Year 3 -5 February 2026 –Colombo- Galle -Sri Lanka- Return to Stormbird

We woke at a reasonable time and had a great breakfast at the hotel which was impressive. The hotel was hosting teams from the T20 World Cup and we saw a number of teams -Oman, Zimbabwe etc but I did not see any English players.

We got into the van at 9.30am and Chinta took us round parts of Colombo. We saw the Lotus tower, and then the old Cargills building and other colonial buildings round the docks. We then went to Independence Square where there is a statue of the first leader of Sri Lanka when it became Independent in 1948. We then drove round and saw various other areas and the old Parliament Building and the new Parliament building which had been designed by Geoffrey Bawa – a famous Sri Lankan Architect.

We then had a coffee and drove to Bentota – a tourist town on the way to Galle. Chinta had arranged with a friend to give us lunch at his villa. It took us an hour and a half to get there and we had some rain. We had lunch on a lovely platform over the Bentota river.

It was a lovely setting and we enjoyed the view knowing there were crocodiles in the river. We had some curries and Red Snapper fish which was delicious.

Once we had finished we drove back to Galle and dropped Paul and Judith at their hotel. We then returned to the port and made our goodbye’s to Chinta and Setari. It had been a fantastic tour and he had looked after us so well. If you ever need someone to organise a tour for you in Sri Lanka – Chinta is your man.

We walked to where Stormbird was and she was fine. The ladder at the back was filthy and so I wonder how the bottom is. We managed to get down to the dinghy and on board. Apart from being a bit grubby she was fine. It was good to see her again and to be back. We will start to look at the mainsail issue tomorrow.

The fridge has gone back on and we managed to buy some fruit on the way in. Breakfast is therefore sorted.

I hope we will sleep well tonight ready to sort out a number of things tomorrow.     

 The picture of the day is of the statue at Independent Square.

 Need/Opportunity Year Three

In year three I will be going from Thailand to Sri Lanka, India, Maldives and then on to Mauritius, Reunion, Cape Town, St Helena, Azores and back to the UK. 

I am looking for crew from Mauritius/ Reunion Island to Cape Town (mid June to end of July) and from Cape Town to the Azores and then to the UK (mid August onwards). If of any interest do email me.

The blog will continue as we continue the journey. If you have any comments or suggestions about the blog then do email me on hine.nick9@gmail.com