Departure

We are under way, having left Isabella at 1 in the afternoon. We currently have decent winds at 10-15 knots and are sailing in somewhat bumpy seas. We had a bolt in the top swivel of the spinnaker come undone so that is a fix it project for the day light hours. We are sailing a course of 260 at a speed of 7.5 knots, currents are very favorable. There 6 boats that left together today. Umm 25 more days......

Position 1.26S, 92.14W

The Crew of Nikita

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Isabella

What a fabulous island. The penguins have been a real treat, zooming through the water at 100 miles and hour after fish. We have seen lots of turtles and got our first sighting of giant tortoises in the wild, which was very cool. We took a panga ride out to a volcanic reef system, which was thrilling as the driver waited about 15 minutes for a break between swells to race in. We then were within the volcanic reefs with natural arches and tunnels. The sea life was amazing with sea horses, white tip sharks, sea lions, penguins and turtles.

We are D-1 for departure to the Marqueses. We are physically ready and mentally gearing for the 25 days at sea..... Rae Ann said over drinks tonight that no one can really be ready mentally because there is no comparable experience.

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The Penguins of Isabella

We moved over to Isabella on Friday. The anchorage is a tiny nook on the south coast, facing the prevailing seas and winds. However, you thread your way in between several volcanic out croppings ending a fairly well protected spot.

In addition to the normal (Galapagos normal that is) parade of wildlife, sea lions, turtles, giant tortoises, booby's we now get to see penguins. They swim around the anchorage seemingly never going less than 100 miles an hour. Very fun.

We took a long panga ride today out to an area where you can get in behind the surf and wander via boat and foot in labyrinth of volcanic flows, with tunnels, arches and pools. Very remote, rugged and beautiful.

Hmmm, now there are no more islands to the west of us until French Polynesia, 3000 miles, 25 days of sailing. We are slightly anxious to say the least having a great deal of respect for the usefulness of a 5 day weather forecast.... We have listened in on the various SSB nets that keep cruisers in touch and the conditions have been a bit variable with periods of higher winds and seas as well as more southerly winds than normal. I suspect hang over from El Nino. We expect to depart within the week, there seems to be a large group of boats getting ready to leave about Thursday.

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San Cristobal

We are having a blast. We hired a taxi for the day yesterday, visiting the southern volcano and hiking its perimeter. The volcano has the only fresh water lake in the Galapagos, the lack of fresh water being a constant problem thus. We then visited the Giant Tortoise reserve, observing about 30 different animals at all stages of development. My take on the situation is that as soon as the first pirate/whaler stepped ashore as did the first rat and since then the competition from rats, cats, goats, pigs, dogs has essentially wiped out the native tortoise except for those kept in reserves. We then visited a beach on the southern side of the island for a much needed swim after all of the hiking.

In the "town" area they have built a long board walk and a park. Part of the park is a set of slides that goes down into the ocean at high tide. Well after some warming up the kids want to play there everyday now. The only problem is that you have to wait in line.... for the sea lion pups to go down the slides as well. The kids are in heaven with all of the wild life.

There is some work going on. We needed to replace all the diesel we used (65 gallons for 100 hours of motoring, which is pretty efficient). The only way to do this is by jerry jug. We hired some jugs from our agent and got them on board. After some experimenting as we had not done this before a combination of siphon, hand pump and pouring the last third of each jug worked with very little spilled. The process took about 3 hours, with Jake providing much needed assistance the entire time.

Arrival

We arrived at 9:00 am in the Galapagos, anchored in Wreck Bay, San Cristobal Island. Overall the passage was average. Too much of headwinds and motoring at slow speeds. But alas it did work out.

We have been ashore poking around. The sea lions are everywhere. There is a slide into the ocean where kids can play with the sea lions, obviously high on the must do list for Jake and Isabelle. Cruisers from all over the world - some make their first trip out and a guy I met today who has been out for 10 years, and now on his third time through the South Pacific.

If I had to do this leg again, and I think our experience was about the norm,clearly taking the much longer route, way to the south to begin with (think 3.00S) and then sailing WNW with the prevailing winds aft of the beam and current favorable. It would though probably double the sailing miles and thus trip, but make it more enjoyable.

Now where is my tortoise soup I have heard so much about?

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Polywogs No More

We just passed the equator and as a right of passage for any mariner who does so, one becomes a shellback. We made an offering to Neptune, one dram for each of us of our finest wine. As each of us was uninitiated we all were dressed up in some outrageous garb and then..... we had cake.

We are about 60 miles for our island of destination in the Galapagos, so should be in during the morning on Wednesday the 14th.

Position 00.00.000 and 89.04W

The Shellbacks of Nikita

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Day 6

We have had a good 24 hours, with a great sail overnight, followed by light wind and seas during the day that saw us motoring most of the way. It looks like alot of motoring is left so we are getting close on fuel.

Quote of the trip, by Isabelle as she was playing the other day down below and we were hit by the largest wave of the trip, sending the boat over 60 degrees. in a calm tone "holy crap" and then continued on playing.

The wildlife has been very interesting with countless pods of dolphins, the most enjoyable of these at night when there bioluminesence lights the water it a trail behind them. We have seen leaping rays, sharks (one looking seriously at our fishing lure), turtles and each night several birds that fly with the boat all night.

The saga of the oil seepage continues. It is clearly not the drain plug but is related to the pan seal to the block. There is a constant tiny bit of oil on the seam. Again nothing that is causing any measurable loss of oil, but still concerning.

Position 0.53N, 87.14W, motoring at 5.5 knots on a course of 234.

The Crew of Nikita

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Day 5

Ok first apologies for repeating Day 3, there really was a Day 4.

A few hours ago this would have been a much different missive, as we fought 20 knot winds and 10 foots seas, heeled at 30 degrees. Now the winds are of course gone and the seas slowly dying out. The kids had been a little on edge the first few days and I was expecting the worst when they got up this morning. But.... they had a great day playing down below, making up new games etc. While Rae and I curled up in the most cozy corners and hung on for dear life.

I am not sure what makes this passage so difficult, but pretty universally everyone runs into the nasty weather, which of course was not forecast by any of the three weather services we use. Well touch wood we are on the other side and looking at a favorable forecast the rest of the way in.

On the bad news side, I noticed a small (very small) weep of oil, seemingly from the drain plug, which has never been touched I pump the oil out of the engine via the dip stick tube. At the moment it is nothing but something to monitor, but I do not have a fix if it gets worse.....

Position 1.51N, 85.27W
Motoring at 5 knots course 238.

The Salt Encrusted Crew of Nikita

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Day 4

It has been a rough 24 hours with a stiff southerly wind and large confused seas. We did get a 10 hour sail out of it, but all hard on the wind so lots of heeling.

Seas are quieter now. We are motoring overnight on a southerly course to get out of the ITCZ, though we did clear the more convective area last night.

Position 2.35N 83.51W, motoring at 205 degrees, speed of 5 knots.

The Crew of Nikita

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Day 3

A mixed day. We did get about 10 hours of sailing, however the rest has been motoring and fighting currents so moving no better than 5 knots.

We are very much in the middle of the ITCZ tonight, so we have thunderstorms all around us and bumpy confused seas. None of this I would describe as pleasant.

We are continuing our course south of the rumb line to try to exit the ITCZ. It looks like it will take us longer than anticipated, having to make southing all the way to 2 degrees north before turning towards the Galapagos. This likely means about 24 more hours of motoring at least.

Other than that how was the play, Mrs Lincoln?

Position
3.41 N
82.19 W
motoring on a course of 205 at 5 knots.

The Crew of Nikita

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Day 2

Well the wind has gone and we are firmly in the ITCZ, otherwise known as the doldrums. The seas are absolutely mirror glass with some residual swell. Overall very comfortable. We are looking at a rather long motor over the next couple of days to exit the ITCZ and pick up the southerly trades. We have altered course to move south quicker.

No fishing today, but we finished the tuna so lines go back in tomorrow. A couple of boat projects (cleaned the curtains), a couple of dolphins and a turtle spotted. Otherwise a quiet day spent calculating fuel requirements.

The Crew of Nikita

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Panama to the Galapagos - Day 1

We set off today with a fair wind and light seas. As forecasted though the wind has gone away leaving us to motor. We are outside our range under power so we are using lower RPM's to conserve and stretch our fuel.

We were uncertain how the fishing would go without Bruce, aka the Fishingmaster, thus imagine our surprise in catching two black fin tuna about 10 pounds each. Much different than losing all your fish and ultimately tackle as well.

We have had dolphins swimming with us nearly all day, especially with the kids up on the bow the dolphins do not seem to want to leave.

Position 7.16 N, 79.54 W motoring at 6 knots course 234M.

The Crew of Nikita

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One Small Step

Well we have left Panama, more accurately Panama City, and are now anchored in Contadora Island, part of the Las Pearlas Islands of Panama. A slow sail of 40 miles brought us 10 miles further away from the Galapagos.... hmmm. All part of the plan I assure you. We need to finish our passage preparations and get a weather window, and the Las Pearlas are a very nice place to do this from.

Our time in Panama was very hectic. While the visit with the grandparents (both Rae and I's parents visited us) was great of Jake and Isabelle, it was hard for Rae and I to relax as either we were getting ready for the canal transit or we were chasing and endless list of projects. There is a common held phrase in the cruising community that when you finish one project on your list you get to add two more. Some of the issues were surreal such as our oven door shattering mid-breakfast preparation. Anyway most of the items got taken care of, and the ones that remain are manageable.

Panama City was very polluted. The black muck that covers our boat is sickening while the water line sports a sludge like substance, some of which flaked off while sailing yesterday but the remainder will require me to get in the water a scrape.

The route to the Galapagos crosses the ITCZ, commonly referred to as the doldrums. As I have monitored the weather on route it has been particularly windless in the last few weeks. We may have some nice dins in the next week to at least get us away. We will probably wait a little to see if that materializes, if not we will set out for a long motor trip.

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