We are slowly settling into an ocean routine, the first days of tiredness have passed and everyone seems to have their sea legs, I guess we never lost them as the anchorage at the Galapagos was pretty rolly polly. Felix tummy bug passed and the second day on sea he was as cheerful as ever.

We are making slow progress in light winds, only about 6-12 knots, but we are still moving which is good. We have another yacht within 30Nm from us which is psychologically reassuring. Yesterday we tried to get SSB contact but failed, today at nine in the morning we tried again and succeeded, there were some disturbances but the main thing was that we were able to communicate with them, we will have a new radio time with them at nine pm.

We have been doing school work with the boys, eating wonderful food, reading books, watching movies and sleeping. Most of the night watches have been spent inside as outside it has been so cold and wet, anyway there has not been anything to see outside, everything has been pitch black even the stars have been hiding. Today the sun has showed itself properly for the first time in weeks, it is increadible how your mood can change when warmed by few rays of sun. The water temperature is also on the rise, from a low of 19,8 when leaving the Galapagos to 23,8 today, it still needs to rise four degrees in order for being swimming temperature, I guess we are somewhat spoiled by the Caribbean waters. We are still heading as much South as we can as the Captain is determined to catch the stronger trades and fly the Spinnaker, i think we will probably continue on this course for some more days. We have been trying to catch fish but until now they have been succesfully avoiding us, the other yachts report similarly´. We should though hit the South equatorial ocean current in about sixty miles and are very optimistic that fish follow this current and are hungrily waiting for our lures. it would be very welcome with some fresh tuna. We continue slowly sailing towards our destination and can already feel how the hours and days blur together and reshape into a special ocean reality, with only us and the sea.

So long for now and will update new information in a few days.

MF
P.S. Just when we were about to send this mail a school of Pilot whales crossed our course. some 7-10 whales were jumping and playing all around the boat. The boys got really excited, and so did we.... Now we are only waiting to catch some big fish!

NJ