Raising our anchor at 0800 Galapagos time, we bid farewell to fellow Aussies onboard SV Whisper HR and headed out of the anchorage at Santa Cruz. We hoisted our mainsail, unfurled our headsail, switched off the motor and settled down to some slow cruising through the Canal de Pinzon. The forecast was for light southerlies (8-13 knots) and even with the turbulence from the swell, we made good time as we passed between Isla Santa Maria (named for one of the Columbus fleet) and Isla Isabela (named by Columbus for the reigning Spanish Queen at his time of "discovery").

We took our last glance of land just on dusk, a beautiful Pacific sunset framing the south west tip of Isabela. The abundant marine life is still enthralling us - the many leaping rays, the distant view of a whale blowing spume as it surfaces, the crazy antics of the small Pacific dolphin, diving blue footed boobys - it's like being in the centre of a wildlife documentary. Overnight, we were joined by a quartet of Galapagos gulls, swooping up juvenile squid being tossed up in our bow wave; the red and green deck level navigation lights illuminating them as they greedily ate their catch.

As at 0800 today (Friday May 18), we have covered 150NM; very pleasing given the light breeze. Only 2870 NM to go!

All well onboard.