Daily Logs

Gertha 5 - Pacific not passive

02.57 N 83.56 WLast 24 hour has been squalls, afternoon was raining elephants and dinosaurs, now back to good sailing, Yanmar is having a restSea was a brown red colour with lumps of wood, must be something in the current department Inside temperature is 28 , the major deck washing has cooled the boat.. read more...

Gertha 5 - Very passive Pacific

05 .11n 82.16wNot much wind out here, but we are getting the chance to work the fuel consumption/ engine revs figures.We will have to pace our selves to cover distance to Galapagos.Repaired a solar panel, started and nearly finished a book, cooked chicken curry.Living the sea life in the slow lane.. read more...

Gertha 5 - Pacific

06.39N 80.27WShelter bay is behind us Panama Canal was fun, waking at anchor in lake with jungle noises all round.Panama City, enormous, I took one look and ran away.Now we are in Pacific , slow steady progress to Galapagos, the winds are light or nothing, the wildlife is in incredible, rays doing backward flops yesterday. Today dolphins , whales , turtles and birds all around.. read more...

Pat Bon - The Panama Canal

8:54.49N 79:31.40WWe’ve finally made it into the Pacific! It’s been a frustrating few days for the ARC fleet since we arrived in Shelter Bay Marina, which is on the Caribbean side of the canal, due to the fact that the Panama Canal authorities have been drip feeding the boats through for some unknown reason. We had initially been split into 3 groups of 10 yachts to transit together, but only 2 yachts at a time were permitted. As Shelter Bay marina was located in the old US military base of Fort Sherman and far away from any town or life, there was very little to do. We ate our way through the small restaurant’s menu and Nathan arranged for volleyball games + the inevitable beers and G&T’s. This did give us time however, to lift Pat Bon and get her hull cleaned and repainted ready for. read more...

Gertha 5 - Shelter Bay

We are currently in shelter bay, Panama.I do not think the bay was named after a bus shelter, there are buses here but not many, we are a bit out in the wilds.A cross between a deserted US base, a jungle and a well found marina.The bird and wild life in the jungle is awesome.The deserted American base is strange.The marina cannot be faulted; but a regular buss to town would help.We wait for our slot in the canal, maybe this week , maybe next week...Living in a tumble dryer, hot wind all day every day, can not complain, just checked the weather in Suffolk, looks like the lazy wind has set in.. read more...

Aqualuna - The Final Tomato

Leg 2: Santa Marta to Panama via the San Blas Islands - 23rd-30th January 2025. It’s the end of an awesome off-grid week spent laxin’ n’ limin’ round the San Blas Islands but sadly if we stayed much longer we’d probably contract scurvy. The contents of our fridge consist of half an elderly butternut and 3 squidgy onions plus one defiant solitary tomato in the fruit net. We did also have camembert, sour cream and yoghurt but discovered that for some completely unfathomable reason the Colombians, where we provisioned, make all their dairy products “extra salado” and it is so very salty it’s completely inedible ….. so that all went overboard to feed the fishes (which were probably actually the ones we subsequently barbecued. Ah - the circle of life!)We were in fact inundated with. read more...

Pat Bon - The San Blas Experience

After a lumpy 36 hour crossing from Santa Marta to the San Blas islands last Thursday, we’ve moved 40 nautical miles west and left the archipelago. We’re now at anchor behind Linton Island, just off the Panamanian mainland coast and civilisation has returned- well sort of! It is clearly a popular sailing spot here, with a small marina, boatyard, well stocked chandlery and bar-restaurant. We’ve decided to stop here en route to Shelter Bay marina, which is at the entrance to the Panama Canal, so that Nathan can meet a monkey on Linton Island - or should that be vice versa!So what are our thoughts after leaving the San Blas islands. We had heard a lot about them before arriving and they had been built up as being one of the jewels of the World ARC journey, so our expectations were high.. read more...

Aqualuna - Murals, Music, Mayhem ….. and Life on Stilts

Santa Marta, Colombia 19-23 JanSanta Marta is a feast for the senses. As you stroll through the streets you are deluged by a riot of colour, smells, music and mayhem. The city is visually dramatic with the Sierra Nevada mountains forming a spectacular backdrop and the Caribbean Sea in the foreground. Colourful street art decorates many of the buildings and sets the stage against which the life of the city plays out.  If you love people watching you’re in for a treat, particularly in the evening when the city springs into even greater life, and crowds throng the streets enjoying the seafront boardwalk and the central Parque de Los Novios. Colourful restaurants and bars are cheek by jowl in the streets surrounding the parque, and insanely loud music from each one competes for. read more...

Gertha 5 - San Blas

10.15n 78.16wColumbia was good , Mauritz found his favorite cola, a few days spent in Santa Marta and surrounding area.Yesterday was a rufty tufty sailing day, full manly waves in the cockpit and down the back of the neck, waves like sky scrapers.All has now past, sailing slowly to San Blas islands , the night is pitch black, should be at destination in morning.Maybe when we get there we can anchor and swim , but as none of us have any information we may be doing anything .. read more...

Pat Bon - We’re in Panama - yay!

Even better than that - we’re in the San Blas archipelago, home to the Guna Indians and what a home it is too!We delayed departure from Santa Marta for 24 hours as the weather forecast was not great for the crossing from Columbia to the San Blas. The weather system in this part of the Caribbean, especially from Santa Marta to Cartagena, is known for it’s fierce winds and steep seas at this time of the year - in fact we all commented at one point or another that this must be the windiest part of the world! The winds are usually light’ish in the morning, but they get up to 35+ knots by midday on land and even more offshore in the acceleration zone. These continue well into the night, so probably 18 hours of strong winds. You need to try and get 100 miles offshore before the acceleration. read more...

Pat Bon - Santa Marta, Columbia

We safely arrived in Santa Marta marina on Thursday morning, after slowing down to allow us to enter this harbour in daylight. As predicted, the winds really picked up off the headland and we had 38+ knots over the deck at one point with very confused seas. Sadly one of ARC yachts suffered severe damage to her boom and mainsail (the beautiful 74’ Solaris Luminous 3) and all the yachts ahead of us reported very strong winds. It’s so easy for a dream to get snuffed out if the wrong decisions are made, so we’re pleased we took the prudent decision to drop all the sails and motor the last few miles to across the finish line.Nearly all the ARC fleet have now arrived, with just 2 yachts yet to arrive. They left St Lucia late due to technical problems. We’ve enjoyed our time here, once again. read more...

Aqualuna - I Can Definitely See The Pub From Here!

Day 5 of Leg 1: St Lucia to Santa Marta, Colombia (Day 8 for the fleet)With 138 nautical miles to run - and less than 24 hours to go - we can see Columbia. So thrilling! This is the furthest west we have ever sailed and we are super-excited to overtake fellow fleet boat ‘Misfit’. Okay they’ve actually been moored in Aruba for several days - but hey, when you’re so far behind everyone else we’ll take anything as a win!We’re just coming around the Peninsula de la Guajira and are expecting the wind to increase substantially as we start our final run down to Santa Marta - probably 35-40 knots as we approach. But for now we are revelling in champagne sailing, sparkling sunshine and flying fish a-go-go. As we’ve rounded the cape, the swell is now coming from behind us and the boat has steadied. read more...

Gertha 5 - Columbia

We are now on the headland that for us marks the first view of ColumbiaFamous for strong winds, we have little wind with all our washing out to dry,Will we make port before dark tomorrow before dark?Anybody’s guess.First fish of this leg, a tuna. No one is taking responsibility for the catch, Mauritz put the line out Dougal saw the fish caught , I blaged the gear of Ed. read more...

Aqualuna - Errrm …… Whose Idea Was This???

Day 2 of Leg 1: St Lucia to Santa Marta, Colombia (Day 5 for the fleet) Having focused all our excitement, energy and resources into leaving yesterday, we are 24 hours into the first leg and have now started wondering which one of us should shoulder the blame for thinking it was a good idea to sail round the world. (I’m certain it’s not me ……  just sayin’!) I guess we should have had an inkling when we left St Lucia in a lacklustre drizzle that seemed set in for some time, but in a bizarre break with tradition we have barely had a glimpse of Carribean sunshine or blue seas since we left. Instead we have been sailing through the most dismal conditions that I think I have seen since leaving the English Channel. Menacing rain clouds, pregnant with their watery load are. read more...

Gertha 5 - Going west

Now pushing west with proper wind.The last 2 days have been a mix of light and not much at all. With added bonus of random rain showers.. read more...

Pat Bon - Columbia Here We Come!

12:16.1N 72:19.2W We’re currently about 20 hours from the finish line of the 1st Leg from St Lucia to Santa Marta in Columbia and so far, the passage has been good. We’ve had a few rain squalls a couple of nights ago, but apart from that, it’s been classic trade wind sailing all the way. 15 to 25th of north easterly winds. The seas have been pretty kind too! Crew and yacht are all going well, although four days at sea and the crews minds are wandering! As we were sailing past Aruba, Val was trying to think of the words of that classic Beach Boys song featuring Aruba - Kokomo “Aruba, Jamaica, ooh, I wanna take yaBermuda, Bahama, come on pretty mamaKey Largo, MontegoBaby, why don't we go?Jamaica” She then started singing it and now none of the crew can get the tune out. read more...

Gertha 5 - Barcelona

13.06N 63.21WWe head for Barcelona. Not the one in Spain,to one in Venezuela .Noneed to panic ,at some point we turn west before going aground.Someone somewhere has said best wind is this way.Will report on strategy in a few days.Sun is shining all is good. read more...

Aqualuna - Left Behind but Not Left Alone

Yesterday was not a good day and we were unable to leave St Lucia with the World Arc fleet.The last few weeks have been a high octane roller coaster of emotions, stress - and fear that we might have to pull out of the rally altogether as we’ve steered through an on-going engine problem with conflicting diagnoses and much teeth sucking from “well these 6BY3 Yanmar engines are absolute rubbish - what can you expect?” (not true) to “o without doubt you’re going to need a new engine and we can do that for you for US$50,000” (also not true!)The “total oil pump failure” was in fact a software update that was needed for an engine interface. So over Christmas and New Year (not stressful at all!) we managed to get an updated one sent to St Lucia with FedEx delivering on time (yes!) and getting. read more...

Pat Bon - We’re Off!

14:2.4N61:7.9WWe’re 2 hours into the race and passed all the race marks off Castres and now set the course (260 deg) to Santa Marta in Columbia 800’ish nautical miles away. Perfect conditions - 12kn of wind from the ENE, hardly any swell and lovely and sunny. We have our full mainsail and large gennaker flying and we’re doing a steady 7.5 to 8 knots. Couldn’t really be more perfect. Currently lying 5th in the fleet, which we’re very happy with. As we keep on reminding ourselves, this is a marathon not a sprint. We’ve got 4.5 more days of this, although the winds are due to increase as we approach the Colombian coast. Pat Bon’s crew have estimated our estimated arrival times crossing the finish line off Santa Marta (local Columbia time -5GMT) as:Val: 17:30 WednesdayPeter: 17:59. read more...