As the day comes to a close, the wind drops and it’s time for supper.
Sailing across the Pacific some 3,000 n miles - we are closer to the space station team than any other humans. It’s amazing sailing so far with the last 24 hours we covered some 228 n miles, this current 24 hour period we could break this record and on course to do 236 n miles!
During the night we crossed the Equator so now we are in the Southern Hemisphere, the squalls were just awful though with extrem heavy rain that went on all night. So this morning a good cup of coffee and chocolate biscuits to keep the skipper going.
Asante World Tour
St Lucia to Santa Marta Colombia
What a leg it was – After the start in St Lucia we had sailed all of 15 miles and did a full function check of Asante as normal. Sadly, the engine had decided to go on strike and did not start so we sailed back upwind to St Lucia, dropped anchor under sail and waited for a tow into the marine. Simple problem a wire had broken on the starter solenoid all fixed and time for a quick ice-cream and off we went again some 5 hours later to try to catch the fleet up.
Full sail and trade wind sailing in 18 to 22 knots wonderful, little did we know! Our first stop was Santa Marta in Colombia – as we listened to the daily SSB radio calls with the fleet we could see the wind and sea gaining power with many yachts being damaged from broken spinnaker pole, damage sails, auto helms not coping with the sea state, and water entering the cockpit with two catamarans having an indoor swimming pool. As we started to catch the fleet up, we experienced a few days of seas of a good 5 meters plus waves and winds constantly around 38 to 42 knots. By this time, we had two reefs in the main and genoa going down to just the main sail and no genoa. Asante just keep powering through the massive waves surfing at over 16 knots keeping us safe and dry, while we looked behind to view huge seas towering above our stern.
As we got closer to Colombia, we knew we had to get into Santa Marta, the mountains that drop to the shore create very high pulsing katabatic winds what joy! Our ETA into Santa Marta was to be around 0130 hours in the morning and we must go between two large rocks to enter the port area. As we started our final approach with 10 miles to go, pilotage plan done and using radar to navigate, the winds just increased, we had 3 reefs in the main and no genoa. Asante was screaming along, then the winds just got silly, pulsing between 48 and 54 knots never dropping below the 48 knots, waves well who knows the size, too dark and best no
Lovely day for a sail - on passage to San Blas islands slightly big seas and strong winds
Quick live update 90 miles offshore.
Boat = Break out another thousand, weekend of yacht maintenance
New Blog update - https://www.footloosesailingadventures.com/blog/
Time Flies
Our first stop in the Caledonian Canal was at Seaport Marina Inverness, which gave us the opportunity to spend a few days carrying out cleaning and maintenance tasks on Asante. We had the opportunity to have a date night and revisit a restaurant we first visited back in 2019 with our good friends Joe and Cally. The steak was still good as was the red wine.
As we started to make our way through the canal surrounded by the stunning Scottish mountains, I realised it was over 30 years since I had first transited the canal along with my 3 children on a yacht.
It had been 4 years since Fiona and I had made the journey on our last sail around the UK.
But this time it felt different. With just the two of us on board and 10 days to transit we had ample time to visit and explore places and for me to seek out any ice cream parlours. (I found quite a few).
Our first venture past a swing bridge and into a lock had the friendly lock keeper asking if we could go faster so he could shut the swing bridge sooner and allow the traffic to move again. We explained going faster was not an issue but explained a 36-ton yacht going at speed would be a challenge to stop. Word soon passed down the line from lock keeper to lock keeper that Asante would not be hurried. The lock keepers were very friendly and helpful all asking questions on our travels. With word out that we were sailing around the world via Scotland questions were asked at each lock about our adventure - while I asked where the nearest ice cream shop was.
The slow pace of life was lovely. The weather had turned warmer, and we had the opportunity to anchor off Urquhart Castle. With the mountains running straight to the loch shore It was a challenge to find shallow enough water to anchor in. In the end we anchored in 20 meters of water. The rib was put in the water and a visit to the castle was made with some wonderful views from up high.
What an opportunity - Steam train ride in Scotland as used in Harry Potter. Amazing views.
Passing under Kessock bridge Inverness - I made sure our clearance height was calculated correctly with the bridge clearance and height of tide to get through.
