October 1, 2012

returning home

After the end of october I was not able to fly anymore because of the baby and my eight months of pregnancy. during the month of november I stayed home in florida and esteban in cartagena getting the boat ready to sail back home in december.


Peter flew from london to sail the boat with esteban from cartagena to florida. there were two possible routes planned. the first from cartagena to san andres, then the north of honduras towards yucatan in mexico; a stop in isla mujeres and then a final sail through the gulfstream from mexico to key west. the second was identical to the leg we had done several years before when we departed.: due north from cartagena to jamaica and then from there through the windward passage to bahamas and finally bordering cuba all the way to miami. peter and esteban finally decided on the second route. it was shorter and had less days and miles of not so favorable wind direction. they left club nautico on december 15 and had to come back that same night. the wind from the north was stronger than predicted and they could not make any progress out of cartagena. so they went back enjoyed a last unexpected club colombia (beer) and sailed back out the next morning. the sail was rough as expected. to us, this was unbelievable. the single most difficult leg of our entire circumnavigation through all the oceans in the world was the leg from cartagena to jamaica. it was tough when we did it southbound back in 2009 and also tough now in this northbound direction. we had rough single storms in other places but they never lasted more than a day. the problem with this leg is that it really had no storms or really nasty weather, it is simply unpleasant with big waves and a lot of wind from the wrong direction for five days straight. that is why we hope not to have to sail this leg a third time.