March 15, 2010

We are on our way to the Galapagos Islands! We left Las Perlas, Panama on Wednesday March 11 at 10am so this is our 6th day outand 5 over nights. There has been 2 days we could be under full sail and the rest we have either sailed with very littlewind and not many miles clicking off the odometer or motor sailing. The Galapagos are located 857 miles from the Perlas andwe carry 202 gallons of diesel and use 3/4 gal. each hour so we cannot motor the entire way. We have had a great sail thus far and have seen much sea life. One day we had a sea bird traveling with us. We were under full sailand he seemed to enjoy swooping in and about the sails. He would go off awhile and we would think he was gone for good thenwe would pass him sitting in the water off our starboard side. He would let us pass and travel about 4 boat lengths from himwhen he'd rise up off the water and chase after us again. He did this time and time again.We have seen to small pods of whales; sperm whales and not sure of other, just know they were large and way too close to theboat for me to enjoy. We have heard that if they come too close to run your engine in idle it will keep them from coming anycloser. We have had sea birds fly along side of us every night. They are using our running lights to pick up small fish from the ocean.Two of them came on board and sat on top of the bimini for hours. You know what it looks like now, still dark blue but with somewhite mixed in. It has been a very busy shake down cruise for Captain Stuart. Both heads seized up and just 20 minutes ago realized our freezerlight is out. We have over 3 months worth of meat in it to get us through the French Polynesian Islands as food is so expensivethere; we have been told. Second day out our linear drive unit on auto helm quit working. Stuart hadone in inventory but had to take everything (and that's alot of stuff) out of the aft lazarette to get to the unit. We bobbedaround in the ocean, 7 miles from shipping lane, for an hour while he changed it out. It had stopped working that morning around1am while he was on watch. Then when I relieved him at 3am I had to hand steer until it was repaired around 4pm. I was exhaustedas we were in 7' seas and have to admit have not hand steered in a very long time. We depend on 'auto' most of the time. SoI had to re-learn the process of keeping the boat on course. I prayed to my Guardian Angel, Captain Lou, to keep us steady andwe did fine. We are thankful that it happened before we got into the ITCZ the next day. This stands for Inter Tropical Conveience Zone and is where Northern and Southern air masses meet in the area close to the Equator. We were experiencing 7'to8' seas with constant winds of 20-22 kts. and squalls all night long. Actually, we were happy to have the squalls so we couldget the wind and sail. We had 2 reefs in the main with the stasail out and just a handkerchief jib doing 8 kts.A red footed boobie is hitching a ride with us on our solar panels. He looks like a young bird as all his feathers have notformed yet. His large beak is pinkish purple and his feet are bright red as his name suggests. He does not appear to be nervouswith us about. Stuart is grilling right beside him. I have taken photos!