Monthly Archives: November 2018

Realtime Passage to Galapagos #01

20 Hours in and all is good. After a delayed departure from Golfito, customs and port Authority took most of the morning, the after noon rains which started early at noon. We stayed one more night in the tranquil albeit rainy anchorage and set off this morning at about 6am. Motored out of Golfito and Golfo Dulce as there wasn’t much wind or waves around. Just a few whales cruising the bay making cool water spouts as the came to he surface. The forecasted wind directions were off by more than 100 degrees in direction so when we cleared the mouth we were able to head almost due west instead of the planned route of more south which hopefully will work out with further wind direction changes. So far winds have been light, maxed out at 10kt and waves pretty small.
Sun was out all day, so we spent time on the shady side of the sails to stay cool and not get sunburnt on the first day out. Caught one small Spanish Mackerel, let him go. A pod of silly dolphins came by to show off some fantastic leaping antics, had not seen that many aerials from dolphins in the wild before.
We had a Brazilian staple of Feijoada with a Jason’s Deli twist, served over baked potato instead of rice. Turned out quite tasty and perfect dinner to start the night shifts.
Just after dark the winds abated to almost nothing, we tried to adjust our direction to keep the sails full, but ended up giving up and rolling in the head sail (jib) for an hour or so before weather started to sprinkle and bring some 7knot winds back.
One fun ship n ship crossing, a Dole banana boat had to duck another container ship. That duck maneuver encroached on our path, so we turned a bit to give the Big Banana Boat some more room, which eventually turned back on his course after passing behind the other cargo ship. Of course it was all in the dark so just watching lights in front of the boat, thank goodness for AIS and tracking of those vessels it was easy to figure out what was happening.
Keep on Keeping on. 588 miles to go.
At 11/4/2018 @ 7:02 AM Our position: 07°31.08’N, 084°32.72’W Traveling 5.8 heading 249T
Google says we are here www.google.com/maps/place/7.51800,-84.54533
At 11/4/2018 @ 7:02 AM Our position: 07°31.08’N, 084°32.72’W Traveling 5.8 heading 249T
Google says we are here www.google.com/maps/place/7.51800,-84.54533