Below is a copy of the daily log Johnny has been keeping onboard. I have also included our daily runs or miles and some photos from the passage. June 29th Departure 2048 UTC lat 00'53 S 090'34 W 7.1kts in the right direction Thank Christ we finally left Puerto Ayora on Santa Cruz such a crappy anchorage. After being quoted $200 for "agents fees" they turned up with a bill for $657! After much discussion and negotiation and being assessed as a 17 ton vessel instead of a 7 Ton (even that's a few ton over) we finished up paying just over $300. There is a bit of trying it on to put it mildly. Food, taxis are cheap. The autopilot Ramases (the mighty Ram) went on the blink again we had to hand steer the last night and day coming in here to the Galapagos but thought it was fixed. Took about one and a half hours to sort it out. Dodgy connection enough current to work when not under load but under load beep beep beep. Thank you Hughey and Ramese's and Jase who tracked it down. It would have been a disaster to loose it two up. June 30th first day out Leaving the Galapagos sure beats getting there. Favorable wind and sea state and off Spirit canters along smoothly. We passed Kevin Butcher just before dark (Racket Roller) doing 13kts and drinking rum and cokes. He was suitably impressed. He's on his own hope he will be ok we will probably meet up on the Marquesas. We met up with Butch and Susan for drinks and meals and enjoyed each others company while in Santa Cruz. He had a few nights with Don, Dick and Sally, who are somewhere ahead of us. The last part of the Galapagos to get around is an old volcano crater of an island shaped like a horse shoe or boomerang. It's a seriously bleak desolate and forbidding site. Almost caught a fish! But it got off leaving one gill on the hook, poor bugger. We have hardly been under 10kts and sometimes over 15it's when we run off a bit north of west to slow things down a bit. She sure jumps to 17-18kts very easily. Position UTC 2055 lat 01'20 S long 094'43 W 2690nm to Hiva Oa, we are knocking the miles off. Daggerboard foot block leaking major effort to stop and fix for the time being. July 1st Finished reading "my old man and the sea" interesting story of a father and son trip around cape horn in a virtue class yacht that was under 30ft. Position at UTC 2105 lat 01'56 S long 098'36 W Quite a day so far. We can not slow the bitch down. Two reefs in the main and she is still bolting a 15kts plus. Jase went up the mast during a running off period to fix the lazy jacks that had the STB lines hooked up. So we were lucky we didn't need to reef last night. Replaced both lazy jacks with the new ones from Merelita. Much better we can now roll then up lace them and avoid chafe on the sail. Also the headsail furler foils were coming loose and chafing the working jib along the bolt rope so we tapped over sized bolts in and used epoxy putty to cover the sharp edges. Should work ok. Omelet for lunch. Hit 19.2kts before reducing sail to a rolled up half jib and three reefs in the main and are still doing 11-12kts with occasional burst to 15-16kts but much easier on everything and everyone. Saw a school of dolphins and tuna jumping super high and a marlin chasing something. July 2nd Oh boy what a new day. Water is warmer and fish on the line. Caught a dolphin fish (mahi mahi) perfect size. Weather improving and wind direction ESE. I guess its the trade winds further north and stronger than usual. Just checked the iPad and it says we are halfway to halfway, 2270nm to go we will knock that off tomorrow. Dealt with a few issues of chafing and leaking. The one solar panel remaining stopped putting in amps. Water had got into a chafed electrical cable so we rerouted the wire, drilled holes through the alloy frame and used rubber grommets from the B&G box to protect the cable where it now exits through the side of the frame. Shit design. Not meant for a boat. Anyway more underwater epoxy and self amalgamating tape has it putting in 8amps when the sunshines. May not have to run the engine for a few hours at night to top up power. July 3rd Mixed bag today sunny early morning then clouded over and piped up a bit. Jase hit 21. something kts on a long surf under control and smooth. We had shaken out all but the last reef so for a few hours we were smoking along, then copped a beauty over the float that knocked the Spirit out of her and prompted tucking the reefs in again. Set up for the night a little early but we won't have to do it in the dark. We knocked the 1000nm off today so we are a third of the way after 4 days. Going good but wet and salty. A flying fish flew in a smacked Jason on the side of the head and ricochet into my back so both of us got hit quite hard by the one fish, what are the odds? This morning 7 squid and 6 flying fish had landed onboard. Position at 2330 UTC lat 04'14 S long 106'35W 1928nm to go! Doing 12.6 in 20kts true breeze just aft of the bream. Near enough to the rhumb line and steering 235 degrees. We've been reading up on the Marquases and we both like the "Bay of Virgins" as our first stop metaphorically speaking. Finally got a sat call through to Butch on "Racket Roller" and he's ok about 300nm astern and closer to the equator. Rang Jim with a position report and he's crook as a chook with a staf infection. No engine needed tonight. July 4th Tried to bend bow rail away from forestay but not really good. Jason whipped up the rail where it's wearing the furler tube should help. just missed a big turtle while doing so, it was a bloody long way from anywhere. Saw a big two hundred ft tuna boat just before sunset we passed half a mile apart. Our only company since the first night. We wondered what the yanks have to celebrate today! being broke! I'm catching up on the log so no position report. Not very impressed with the weather grib files and they have been renamed the grub files. They sort of get the wind direct right but under estimate the wind pressure constantly. Forecasting 10-15kts and it's mainly been 15-30kts more like the trade wind at Portland roads back home although that constantly gets up to 40kts, touch wood! We are still averaging over 10kts with three reefs in the main and jib only. At times we have both had burst of 17-20kts she sure is a flighty girl our Spirit. July 5th Halfway 2300 UTC position 05'52 S long 114'03 W Jase put sticky back on the jib to help the chafe from the bow rail and rigged the lazy runner lines so they can't chafe on the jammers on the mainsail traveller car. I had a big sleep from 0930 to 1500 and emerged hot sweaty and full of weird dreams cold shower on deck soon smartened me up. Late lunch, hash browns (one egg no flour better) bacon, eggs and tomato. Have avocado, crackers and rum and coke ready for sundowners and halfway celebration. One coke left for arrival. Only a few flying fish but one tiny little one centimeter embryo was stuck in the jammers. Jase had a hair cut and shave, me tomorrow. July 6th Can hardly believe we are over halfway and will be under 1000nm by tomorrow. I came on deck to a whole change of seen. Blue skies, sunshine 20-25kts of wind and our Spirit is bolting along wing and wing. Seems to be handling it really well. Still three reefs in the main but the working jib is barber hauled out to the port crossarm on a strop. 10-15kts boat speed and sunshine. Mainsheet is way out and prevented and traveller cars have their cam cleat jammers at each end of the track swapped over so now we can't get the mainsheet under them which was bending their mounting plates. Ham cheese omelet scramble for lunch then the "eating machine" polished off the remains of last night as well! Position at 2043 UTC lat 06'37 S long 117'13 W going good first stop a special tribute to Ramases (the mighty ram) worth two crew at least. From sunset to after midnight we were sailing down a moon path. Beautiful. Almost half full. Jase put the Mr Asia story on my iPhone so made a start to it last night. My hair cut!! Mohawk!! No a number 1 all I need is a prisoner number. July 7th Ran all last night wing and wing and this morning as the breeze dropped off to 10-12kts we put up the medium furling reacher and stayed around 10kts SOG. Another fishing line gone! No fish, 2 lures out now fingers x. Ham, cheese, tomato and basil omelet for lunch but I burnt the bottom a bit. Tasty though. Slowed again so put up the medium chute and voila (French territory is getting closer) back around 10kts again. Raised a bit more dagger board and "Ramases" seems to be doing it a little easier. 1075nm to go!! Tomorrow am should be inside that. Put our local time back again as Galapagos time was getting a sunrise at 0730 last couple of days have been the smoothest sailing so far this leg. Position @ 2115 UTC lat 07'94 S long 120'56 W 1071nm to go. Put the chute away just before dark and back to full job and three reefs in the main and still doing 10-15kts. Wind speed in the low 20's off the port quarter 1/2 moon tied to the mast head, then sailing down the moon path. July 8th Position @ 2146 UTC lat 07'44 S long 124'34 W 851nm to go. Today's 24hr run should be a goody and turned out to be 262nm. Early morning wind up to 28kts ran off 10 degrees then another 10 degrees. Later on wind dropped and we put up the kite, that sped things up a bit. Seems to freshen up and dawn and dusk. Jase hand steering, saw 21.5kts bit excessive but when I came up on the afternoon he'd dropped it on his own (practicing for RTW fame?) we were still doing 10-15 it's with then jib and three reefs. Moon is over half full now and giving us a moon path each night, very picturesque. Finish reading Last Man Standing an account of the Mr Asia syndicate. Heaps of bullshit in it. I could hardly believe the author was crook on getting 25 years of which he only did 14! but kept harping on the 25 as though he did 25. Jase is struggling though Shantaram which I read on the Atlantic crossing onboard Zanabe and it's definitely not a literary master piece for mine, but and interesting yarn. July 9th Position @ 2308 UTC lat 08'37 S long 128'33 W, 610 nm to go! 2-3 days maximum. No fish and no lures. Down to our last two spoons fingers crossed as our fresh food is getting low. Fridge needs coke, washed two pairs of salty shorts and myself all much improved. Only two flying fish this morning and no squid for the last few days. No dolphins, tuna or whales. Only flying fish and birds and a he'll of a lot of water. Still going through a lumpy sea state. July 10th Position @ 2143 UTC lat 09'23 S long 131'37 W. Almost under 400nm TP go should be under 300nm by 2345 UTC wow! Looking for mountain tops already. Wind dropped off a bit today and seas smoothed out quite a bit so up with the kite and we're back on 10kts. Still no fish. Perhaps we should be playing the silver spoons instead of using them as lures. Two and half days now and no bites seems like the squid like ones are the go. Sunny all day hatch open hatch open washing on the line. Sat phone call to butch he's 750nm behind and heading direct to Nuka Hiva. W are going to Fatu Hiva then Hiva Oa and up to Nuka Hiva so well probably catch up with him there. Oh boy at 2120 UTC 399nm to go!! Kept the kite up last night but Jase couldn't sleep so down it came back to working jibe and three reefs for security. Slowed us down a bit but tomorrow is another day. July 11th Position & 2154 UTC lat 09'55 S long 135'00 W. 220nm to go. Kite and full main up this morning and surprisingly there isn't much difference in speed. With the fill main off the wind and errrrr running deep 10-15kts boat speed for most of the day. Fishing disaster STB side line turned into a twisted tangle and port one had lost the lure and steel wore trace had snapped! Probably lucky not to land that one. Must be getting somewhere, Jase saw a solitary Frigate bird and some rubbish. Reread Tom Sawyer and remembered it instantly from 21+ years ago. I laughed out load often. Jase saw a couple of shooting stars and the moon is up all night now and it sure is lovely sailing down a moon path. July 12th Arrived 13 days Marquases. We see the land and it bloody high and where its supposed to be! iPad therefor I,am. $1,000,000.00 thanks Jobsy. Position @ 2043 UTC lat 10'25 S long 138'04 W about 34 nm to go. Yeah fucking ha Fatu Hiva and an uninterrupted nights sleep coming up. On the approach a very large octopus floated past the boat, dead I presume but it was quite a whopper. Body as big as me plus tentacles just floating on the surface and no sign of life. Very misty and hazy coming up the south west coast. Wind dropping off cleaning frenzy onboard boat then us feels good. Hope we can see the sunset from the anchorage. Motoring making water and amps as we close the shore the sun begins to reveal the details that were hidden in the mist and shadow. It's awesome, prime evil, spectacular! Words just don't do it. Anchored up in heaven sounds of drumming and singing ashore. Got out the binoculars and there where a large group of dancers on a Tuesday night maybe practicing for a cruise ship visit. After dinner we checked the phone connections and low and behold we had roaming coverage.
1 Comment
It's been about a ten days since our arrival in the Galapagos and it's been quite an adventure. The wild life here is really amazing, such diversity that's really goes well with the crazy weather we have had here and it just seems to fit in with the whole feel of the place. Johnny and I have suffered from some upset bellies and strongly recommend not drinking the local desalinated water! As we have since found out from the local doctor that it's not so reliably desalinated, we thought it tasted funny! Dr Gabriel was recommended to us by one of the yacht agents as the best man for the job and he was excellent. Had our rear ends back in normal operation in a couple of days! Thank god. He also proved that Jason really can blow smoke out of one ear and needs to have surgery to fix it, or he could grow mushrooms or worse! Showed us on the computer and you could actually see the tiny hole opening and closing. Our unpleasant bellies could also have been from the local Tucker we were eating below. The first week was spent getting Spirit ready for the next leg. We didn't have anything major to get done but did want to do a lot of small jobs mainly maintenance to the rig, tightening the shrouds, sail repairs, reinforcing some of the batten slides, making new bolts for the rudder attachment (larger ones) greasing and tightening the rudder bearings, swapping out the small foot blocks on the centerboard to larger ones, cleaning out all the boats compartments and re-stowing the spares, doing laundry, re-fueling and taking on water (which we recommend others not to do!). We also bought more heavier chain from a really nice Australian couple we've meet as we may need it for the deeper anchorages in the Pacific. The new Fortress anchor has proven it's worth here as the local anchorage is crap. There is tourist boats coming and going all the time and boats anchoring on top of you as well. Making for sleepless nights. We had about 1-1.5m swell rolling in for the first few days as the anchorage is totally open to the south east. Luckily we were able to tuck right into the bay using a stern anchor as well, which is highly recommended and got into about 15ft of water. In the surge Spirit just rode back and forth and with the 100ft of nylon line she just pulled up nice and slow. We buoyed the anchor so we could also keep an eye on it's position and make sure no one anchored on top of us. Then only people that did ended up being anchoring on top of us was another cruising yacht that had no idea of what they were doing! And that also ended up hitting another yacht when they weighed anchor and departed. We used a local agent here to clear in, which is something that all the guides say you have to have. It's not law but you can't clear in and out without one? Work that one out! I've put the details below of both the agents I think are ok. We used YachtGala but a lot of the boats here used GOS and all had great things to say about him but he was a little more for some boats as he's price in based on the yachts length but less for others. Yacht Gala Johnny Rommero - has transport and can arrange anything for a price. I would only try and deal with Johnny himself. + 593 52 527 403 www.galapagosdestiny.com Galapagos Ocean Services - offers a dinghy dock and laundry services great deal and well recommend by al the yachts that used him. +593 9 377 2718 Tuomo Vauhkonen www.gos.ec While here we never used our own tender. The reason was the seals do try and get in them and also the amount of growth and how quickly it grows put us off. The locals have taxi services that constantly run all day and night, which you can call on channel 14 VHF and during the day it's 60 cents per person and a dollar at night. We would just whistle as they went past. They also offer laundry services for very reasonable prices and can organize water and fuel but make sure you get your fuel legally getting your receipt and paper work from your agent. We also had our favorite taxi captain help us clean the bottom of Spirit before we departed for $40 USD and considering the amount of weed and growth on the bottom it was very reasonable. He also did a great job with our laundry bringing it back on time and smelling wonderful. Fuel is $1.05 per gallon for locals and $5.00 for everyone else! Like most places the yachts get ripped off. Like most things here the process of receiving fuel is ludicrous even bordering on plain insane. You have to have your agent get a permit from the port captain for the EXACT! Amount then you take this to the fuel station (there is only one) in a taxi. You head upstairs where to lady behind the desk takes your permit and issues you with a receipt. You then head downstairs to the pump controller whom fills you up with the EXACT amount, no less no more! He then takes your cash at four times what the locals pay, then issues you with another receipt that you fill in and both sign. Then back upstairs To the lady behind the desk who stamps it and makes it all official looking. This then goes to the agent who gives it back to the port captain to prove you bought your fuel! Talk about a joke this is to supposedly stop the back market for fuel as some taxi drivers where filling it up for the yachtie's and selling it to them at a cheaper rate, by the way we were still offered fuel on the black market by water taxis so little good this painful process has done. Santa Cruz itself has been nice Not as seriously and well looked after as I would have imagined but coming from one of the most highly Protected reef areas in the world they seem a bit slack here. On a few occasions there has been diesel and black oil floating all over the anchorage! We have the pictures to prove it. Feelthy bastardos. Then to top it all off, a 100ft triple decker dropped anchor with an extreme list to starboard! Portholes under and deck awash! A cast of thousands, slight exaggeration, tinnys water taxis and port authorities etc etc onlookers, all failed totally to avert disaster! Within half an hour she flopped right over to port and kept going!, all the way to the bottom! Once again we have the pictures to prove it. After that, about 2 hours after, the oil boom arrived and they got a circle around the spot but by then there was crap everywhere. That was a week ago and nothing has happened since. She lies in about 50ft of water and is slowly breaking up in the surge. Do not anchor there! Rumor has it they were "transferring" fuel and left the tanks linked as they transferred giving them an angle of lull that eventually flopped them over to the other side and over she rolled! As my good mates back home would say muppets! More like an insurance job we think who could be that stupid? 2 days ago we finally stopped work on Ssspirit and did a dive trip to the Gordon rocks. Visibility poor but the variety of species more than made up for it. It was like swimming in a fish soup! Everywhere you looked there were more fish. Hammerheads, white tips, turtles, spotted eagle rays in squadrons, barracuda, tuna, jacks, big snapper, cod, moray eel, plus heaps of extremely colorful unknowns of all shapes and sizes. Then there were the birds! frigates, sheer waters, just like our own mutton birds in Oz, gannets, blue footed boobies, mother caries chickens, pelicans are everywhere, darwin's finches, little sparrow like birds with short arse tails, etc. On the way to the dive boat we drove over the highlands and there were many tall slender trees with the same trunks as our own Queensland red cedars and it turned out they are an indigenous local cedar used extensively In their architecture which is a mix of third world post and beam concrete in various states of completion or otherwise. And some really stunning curved forms in a Spanish style. There is an an exclusive jewelry studio, so exclusive it is never open, that is a really stunning piece of art. Even though we have not been able to see the jewelry the building is a real gem. Later on today we're off to provision and hope to head off to the Marquesas Islands tomorrow after a nice big hot breakfast and hot shower in our ten dollar a night hotel! Have included a photo below of the shower head so you can see why it's ten bucks a night! For anyone wanting to stay there it's called the Charles Darwin hotel. It's our first night out on our way to the Galapagos and we've just finished a big spaghetti bol. The breeze has only just filled in after a day of variable winds from mainly around the west to north west. We have only been able to manage from 4-8kts at times and have now began to sit on 6-7kts steady as the winds filled in to about 250 true giving us around 195 COG. Ez departed Spirit in Panama city and it's Johnny and I onboard now. Were doing the watches in two hour shifts from 8pm until 6am and will divide the day time hours as we feel. Yesterday (Thursday the 9th) we departed Panama city after provisioning the day before. We were going to leave the day we provisioned but we had a call from a vessel near by that asked if we could postpone incase there was some parts we could take with us to the Las Perlas Islands where we spent last night. There was an Australian yacht that was there and in need of a new seal for there main engine cooling pump. As it turned out they didn't have the parts and we were off the following morning early after a weather check. We got away from Panama about 10:00am and it was another morning of variable winds until about 20nm from the Las Perlas group when the wind filled in from the north west at around 5-10kts. It ended up being a magical sail into Isla Pedro Gonzales where we sailed right into the anchorage dropping the sails about a mile out. Flat calm water with a steady breeze and Spirit doing 7-9kts it was bliss. It was such a nice sail that I was able to get into the dinghy and get some shots of Spirit ghosting along in the light airs and glassy seas. The small village on the island where the cruising guide offered two anchorages was not so nice looking so we sailed past to the following bay where there was also another anchorage located. Once around the corner the bay opened up to a gorgeous clear sandy beach that was lined with hundreds of palms. It was a magical spot and with the flat calm water it made a great stop for the night. Johnny and I scouted around in the tender and had a nice walk along the beach spotting a sea snake making it's way out on to the beach, old building foundations, flower gardens behind the beach and a wonderful little spot that had been cleared with flowers a few seats and a hammock, a small peace of paradise. Sunset was spent enjoying a few beers and some fine dinner that we had kept from great little Columbian restaurant the night before in Panama. Off to bed early after a big feed and few beers ready for today's departure. Last night was also the first night for our new anchor set up. In Panama we dragged anchor as we lost our CQR. To try and make anchoring as easy as I could I had the anchor on a clip that came undone. It just proves if it can happen it will. So back to the drawing board we went. We now have a Fortress 27FX on 80ft of 10mm chain and then 100ft of 14mm three strand nylon. It's much easier to pull onboard now as the fortress holding power is great for it's weight but it's still bloody hard. We definitely need a anchor winch as we don't even have a bow roller getting it aboard isn't fun. We have also set up the anchor on a float so we an retrieve the float first hauling the anchor aboard then pulling up the chain to reduce the total weight being lifted and it seemed to work well today. When we have some wind and wave action will be the time to tell how well it works. Friday 10th We departed about 1000 after a nice breakfast. This place is so testing with the light winds being so variable. It's just crazy. I have never seen such large areas of no wind. We seem to have it come in for an hour then die out. Then an hour later it'll come from the other direction for 30 minutes and then die out, we'll get all excited when we see some cloud the wind will pick up rain starts then it's over. This has been the day all day today. With grey all around some sun in the afternoon and a great little burst from a squall giving us just over 18kts which is a new record for the trip since leaving St Maarten. Not bad as it was around 16kts of true breeze at about 40 degrees apparent. Johnny was on watch and just about fell over as the boat took off. As with everything else out here it didn't last long and five minutes later we were drifting again. Tonight is a clearer night we have some steady breeze just settling in now, and we're doing wind speed, which is around 4-5kts and we're on the rhumb line. Saturday 11th Well that didn't last long. It's now 0200! for those that can't read 24hr time that's am! The wind died out hours ago and we've been motoring along at about 1500rpm giving us about 3-4kts. Johnny had a bit of rain while on watch and I've just had a ship pass behind us by a small margin. Amazing how you can be in the middle of nowhere and have a 1000ft ship bearing down on you at 21kts. And the ship just happened to show up in the squall on our STB side about 13nm away. This is where the AIS comes into it's own. Never did we realize the amount it would help out on this trip home. As the radar couldn't see the ship so far away within the squall the iPad and iNavX with AIS integration was awesome. Instantly we could see the closest point of approach, the bearing the ship would be at that time and also the amount of time before this all happened and this all happens instantaneously. Giving us this info allowed us to increase our speed for about 15mins so we passed a safe 1.5nm in front. This is about the smallest limit most commercial boats want you pass ahead of them. From memory it's about .7 nm astern and 1.2 ahead. In the photo above you can see that our AIS is receiving data from ships over 70nm away. Unbelievable! May have had something to do with us being 100ft above sea level? even though we were able to get even further once we were on the Pacific side where it was showing ships as far away as the San Blas back up to the North of us. Sunday 12th Clear skies today and in the morning we had some great sailing with about 8-10kts of boat speed. It lasted until the afternoon when it slowly disappeared into nothing which we have now. We had some kind of seabird stay onboard last night and it was still there in the the morning along with the dragonfly we spotted on the bow rail. Will be interesting to see if they're with us again in the morning. Did some laundry today mainly boxer shorts and tea towels. Refilled the diesel and we now have around 80lts remaining. Glad we bought two more jerry cans in Panama. Monday 13th Another really nice calm day. Unfortunately no wind and what there is on and off is variable and testing. Seems to go as fast and it comes and never stays in longer than an hour. The calm weather means we can cook and clean and living onboard is easy. Even though it's frustrating we try not to complain about the lack of wind as it can always be so much worse. Made a great curry for dinner and did some laundry and general tidying of the boat. Also started to read some of the many guides we have onboard for the Pacific. Tuesday 14th Later Monday afternoon the wind picked up and became steady from the south west. Put two reefs in the main when we spotted a large grey cloud south of us and then questioned why we were even thinking about sailing through it when we had so much ocean to cover. We tacked out away from it on a port tack and was clear a few hours later. It was a big system and for sure some weather in there. We're now making good 260 COG and have the wind tending south all the time. Just about on the rhumb line another 20 degrees south and we are sitting pretty. Man for such a short passage it's taking us sometime to get south. Swapped the paddle wheel over in the log as the old one was missing a blade. Hope to be able to get the B&G set up more accurately now. Wednesday 15th I think we may break a record here for the quickest boat to do the slowest passage from Panama to the Galapagos. There is no wind at all and we are going backwards, parked with no handbrake. Very testing and frustrating you can understand how they went crazy in the old days trying to get through the doldrums. Today we had some wind from the West and we were making great time compared to now. At one stage we were doing around 7kts VMG the best we have seen so far. Now as you can see from the screen shot above and below we are heading the wrong way flopping from side to side, if only we could harness the power of the flop to give us some forward momentum! our weather guru back in Australia says we should have 15-20kts from the south west at the moment and this is also what our latest grib files say, so much for weather forecasting? Better than a gale on the nose. I better put the kettle on! Today we had the wind go from 270 degrees to 370 degrees true in a matter of seconds. We had two reefs in the main and headsail up so it was a quick jibe over onto STB tack and off again all this going on in about 18kts of true wind with squalls all around. Then we decided to put up the staysail and to put another reef in the main as the seas were getting large starting to break a little and we needed to slow down a touch. Well that did it the wind died and we had the worst washing machine Johnny and I had seen with waves coming from three directions and us in the middle like being in a fight with the ocean. We yelled you've won! leave us along. Still out here flopping now! Hard to believe we have had variable winds all the way since the coast of Columbia three weeks ago. No more than a few hours of steady breeze, man can not wait to get into the trades and some stability. Thursday 16th The wind came in again strong but this time from the South East as it had been predicted for the last few days. And it seems to have settled in and become consistent at around 18kts true or 25-30 apparent. Crap weather no reports just wet, tired and wanting more then three hours sleep, also without the sound of the mast trying to come through the deck, which has returned with the rough weather. Below was an old forecast for the 16th was it was correct? Friday 17th After the strong winds that we had through Thursday today has been a great surprise. The weather file we received and the info from ashore has not been at all correct. We did have stronger winds than forecast but from different directions, not stable at all and it has been for different durations and strengths. Not as reliable as we have found it in the Atlantic and other regions. The wind strength began to subside yesterday afternoon and we had a few hours during the night where we parked. Earlier this morning the wind came in at about 10kts true and has been shooting us along from 8-10kts so we are finally making some good ground. As we get closer to the Galapagos there is more and more bird life around us. We had two birds land on the float bow yesterday but with the residual waves they were finding it hard to stay on and it was quiet a sight watching them land again and again trying their hardest to remain onboard. Saturday the 18th The wind that came in yesterday increased in the afternoon and we had a wet and wild ride during the night. It seems to be steady with direction and strength at around 160-70 true and 16-22kts apparent. We were just off the breeze with the apparent angle being from 30-46 degrees and when it cracked off away went Spirit with speeds from 12-14kts and a constant 10kts. Johnny and I have been hand steering since last night when the autopilot dropped out on Johnny. I'll have to look into it when we arrive. We powered along for the last 24hrs doing an average speed of around 10kts and getting into Academy Bay on Santa Cruz Island around 1400 local time Saturday. From what we had read and seen on the charts this bay looked like a pretty poor anchorage. Open to the prevailing South winds and swell. Looks can be deceiving so we thought we'd better head in to look for ourselves before making our minds up whether to head to another of the islands. Also our agent was here and the services ashore offer more, which made it our preferred place to be. |