A Rough Ride to San Andres

Once again I am able to divorce my hairdryer in exchange for crazy curls and embrace being shoeless, bra-less, and fancy-free - surfing the waves at last, just the way we like it

Yesterday was our last day in Shelter Bay Marina, and we have finalized our sail plan. Originally, we planned to head to Jamaica, but after monitoring both weather and swell, we realised the conditions would be too rought and the sailing too dfficult. So, we have decided to put Jamaica on hold and may visit it on our way back south when we need to move out of the hurricane zone.

🌎 The new plan will be Shelter Bay -> San Andres -> Providencia - two small Colombian islands that look worth a visit for a few days. The sail will take about two days, giving us a gradual break into being on the water again

🌎 Then we will head to the Cayman Islands, where we will stay for a while - though we are not sure how long yet. We will figure it out based on how much we are enjoying it!

The wind looks great for sailing, but the swell is expected to be large, hitting us just off our beam (front of the boat). It might feel like being in a washing machine for a while, but hey - that is all part of the adventure!

Since we will be rolling around and running different shifts than before, I have carefully prepared meals to avoid unnecessary cooking or food prep. This way, we can maximise precious sleep and downtime. A huge thanks to Nadine Lahana, health and wellness coach, for keeping me motivated to keep it clean and super healthy, rather than just preparing for a convenient sail. This will be a very healthy journey! Shelter Bay Marina has been fantastic, and we will gladly return here for hurricane season. We feel comfortable leaving our boat here for as long as needed.

We will cast off in about 30 minutes! Eric has posted a tacking link that updates every 10 minutes, so our location can be seen by anyone interested. 

It has been almost 24 hours since departure and it is really been a rough ride, the swell is enormous and getting us on the side, waves crashing into the boat constantly and into the helm, so we really are rolling around like crazy.

With the first minutes of leaving the Marina and exiting the harbor mouth we started getting thrown around like a wet rag. A 10-litre water container flies to the ground, of course it must open, I mean why would it stay closed, so i had water swishing all over the inside of the boat, and down the stairs. Slipping around in it to find a cloth and a bucket, I eventually seated my butt on the floor to start the clean-up ... picture the site right, I do not have my sea legs yet 😡. Before i know it my little induction plate flies off the counter and attacks me, thankfully it hit me and not the floor, otherwise it would have been glass and water!

Naturally Eric could not help me as he was bouncing us out of the harbor.

It was a long night for both of us, so not much sleep for either as the bounce was pretty extreme and loud so just not a comfortable situation. The swell has been between 3,5 and 4 meters with a 7-8 second intervals.

The good news is that we have been able to sail on the genoa the whole time so no motors which we just love. The wind has been a consistent 22 knots 70-80 degrees on starboard. Speed has been good averaging around 6,5 knots and often going over 8 knots. If we keep at this, we will arrive in San Andres at around 17:00 our time today!

Let us go sailing they said, it would be fun they said ....

Anyway, we are both in good spirits and patiently waiting for arrival and a good rest.

A Dramatic Nigth Time Entrance into San Andres

What started as a smooth arrival turned into a classic sailing chaos!

Everything was looking good, we were on track to anchor before dark. But, as any sailor knows. plans at sea are about as reliable as a weather forecast!

The entrance to the harbor was long, and by the time we reached the anchorage, we were in complete darkness. The last time we attempted a night arrival was in Walvis Bay, and let us just say ... it was a quite the spectacle, back then, we had five crew member and ten eyeballs scanning the horizon, this time, we were down to just four eyeballs and a whole lot of wishful thinking.

Navigating through the anchorage, we quickly realised this was not going to be easy, shadowy wrecks unmarked, boats on mooring balls had zero lights, and just a spice thing up, sandbanks were lurking below the surface calling for us to land on them. As Eric steered blindly, I was darting back and forth on the port side, trying to be his extra set of eyes since he has zero visibility on port at the best of times. 

Finally, we spotted what we thought was a good anchoring spot, dropped the anchor ... and nothing. It would not hold. So up she ame, down she went, up again, down again and just when my frustration was reaching its peak, and of course Eric's was at a way higher level than mine, someone would not stop calling us on the radio. All I could think was "shut the f#€%"#k up!" 🤐

Meanwhile, the wind was howling, the current was shoving us around like a toy boat, and Eric was fighting to keep us in place. What I did not realise at the time was that thanks to our brand new sun enclosure, he could not see a thing behind him or on starboard. Turns out, what is perfectly clear in daylight turns into a nightmare at night - a rookie mistake we will never make again! In a mad scramble, we started rolling the enclosure up as fast as possible, and the second Eric got his visual back, the stress level dropped dramatically, though the challenge was far from over.

And then, in that moment a German appears in his dinghy .. in nothing but his underpants. Yes, you read that right - a German sailor in his dinghy wearing underpants, you know those righty whitie type of undies 🤪, having arrived earlier in the day and knowing exactly where the best anchoring spots were (except his of course!). With his guidance, we respositioned, dropped anchor again, and .. nope, still not holding. I lost count after five attempts. Just when we thought we had it, the bridle came off, and to make things worse, my retrieving line knot failed. Rookie mistake #2 of the night! Trying to retrieve that bridle was an absolute nightmarem but eventually, finally, the anchor hooked solid!

And just like that, we were done. Exhausted, sweaty and very salty and probably a little traimatized - but securely anchored at last. Lesson learned: Night anchoring is never boring!