It is one of the most unexpected places on the Planet Ocean. One of those areas feared by sailors for centuries and by circumnavigators for decades. It’s called the Cape Horn of the Caribbean, and some who were shipwrecked there wondered if they should not have named instead the infamous Patagonian Cape, the Cabo de la Vella of high latitudes. To the northwest of the Colombian Guajira Peninsula, the sounding lines rise sharply, and the South American coast, from which the peaks are not far away, create a stormy compression where the trade winds accelerate and go crazy.

This mechanical engineer has a solid technical and nautical background. Born on the west coast of Denmark, he discovered sailing when he was 12 years old. 

“It’s a bit of a similar place to Brest, he believes. Very windy and often harsh: the North Sea can be wicked.” 

Aboard a very old dinghy, he experienced the thrill of frenzied surfing. He was 18 years old when the matter became more serious. He jumped from one boat to another as often as he could and devoured books and specialized magazines. When he was 24 and just graduated, he crossed the Atlantic for the first time. His father who had owned several various sturdy Swedish and Danish 35 to 42 ft monohulls took him to discover the open sea. 

After this successful test, Axel and Lisbeth allowed themselves less demanding sailing. They swapped their monohull for a very large series 38 ft catamaran. On board this boat, they cruised the western Mediterranean, stored nautical miles and practice of multihull sailing, between Spanish coasts and the Balearic Islands.

In 2022, they decided that the time to leave had arrived. And understood that their brave catamaran was no longer suitable for a trip around the world. Axel wanted a more efficient and slightly bigger boat, above all much sturdier. Lisbeth wanted more comfort and more space. Axel was dreaming of a high end 45-footer, Lisbeth was inclined towards cozy models, close to floating bungalows.

A compromise had to be found. 

The Nautitech 44 Open made it easily. Offering performance, comfort, space and structural solidity, she also had the advantage of being more affordable than exclusive models.
Axel has equipped their new companion according to his wishes: 1750 watts of solar panels on the coach roof, a deep freezer and two fridges, the essential watermaker. But he deprived himself of a generator. On the other hand, he chose a powerful twin engine with two 50 horsepower.  “When you must maneuver in marinas, especially when it’s blowing hard, there is no alternative: you need power. And I was not mistaken. With this twin engine, the 44 is really a joy to maneuver. Thanks to her deep rudders and the proximity of the propellers, ideally located just in front of the leading edge, its handling is amazing.”

As Lisbeth did not wish to sail the long ocean crossings, Axel recruited two crew members for his transatlantic toward Saint Lucia, reached in 19 days after a first week with very little wind. After crossing the line, they could have made the most of their stopover in the Caribbean. The boat was in pristine condition, she hadn’t suffered the slightest damage. But his mother’s illness forced Axel to fly back to Denmark, while the Nautitech agent in Martinique took care of their catamaran.

On Boxing Day, Solaris set sail for Santa Marta, north of Cartagena, together with the other World ARC yachts.

As they approach the Colombian coast, the wind strengthens considerably, and the sea deepens. The situation could have turned sour. But the boat behaves beautifully.

“We had almost no canvas left, but the autopilot in wind mode was driving the boat perfectly. In these conditions, the wind mode is essential. It allows the boat to follow the shifts without risking a crash gybe or a sudden broach. Thanks to this, the living conditions on board have remained very good.”

It must be said that Axel used Starlink, his satellite Internet connection system, very cleverly.  “In these regions, weather maps lack precision. I downloaded the radar maps on which you could see the storms, the strongest squalls and the heaviest rainfall. This allowed us to avoid the most active systems.” 

It was simply enough to put the satellite images as an overlay on the nautical chart to get a very clear view of the different disturbances.

Later, in the Tuamotu for example, Axel would use Google Earth to remedy the lack of precision of the charts, when negotiating the most delicate entrances.

But first, after Santa Marta, where they arrived without the slightest breakage to report, they set sail for the San Blas archipelago and a brief stop of about ten days, before crossing the Panama Canal, again without anything to report. Departure from Cristobal à 3:00 am, going through the locks with a catamaran on the starboard side and a monohull on port, peaceful crossing of Gatùn Lake, thanks to the two 50 hp engines and the passage is over in one day.