After 4 days at sea the World ARC Pacific 2023 fleet have started to reach Santa Marta, Colombia, their first port after the start in Saint Lucia on Saturday 18th February. With 13 boats out of the 28 strong fleet arriving before 08.00 this morning and the second half of the fleet arriving throughout the day it's a busy 24 hours of arrivals. The yellow shirt team are waiting to greet each boat on the pontoons and are looking forward to hearing about the first leg of their journey. The fleet have been keeping family and friends back home updated via the logs and photos sent in from sea and with tales of fishing attempts, baking, haircuts and repairs they have kept busy over the last few days.
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The first boat to arrive at 20.41 local time was A Plus 2, an Amel 54 sailed by Jean and Christiane Metz who will be sailing the majority of the rally double handed. They were followed across the line by Aliena, an Oyster 595 and Escapade, an Amel 50, crossing twenty minutes apart at 21.48 and 22.08 local time.
The weather conditions in Santa Marta overnight were strong with gusts over 30 knots so many of the boats decided to anchor in the bay and wait to enter the marina in daylight when the wind had died down to a more manageable 10 knots. With the remainder of the fleet due in before 08.00 on Friday morning, by tomorrow morning the crews should all be reunited in Colombia for their first stopover and will have plenty of time to explore the area of Santa Marta before the start of leg 2 to San Blas on Wednesday 1st March.