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by KC2RIY, on April 9th, 2010 ( At Sea, Galapagos, Sail Away) We are on our way to Isabella. With recent reports of local winds I was not fully confident of making the short 45nm trip to Isabella and arrive by daylight so (not to the humour of the crew) I opted for a night passage. It’s easier to slow down than to speed up – unless more fuel is to be burned – and that’s not what I want to do at the beginning of our big hop west.
We are going too fast for a dawn arrival so I’ve set a waypoint 10nm south of our destination and put two reefs in both sails. If the wind drops we can shake out the reefs over night. If we still arrive too early we can about course for a while then head in.
We’ve heard Isabella is a really nice anchorage so we’re looking forward to our arrival and a couple of nights stay.
I did managed some work today. I’ve replaced one bilge pump, the fresh water foot pump and the shower sump pump for which the replacement gave us so much fun back in Costa Rica. I have made notes on possible replacement parts for the removed sump pump and foot pump so they can be returned as spares at some point. The removed bilge pump looked fine so I’m going to have to assess that situation some more. When we’re at Isabella we’re going to take down and examine the wind gen which has begun to make a knocking sound. On Sail Away they had the same unit and it’s making the same sound. We’re not comfortable with the change in sound (about 3-4 weeks ago) so it’s worth having a good look.
by KC2RIY, on April 2nd, 2010 ( At Sea, Zombie Coffee) It’s one week since we left Costa Rica and been out at sea. The time has flown by and to my surprise I’ve not felt bored once. Its been mainly very relaxing. The routine of the day is maintained by our shifts. We always have lunch and dinner together and this is the time we tend to chat. The rest of the time we sleep, read, work on the computer, do any chores and maintenance that comes up or just stare out at the sea.
Today is special. Today we crossed the equator. Most sailors who cross the equator for the first time do something special. Many dress up and give homage to Neptune by throwing some sort of gift into the sea. Our gift was to throw in some Zombie Coffee produced by Pizza John in, El Castillo, Arenal, Costa Rica. We promised Pizza John when he gave us three packs of his coffee that we would do this. However our special act for crossing was to swim over the equatorial line. We steered Dignity onto the imaginary line so that the port side of the boat was in the south and the starboard in the north. We made sure we stayed on the north side during the maneuver and from the north back step we jumped into the ocean and swam to the south back step. The water was ten degrees cooler than we had in Central America – a refreshing 85 degree Fahrenheit. After we were all out of the water, we continue moving along the equatorial line while we drank our champagne. Feeling slightly light headed we put up our sails again and headed southwest straight for the Galapagos. We had wind!
As the sky darken this evening we noticed how clear the sky was and how bright the stars looked. We quickly identified Venus, the brightest object in the sky. Below it was mercury. Looking further we also detected Saturn low behind us. Finally we found Mars directly above us. Its not often you get to see four planets at the same time. A special day. A special night.
by KC2RIY, on April 2nd, 2010 ( At Sea, Zombie Coffee) The big, once in a lifetime event of day 7 of this passage was crossing the equator. We were approaching the equator just prior to 8am when we normally check in to the Pan Pacific Net. I therefore set the boat onto a parallel course about half a mile north of the equator while we conducted our radio communications. Once this was complete we turned the boat, dropped the sails, turned again and edged our way closer to the equator.
As we came feet away I slowed the boat right down and stopped her facing west right on the equator. Our choice of celebrating this unique crossing was to swim from one transom to the other, essentially swimming our way across the equator. Helen had been getting cold feet, or more precise had been getting worried about getting cold feet, for a while but eventually agreed to go. John went first and was in and out quickly. The water was down to 85F from 95F when we cleaned the bottom a week ago. Once John was clear Helen went next. When she was aboard I climbed atop the bimini and jumped in from there. The water wasn’t so bad at all.
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Next we uncorked our bubbly, our one and only alcoholic concession of the trip, which went to our heads. We took photos of ourselves drinking our wine. We also took pictures of us drinking Zombie Coffee (commercial plug – we promised John) and cast some Zombie Coffee powder into the sea to appease Neptune. We weren’t so desperate as to throw in any wine.
Soon we were again under sail making a straight line to our approach waypoint to Ayora, Santa Cruze.
Shortly after all this John found two small squid and a flying fish on the deck. We used the squid as bait and had the same luck as we’ve had for the previous five days. None.
After brief exchanges on radio/email it appears our group of friends aboard Bristol Rose, Jackster and Inspiration Lady, a day or so east of us, are opting for the gentleness of the Wreck Bay anchorage in San Cristobal rather than the more activity oriented but rolly Academy Bay/Ayora anchorage in Santa Cruze. I’m sure this is the right decision for them but it will be pity because we’ll miss each other. Unless one obtains an ‘autographe’ in advance, only one anchorage can be visited in the Galapagos and we’re all in that boat.
Still, we have landfall to look forward to today. ETA is hard to tell as the wind keeps changing at the moment. At times it looked like 7am local time. As I’ve been typing the wind has dropped off to under 4 knots so I’ve given us a slight push with the electric motors. The drop in wind could be due to the mountains/hills on San Cristobal to our south but that is 20nm away so I’m sceptical about this possible cause. If I was more certain about it I would happily bob on by in the current. As it is the slight push which can be endured for many hours without running the genset gets us there around midday.
by KC2RIY, on April 1st, 2010 ( At Sea) During my watch last night the wind picked up and started coming from the south east. Since we were heading south there was enough angle to allow me to unfurl the head sail and give Dignity a little extra push while we motor sailed. Very soon I was able to switch off the generator and just using a small amount of push from the electric motors and sail at a respectable 4 to 5 knots. For those for those who do not know. A knot is about 1.1 miles.
As the wind increased I decided to head more west enabling the boat to speed up further and head directly towards the Galapagos which was to the south west of us. This seemed a reasonable decision to make. When Steve woke up and took over from me, he was very please to know we were sailing and at such a decent speed. When he realised we had gone off course and was moving southwest rather than south he was mighty pissed off. He had wanted to get as south as possible where the winds and currents were more favorable for sailing into the Galapagos. I thought it would be better to take advantage of the wind while we had it and get us as near to our destination as possible. Especially as the weather grip had said that winds were dropping off near the Galapagos. However if the winds had not drop near the Galapagos; my heading could have placed us in an area where currents and wind direction would have been very much against us. Steve thought the odds for us were much better going south, even if the winds should change. Although I am the admiral (master), Steve is the captain (commander) and responsible for the boat under sail. We headed south.
By the time I woke up for my morning watch, we had made good progress south, completely under sail, with no help from the motors. We would have been flying if we headed south west but we continued to play it safe for the day.
The three frigate birds that ‘s been with us for three days flew off in the morning and haven’t come back. Since Steve was feeling a little restless, he hosed down all the little presents they’d left on the deck and pulpit bars. Still feeling restless, Steve got on the VHF radio and asked if there were any vessels in the vicinity. Very quickly we got a response from another cruising boat called Sea Mist. They were sailing about ten miles away from us. After chatting to them for a little while, we realised that we’d talked to them before – in The Saints, Caribbean, just over a year ago. It’s a small world.
by KC2RIY, on April 1st, 2010 ( At Sea) Usual 3am start, not a lot happened. Most of the videos I converted and put on my media player failed halfway through, I so gave up on that idea and got the laptop out to watch at least one of them.
Saw some dolphins when handing over the watch to Mum, they cam to the bow and hung around for a couple of mins and then went away.
Our 3 seabird left this morning and we haven’t seen them since, they had left a right mess on the front of our boat, Steve cleaned up the best he could, as its quite rolly at the moment. Not ideal conditions to be holding a hose in one hand and a brush in the other, while be bounced all around by the ocean.
Tomorrow we should be going across the equator, Steve wants all of us to jump in and swim the final few feet to the southern side.
Land fall in 2 days, unless something spectacular goes wrong with the boat or if Mum tries to plot in a short cut….hahaha only joking Mum.
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