My heart now belongs to Punta - Jeronimo Santos Gonzalez

Jeronimo Santos Gonzalez, Skipper of Punta del Este, pens an open letter sharing his personal highlights from Punta del Este stopover

Experiencing the arrival at Punta del Este was a truly unique event, where it felt like the whole city turned up to the docks to see its beloved yacht Punta del Este arriving into its home port.

As a Spaniard I have been so proud to represent Uruguay in an international event of such calibre like the Clipper Race. Punta del Este has made me feel at home from day one. When we arrived I knew straight away we were going to have a truly Uruguayan experience. We started with a reception at the Yacht Club where our loyal sponsor Garzón provided the much needed celebratory wines after almost a month of intense ocean racing.

As the leader of the Punta del Este team, knowing the great effort the Yacht Club Punta del Este and the rest of our sponsors (Urufarma, Garzon, Santander and Seguros SURA) have done to organise the stopover and have a team yacht in the race, I was ready to give them my all.

The national media was crazy about us, we had more interviews than we can count. The whole city and the country was behind the Clipper Race.

The city organised the biggest welcome asado (Uruguayan barbecue) I have ever experienced. The venue was a wonderful outdoor art gallery with a live band. Punta del Este raised the bar on organising a sailing event.

My team and I joined all the events organised by the yacht club and the city; the Clipper Connect Business Series event brought together the leaders of Uruguayan companies, Race Partners and the British embassy. We joined a local organisation to clean the beach, an event in the yacht club organised by the local young sailors to raise funds for charity. Everyone was so warmly involved and we had the time of our lives.

Two events that really made it for me, the Yacht Club Gala Dinner where we met lots of the club members that have been glued to the race tracker following their team racing across the oceans. The other memorable event was the visit to the Bodegas Garzón, a company that drives on innovation and professionalism. They even produce my favourite wine from Spain, Alvariño.

Punta del Este has hosted world renowned ocean sailing events like the Whitbread and now the Clipper Race on several occasions. Punta del Este is ready to continue hosting major international sailing stopovers to become the go to place in South America.

My heart now belongs to Punta!