We spent two weeks in St Lucia at Rodney Bay Marina before heading off to Santa Marta Marina, Colombia.

The time was taken up in getting final bit and pieces done for the World ARC safety inspections and general getting ready jobs. The WARC office opened on the 5 Jan and we discovered some old faces and new. Lots of things don't change much in these parts of the world - which is really quite nice. Egbert is still the main engine maintenance guy and serviced our engines for us and got us parts for doing our own for the next few services. Years ago he installed our new generator on Chat Eau Bleu. Gregory still comes around the marina and anchorage selling fresh fruit and vegetables and anything else he gets his hands on. Peta, our main WARC contact from the last WACR was also in St Lucia - great to see her again!

There was the usual round of welcome drinks, parties and farewells. There are 42 boats on this ARC compared with only 13 on our previous one 10 years ago. So, a lot more people to get to know and remember! About 140 in all. There are only two Australian boats - mostly USA and Great Britain with a scattering of European. No one brand of boats is dominating the fleet so the various performances will be interesting. We, of course, are the only power boat. A couple of boats have commented that we could be a fuel bunker at sea for the fleet!!- we don't think so, we'll need every bit for ourselves….

We've been having trouble getting Shaunagh's Colombian visa sorted but the ARC has steeped in with contacts there so we've got fingers crossed. South African passports are not easily received, unlike many others that have reciprocal agreements with most countries.

Peter and I went out for a BLT one day for lunch and I came down with a horrible stomach thing for nearly three days - luckily it went away quite well but I did miss an WARC function. Next thing - Max got something the same but he soldiered on.

Finally we were able to get out spare hydraulic steering apparatus out of customs with the "help" of an agent who took a fair bit of prodding. When we had tried to clear in our extra fuel bladders Max actually had to go there and have a tantrum! Shaunagh's visa came through the day before leaving, so then we checked out fuelled up and got out into the bay to await the start. We hung back at the beginning to let the racing sail boats get a clear shot at the line then eventually passed them all. However, it wasn't long before some of the faster ones caught us with clear wind away from the island. I had set the tracker to 4 hourly too soon so we didn't show properly at the start on the YB app.

The trip to Santa Marta was uneventful - just a little drama with Starlink. Our providers for some reason had our data turned off! A call via satellite phone sorted it out in minutes but we are seriously going to change from a Spanish provider to an Australian one. This is not the first time we have had a glitch. the satellite phone refused to work for a bit but sorted itself out eventually. This happens if it's not been used for a while.

The weather was benign and we got a great current with sea and 10 knots wind behind. At one stage we had 11 knots with 1500 rpm! We arrived with high winds, for the first time, which made the fuel dock a bit of a challenge. All immigration procedures went well and easily many thanks to ARC people for their help with Shaunagh's visa. Off on a tour tomorrow.