had had engine overheating problems on route. Steiner and Steve went to meet him in the dinghy and helped him , Stiener jumped on board and guided him sailing into the anchorage, where they dropped the sail and Steve then pushed him with the dinghy to an anchor spot helped him safely anchor. |