Do flying fish not see at night? Why is it only at night they end up all over the deck. Yesterday alone there was a small school in session on the trampoline. I guess they were a branch cult of some sorts and all drank the same cool-aid, that landed them breathless when the sun rose in the morning.
Been a day or so since the last update. We have had one beautiful sunny day, and one gray overcast day with a little bit of drizzle. Nothing too exciting to report, which is a good thing.
As we are coming up on our 4th sunrise on this adventure (not counting the morning we left) we have seem some nice sunrises and some pretty sunsets, but no elusive ‘green flash’ yet, too many clouds on the horizon.
We left knowing that this would be a challenging sail. Against the wind and wave as they are coming from the southeast where we are headed. Studying the routes to get there, there were 2 viable routes to avoid the Humboldt Current that brings the giant squids out to capture sailors who lost their ways. One which was up the shore, and one along way off shore, like 500 miles from shore. The Galapagos is 500+ miles off shore already, so when the models showed stay offshore, it was easy. However the day we were leaving the models were split with 2 going to shore, and 2 going off shore. As we left, we just took the easy way between the islands to get our sea legs in the protected waters between the islands. Prefect, till the next mornings forecast was again split, now we had a decision, stay off shore or go the coast route. Hours of waiting on updated forecasts to no avail, and emails to Donald who keeps track of us when we are on passage. Eventually we chose the offshore route, and have been heading down and away from where we wanting to go. We have traveled over 600 miles but are only about 300 closer to the destination. At some points the software says hundreds of days to arrive. 🙂 Hopefully soon we can take that left turn and start to make all the miles we are traveling count.
All good on board, eating and getting some sleep as we bounce along. Crossed paths with 5 ships so far, one of which was a collision course. Christine hailed him on the VHF to make sure he was gonna change course as it was day light and we say him coming for over an hour. He re-assured us he would keep all 182 meters of his tanker well clear of us. He did alter course enough to pass in front of us by about 1/2 a mile, the tanker wss full and was about a football field wide.
Midnight shift #4 coming to a close with a pitch black night after the moon sets, only the radar and AIS can see things out there.
Cheeers
Started with 1765 miles till the destination, 1482 miles to go if we were a crow.
On 12/17/2018 @ 8:47 AM Our position: 08°32.66’S, 090°48.67’W Traveling 6.4 heading 196T
Google says we are here www.google.com/maps/place/-8.54433,-90.81117
At 12/17/2018 @ 8:47 AM Our position: 08°32.66’S, 090°48.67’W Traveling 6.4 heading 196T
Google says we are here www.google.com/maps/place/-8.54433,-90.81117

Midnight watch: all good so far – light winds, small waves both against us. Not terrible, just a little bit bouncy as we are going slow, its a long ways and lets not get too beat up on the first night out.
Pretty good day, got an early-ish start. About an hour late as I wanted to change the fuel filters while in the protection of the bay, especially after seeing what showed up in the ‘baja filter’ we used to screen the jerry can fuel we loaded up on in the Galapagos. Water and sludge. That took about an hour so we got started around 8:30.
One of the boats we know from Panama came in the night before we left, and anchored close enough to say hello and good bye at the same time. Our paths will cross again as they will also head to Easter Island after Galapagos.
Christine & Sally made some yummy banana muffins for breakfast while Ron helped me with the fuel filters.
First couple of hours was 180 degrees from where we wanted to go, we had to get clear of the island before we could tack over to get on course.
Once on course we dropped the fishing lines in, nothing much for a long while but then a large Wahoo took off running. Could already taste dinner, but then as he was leaping out of the water the swivel became the weak link and dinner said, see you later. Not to be out done a sneaky Marlin came in close with lightning speed and snatched the ‘teaser’ right up next to the boat, breaking the 200lb test line like it was sewing thread. So far, fish: 2 – us: zero. Its a long way so we will keep trying.
Pressure cooker Carnitas for dinner, its almost like being in Austin with a little Tex-Mex to wind down the day.
As I sat down to type an update, the wind, like on cue picks up to 20k from the steady 12k we were having – the dark cloud that obscures the stars is no doubt the reason, but the increase in wind also pushed top boat speed up to 9.9kn for the past 30 minutes. And just like that we are back to 10knots of wind and slow going.
Started with 1765 miles till the destination, 1675 miles to go if we were a crow.
On 12/14/2018 @ 7:45 AM Our position: 01°58.69’S, 088°33.01’W Traveling 7.9 heading 135T
Google says we are here www.google.com/maps/place/-1.97817,-88.55017
At 12/14/2018 @ 7:45 AM Our position: 01°58.69’S, 088°33.01’W Traveling 7.9 heading 135T
Google says we are here www.google.com/maps/place/-1.97817,-88.55017

We are underway, looking at least a 2 weeks at sea, and going into the wind. Gonna be a long one. Not quite as far as the atlantic crossing but will be close by the time we factor in the wind direction and waves that are pushing against out direction its gonna be a while before we find internet again.
Cheers, all is good so far.. course its only been 6 miles.
Lots of miles to go, only about 1765 nautical miles as the crow flies.
On 12/13/2018 @ 3:20 PM Our position: 00°53.62’S, 089°41.22’W Traveling 6.9 heading 255T
Google says we are here www.google.com/maps/place/-0.89367,-89.68700
At 12/13/2018 @ 3:20 PM Our position: 00°53.62’S, 089°41.22’W Traveling 6.9 heading 255T
Google says we are here www.google.com/maps/place/-0.89367,-89.68700