To Galapagos - Day 7 and Dianne wakes Graham to show her a booby

Pwarrh, what a Booby!

 

Our position as at 18.00 UTC on Tuesday 30th May:

 

00 degrees 28 minutes north, 87 degrees 22 minutes west.  155 miles to go!

 

The wind has been pretty consistent for the past 36 hours so we have been hard on the wind (beating as close to it as possible) and getting used to the consistent heeling of the boat. It makes life pretty tiring as every movement involves some climbing and hanging on but we're pleased to be making pretty fair progress towards our goal, we just need the wind to back round to the SE for a bit.

 

We are now both sleeping like the dead in our off watches but Di woke Graham up at 07.00 this morning to say we had a visitor – a large Booby had its feet firmly grasping the pulpit rail up at the bow as it preened its feathers, seemingly oblivious to the spray flying over it. It stayed for about half an hour then flapped off in search of fish.

 

Our routine has settled down now so there are some regular event, aside from meals, to break up what might otherwise be slight monotony. The morning radio net is now good fun as people get to know each other and share stories and experiences. Salsa (a Swedish Halberg Rassy 45) crossed the Equator at 02.00 local time last night so the kids (aged about 5 and 8) got up to face King Neptune (skipper Steffan) who had draped green-dyed spaghetti over his shoulders like seaweed. The crew were forced to eat some of the seaweed as punishment for their crimes (unspecified) and can now count themselves as amongst the elite band of 'liners'. Other boats reported sightings of whales and sharks (including a shark which breached completely out of the water ahead of them).

 

Another routine has been to park Maunie for supper. We've discovered that whilst Maunie and Stormvogel are amazingly well-match for speed downwind, in these upwind condition we leave them behind; Peter has apparently written about his frustrations about this in his blog! Anyway, we decided that the comfort of having another boat with us (and the twice-daily chats on VHF radio) means that we don't want to get separated so we do a manoeuvre known as 'heaving to'. We basically tack the boat through the wind but leave the foresail sheeted on the wrong side so she stops in the water, the mainsail and yankee balancing each other, whilst Stormvogel catches up. This gives us a welcome opportunity to have Maunie upright and remarkably steady whilst we eat our supper.

 

All being well tonight will be our last at sea and we're really looking forward to anchoring in San Cristobal.

To Galapagos - Day 6 and Maunie gets a passenger

Our position as at 22.00 UTC on Monday 29th April;

 

01 degrees 18 minutes north, 85 degrees 49 minutes west

 

At last we seem to have got away from the adverse current which was making our progress painfully slow and, for the past 24 hours, have been beating to windward and pretty much making our target course to the islands which are now 255 miles away. It's quite tough sailing after all that nice downwind stuff across the Atlantic but at least the boat doesn't roll as much; we just get used to living at a constant 20 degrees angle. WE're less tha 80 miles from the Equator but approaching it at quite an oblique angle so probably won't celebrate our line-crossing until tomorrow night.

 

We had some unexpected excitement as darkness fell last night when there was a sudden fluttering in the cockpit and a small sea bird, some kind of Tern, landed on the seats and skittered about trying to get a grip. It was clearly exhausted and allowed Graham to pick it up and place it on a coil of rope in a sheltered corner whilst it rested; we tried giving it fresh water and some rice but it just settled down and watched us, unfazed by our torch. We were worried that one of us would  accidentally sit on it during the night watch or that it'd just go and die on us so were relieved when it flew off a couple of hours later.

 

The bird wasn't the only unexpected stranger in this pretty empty stretch of ocean. The German yacht Voyager (only about 40 miles from us now) reported in the daily radio net that an open 18ft fishing boat with one outboard engine and two occupants suddenly came alongside them yesterday afternoon. There was a bit of a language problem but Voyager believed that they were trying to sell them fish! What an open boat like that was doing 300 miles from the nearest land is anyone's guess but we assume that there was a mother-ship somewhere in the vicinity; there was general relief that their intentions appeared to be friendly after all the stories of piracy elsewhere in the world (there are no reported problems of that nature here).

 

So, without tempting fate, we are beginning to think about our Galapagos landfall. There are three available ports of entry on the biggest islands and we are heading for Puerto Baquerizo Moreno on Isla San Cristobal, the most easterly of the islands. We're starting to think about likely arrival times as we don't want to get there in darkness. We should have a better idea of an ETA tomorrow and are looking forward to anchoring and returning the boat to the fully upright position once again.

Towards Galapagos - Day 5

Position as at 21.00 UTC on Sunday 28th April:

 

2 degrees 18 minutes north, 84 degrees 3 minutes west

 

We are happy to report that a southerly breeze finally kicked in at about 18.00 last night and we have been sailing ever since, close-hauled and trying to keep on the direct line to Galapagos. The normal advice is that we should have been aiming to cross the Equator at about 84 minutes west but we're still about 140 miles north of it and not making very fast progress southwards. Ah well, at least we are moving without the aid of diesel and the frustrating adverse current seems to have disappeared; looking at the weather files it seems pretty clear that we've left the Doldrums behind us, thank goodness. Dianne's sister Sue wrote to say that there's a YouTube video that's gone viral of a woman sailing a yacht in the Doldrums and she's completely lost the plot, singing and dancing around the cockpit in frustration.

 

Last night's watch was enlivened by a large ship on a collision course, coming straight at us. We were about to call her when she altered course to pass a mile ahead of us so we hailed her on the VHF to acknowledge this. A friendly French voice came back over the radio: "To answer our curiosity, where are you heading for?" – they obviously don't see many yachts around here and he seemed impressed with our destination!

 

All's well aboard. We've settled into the routine of reading, cooking, eating and sleeping in between the sailing tasks but we're both feeling pretty tired so the chance for a cat-nap is grabbed when it presents itself. We have just over 380 miles to go, so hope to arrive on the 1st May (Wednesday) if the wind holds up but Thursday is probably more realistic. Stormvogel is still in sight, about 2 miles behind, though Peter's more than a tad frustrated that he can't catch us.

 

 

Towards Galapagos - Day 4 and the laptop goes in the oven

Position at 23.00 UTC on Saturday 27th April:

 

2 degrees 57 minutes north, 82 degrees 32 minutes west

 

Well, as you'll see from our position we are edging our way ever closer to the Equator and are experiencing the full wonders of the ITCZ or Doldrums; more of this later.

 

We've had emails from several people who have tried the website to plot our position on Google Earth. Our recent crewmember Richard said he had us firmly in Sri Lanka (you'll understand why we didn't let him near the navigation table on the Atlantic crossing) until he realised that any longitudes west of Greenwich have to be entered as a negative number.

 

So we had an interesting and challenging night as we experienced the confused weather patterns of the ITCZ (Inter Tropical Convergence Zone) which hovers around the Equator. This zone is where the north-west trade winds in the northern hemisphere do battle with the south-east trade winds of the southern hemisphere with the result that there's a big patch of little wind and lots of thunderstorms. Last night we started the engine at 7.00pm as the wind died and, during Graham's first 8.00pm to midnight watch, we were confronted by huge black clouds ahead. On the radar the rainfall from them looked like an island about a mile wide and 10 miles long (roughly parallel to our course but getting ever closer) and at it head there were huge flashes of lightning that looked like a giant sea battle.

 

Our course meant we'd cross the storm right where the lightning was most active so the laptop and other electronic devices were put in the oven to protect them in case of a strike (it acts as a Faraday Cage, so the charge runs around the outside of the oven and not into it, goes the theory) and Graham decided to do a 90 degree turn to the north and cut through the tail of the storm. The result was about a mile of very heavy rain but we popped out the other side unscathed, much relieved, and resumed our south westerly course.

 

Today has been frustrating in as much as the wind remained light and we are fighting a 1 knot current against us so have made very slow progress. However all the other boats on the SSB radio net this morning reported similarly difficult conditions and, at least, the wind has returned this evening as we are currently beating into a Force 3, so making about 5 knots, in a roughly west to south south west direction. Maunie is taking the conditions in her stride and Winnie the Windpilot is enjoying the novelty of steering the boat to windward rather than her normal downwind role.

 

We've completed 430 miles of the 900 mile passage so will celebrate half-way in the morning with extra helpings of porridge. After that the next milestone will be crossing the Equator!!

 

 

To Galapagos - Day 3

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:

http://itouchmap.com/latlong.html

 

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.

 

 

Panama to Galapagos, Day 2

Position at 19.00 UTC: 005 degrees, 44 minutes north, 080 degrees, 14 minutes west

 

As promised, the wind returned yesterday evening so, after about 4 hours' motoring, we hoisted the Yeo Valley Parasailor spinnaker again and had some brilliant downwind sailing. Our experience of crossing the Atlantic was that, even with a crew of 4, getting the sail down if the wind increases above 23 knots is challenging so we watched the windspeed indicator closely. Sure enough, it built to 22 knots so we took the Parasailor down just as it was getting dark (though a full moon provided good illumination) – it was certainly challenging with just the two of us but was accomplished safely.  Back to white sails, with the yankee poled out, we were still making around 7.5 knots, with an additional knot of helpful current pushing us SSW. As the night progressed the waves built a bit so it was another of those tricky-to-sleep first nights at sea.

 

Today the wind is dropping as predicted so we're just trying to pick a good line through the calm bits. Stormvogel is, as ever, less than a mile away and there are three other boats we know about a day ahead of us. The twice-daily chats on the SSB radio are a nice diversion from the on board routines and yesterday we refilled our freshwater tanks with the on-board watermaker so a cool shower in the cockpit was very refreshing before lunch. The simple things mean a lot!

Leaving Las Perlas

Position at 21.50 UTC: 008 degrees, 02 minutes north, 079 degrees, 16 minutes west

 

We left the picturesque islands at 10.00 today – with hindsight we should probably have made the break yesterday afternoon as the northerly wind arrived earlier than expected but we weren't ready (stowing away the dinghy and engine and making ready for sea takes time). Anyway we started well enough with a nice 5-hour spinnaker reach in flat water with hundreds of dolphins and even a Leatherback Turtle for company.

 

This passage is a tricky one because we have to cross the equator and pass through the area of doldrums – no wind and stifling heat. That's what we have just now, so we are motoring at our most economical speed, waiting for wind that's forecast to return to us this evening. It looks as though the wind will play hide and seek with us for the net few days so we just have to make the best of it; luckily there are a few boats a day ahead of us so we chat twice a day on the long-range SSB radio to see what kind of weather lies ahead.

 

Apart from overheating a bit, we're both well and are taking a relaxed attitude to what could be a rather frustrating 8 day passage to Galapagos. We'll update the blog with a quick progress report each day and put in our lat / long position. One of Graham's colleagues, Nigel, told us of a website where you can write them in and it'll pin-point our position on Google Earth. Unfortunately Graham has lost the email in a fit of inbox spring-cleaning – he thinks it's www.imap.com but if it isn't, hopefully Nigel will email us with the right one and we'll post it on the next blog.

 

Thanks to all who sent news of home over the past couple of days, it was good to hear from you.