This has been our wildest, toughest passage EVER!

Sometimes I envy Dave's hearing loss as he slept most of the short night through bands in TWO different locations which seemed to be competing against each other- simultaneously.  There must have been a special celebration for the local people, complete with a dancing competition.  We kept hearing crowds cheering on their friends as the music accelerated and increased in volume.  Then, when there was a lull long enough to drift off around midnight, we were propelled from our beds by loud bangs!  It was an amazing fireworks display- right over the anchorage.  What a terrific send-off!

RODADERO AT NIGHT.

By 0200 hours we were underway.  We had planned to travel wing-on-wing, but when we set the jib, we found we did not need the main.  The early part of the journey was great!  We were "flying" along and the seas were quite comfortable.  Delightful!

However, (you were expecting that, weren't you?), the seas and the winds continued to mount until we were being tossed about in twelve-foot seas and buffeted by winds up to 36 knots!

Then we hit the turbulent turgid waters of Rio Magdalena!  This added a "debris watch" and freighter avoidance to the mix.  We were SOOOOO happy to get out of that dirty brown washing machine and into clearer waters again.

The seas continued to be absolutely enormous and the winds extremely powerful.  Furthermore, where we had been advised to "keep your eyes open at all times" for wrecks and rocks,  everything was indistinguishable in the haze.  We made our way to the Punta Hermosa headland, giving a wide berth to the growing sandspit, as advised.  We went from waypoint to waypoint, on target, but, although the GPS said we were only a mile away from the anchorage, we could not see KARA DREAM or the anchorage.

Technically, we were right on target.  However, all we could see ahead was a visible reef!  We finally realized that a waypoint was missing from our menu- namely that of the entrance to get behind the treacherous sandspit!  We were in the hook of said spit and the anchorage was on the other side!  

Once the problem was discovered, the remedy was obvious and we were never so happy to drop the hook, say hello to KARA DREAM and DARRAMY and..............SLEEP111