30th May

01 00.590 N

89 07.000 W



Weather; cloudy with hints of sun but no sighting of same, wind between 10 Ð 24 knots, waves 2- 3 metres



I'm beginning to suspect that the sun no longer exists as yet again we had a day of grey and overcast skies. We continued to sail all day without having to resort to putting the engine on at all, it was nice and peaceful on that front but the wind and waves rushing past us certainly made enough noise to prevent us from getting much sleep in during the day. The constant heeling over had us trying hard not to move around too much as every movement is fraught with the possibility of banging into stuff. It's funny how the heeling over makes you rethink the entire storage areas on the boat particularly as on our current tack all the cupboards which have our tinned goods in are in danger of flying open and spilling their contents all over the cabin sole so every time you need to get something out of one of those cupboards it's a case of trying to time it for the Nano second that the boat straightens up, quickly retrieving the tin that you need, and it's never anywhere near the fro
nt of the cupboard, and slamming the door shut before the next sideways movement occurs or you end up chasing tins around the floor as they determinedly roll away from you. The same rules apply in the galley where preparing food is a hazardous occupation at best; knives, hot water, round fruits and veggies, unsecured plates, bowls, pots and pans have a habit of ending up in the sink for safety reasons. We spent most of the day sitting reading in the cockpit as we bounced along doing a respectable average of 6 knots. We put out the fishing stick and had just one strike in the entire day, whatever we hooked must have been quite large as it chomped through the line and we lost our 3rd hook line and sinker with no fish to show off yet again! We changed out our lure and threw it back in the water but there were no further strikes for the rest of the day Ð maybe tomorrow!

As the night watches began both of us thought we could see a light on the far horizon but nothing showed up on radar or AIS which is a bit disconcerting when you are heading straight towards it, even if it is miles away. We watched with keen interest as it gradually grew larger and obviously closer, we suspected it was a fishing boat and really didn't want to get caught up in any line or nets that it might have out in the water. I took off for my turn at sleeping and left Gerry to deal with whatever it was that we were approaching, it turned out that when we were just half a mile away from it they suddenly turned on their AIS and showed themselves to be a 236 foot long fishing boat Ð not something we needed to hit in the dark! Gerry passed it safely and that was the last we saw of life on the water for the night. Our escort of birds continued for the evening but only 2 of them took up perches for the night, one on the pulpit and one on the stern solar panel. The one on the s
tern was a different sort of bird from yesterday, it was more like a gull and Gerry decided that it was a Shitehawk. I'm sure that the two birds have added to the mess left on the deck which we still haven't had the rain needed to clean it off. As today is Sunday I slept in this morning until 8 am (having just managed two and a half hours sleep so I'm not sure it really counts as a sleep in) but as a consequence of not being up when dawn broke I missed the dolphin display this morning which Gerry assured me was on par with yesterdays Ð I guess it's their regular feeding time and they chase the boat to catch anything that our wake throws up. The day has begun grey and overcast yet again but there are streaks of blue ahead of us so maybe we will get some use out of our solar panels today, it's a good job that the wind generator is keeping up with the power needs for the moment. Oh we had one catch early this morning when Gerry did deck patrol, a squid had landed on our deck
and luckily hadn't squirted ink all over it, or if it had the wash from the breaking waves had cleared it away but not the squid itself. We managed our best day yet in the past 24 hours, making 152 NM totally under sail with no engine hours added. George is doing a sterling job of keeping us on track and heading us towards the Marquises, we are one day closer to feeling solid land beneath our feet. We are currently at the tip of the Galapagos Islands, heading across the top of them in the next day or so. We can't see any land, there are no boats on the water in any direction, no flying fish and no whales as yet but we are looking out for them. So that's it for today, as someone famous once said "I'll be back" .