Our arrival at San Andres joined us with the group of boats touring the Western Caribbean this season called "The Susie Too Rally". Under the auspices of the Ocean Cruising Club, Suzanne Chappelle was leading a group of almost 70 boats, split into 2 groups. It had been our plan to join this group from the outset, to sail with them from Curacao in November. Circumstances had thwarted this plan - but our long sail up from Colombia had put us back on track. Although we were somewhat daunted by the prospect of sailing within such a large group, the benefits of security (in an area that has a reputation for pirate attacks), the possibility to learn and extend our knowledge, and re-joining friends and forging new friendships with like minded people were all good reasons to join in. And so, on our first morning in the San Andres anchorage we were introduced to the rally group over the early morning "net" - a vhf briefing held by the group each day.

When we went ashore it was good to be met by old friends who were able to show us around and introduce us to other group members.

Our time in San Andres was a bit of a blur. We had various boat jobs to get done;- commissioning our water maker - which, having been in a marina we had not needed until this point; investigating the cause of the "clonking" on Robbie (some loose bolts); measuring up and ordering a new batten for our mainsail (to be delivered by our friend Suzanne); commissioning our new dinghy and general cleaning up after our sail. David was on a hunt for decent wifi in order to do some skype job interviews. We discovered that internet services (like all other provisions - including fruit and veg) are delivered from mainland Colombia, hundreds of miles away, and are therefore of variable, but mostly poor quality. We discovered the best internet on our last day, in the very flashy and amazingly well equipped new library.


San Andres is Colombia's holiday island; Jets arrive from mainland Colombia with city dwellers looking for sand, sea and fun. Tintamarre was anchored at the back of a big, slightly rolly anchorage with poor holding, so that although our own anchor held us securely, other boats around us dragged their anchors and slid around rather alarmingly. The dinghy ride into the island dock was choppy, long and damp. Ashore we found a slightly run down resort town. The streets were busy with cars. The shops were themed around the duty free status of the island - stores selling cheap liquor (£4 bottles of rum), alternated with fancy clothes stores. It was harder to find useful shops - a small supermarket, a hardware store, a pharmacy. We didn't really have time to miss the fact that we had not yet been able to swim in the Caribbean Sea - I'm sure there must have been nice places to swim on the island, but we didn't find them in the few days we were here. I enjoyed a "ladies day" outing, with a leisurely lunch at a rustic beach restaurant whilst Andy caught up with some paid work projects.


After just a few days here it was time to "check out". Although our next port of call was to be another Colombian island paperwork had to be filed, passports, boat papers shown and dollars handed over. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the mass exodus seemed to overwhelm the local agent. Our paperwork declared us to be Canadian! All was resolved, and at 5am the next morning we raised the anchor for our sail north and east to Providencia 65 miles away.