Friday morning we woke up just before the crack of dawn in hope that there would be less traffic surrounding the marina so that Coen could climb up the mast without being thrown around like a cowboy trying to hold on to a bull. We established the day before that we had a new problem with the mast. The new bracket that the fore-stay attaches to – that Coen had made for him – started to slip down the mast as we were tightening the fore-stay. Not good. We even took an angle-grinder twice to shorten the fore-stay before realising what was going on, so we might have cut it too short already. The message was clear; we had to somehow move the clamp back up and think of a way to keep it there. It seemed that the new clamp was a tad too big and it obviously wasn’t tightening properly.
We had breakfast and enjoyed the nice sunrise over Cartagena before hoisting Coen up the mast to fix the problem. Meanwhile the lady’s had some washing and other chores to get on with so they took the dingy to shore. Coen managed to move the clamp up and fix the position of it by tightening the bolts and attaching some cords to the top of the mast to stop it from slipping down. We then tried to attach the fore-stay and it still had just enough give to fasten it, thank the earth. The fore-stay was now tight and the clamp didn’t slip. Job done and a sigh of relief from Coen followed by a can of beer and a few laughs.
For the rest of the day we did some shopping in town and stocked up on water, beer, food and dollars. We also got Coen a good rum called Caldas de Viejo as a present that we discovered while in Bogota that he seemed quite happy about. By the time we got back from town, the passports and crew-list that the agent took to customs were delivered and the documents were prepared for us to depart.
In the evening, Coen invited the nice Australians and American sailors on-board for a good bye drink and then we all went to the culturally lively Trinidad square in the old-town for a tasty burger and beer. We took the dingy back to the boat and got our heads down for a good nights sleep.
