Day 3 Saturday, April 24, 2010 The winds began shifting from the perfect following kind from the north, to the not so desirable kind from the south west. We were forced to change course or motor into the building waves caused by the strengthening winds. The strategy that most books and other sailors advise is to go south, directly south from Panama, as much as possible, and then catch the trade winds to sail westward to the Galapagos. Up until now, we had been able to follow this advice and spent two pleasant days moving south. All day Saturday as the winds built into the 20 to 25 knot range, the cloud cover began to build too. By afternoon it was raining and late in the evening, the rains came in earnest; torrential. They soaked us for hours. Visibility was close to 0. How Artemo managed to stay in sight of us still amazes me.

Day 4 Sunday, April 25 2010

In the early hours of the morning, I radioed Artemo and asked their opinion about changing course. We were heading south east toward South America. The Galapagos were the opposite direction and it seemed counter intuitive to be moving east when our goal lay to the west. We were trying to not beat into the wind, but found ourselves farther and farther off course. Artemo agreed that we should head south west and so we did. Not for long though. The going was rough. We were all tired. Artemo had had a major set back; a fire aboard. Though caught in time, it caused considerable damage to their 12 volt system. This was due to the heavy rain which was finding its way into many areas of their boat and seeping into their electrical systems. It was a very sobering moment for Artemo to have been so close to a catastrophe at sea. We all decided that 'heaving to' (sitting at a stand still) would be a good idea, so that we could all rest and wait for the winds to calm, as they were predicted to do by the evening. After a couple to tries, we managed to heave to. Neither boats had ever successfully been able to do it. We tried until it worked. A sail boat, obviously, is meant to go forward in the wind, so trying to stop it from doing so requires specific setting of sails and rudder. With that achieved, we all tried to relax and catch up on some sleep. It was later in the afternoon that Graham on Artemo called to tell us of a decision that they had made. They were not going to be able to continue their journey. We were all devastated. I hope to post Julie's blog entry about this very difficult and emotional decision.

Days 5, 6 and 7

The winds have between moderate to light for the last 3 days. They have also changed direction between west, south west and south. It seems we have been doing a zig zag pattern towards the Galapagos. We had been motoring whenever the winds were not in the right direction. Although we have good sized fuel tanks, they are not bottomless. For the last 24 hours, even when the winds have been very light, we have continued to sail. Most of today saw us doing only 2 to 4 knots per hour. Currently we are blasting along at between 6 to 7.5 knots per hour. Not wishing to complain, but unfortunately, they are from the wrong direction so again we are sailing somewhat off our ideal course. It just means we'll arrive in the Galapagos a little later.

Michael has been working on systems. Our pressurized water system stopped working. It is back up now. Our R/O system has sprung a leak again! It still needs to be looked at. Michael wants to add more insulation to the fridge, as it seems to run lots in these warm temperatures. All sorts of little and big jobs are on the go between watches and naps to catch up from the watches.

Zoe, Maia and Liam are working hard to get their school work done, so that they can have a nice summer break from all the text book learning. I too, look forward to a break from being teacher mom! It is nice though, that in the last little while, Michael has been able to help out in this area. He does mostly the science with the kids.

The Galapagos are about 350 miles away. With a crisp breeze like the one we have now, that could mean 2- 2 1/2 days. If the winds take a rest, could be next week. Who knows......