New crew member

Her second name is Valentina. Young, pretty, cosmopolitan. We met her on our trip through Colombia. One evening we sat in a finca with beer and pizza and told our story. In the coffee plantations around Jardin, this tale may have sounded exotic, but at least we had attentive listeners who could not believe that we had sailed across the Atlantic to Colombia in a sailboat. Just the fact of sitting here now convinced one or the other that there must be some truth to the story after all. Vale, as we call her for short, was also there. Somehow she wanted to experience something like that and spontaneously as we are, we offered her a sailing opportunity. We exchanged numbers and agreed on the beginning of November.

A dog's life on the finca. Jardin, Colombia

Vale is half Ecuadorian and half German. Since Ecuador is on our route and our new crew member wants to go there to visit her relatives, sailing with her is a good idea. Unfortunately she has no sailing experience and how seaworthy she is remains to be seen. However, since she speaks perfect Spanish, she can certainly be helpful in crossing the Panama Canal. So we stay in contact since we met and after our return from Cartagena, she moves on our boat. So now there are three of us. A small challenge on the small catamaran, but Vale settles in quickly and we get along quite well.

Katinka

But as life goes, and especially when you are young, sometimes you are overwhelmed by your feelings and suddenly you no longer know what is right and wrong. Maybe right and wrong are not the terms that should be used in this case. But haven't all of us been there, wanting something so badly, and then the chance comes, and an event occurs that calls into question everything that has gone before? Vale has been fighting with herself for a few days, trying to make the right decision. Nobody can take it away from her and she doesn't have much time left. On Saturday, when the blog is published, we want to leave. The wind has been changing from southwest to northeast again for the past two weeks, finally bringing us the weather window we need to get to the San Blas Islands. The San Blas Islands are one of our dream destinations that we have set our sights on during our trip around the world. After two and a half months, we are happy to leave Colombia and continue our journey to Panama. Vale would rather stay here and what she decides in the end is still in the stars at the moment. In the meantime the Fulmo and the Flip Flop are also in the mood to leave. Maybe they will sail with us or join us a few days later. I am almost sure that we will meet again in Panama.

One of the many restaurants in Santa Marta, Colombia

In the meantime, we continue to prepare for our departure. Routes are planned and entered into the navigation system. Provisions are stocked up and every corner in the ship is utilized for storage. All systems are checked again. Gaby tries again to get hold of a washing machine to do some laundry. So we are quite busy and it is difficult for us to fulfill the set daily workload, especially since both of us are suffering from a severe flu. With tea and various home remedies we try to strengthen our immune system and get rid of the annoying viruses. With Gaby this works quite well, with me rather suboptimal, because we men are of course the more sensitive beings, and suffer from a summer flu much more violent. But even here I have to go through and because Gaby makes no pointed remarks, I have to look pretty miserable. Ultimately helps there only fresh sea air, which we will hopefully have on Saturday from aft. 

Sunset Santa Marta, Colombia 

Today we will go out again to buy fresh fruit and vegetables. Oh yes, and then there are eggs, which are also very important. Once again a stressful shopping day, where we will use up our last Colombian peso. In Panama the US Dollar is in demand again. Then it will also be much more expensive again. So we will concentrate more on cooking on board. I also repaired the fishing rod and hope for fresh fish. Yes and then we will make ourselves a little scarce for the next weeks. On the San Blas Islands the internet connection is not very good. Especially in the south on the uninhabited islands, we will have no internet access. Whether I can publish the blog, as usual, every week, I do not know yet. However, I will continue to record our experiences and, if I can't do otherwise, publish them at a later date. So there will be no gaps. Merely the contributions will be to be read somewhat time-delayed. In this sense, we wish you always fair winds and keep a stiff upper lip. Until the next time, here on Glenswelt.