Greetings. After many promises and good intentions, I have failed miserably at keeping up with this blog. And yet, here we are. Together again.
We are in Santa Marta, Colombia, on the cusp of the beginning of our adventure with the World ARC. The start was delayed from today until tomorrow due to high winds, thus allowing us to spend a few minutes together.
The very good news is that, in the time I have not done the blog, they have made remarkable updates that have eliminated almost all of my frustrations. Witness the ease with which I just added the photo at the beginning!
Here’s the short version of what has happened so far. More details to be backfilled later.
Left CO Springs, spent night in Ft. Lauderdale to make travel more pleasant. I congratulated myself on packing an overnight bag so we didn’t have to lug all our stuff to the 4th floor of the hotel. Joe wakes me with the good news/bad news thing. Good news – we can quit worrying about extra bag fees on the Colombian airline. Bad news – 9 of 11 of our bags were stolen out of the rental car. Lots of sadness and distress because 2 precious journals I’ve kept for our girls since birth were in the bags (Cobin’s was full and left at home).
I can’t dwell on this now. Everything else could be replaced and we did a crazy shopping spree before leaving the next morning.
Flew to Santa Marta, took a taxi to Puerto Velero where Joe, Phil, Tim, Logan and Lucas sailed it in December. 1800 miles, beating into the wind except one day (another story).
Stayed on the boat a couple of days then Joe and others he met sailed the boat upwind 50 miles/18 hours (very unpleasant conditions) to Santa Marta while the kids and I took a taxi and stayed in a hotel with a pool and a nice view. Yes, I have a nice husband.
We’ve been in Santa Marta ever since, meeting the other boats on the ARC, putting things away, buying things, putting more things away, fixing things, breaking things, putting more things away, fixing things that were fixed and then broken and then fixed again, etc.
My mother very kindly flew down with a bag laden with more stuff that my father very kindly tracked down all over town to replace things that had been stolen.
Met lots of new people, new boats, new puppies and are doing our best to soak it all up and start sharing our experiences! Like the flooded galley on the return from shopping and Joe and the pink hat.
S/V Pinut and its puppies 
Dulcicreme 
Joe and the pink hat