Tulla Mhor - Santa Marta to San Blas Day 12-14

We had a bouncy, frisky, boisterous, hairy, scary, exhilarating (?!) sail down to San Blas Islands from Santa Marta. After prising ourselves off the pontoon we started with an optimistic single reef in the main sail. This was soon increased to 3 reefs as we stormed away from the Columbian coast towards Panama. The seas were large with 4m waves and confused, hitting us from all directions. Shamal, a much larger and heavier boat then us, was just behind us, was tossed about like flotsam; Tulla Mhor could only have been worse. Anne was sick with food poisoning and had to go to bed, Dugald was also sick with probably the same. As night fell we took away the gib and sailed with a fully reeled main. Our auto helm held up and kept us on a steady course although there was some extreme. read more...

Tulla Mhor - Santa Marta day 6-12

Santa Marta is a lively, fun, interesting city. The Santa Martians (as they are probably not called) are very proud of their city and country so are welcoming and pleased to impart lots of information. Key Santa Marta facts we were told several times: Santa Marta is Columbia's oldest city; the Sierra Nevada behind Sant Marta are the highest coastal mountains in the world at a snow capped  6000m; the great liberator, Simon Bolivar, lived and died in Santa Marta, he has numerous statues around the city and his house is in a park and open to the public.Columbia has had a difficult and violent past but the area around Sant Marta is now opening up for tourism and there is plenty to see and do. The marina is in the centre of the city so it is an easy walk into the main town with lots of. read more...

Tulla Mhor - Day 1-5, St Lucia to Santa Marta

We had an emotional leave of St Lucia. Eilidh and Scott had travelled up to Rodney Bay from Soufriere to wave us off. Hugs from all the boats around us and 'see you in Columbia'. Leanne and Derek kindly gave us a new boat mascot, a kangaroo now called Tullaroo. We will be taking him back for a visit to his homeland.We are only at sea for 5 days so provisioning was not so traumatic except there is not much fresh fruit and vegetables to buy in St Lucia. This seems strange as it is a tropical island with lush vegetation and plenty of rain. There are plenty of bananas, great for daiquiris, but otherwise very limited.After an exciting start in Rodney Bay we headed south to just off Castries and then turned west to Columbia. The bay had lots of boats out to see the fleet off and there was a. read more...

Tulla Mhor - Recovering

Have been here for 5 days now and beginning to feel normal. Our boat has been beautifully cleaned by a team from Vision yacht service and is very shiny. Inside cleaning is a little slower but I am getting there and Tulla is starting to look more like her old self. Andrew has flown back home and Hugo is returning next week for his family Christmas. Kate and Colin travelled home yesterday.It was lovely to see them and really appreciated the welcome. We have been meeting up with friends from the Canaries and had more parties and drinks. All together a great experience and achievement for everyone.All that is left is the Tulla prize giving:Bake OffBread:HugoCakes: ValPudding:DugaldSweepstake for arrival time: Andrew5 Crowns card game champion: HugoMost likely to say 'let's put a reef in'. read more...

Tulla Mhor - day 22: Arrival at last

We have landed. On dry land in St Lucia. We crossed the line at 09.30.16local time which meant it took us 3 weeks, 30 minutes and 16 seconds exactly. Ifonly we had a better start we could have shaved 5 minutes off! The last night at sea was quite surreal and was the roughest weather we hadall of the trip. All was good late afternoon/early evening. We had are usualgame of cards which Andrew won. Had supper which was one of our less gooddinners but I was beginning to flag about meal ideas and most of the better moreinteresting food had been eaten. The boys then decided to have an open air cinema, watching Top Gun, one oftheir all time favourites. Hugo fixed up a bluetooth connection so the soundtrack played thru the cockpit speakers. The laptop sat on top of the companionway hatch and we. read more...