As day broke, it promised to be a glorious bright typical warm SE Trades day. The sunrise was spectacular, with an orange glow followed by a horizon of orange-backed characteristic puff ball clouds. The warmth after a cool night, trackie bottoms no less, was a delight. We've started a bit of a routine at 9pm, with J doing 3 hours watch, then D 3 hours, then J pushing through from 3am to 7 or 8am, depending on how Deb has slept. Maybe it's just getting over the tum and the first few days. Needless to say Johnny then sleeps for Britain after breakfast. Meals have been plain, though this evening can only be described as comfort food: mashed potatoe (Galapagos best,and very tasty - we have many!), boiled egg, yolk almost runny, and left over rice and curry for J from last night. All eaten from the ubiquitous dog bowls. How good is that? Smiles all round in this cockpit, washed down by a coke and a Bia Saigon (yes, beer from Vietnam - special price in Panama!).
The rain and swell. Well, it's rained the proverbial here. At one stage you could'nt see the sea surface for pelting rain. Despite our all round protection, water has got in and the cushions have been variously, dry, damp, soaking, or drying, but mostly not dry. It has been a day for ducks, but none in sight. One small black surface dancing bird, and a gull of dubious description. No ships, no lights, just an expanse of wet sea. Wind there has been. In between the squalls, it has blown around 20 knots SE. We started the day heading SW, so a great beam reach at 7-8 knots again. As the wind kicked in amid the squalls, we have tended further west to reduce the increased apparent wind. The forecast shows stronger winds south of us too. But more rain shadows chasing us from the north tomorrow. At least we put the miles on the scorecard; we recorded 175 miles this 24 hours. As I write we are 611 miles out of Galapagos in 7 hours under 4 days. We've made a good start at least.
For those of you who have sailed with us over night, we have found the energy thief. At last we can hit the big screen Powersave at will. Yes, you Raymarine gurus, it was the radar on standby, all these last 3 years. With our wind gen producing 4 amps in these winds, we have battery power through the night.
A windy and wet weekend in prospect we think. Then drier and sunnier weather next week starting on Monday. By then, we hope to be putting more west into our track, with the headsail on the pole. Thank you for all your emails and news. Keep them coming. We shall await all your pictures in 3 weeks! We have set upon around 2200 UTC as our best Panama hit on the HF link, 4pm our time. That reminds me, we should think Clock Change sometime soon! And I must tell you about Aunty Marg!
No comments:
Post a Comment