Time to pay homage to Neptune and ensure fair sailing ahead. A dram of rum and oatmeal bread with a festive feel. We will have our celebration at Isla San Christobal tomorrow - the champagne is already cooling. In the meantime we are creeping along at 2-4 knots under the spinnaker heading south west but with a north west heading current which is helping us to our destination. The washing is out and a new lure on the hook - not catching anything so far. The music is on - a bit of Dark Side of Moon after talking to Steve on Leeward this morning then onto more pop/country. We haven't seen another vessel for 2 days now (aside from our fishermen). Such a crowd of boats to begin with then we all disappear until the next huddle.

Sailing along just south of the equator in a 10 knot SW breeze with the genoa, stay sail and main all pulling Iolea towards the Galapagos when all of a sudden there appears a perogue with two fishermen aboard waving madly towards a black flag in the distance. Its 10,000ft deep here and 190 miles from land; this is not what we expected! They waved us north to avoid their nets and then pointed to more flags in the distance - tres mas, tres mas they called (3 more). Well each of these nets is 2 miles apart and in the end we counted five of them before we thought we were clear - only to see in the distance another line of flags. In fact we were in a minefield of nets - to the north, the west and east of us. Fortunately, another perogue came zooming out of nowhere with its shepards, told us they had 5 miles of nets out and escorted us safely to the south of them this time, finally allowing us to get back on course for the Galapagos.

Paul had Iolea run up and down the Equator several times to achieve this. Another photo is identical but say 00.00.00'N.

I guess it was too much to expect to have good wind all the way to Galapagos. As night fell last night we saw a conga line of clouds across the horizon. Not sure but it looked like it might be the edge of the doldrums. By 3am we had little or no wind and motored until 9.30am this morning - a more predictable rate but very rolly with the left over seas and the engine added to the ambient heat - sea water temp is 29.5 degrees, 2 days ago it was 22 degrees and we were wearing warm jumpers in the evening. We now have the spinnaker up but there is not much wind to carry it. Our speed over ground is around 4.5 knots and almost 2 of that is current. Still, we have calmer seas and have taken the opportunity to refresh ourselves with a shower.

Its the morning of day 3 to the Galapagos and we are making good headway, albeit not the most comfortable of passages. Apart from a short pleasant motor down the Perlas chain we have been under sail the whole time, first with the spinnaker then wing and wing. The first night the winds gusted 35-40knots and we were flying along between 9-10 knots under reduced sail by then. Even more impressive was Irie, a 34ft cat, with Mark and Lisbet aboard found themselves doing 15 knots at one stage and promptly took time out to reduce sail. We later learnt that other friends on Juffa, which is 40 foot catamaran, hit 18 knots. Yesterday the winds reduced somewhat but still in the high teens and with the assistance of a persistent current had us doing min of 6 knots and up to 9 frequently. Last night built again but only to late 20s to 30s. While the winds are getting us to where we want to go its tiring on the body. Following, confused seas kick Iolea left and right or push her sideways so working in the galley is unpleasant and messy - yesterday it was a can of coconut milk over the benches and on the carpet and today it was coffee beans. A fun aspect of the passage are the nets which run in the morning and afternoon - we sign in and give positions, chat to others about conditions and what is happening with sea state and currents at different latitudes. If it were pleasant weather we might swap food info but its all about comfort and sleep for the moment.

On our sail from Contradora and here in Panama we have seen quite a few trawlers - this is one of the smaller ones. Its a bit depressing really when you see the scope of their nets. Over the past weeks we have been delighted with the multitude of fish since there seemed so few in the Caribbean. Just hope they leave some left to breed. It would be good to see more emphasis in the press on overfishing - rather than just whales and turtles.

We are now anchored at La Playita outside Panama city in a crowded anchorage of boats waiting for a weather window to the Galapagos. Apart from the Oyster rally of 30 odd boats there are at least that many again of cruisers waiting. Carolyn on Juffa has suggested we organise an informal race which sounds fun - anyway we will see what happens as the next opportunity approaches. In the meantime, we are catching up with Zenna and Pitufa and will have our batteries in on Monday - new AGMs this time so, if managed ok, we should not have to lift a floorboard to maintain them since they are a closed system - they are meant to last up to 6 years - but that is probably optimistic.