We are now on day 4 of our passage to the Galapagos and it's March 14th. It isn't unlike any other passage we've done really, it's just more exciting because the destination is all new and carries with it a great deal of anticipation & planning. Although I still regret not having done even more planning to get the visa extension for these islands. We're praying we can persuade someone to give us more freedom upon arrival. Otherwise we can only go to one anchorage with Evergreen and our stay is limited to 20 days. It's 2AM and this is my second & last watch for the night; Jon is sleeping. We're moving toward 4 hour watches instead of our usual 3 in order to get more “quality” sleep time, if there's such a thing. So we do one 3hr watch and then one 4 hour one so as not to drag them out so far into the day that we can't eat meals together. Then we do a 2hr nap during the day as well. Throw in some cooking, cleaning, sail changes, chats on the radio and some time to just relax and hang out together and the days blend into one, passing quicker than you'd think.
We sailed most of the time for the first 2 ½ days and now we've been motoring, as expected for this passage. We're at 3 degrees latitude, heading mostly west at this point, directly toward our destination. We'll cross the equator into the southern hemisphere shortly before reaching the islands. It's been great having the partial moon at night even if tonight has a layer of cloud cover shrouding most of it. You can still appreciate the extra light it provides. It's interesting to me how much light the stars & planets provide on a very clear night. You can even see a trail of light on the water from some of the ones closest to the horizon. It has also been nice to have a fair current with us. The sailing directions call for heading south as you leave Panama to pick up this fair current and we only turned westward yesterday mid-morning. With this current, we make somewhere between 6.5-7kts even though we're motoring at a low RPM to get as much fuel economy as we can. It feels good to watch the “time to go” tick down to what will hopefully be a daytime landfall and the promise of a great time exploring and MOVING this old body around for a change! Whereas the first night was chilly, each subsequent night has been warmer such that now, it's back to shorts & shirt.
Slick is around 10 miles ahead of us. We're in touch by VHF radio during the day & it's nice to joke around and compare our productivity & fishing success. We got a mahi mahi on our second day and they got a tuna- which makes us jealous since we've yet to catch one. We didn't put the line out at all yesterday since Jon & I were both feeling mildly seasick. We don't usually take anything for seasickness but yesterday the roll got to us, plus Jon decided he was too hot to have his usual morning coffee & skipped it. He ended up with a pounding headache as punishment! I felt pretty good early in the day but then did too much spiffing up I guess and then we did a sail change on the rolling deck and that did me in. So we both took a piece of a pill and had an icy soda- then felt better. Slick ended up catching a bird on their line- I think these birds are boobies and they do seem too interested in our fishing lines. We'd been yelling at them previously to try & scare them away but it seemed a matter of time before one went for the hook. Tim got the bird off the hook and it flew away seemingly OK.
It seems ridiculous but we've had a carbon fiber spinnaker pole since 2007 when we left on the last trip. But we never got it rigged up to use! There really wasn't any push since in the Caribbean, there isn't much for light air downwind sailing but still… we've been carrying it but never used it. Until now! Now we've got it rigged and have used it exclusively this whole passage so far; it's all been downwind sailing. We don't carry a spinnaker on this boat, but use the pole for the genoa. We know that a spinnaker would be monstrous due to our sail plan and we just didn't think we'd use one enough to make it worth carrying. It would take up a huge amount of space below and we'd likely dread setting it up so much it would just stay down there the whole time. So anyway, poling out the genoa so it will stay full even in light air as the boat rolls has been really good and we're glad to finally be able to use it.
The Las Perlas islands ended up as a disappointment. We went to one anchorage for one night mainly to clean the bottom of the hull but were looking forward to some decent swimming and a jaunt ashore before being cooped up for several days. Because of an algae bloom of some sort, the water was cloudy and brownish. I was so creeped out cleaning the bottom I was hyperventilating and ended up with a pounding headache afterward! I hate swimming in murky water. When we went to go ashore, the tide was especially high so there were no beaches or any place for that matter to land the dinghy. Plus, the islanders seem to be using the beach as their trash dump so there was all manner of plastic trash floating along the shoreline and then on out drifting past our boats. You could see the path where they'd been dumping it. So we ditched the idea of a walk and just went over to Slick for a beer instead! The birds were fantastic though. All of the little rocky islands are reminiscent of Maine but instead of bald eagles & osprey, there are pelicans roosting all over them. Everywhere you looked in the anchorage, there were birds flying around. There were no houses or anything visible from the anchorage either so it was really beautiful, just not through & through. It would be nice to explore the Las Perlas at a different time of year & perhaps give them another chance, but I suspect we won't pass this way again anytime soon.
I don't usually bring the laptop out into the cockpit unless it is really calm and there is no potential for salt spray, but tonight seemed fitting. I've managed to eat up over an hour writing this blog entry, only 3 more to go and my shift is done! I just started listening to Bill Bryson's “In a Sunburned Country” on tape tonight. We also have a little MP3 player that shows movies so we use that as a pastime along with listening to music, reading, munching on whatever we can find, and of course keeping watch! Seeing the stars, moonrises and just looking out into the darkness pondering all that is both here & not here- trying to just “feel” this experience takes up some time too. I don't think I'll ever become a passage “junkie” like some people I know but there are highlights to this. But just like much of sailing, there is an underlying anxiety about the “what if”: What if the worst happens or weather conditions change to make things more challenging? Then, anyone at home snug in bed is to be envied.