We left Santa Marta at first light , having woke up at 6am. The winds were forecast to be light , so we knew it would be a motor-sail to Puerto Velero, 57 nm. SW along the coast.

Our friends Ineke and Mike were stationed at the end of the pier to wave us farewell.

Santa Marta has been a nice stop, we  are going to miss it. From here we have travelled all through Colombia, on their inexpensive transportation system.

Our last days have been busy, provisioning, and getting ready to travel. Our fridge was not getting cold, but under Mikes instructions and use of his hoses, we added more Freon, which solved the problem. With everything stowed away, our forward Vee berth packed with bags of water, and other odds and ends, we left the marina.

It felt great to be back on the water again, after staying 2 days 0ver our one year visa the wind and the waves felt so relaxing.

About 5 miles out we had the Armada Nacional Coast Guard come along side, and  we were asked to stop, they wanted to inspect our vessel. Two officers along with their dog boarded Mistress than sat in the cockpit checking our documents. In the lumpy conditions, they cut the visit short, wished us a good trip, then returned to the inflatable. Soon after we discovered that our fridge was not working, again the temp soaring to almost 80. All our frozen and vacuum pack meats were spoiling. where we are headed to, the San Blas Islands off the coast of Panama have very few stores. We are planning to stay one month, so the meat in the fridge was important.

The Magdalena river which travels from the south of the country and empties into the ocean at Barranquilla is fast flowing and littered with debris. Everything from household refuse,to vegetation to whole tree trunks come floating out just west of the city. We had to keep a good look out, and zig zag around the piles, some the size of a small Island. If we ran into one of these it would have stopped us dead in our tracks in the swells they were quite hard to see. It was a beautiful sunset, but our hopes of making it to the anchorage by dark ended watching the sun sink on the horizon.

We rounded Punta Hermosa in the dark, moonless night then followed the lighted channel to the anchorage other than a fisherman checking his net, we were the only boat there it was 8 30 pm, after our 12hr journey, we would tackle the fridge problem in the morning.

Turns out it was an easy fix, we changed the electrical control module, which luckily we had, but it meant we would have to stop in Cartagena to buy more meat.