The only things to report, in terms of events for day 5, are that the 2 birds that alighted overnight turned into three by morning (and are still with us now). Despite having the four trolling lines out with different lures on each day we have still caught no fish with the exception of a stinky Sierra on the way to Bahia Leone on day 0 and a small fish probably snagged on but escaped from one of the larger lures a day or two ago.
Our recent hopes for landfall were for Thursday. With the recent poor progress Thursday is now off the cards. Here are the factors affecting us recently and have to consider in determining how to progress:
* Wind direction varies from SSE (usually in the morning) to SSW late morning and for rest of day.
* Approx .5 to 1 knot current pushes us towards NW
* We are already way too far north of our desired approach having diverted away from our planned waypoint due to rough seas on the nose.
If we sail or motor sail on a port tack we end up heading almost due west and do little to progress southwards. We get the illusion of progress due to the assistance of the current.
If we sail or motor sail on a starboard tack the best we can do is end up going SSE with reduced speed over ground due to having to fight the current.
We could keep heading west and hope for a significant change in wind direction. If we don’t get one it may end up being a hard slog south at the end.
With the winds now light and the seas calm our preference now is to head towards the equator as best we can allowing us the chance of a decent sail into the Galapagos later on. If we arrive too early on Friday we’ll probably have to check in and incur holiday overtime fees as it is Easter Friday. To a certain extent we can take it easy as arriving late on Friday will allow us to stop off at Wreck Bay, Isla St Cristobal under our quarantine flag before proceeding to Isla Santa Cruz the following day.
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