Position at 17.00 UTC: 4 degrees 06 minutes north, 80 degrees 55 minutes west
Sorry – I gave the incorrect web address if you want to turn these positions into a dot on a map. The correct address is:
All's well aboard Maunie and we are delighted to be making good progress under sail again. The wind died last night at around 8.00pm so we motored at our most economical engine speed (about 5.5 knots of boat speed) through the night and both slept well in our off-watches. This morning the wind returned – a nice Force 3-4 – so we hoisted the Parasailor once again and are currently doing a steady 5.5 – 6 knots towards our next waypoint off Malpello Rock, a lonely Columbian outpost.
The morning's radio chat revealed that the boats that are 120 miles ahead of us have no wind and are still motoring so, whilst we expect our breeze to die later, we're keeping fingers crossed that it'll hold out as the sailing is just pretty perfect at the moment.
We're eating well, as always. Just before we left Panama City we bought lots of steak and chicken and vacuum-packed it before putting it into the fridge. Last night was an excellent chicken curry and tonight we'll use the minced beef for a chilli so that we can reserve the brilliant fillet steak for later in the week. Lunches are still healthy salads but the lettuce looks as though we only a day or so more to enjoy it before we have to swap to pasta salads. On passage we are a dry ship (apart from lots of water to rehydrate) but have to admit to a cheeky chilled beer each with the curry last night and it was very good!
Graham has been playing with his new toy – a GoPro waterproof video camera – so expect some videos on the blog when we find wifi in Galapagos. We are aiming for Isla San Cristobal where the town of Puerto Baquerizo Moreno is said to have good facilities and will be a good base to explore and see the wildlife. The formalities and rules are extremely tricky (Galapagos is a province of Ecuador and is run by the military) so we'll have to employ a local agent to get us through the red tape. Anyway, that's days ahead – meantime we have to keep Maunie sailing without, we hope, too much reliance on the engine.
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