8 March Last day in San Andres

We've been in San Andres for a couple of weeks, but it's now time to go. I've had a good opportunity to restock on provisions. This might be the best place for the next four months. Providencia has some small grocery stores, Honduras Bay islands are an unknown quantity, Belize reported to be very expensive and then Cuba. Cuba, where rice is rationed and shops have empty shelves. Polly has six months' supplies of dry food and litter, David has engine oil, biscuits and crisps and I have gin. All the basics taken care of I hope.

While we've been here David went to a dentist for a regular check and cleaning. I got my haircut. Nothing to complain about either.

We might not have stayed as long as this if we hadn't been waiting on delivery of a DHL package from the UK. When we were sailing from Trinidad I made the assumption that with Navionics chips for our chart plotter for South America and one for Caribbean we'd have the whole area covered. The Navionics app on our tablet includes both areas in one subscription. It wasn't until we were leaving Panama I made the discovery the coastline of the western part of the Caribbean, ie San Andres, Providencia, Honduras and Belize aren't included in the chart plotter chips. The solution was to order a blank Navionics card (you use Chart Installer app and download the charts you need via a laptop and internet.) The carrier was DHL. The address was clearly marked Yacht in Transit and San Andres is a duty free island so you can imagine my dismay we had to pay import duties. The reason was that the package was getting clearance in Bogota.

Before DHL would release the parcel for onwards shipping we had to pay the import duty, about 20% and worked out on value plus shipping cost. In South Africa I was able to go online and pay with a credit card. Not so in Colombia. They want a bank transfer or cash payment at their bank. With a copy of the invoice in hand we went to their nominated bank, BBVA, and asked if we could make a cash deposit in to the current account. This was met by 'no, you need to go to Western Union'. We are much hampered by not being able to speak Spanish and rely on finding the occasional local who speaks English. At Western Union the answer was 'No. You need to go to the DHL agent'. At the ex-DHL agent (service stopped 8 months ago) 'No. You need to go to BBVA bank'.

An hour and a half later we were back where we began, found another teller who spoke only Spanish yet understood what we wanted and finally said, Yes. Within ten minutes the cash was deposited. I took a photo of the receipt and mailed it to DHL in Bogota and our parcel was with us 48 hours later. Sometimes being a cruiser requires a large amount of patience and resilience.

Tomorrow we have 55nm of close hauled sailing to reach Providencia.