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Cartagena, Colombia

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Crews of Njorth Clan, Bonnie Doon, Mir and Champagne This place is astounding. I know I say that about everywhere but Cartagena feels like home. We arrived to the sound of a viking horn from our friends Henri & Siska on Lille Ø and spent the first week exploring the city with them. The place is rocking at night so colourful, clean and the locals are really friendly. The food and booze was cheap and everywhere made a perfect margarita. Buying the tasty ants. They go great with a margarita Local delicacy, I love them A lot of history here. We visited the torture museum, an ironically beautiful building in the old town, were they conducted the Spanish inquisition. I knew nothing about the Spanish inquisition. Quite disturbing especially some of the devices used. We visited the  Castillo de San Felipe de Barajas with Clare from Champagne. Mandy under the statue of Simón Bolívar the Venezuelan dude responsible for Colombia's, and many other South American countries, independenc...
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Christmas in The Cayman Islands

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When we planned this trip 6 years ago one of my objectives was to Sail to Grand Cayman to see our buddy Tim . Woo hoo, we did it! It was only just over 10,000 miles sailing. The last leg from South America was 640 nautical miles, pretty much the length of the uk. It took us 6 days. The first 2 were uncomfortable, the next 3 were champagne sailing and the last day there was no wind so we had to motor.  Halfway We arrived in Georgetown harbour at the same time as 4 cruise liners, they are big, and we were escorted to the customs dock by the super friendly harbour patrol amidst the madness of 4 cruise liner passengers being shipped ashore. Mandy waiting for me at Customs dock while I check in my speargun.  (Not allowed here) When I came the Cayman islands 35 years ago to see Tim I thought to myself "Wouldn't it be cool to sail into Georgetown harbour?" Not in a zillion years did I think I would ever do it. But here we are, on a mooring ball in Georgetown watching the cruise ...
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Hell and heaven - The Keys to Turks and Caicos

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So we left The Florida Keys on the next available weather window for the 600 mile trip east (ish) to the Turks and Cacos. It started well, we champagne sailed for 12 hours without the autopilot just using the sails to steer. Then the weather turned, nothing like the predictions. We had 25 knots of wind gusting to 35 on our nose for 4 days. We were not planning to go to the Bahamas as they want $700 for a 3 month cruising license but we did cut across the south end of the Great Bahama bank. It's very shallow, around 8 metres deep, so the waves are small but the frequency was not good to be bashing into it. It was hell, we were burning through our fuel like a Saturn V rocket and only doing 2 knots. (that's 2 days to do 50 miles) After 2 days we were looking to bail out somewhere as we were running out of fuel. The only places were either go back the keys, Cuba (they have no fuel in Cuba) or the Bahamas ($700) Then the genoa ripped. We argued, for the first time on the boat. We we...
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