120 miles down, 450 to go to the Galapagos!
08 March 2010 | Pacific Ocean, 120 miles west of Bahia, Ecuador
March 7, 2010
At 9:00 am, after a rainy night, we raised our anchor and set sail for the Galapagos Islands some 600 miles away, almost due west. We had some wind, 12-15 knots from the SW which enabled us to sail for a few hours. Within the first hour, while we were flying our gennaker (a large sail on our forestay), the tack (a line that holds the front bottom part of the sail) broke. Steve with David's help quickly replaced the broken line and we sailed on. However, the wind shifted more to the west and we found ourselves having to head northwest to keep the wind in our sails. At noon, we were motor sailing with one of our two engines moving us along at 5 knots. By 6:00 pm, we had to pull all sails in and continue motoring with one engine directly into the wind in order to make progress toward the Galapagos.
Because the last time we sailed Dream Caper was May, our sailing skills were pretty rusty. It's almost like we have to get used to the boat again when we take such a long break. During the day, Portia and Steve changed the roller furling line on the gennaker, dug out the life jackets for David and Eileen, and stowed 2 cases of Chilean boxed red wine under the bed in the forward starboard berth while doing lots of reading, writing, and planning in between. The act of stowing the wine and getting the life jackets required our removing all objects on the bed in the starboard berth, including watermelon, potatoes in a basket, eggs, folding chair, 4 large adjustable cushions, foam pieces to be used to make some cushions for a chair and helm seat, various ropes, 3 spearguns, ice chest, a large heavy bin containing flour, rice and beans, and miscellaneous other important objects. All this to carefully lift the bed frame and mattress to get access to the under bed storage area. And then, we had to put it all back together! Nothing is easy on a boat; it is a constant chore to keep things properly stored yet available for use depending on their importance and usage. We have enough wine available in the salon so the excess is stored under the bed. 7 excess life jackets are stored under the bed while we have 4 out and available.
Something or some substance suddenly irritated David's left eye when he tried on his safety harness in the morning. It was a mystery as to what caused it and for 3 hours he was in extreme pain. 6 hours later he was able to eat dinner and see things almost normally. He guessed that it what some sort chemical possibly from his harness or his sunblock. At 7:00 pm, David and Eileen went to bed while Steve and Portia took the 6:00 pm to midnight shift. A large container ship passed behind Dream Caper within ¼ mile in the dark and 2 birds (seagull size, maybe some sort of tern) silently flew along with Dream Caper in the dark, illuminated by our navigation lights, darting and diving off our starboard bow, apparently finding whatever we were stirring up to be tasty. When there was more than one, they made a low light clicking growl sound as they swooped in competition toward their prey. According to David and Eileen they stayed with us until daylight. We were relieved to hear in the morning that David's eye was almost back to normal.
We motored with one engine for 12 hours in our first 24 hours of this trip. We always try to sail whenever we can because 1) this IS a sailing catamaran, 2) it is quiet, 3) we save fuel, 4) it provides a more stable ride, 5) we enjoy the thrill of zipping along with the wind, 6) there is less chance of a mechanical breakdown, and 7) it is a challenge to get the sails set to best advantage. But, we benefited from running an engine today; our battery bank (8 GMs) is now totally charged. When using one engine at a time we have enough diesel for ten, 24-hour days, less if we run the generator to charge our batteries.
120 miles down, 450 to go!!!