St Marta

Salsa af Stavsnas
Ellinor Ristoff Staffan Ehde
Sun 3 Mar 2013 14:05

To make a long story short, we are now in Columbia. The sailing down here went smooth until we came close to the peninsula that has all the horror stories you can think of. We arrived at the peninsula by midnight and as the waters were getting more shallow tha waves started to pick up. We had prepared by setting a course so we would have them from behind. Thank god for that, they piled up like mountains and as a cream on the cake the wind just picked up from 14 knots 41,6knots in split seconds!
We had already prepared for that by having little sail up but it was still amazing to experience these forces! Genua completely rolled in and 2 meters of mainsail out was enought to keep Salsa going. Sunrise was 30 minutes ahead of us so they could give us a preperation forecast as they were shooting along. But suddenly they were approached by the coastguard that demanded all their attention so we where on our own. As we closed in on St Marta we were wondering how to handle the boat in such strong winds getting close to harbour, but the wind dropped to almost zero, once we were in.
Great feeling to have made one of the worse five routes in the world with no problems.
Well ashore we can only say, yes now we are travelling! This is South America! A great feeling to sense new smells, cultures etc. Everyody is so friendly it could not be better.
The marina is fantastic and the prices are really much lower than we have experienced before.
The city is very busy but we will try to get to the country side.
Will get back with more on that.
Our plan is to stay for a few days and then move on towards San Blas, weather permitting