This is a story from a fellow sailor who had a completely different experience to ours sailing past the notorious Colombian coast.

We had perfect conditions, even leaving the spinnaker up at night, which we normally never do. We knew this area was a hot spot for high winds and in turn very high seas. Which is why we didn’t spend much time in Aruba. When the weather looked right we knew we had to go, or else we may be waiting a long, long time. We were lucky!

We met Des, a fellow South African sailor who has sailed all the way here from South Africa single handed! Des left Sint Maarten in the Caribbean in perfect conditions. However whilst at sea and as he got closer to Colombia those conditions changed and he found himself in a life threatening situation with huge seas and no autopilot. With huge waves breaking into the cockpit he had the life raft ready to deploy should they need to.

We had to tell Des’s story to warn others of this notorious stretch of coast. Looking online it has caught many sailors off guard. It is rated at one of the 5 most dangerous areas in the world.

This is Des’s story – we think its an exciting one!