Slow but beautiful
04 March 2012 | 470nm to go to the Galapagos
Wind: very light out of the SE
After slowly motoring through a dead calm through most of the day and the first part of the night we pulled the genoa back out at midnight when a hint of a breeze picked back up out of the SE. We are now sailing very slowly on a close reach under full main and barber hauled genoa over a moonlit Pacific that looks like a duck pond - absolutely beautiful! Otherwise, we had a relaxing day. Got checked out by a US Customs and Border Protection aircraft (see picture), giving us two low passes before deciding that we weren't Colombian drug lords and dissapearing in the distance. Earlier today everyone aboard got a bath (it's Saturday!) in Nicky's old inflatable kiddy pool. We put it in the cockpit, fill it with a few buckets of salt water and then rinse off with a bit of fresh water, before repeating the procedure for the next person. Now that would have been a sight for the CBP folks... Our daily routine includes a radio check-in in the morning with the Panpacific Net on 8 MHz and a radio chat later in the day with some other boats under way: Astarté, whom we met in Portobelo on the Atlantic side (Markus line-handled for them through the Canal), Avatar, whom we hope to meet in the Galapagos, and Azimuth (headed for the Ecuadorian mainland, Easter Island and Pitcairn - we may cross paths with them in Tahiti). Now it's time to get the latest weather forecast - let's hope those winds will pick up a bit and stay! All is well aboard, stay tuned.