It is there, I cannot believe it:"LAND!"
Today at 11:15 local time we dropped anchor in the port of Atuana after 24 days at Sea! We will be stuffing ourselves with Baguettes very soon!
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Still stuck in the Salt Waste! Drama is going to eat us up slowly... The wind has become lighter and our speed is now only 2.5 to 3.5 knots. The flying fish are racing ahead and I can see a smirk on their faces while passing us. The GPS is still telling us that we will arrive in five days?? It has been stating that fact for one week or so... Now we are kind of tired with the whole thing, so let's use the engine (but only at low revolution and for a few hours at a time, we have to save fuel). Come on, let's get out of here! But no, this will have been far too simple! The engine is not starting Again! This is like a plague, what is going on now? We spent the next full day in the engine room, sniffing, checking and bleeding all we can see. We are neither of us great engineers but we are always willing to try and obviously so far we have not fixed it! Geoff is therefore on the Pacific Passage Net with some others boats talking about our problem. We like to thank Patrick on Brick House, Ian on Lune 3 and Peter on Bagheera for their help. But everything failed to fire up the engine, so out of desperation, Geoff phoned the MTU dealer in US, Atlantic Detroit Diesel where John and Garry talked us through different steps to narrow down the problem. The last test, before stating that the injection pump was faulty, was to check the emergency stop system. After slightly moving the lever the beautiful noise of the engine filled up Blue Dawn, music to our ears!! We were so relieved and happy, we will arrive after all!
We are motoring, cannot wait any longer to get to land, 24 days at sea was enought!
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By now, every day is about the same then the last one! We are totally loosing track of time. Our Gps is playing with us, always showing 5 days to go? Are we locked in a time capsule or maybe we have reached some kind of "third dimension"? Only 700 nautical miles ahead of us, my mouth is already watering remembering the incredible fruits I have tasted in the Marquesas. The Pomelo, sweet, juicy and as big as a melon. Oh goosh, eating some fresh produces! We do have more wind but not really enough for our 65 tons old lady to rush forward... So we are rocking, rolling and slugging ahead at 4 to 6 knots. We have seen one boat in those last 18 days, a big deep sea fishing vessel, exciting! Will we ever see the land again or have I just imagined it all? It cannot have been a dream. Hanavave Bay on Fatu-Hiva was one of the most spectaculer places I have ever seen.
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Day 9: Stuck in the Ocean... The wind is dropping everyday a bit more and does not seem to want to blow again! We are still moving along, or I must say drifting about at 2 knots and sometimes making a short-lived run at 5! We heard on the SSB that a huge weather system between New Zealand and Cape Horn is sucking all the wind away from the Pacific. This is exactly what we needed! The good news is that by Wednesday all should be back to normal, fingers crossed. We are starting to think about going swimming by now! We are very lucky to have a sea of glass; it is just like being at anchor. Quite incredible and a first! This is also going to be the longest passage ever; 10 years ago it only took us 15 days!
Day 10: Operation Day... This is it! I've transformed the chartable into a small hospital: clean bandages, gauzes, disinfectant and my mighty professional looking surgical box, lining up like soldiers. A strong light shine above me, it does not really make me see better but it definitely make me sweat! Geoff has a smirk on his face when he spots me, so I tell him: "Do you want to remove the stitches for me". He seems to get really white, apparently sick and answers me: "Sure, if you want me to". I thought for a minute that he was going to faint, it was quite funny and put me in a good mood, I was ready. By the way, did I say that there are only 2 stitches! The awkward part was to use the scissor with my left hand, after about a timeless two seconds it was finished. It did not hurt at all, what a silly girl! Geoff was relieved and kind of jumping up and down, not having to do the operation himself.What an exciting day!
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Day 6: Still motoring, no wind and engine running well without leak after 24 hours, so all good except for the fuel going down.
Day 7: We are now sailing nice and fast with South wind, rushing ahead at 10 knots, it is a beautiful day!
Day 8: Drama Again...One day with it was too much I guess! I do not know what is going on this passage but damn it, it is tiring now! We put the MPS out when the wind lighten up and all was perfect onboard. The boat was going nice and flat, I was able to cook without feeling like a gecko grabbing at everything trying not to fall. In the middle of the night (it always seems to happen at that time!), the MPS blew in 11 knots of wind. It was really hard to bring it back onboard being more than 225 square meters; we managed to do it after a lot of pulling and tugging, playing that game with an invisible opponent! I was lucky to have a metal finger protection in my huge medical cabinet and slide it on before bringing the Mps in. Talking about my finger, no pain whatsoever except when I bang it which is quite often. In two more days we have to remove the stitches, ouch. We have covered so far only 1115 nautical miles and still have 1920 in front of us, at our current speed of an average of 5.5 knots, we should be on land again in 2 weeks, I am ecstatic just to think about it... Talk to you in a few day, bye for now, have fun on dry land!
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Day 5 : More Drama... When you have absolutely zero wind and an endless ocean in front of you, what could be the worst thing to happen? Maybe not be able to use the engine! We had noticed that it was getting hard to start the engine every time we had enough of bumping around at 2 knots under sail. We lifted the floorboards in the saloon to check the top of the engine and there, flushing about with the swell was a lot of fuel... Not a good sign! Geoff put me on the mission of finding the leak, that is one of my "function" on the boat! With my cut finger wrapped in several layers of surgical gloves I go about poking every inches of the engine and there in front of me I can see drops running along the filter of the fuel priming Handpump. We tried to re-sit it twice but only manage to make the leak worst, after talking on the Radio Net with other yachties, they all recommended us to make a new seal with any material available and/or to use some gasket maker. We did both and: "Oh Miracle, it is all fine now". So we are back motoring towards the Marquesas Islands, still no wind and 2357 nautical miles to go. At this speed and with no change in the weather, we should arrive in another 24 days.
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Day 1: Drama drama drama... We are taking the anchor up when I spot a large rock stuck in it, this is the second time such a thing happened in Puerto Ayora! We slow the boat down and go around in circles assessing the situation. We lash a rope to the end of the anchor hoping to lift it up enough to poke the rock out but all we manage to do is getting the chain out of the roller! With the rope securing the anchor and the chain very loose, I go forward and lift it out and back into place, unfortunately the weight comes back on the chain and my finger got a really good squeeze.All I can see is blood running down my arm and a bad looking cut on my index, I rushed to the hospital where they stitched it, and I was lucky to only have a minor cut. This is my first (and I hope last) injury on the boat, at last, Blue Dawn has engraved her mark on me! While I was away Geoff and a friend sort out everything on the boat and when I came back a strong 25-30 knots was blowing, so we took the anchor up again and left. My last souvenir of the Galapagos will be the little seals poking their head out of the water with their whiskers up and in our wake we could hear them blowing hard. A smile lit back on my face.
Day 2: No wind what can we do... A seascape of peace: marine birds fluttering around the boat seem to add to the happy feeling of relaxation. They parade back and forth in their colorful attire, the magic of ocean passage gripping me! Until I hear Mr. Geoff voice: "front bilge pump not functioning, let's take it out and fix it!'. Great, this is exactly what I needed to put me out of my reverie! So we spent the next 4 hours, removing corrosion and old paint, changing valves and giving a fresh coat to our now new looking pump. Let's hope it will work. As for the weather, we sail in the daytime with only 5 to 8 knots of winds from mostly SE, so we are moving very slowly towards our goal. . At night we motor but hopefully a good current is pushing us in the right direction!
Day 3: No wind again... We are going so slowly that we can spot turtles, fishes and all kind of marine life. We have been under sail all day with our MPS pushing us at 5 knots. We have seen a few fishing boats but except for that nothing happening and all well onboard.
Day 4: Still no Wind... We are starting to think about drifting, we cannot keep on using the motor or we will run out of fuel in a few more days! We will keep you updated on what is going on on the blue ocean.
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