24th March
2019: Day Nineteen
Thinking
about it, day eighteen doesn’t end and day nineteen doesn’t start until midday,
so half of the 24th March is still actually day eighteen and day
nineteen doesn’t end until midday on the 25th! An important point
for clarifying just how long the passage has taken us.
We’re
all watching the miles fall away and trying to work out when we will arrive.
It’s looking like it will be after dark given the winds have eased, never an
easy proposition for a first-time arrival. Our options are to anchor in the
dark, or slow down sufficiently to arrive at first light. A no-brainer really:
we have done many arrivals in the dark without incident and so will do the same
again this time, especially given we would need to hang around for six of seven
hours for daybreak.
My
day was very busy. While the men relaxed in the cockpit, notionally steering
the boat, I made bread, made lunch from the bread, cleaned up the boat and then
made a lasagne and coleslaw for dinner. Phew! Given all my endeavours and our
short night tonight I announced I wouldn’t be taking a watch and left them to
it! We shared a bottle of wine with dinner in honour of a successful passage,
our first glass since we set off. It didn’t taste that great to me and I ended
up leaving half. Even Paul and Phil only managed a glass each, but Dan finished
it off!
We
saw land for the first time just before sunset, some forty-one miles out. It
was amazing watching the sun set behinds the mountains. To cap the evening off
we caught another tuna. This time a small yellow-fin, perfect for dinner for
four people.
At
3am Paul shouted me to say we were approaching the finish line and needed to
take big blue down for the last time. We put the deck floodlights on and he and
Dan went forward to pull it down while Phil and I controlled the lines from the
cockpit. All went smoothly and at 03.45am, 18
days and 15 ¾ hours after leaving Puerto Ayora we crossed the finish line. 3034 nautical miles under our belts,
and an average of 6.776 knots. There’ll
be no position for us on the winners podium this time but a respectable time
and with no damage or injury. Well done Team Tumi!
Rounding
the headland into the bay in Atuona, Hiva Oa, Paul picked out the yachts at
anchor while I wove our way through them to a safe position to anchor for the
remainder of the night. It’s three and a half hours earlier here than our point
of departure and so by 00.45am local time we were safely at anchor with a
celebratory can of beer for the crew. We’ll move into the inner harbour in the
morning to get away from the worst of the swell.
23rd March 2019: Day
Eighteen
We feel as though we are on the home straight now. Later in the morning we will
pass the 250 miles to go marker, and who knows, we might even spot another boat
in the fleet. We haven't seen anything on the horizon but sea and sky for about
ten days or more. You would think that we feel isolated, but we don't. Our
daily routine keeps us occupied and we are our own microcosm. We steer the
boat, we cook, we eat well, we sleep, we occasionally catch fish, we chat, we read,
we sleep some more. The only thing we don't do is walk. A quick stride around
the deck only takes thirty seconds, and with the deck pitching as it does, it's
not recommended.
22nd March 2019: Day Seventeen
We had a bit more wind during the night last night which meant that we had to
keep checking on the parasailor to determine whether or not it would have to
come down. As it turned out, it was fine, and our progress has been steady at
around 7 knots. We passed the milestone of 500miles to go last night, it seems
as though the miles are dropping off very quickly now and Team Tumi are looking
forward to getting our feet back on solid ground again.
After the beautiful sunset last night we were treated to a spectacular sunrise this morning.
We caught a big tuna (40lbs+) late in the afternoon, our usual time for getting
a bite. After its epic battle to avoid capture we reeled it in but took
the decision to throw it back .... it would have filled the freezer completely,
and kept us fed for 2 weeks with fish to spare so we let it go.
We had some very sad news this evening: one of our closest friends and keenest
supporters of our adventures has passed away. We’re both devastated and will
miss her dearly. Rest in Peace, Pat, and thank you for everything over the
years.
Less than 300 miles to go to the Marquesas.
21st March 2019: Day Sixteen
It’s the first day of spring today (not that it makes any difference to us out
here in the tropics) and I have just heard from our weather man back home (aka
our friend Mac) that the weather appears to be settled for the next few days.
Good and bad news. Good in that we can probably keep the big blue flying all
the way to the Marquesas, bad in that the journey might be a little longer than
planned, but hey ho, we are still making steady progress towards the Islands.
At least the calmer weather means that Team Tumi all get to enjoy some decent
sleep without being thrown across the bunk or cabin several times in the night.
The day proved unfruitful in the fishing stakes once again today. We took a
couple of hits on the lure, something very big on the second occasion and
whatever it was it bit through the leader, taking the hook, but thankfully
leaving the lure behind. A new hook later and a very good blood knot to fix it
to the lure and we are up and running again. This is our last lure, so we need
to make it count and land that mahi mahi!
This evening we were privileged to have a terrific sunset. It didn t appear to
be that spectacular at first, but while we were sitting quietly in the cockpit
having a moment to ourselves, it just got better and better. What a privilege
to see these sights.
20th March 2019: Day Fifteen
The big blue has been flying for days now, and has been working so well.
Clearly a good investment for us and a real boon in light airs. We have been
making steady progress, and have probably improved our position in the fleet as
a result. Sitting in the cockpit writing this blog, the full moon is behind the
sail illuminating it against the backdrop of fluffy cumulus clouds in an
otherwise clear sky. It is magical.
We caught a strange looking greenish coloured fish today. None of the books we
have enabled us to identify it, so we put it back to live another day. Once
again, it wasn't my mahi mahi :( maybe tomorrow will be more fruitful. In the
absence of said mahi mahi, we resorted to eating Fray Bentos pies this evening
instead. Hmmm. This was an exercise not to be repeated in a hurry!
The radio net was something of a disaster this evening. As net controllers we
tried using a higher frequency to try to reach the whole fleet, but it appeared
that a lot of the boats weren't able to send/receive on channel 8 bravo.
Tomorrow will be interesting as I couldn't even raise the net controllers
(TinTin) to discuss whether or not to change back to channel 6 bravo instead
where many of the boats could communicate effectively. Their SSB radio is
playing up anyway, so I might have to jump in and run the net again to help
them out.
600 miles to go.
19th March 2019: Day Fourteen
The big blue has been up for 36 hours now and is doing sterling work. Our
progress is steady with no stress to the rig, and the weather is being kind to
us too. George the autohelm hasn't had to work very hard at all today. We have
adjusted the sails a bit occasionally to make sure we prevent the likelihood of
chafe on the lines, and so far so good. One of the other boats (Peikea) have
had a mainsail halyard failure which has resulted in them needing to assemble a
jury rig to get them close enough to the Marquesas to motor the rest of the
way. We don’t want to be in the same situation if we can help it. The list of
equipment failures in the fleet is growing. Some boats have experience issues
with their SSB radios and so tomorrow we are stepping in to be radio net
controllers ahead of schedule.
The highlight of today was our sighting of a breaching humpback whale (or
possibly two humpbacks as we saw it breach twice). Such a splash, but
unmistakable as humpbacks as the flipper colour and shape are very distinctive.
Phil was desperate to capture a third breach on video but his wishes were thwarted.
The rest of the day passed easily with no more excitement. Still no mahi mahi
:(
18th March 2019: Day Thirteen
Unlucky thirteen? No! The day started calmly with good visibility under the
waxing gibbous moon and continued in the same vein throughout the day. Good
winds propelled us along very nicely, we hoisted the blue at lunchtime and left
it up to do its work and keep our speeds up.
Then came the excitement.
In late afternoon at 6pm the fishing reel started to whiz line out at a
tremendous rate. It was the radio net time and I was on station waiting to
participate but with the line running out so quickly I had to drop the mike and
run to retrieve the line. Dan was trying to slow down our boat speed to no
avail so we abandoned that idea and started the long haul of bringing in the
fish. We had no idea what was on the line but it was big and strong. We took
turns reeling it in, being fought all the way and eventually we got it close
enough to the boat to be able to see that it was huge, bright blue in colour
and still fighting fiercely.
As we pulled it in closer we realised that it was a marlin, and our excitement
grew as we looked it up in the book, meanwhile the rod was being bent out of
all proportion. Once again, if we had caught this fish on our old rod, the reel
simply would not have been able to handle the power coming from the fish on the
other end of the line.
Anyway, we got this beast right to the stern and it was a good 5 feet long,
weighing in at around 60 lbs. The book said that these were normally catch and
release to conserve the stocks, so we decided to cut the line and release it
back into the ocean, but what a fight!
Excitement over, having lost yet another lure, I made a new one ready for
tomorrow's angling session. That mahi mahi is still out there waiting for
me …. The big blue will stay up through the night as the weather is settled and
we should put some miles behind us. It’s nearly a full moon, so we will have
good visiblilty for the next several nights, which is a real boon.
We have less than 1000nm to go and the miles are really counting down now. The
thrill of reaching the Marquesas is building on board, and Phil has been busy
designing his tattoo to mark the voyage. I on the other hand will wait to see
what traditional styles might appeal before making any decision.
17th March 2019: Day Twelve
An easy Sunday. The winds weren't too strong, nor too light. They are coming
from the port quarter swinging round to the stern, but not enough to get the
Parasailor flying. We did try it later in the afternoon but the winds were
variable and we were in danger of wrapping the sail around the shrouds, plus we
hit a squall unexpectedly, so we abandoned the idea and stayed with the
poled out jib and mainsail. Since then we have made good progress.
We had another big hit on the fishing lure, but once again, the fish took the
pretend squid off the lead weight that I use to make it look plumper and more
attractive. Tomorrow we will use a different squid, one that doesn't come away
so easily.
16th March 2019: Day
Eleven
Something of an uneventful day for a change. The fishing line was out all day,
apparently not drawing any attention to itself, or so we thought. When we
reeled it in at the end of the day, the latex squid lure had been eaten off the
rig leaving only the weight and the hook on the end of the line. Some clever
fish probably will have a stomach ache now trying to digest the snack. Anyway,
I have other latex squids and we are good to go again in the morning. That mahi
mahi’s days are numbered!
The winds have uncharacteristically changed around to the east and are gusting
at 25-28 knots so we won’t be flying the blue in these variable comditions.
Instead of the parasailor we have poled out the jib and put a preventer stay on
the main in case of an accidental gybe. With the winds as they are, we can reef
in the sails and control our canvas much easier, and that means we sail safer,
and actually without losing speed in the process. Some of the fleet boats that
are farther south have been complaining that the winds are too light, so much
for not taking the rhumb line in search of stronger winds and currents. We
prefer the shortest distance between two points, it's simpler.
Phil was the bread maker today. It turned out pretty well. We seem to be having
much more success with our baking on this trip. Tuna again for dinner, Dan
cooks it really nicely. We still have enough left for 4 more meals. Not bad for
one fish!
1230 miles to go.
15th March 2019: Day Ten
Today turned out to be a mixed bag of events. We got the big blue up early in
the day and the winds remained steady for most of the day. There is a pattern
emerging with the weather that sees an increase in the winds at about 3pm and
we have to take the blue down quickly to avoid broaching in the gusts. When we
were getting the sail down, two things happened:
The bridle that we use to snuff the sail got caught around the radar dome,
and
The fishing line got caught around the propeller.
Neither of these was good.
First things first, we needed to get the parasailor sorted out. Dan and I tried
several ways to flick the bridle off the dome to no effect. Then after ten
minutes of futile effort, he realised that all we needed to do was untie one
end and pull the other part down, Duh! That bit was sorted.
Next, the propeller wrap. The last thing I ever want to do is go swimming under
the boat in four and a half miles deep water with all sorts of pelagic critters
lurking about, but I had no choice. The 60lb breaking strain line was firmly
attached to the prop and wasn't going to untangle itself. So I donned my mask
and snorkel, retrieved the rigging knife from its sheath, dropped the bathing
platform and ladder, and in I went. Phil, my brother from another mother, bless
his cotton socks, came in with me as moral support, and to keep an eye out for
stray predators while I tackled the problem. We had dropped lines into the
water for us to hang onto in case we were swept away by the current, and under
I went. By pure luck, I managed to find just the right place to cut the line,
and fortunately, the rest of it untangled itself under pressure. Job done, I
was back around the boat to the bathing platform and out of the water as
quickly as I could, closely followed by Phil. The adrenaline was certainly
flowing after that.
I re-rigged the fishing line and put the lure back out, in the vain hope that
we might actually catch something, and wham! We hooked a tuna. Not just a tuna,
a big blackfin tuna. The line on the reel played out for a while, then I
put the brake on and started to reel it in. The fish had other ideas and turned
the other way. The clutch on the reel wasn't tightened down enough to stop more
line being played out, So I tightened it down three times until I had control.
Dan and I took turns reeling it in, and Phil also had a go, but this beast was
not giving up easily. Eventually we brought it close to the boat, and we saw
this big flash of silver in the water. Dan got the gaffe hook ready as I
brought the fish close in to the stern and with one deft snatch of the gaffe,
it was on the deck, all 25-30lbs of it. Dan and I set to and cut it up straight
away. Needless to say, there was a lot of blood and gore, much to Debra’s
horror, and it took a while to stop flapping around but we washed everything
down thoroughly, including ourselves. We ate some of it this evening, and have
frozen the rest, enough to feed us for several days. It's the biggest fish I
have ever caught, and I am glad that someone stole my last fishing rod as the
reel on that rig would never have managed to land this beast. I still want my
mahi mahi though!
We also crossed the half way mark today, and celebrated with a G&T each. We
felt we deserved one after sorting out the problems of the day. But the Team Tumi
motto of “there’s nothing we can’t undo” still stands. We just need to get
better at not causing ourselves the problems that we need to undo!
14th March 2019: Day Nine
Team Tumi let the skipper sleep last night. The watches were shifted and
stretched to accommodate my 10pm to 1am slot and I retired to the forward cabin
to try and get a whole night’s sleep. Being skipper on board, I just can't seem
to switch off. Every creak and groan of the rigging means something to me, and
even in sleep I instinctively know if something is not quite right and I get up
to sort it out, often to Debra’s exasperation. I know she is capable of doing
these things as well as me, but I cannot help it. Anyway, I woke this morning
refreshed and ready to go again, and apparently my eyes weren't red and sunken
any more, and Debra didn't think I still looked shattered, so something worked.
Saying that the night was very fragmented as the forward cabin tends to be
somewhat vigorous in its movement as we cut through the water. Several times I
find myself airborne as we drop into a trough in the ocean. It doesn't make for
restful sleep.
The weather remains very changeable. We got the big blue out this morning and
kept it out until late afternoon, when the winds increased quickly as the
clouds gathered. That was the signal I needed, and just in time, we pulled down
the blue, and unfurled the jib and main. With the increased winds on the beam
at between 80 and 100 degrees to port, we sail almost as quickly with our
normal sail wardrobe as we do with the big blue, but it is far more easily
controlled, and reduces the risk of broaching. A no brainer really.
We still continue to be fishless. We have tried changing the lures every day to
no avail, and today we even replaced our proper lures with some live bait -
flying fish that had landed and died on the decks. This evening as we were
sitting down to watch a movie, a big flying fish decided to join us when it
flew through the hatch and into the saloon, bouncing off Debra’s berth on the way.
She wasn't impressed!
One of the other boats in the fleet, Chanto, reported having an Orca visit
their boat today. Having read the book “survive the savage seas” where the
family’s boat was torpedoed by a pod of Orcas and sank within 90 seconds, I
have mixed feelings about seeing one, but it would be excitement tinged with
apprehension. I personally haven't even seen a whale yet, although Debra and
Phil did see a couple of pilot whales the other day.
The half moon is waxing at present, giving a nice amount of light for the night
sailing. It will get brighter over the next few days as we head towards a full
moon, and should light up our path for the rest of the leg. At the moment, we
have 1600 miles to go to Hiva Oa. Tomorrow we will pass the half way mark and
really be on the countdown to our arrival. We are currently number 15 in the
fleet in terms of distance to go, no prizes on this leg to be expected,
especially as we reef the sails down at night time for safety and comfort’s
sake. It's easier to manage the setting and trimming of the sails when you can
see properly in the daylight.
13th March 2019: Day Eight
The winds shifted again in the early morning back to the east-south-east so it
was a case of engine off and re-set the sails onto a port tack. As they are now
behind us and are fairly light it’s ideal for flying the big blue again which
we just might do once it's daylight and subject to Paul feeling his shoulder is
up to it.
Big blue was deployed by 7am and we enjoyed a great 9 hours of sailing with it
powering us along at over 8 knots in between 15 and 20 knots of wind. It’s
designed to be a downwind sail, that is the wind is coming from behind us, but
can be used when the wind is coming from the side as well as was the case
today. When it’s flying on one side of the boat however, rather than in front,
it can leave us in fear of broaching as the wind strengthens so we took the
sensible decision in the late afternoon to take it down and revert to the white
sails. We’re going about a knot slower but are still achieving over 7 knots so
not so shabby at all!
Bread-making is in full swing on board with Dan giving me a break from it
yesterday. I’m hoping we have enough flour on board to get us through but think
we should be just about okay. Our food stocks are going well … the more
perishable fruit and veg (bananas, pears, lettuce) are finished but we have
plenty of longer-lasting produce on board so there will be fresh things to eat
even if the variety reduces somewhat!
12th March 2019: Day Seven
Last night as I was trying to sleep in the pitching, rolling forward cabin, I
went to throw the sheet over my legs and felt my shoulder give. Ironic isn't
it, that I can haul on ropes, hoist sails, drop sails, stow and retrieve them
without a problem, yet something as innocuous as getting comfortable in bed
causes such a problem? I will need to take it easy for a few days to let it
settle down again before doing too much strenuous activity.
We were radio net controllers today (well, just me this time). The roll call
went without incident, although some of the boats are finding it difficult to
communicate clearly. The SSB radios need long aerials to perform properly,
and some of the catamarans in the fleet do not have backstays that can
double up as aerials (as we have), and so their effective range is compromised.
We work around this by having some boats in the fleet relay the messages from
the remote vessels so we all know what is happening. I got volunteered to
contact the outlying vessels early in the morning to get their positions so
that we can report these to the rest of the fleet. It's not too onerous a task,
and I quite enjoy the involvement.
This afternoon, the weather closed in on us, the rain started falling and the
winds shifted and died. We are now motorsailing again (boo) which is a real
shame as we had been bowling along very nicely before that. Yesterday we
managed 191 miles in the day, an average speed of a smidge under 8 knots. Not
bad by any stretch of the imagination. We have travelled over 1000 nautical
miles so far in this leg of the journey, and now have less than 2000 miles to
go. If we can maintain 8 knots, we would complete the trip in another 10 days.
We can only hope.
No fish again today, time to try a different lure.
11th March 2019: Day Six -
2150 miles to go
Last night was a real rock and roll night. The winds had really got up and we
were bowling along under reefed jib and main sails. Sleeping in the forward
cabin was nigh on impossible as I was airborne as often as I was attached to
the bunk. However, dawn soon came around and another day began. We put the
fishing lure out early to try to catch the hungry predators that might still be
afoot (or should that be atail or afin?) and waited. We waited all day and
nothing. Not even a sniff. On the radio net this evening the other boats were
boasting about how many tuna and mahi mahi they had caught during the day, just
to rub our noses in the dirt. Well, one fine day, our time will come.
The sailing day turned out to be fabulous, we probably averaged in excess of 7
knots which is pretty good. At times as we were surfing the waves we noticed
10.2 knots and even higher, just with our normal sails. The trough that we have
been sailing through for the past two days should be coming to an end now, and
we may be able to get the big blue out again. Certainly this evening the skies
seemed to be breaking up and the barometer is rising again.
We are the radio net controllers tomorrow. Just to be different we will do the
roll call backwards, starting with Tumi.
10th March 2019: Day Five
Today was all about finding the trade winds. We managed to do so by heading
further south for a while until the winds were consistently in the high teens,
then we knew we could take the rhumb line. Surprisingly, we were also
able to fly the big blue, a real bonus, and with the winds on the beam at 90
degrees, we were happily making between 7 and 8 knots.
As the day progressed, the clouds got thicker and lower, a sign that we
were heading into some squalls, and sure enough, we found them. We decided that
it would be best to drop the blue before dark and use the normal sails as they
are easier to handle in rougher conditions, but we almost left it too late: the
winds increased quickly, and snuffing the parasailor became quite a challenge.
We managed it by letting one of the clews fly, a good job I had installed
snap shackles for that very reason. A learning curve for us, get the bloody
thing down before the winds pick up!
No fish today, a couple of hits on the lure, but whatever it was shook the hook
free. Tomorrow we might be lucky.
9th March 2019: Day Four
Today would have been my Dad’s 84th birthday and we do have his ashes on board
as he had always wanted to visit the Sydney Opera House, and so we are
fulfilling his wish. The day itself feels sluggish: leaden skies, high
humidity, little breeze … we can really tell that we are still in the doldrums!
The rally fleet is in two halves: those that headed more to the south in search
of the Trade Winds, and those sticking closer to the rhumb line of which we are
one. So we are further West than the south-bound boats but they will pick up
the trade winds sooner. Some of the larger, faster boats are already down in
the trade wind belt, around 6 degrees south, and are now bowling along nicely.
The winds at our latitude have turned very light today and so we are now
motoring south to reach the desired latitude.
I had a go at making bread again today and it worked out very well indeed …
very pleased with the engine of result which we all enjoyed with cheese, pate
and dried ham for lunch. Yum, yum … no-one can say we don’t eat well on Tumi!
I think to some extent we have all hit the doldrums in ourselves today … the
excitement of setting off has waned and the realisation of how far we still
have to go has dawned. The relatively low latitude of the start of the trade
winds belt is a bit of a blow: we had expected it at 4 degrees south so the
extra 120 miles of motoring isn’t what any of us wanted.
Later in the day we encountered significantly more winds, up to 28 knots coming
from the south east. Whether or not these are trade winds we are riding them
westwards towards the Marquesas. The angle of the wind is such that we will
not, in all likelihood, fly the parasailor much more on this leg of the
journey. The winds are on our port beam at around 90 to 120 degrees off our
bow, and so we will be using our conventional sails. No matter, we will have
plenty more opportunities to fly the big blue yet.
Phil has been plagued with mal de mer twice in two days, we will have to shift
our eating patterns a bit to accommodate his situation. He can keep his lunch
down, so we will have to switch to eating our main meal then instead of at dusk
until he finds his sea legs.
We got a hit on the fishing lure this afternoon, but nothing took the hook. It
shows we are on the right track with it though, and gives us hope that we will
land that elusive fish soon!
8th March 2019: Day Three
We spent the whole day sailing along very nicely with the parasailor up and the
fishing line out. We all had power naps during the day, Debra made a cake for
us to eat while on night duty, and the day passed uneventfully. No fish, but we
changed the lure half way through the day and obviously something thought it
was tasty because the whole lure had been bitten off. We'll try again for the
elusive mahi mahi tomorrow.
This morning the sky was somewhat overcast and consequently the batteries
weren't charged much, then we put the generator on to top them up during our
morning radio net. We noticed that the charge wasnt increasing even with the
generator running, but by that time the skies had cleared somewhat and the
solar panels were building up the charge. By this evening’s radio net the
batteries would normally be in the 13.5 volt vicinity but they were low. The
generator normally boosts the charge very quickly, but not tonight. The charger
wasnt doing its job. We unloaded the port side cabin and removed the panel that
houses the battery charger to find an error message flashing on the charger -
E03. According to the user guide, this error means that the batteries were not
connected correctly and so the unit switched itself off. Damn!
We checked all the battery connections, the fuses and power supply to the unit.
All OK. We isolated the unit several times, checked the voltage to the charger,
still all OK. So we turned off the house batteries as well to reboot the unit.
Thankfully, it came back online properly and the issue was solved. We are now
charging the battery bank properly, thankfully, but we will keep an eye on the
unit to make sure it doesn’t happen again. We would still be able to charge the
batteries by running the engine, but that uses more fuel, isn’t great for the
engine and is not our preferred option.
The winds have dropped this evening, but with some deft changes to the
parasailor lines we are still bowling along very nicely, while much of the rest
of the fleet are having to motor. Come on team Tumi!
7th March 2019: Day Two
The stars last night were amazing, filling the ink black sky with tiny
sprinkles of light. Paul even saw a shooting star, probably the first of many
we will see on this long trip. With dawn came the return of the wind so the
parasailor was flown again and we are now merrily bowling along at over 7
knots. Looking at the weather forecast for the next few days we should be in
luck and be able to sail much of the time which will be great.
As soon as we cleared the Galapagos marine national park the new fishing rod
was deployed but with no joy as yet. We’ve had a bit of a sweepstake on board:
how many days to get to the Marquesas and how many fish we will catch! We’ll
see who wins!!
At the end of the SSB radio net this morning a discussion opened up about
whether or not we should change the 09.00 roll call to a different time as we
cross timezones heading west… 09.00 will be effectively 05.30 by the time we
reach the Marquesas and people will be asleep. A resolution wsn’t reached and
to lighten the atmosphere, one of the rally boats changed the subject to say he
had just finished reading Meltdown and had given it five stars on Amazon. The
fleet are being very supportive of our writing endeavours and have purchased
quite a few copies. We’re very touched by that!
6th March 2019: Departure
day for leg 4 (Galapagos to Marquesas)
We woke early this morning as the anchorage was very rolly and sleep didn’t
come easily for either of us. Still, it was a big day for us and we had
pancakes for breakfast, then Debra set off on a water taxi to get the final
provisions and the three boys went to get our last snorkelling fix at Las
Grietas. This time the water was very low and swimming between the pools was a
bit of a challenge to say the least, but we all made it through and back safely.
Dan and Phil called into town to do some last minute communication while I got
Tumi ready for departure.
At 12:00 noon precisely, we crossed the start line in second place and the next
leg of the race began. We soon got the parasailor up and running, and very
quickly the fleet dispersed as the various skippers decided on their course to
the Marquesas. As night fell, the winds dropped back to nothing and so we took
the parasailor down and put the engine on. Not what we want, but we need to
break free of the doldrums to be able to sail properly, so we are heading south
westward to approximately 4° south,then we should pick up the trade winds. It’s
about 180 miles from here so we will probably be motoring through the night and
a deal of tomorrow too.
