We departed from Santa Cruz, Galapagos on Monday the 29th at 12:45pm. Very slow start, not a great deal of wind so spent a bit of time motoring. On the plus side we had the chance to chat with two other passing sailboats: Chanticleer and Wiz. Both are now long past us and out of sight, but it was nice to "meet" another kid boat heading to Nuka Hiva too.
Currently we are quietly sailing along slowly with full sails. A long slow swell hitting us on the beam, but it is fairly comfortable. The Maple crew are all doing well, although it didn't start out that way this morning. It was near mutiny by the youngest crew this morning when the Captain and First Mate insisted on school the first morning of the passage. Honestly you would think we were asking them to row us across the Pacific with all the complaints. In the end, the swabs reluctantly followed through on their orders. But I have to give them credit, they both did their watches today without complaint.
No fish caught yet, but Nawii promised us we would catch a 25kg tuna so we are holding them to that. I guess we still have plenty of time to make that happen. As we were leaving Galapagos yesterday, we had a manta ray give us a good bye jump plus we had loads of blue footed boobies doing their dive bombing from insane heights into the water around us while they fished. This morning we saw some dolphins in the distance doing some jumps, but they chose not to come say hello. Perhaps they were keeping their distance from the whining.
I am holding out for repeat conditions tonight like last night. Calm conditions, no squalls, lots of stars, and me dancing in the helm without D and the girls rolling their eyes at my epic dance moves.
PS: Just a reminder to please start a new email if replying to us. Unfortunately we are still really struggling to find a station we can reliably connect to send and receive email, so any help we can get with not downloading unnecessary text, is a huge help. I do love hearing from people though!! Thanks.
-----
At 2019-04-30 20:27 (utc) our position was 02°01.43'S 091°59.69'W
Tuesday, 30 April 2019
Wednesday, 3 April 2019
Arrival in the Galapagos Archipelago
Hello All,
Our welcome to Galapagos could not have been better. We approached San Cristobal around 7am in flat calm seas. (And yes, that means from a sailing perspective it was not good, but after motoring for the last 48 hours what was another hour.) We were first greeted by a pod of dolphins out for their morning feed, but a few stopped by for a brief hello at the bow. Then on a number of occasions we were fortunate to witness a manta ray jump out of the water, do a somersault in the air and land with a spectacular splash. The flash of its body from white to black as it flips in the air was awe inspiring. And then in pairs or threes, a march of sea lions would go parading by out fishing for their breakfast. This would not be the last of the close encounters with the sea lions, whether I liked it or not.
We anchored and Darryl immediately went to work on tying lines and fenders at the back of the boat to create a barrier from the inevitable sea lion boardings. He really timed it perfectly as it did not take long for the first sea lion to come along and try out the transom (the back step/platform) where we have managed to limit their sleeping space. Sure it is cute the first time or two. However, right now in the middle of the night when I can't sleep even after 7 nights of interrupted sleep, I am listening to the wheezing and barking of what seems to be the most disgruntled (or maybe it has a cold) sea lion, which is basically parked right at our cabin's back window. Right. How long are we staying here?! The girls insist on naming each one...and no, they have no way of telling them apart as they seem to circulate on a semi regular basis from one boat to another. We have not had a chance to explore the island yet, but are looking forward to seeing some land based animals too.
Jeff and Sandra, I am sorry to hear of your feathered friends leaving you countless gifts to scrub and clean. I am glad they were able to find you as we did keep sending them your way. I guess it is all trade offs, you at least are managing to sail while we burned half a tank of fuel on each engine. And the verdict is still out on whether sea lion poop is any better than bird, in the end I think both species are quite prolific. I hope you continue to have good winds to keep your sails filled!!!
We are now seeing the first rains we have seen in over a month, I honestly can't tell you the last time we had rain. So we might have some wet exploring while here, but on the plus side, the two non-princesses on the boat (Darryl and Iris....in case that isn't obvious) got out in the rain and gave Maple a long overdue scrub. Although the huge squid ink (and I mean the real kind) stain down the one side of boat is going to need more than a little rain to clear off.
Our welcome to Galapagos could not have been better. We approached San Cristobal around 7am in flat calm seas. (And yes, that means from a sailing perspective it was not good, but after motoring for the last 48 hours what was another hour.) We were first greeted by a pod of dolphins out for their morning feed, but a few stopped by for a brief hello at the bow. Then on a number of occasions we were fortunate to witness a manta ray jump out of the water, do a somersault in the air and land with a spectacular splash. The flash of its body from white to black as it flips in the air was awe inspiring. And then in pairs or threes, a march of sea lions would go parading by out fishing for their breakfast. This would not be the last of the close encounters with the sea lions, whether I liked it or not.
We anchored and Darryl immediately went to work on tying lines and fenders at the back of the boat to create a barrier from the inevitable sea lion boardings. He really timed it perfectly as it did not take long for the first sea lion to come along and try out the transom (the back step/platform) where we have managed to limit their sleeping space. Sure it is cute the first time or two. However, right now in the middle of the night when I can't sleep even after 7 nights of interrupted sleep, I am listening to the wheezing and barking of what seems to be the most disgruntled (or maybe it has a cold) sea lion, which is basically parked right at our cabin's back window. Right. How long are we staying here?! The girls insist on naming each one...and no, they have no way of telling them apart as they seem to circulate on a semi regular basis from one boat to another. We have not had a chance to explore the island yet, but are looking forward to seeing some land based animals too.
Jeff and Sandra, I am sorry to hear of your feathered friends leaving you countless gifts to scrub and clean. I am glad they were able to find you as we did keep sending them your way. I guess it is all trade offs, you at least are managing to sail while we burned half a tank of fuel on each engine. And the verdict is still out on whether sea lion poop is any better than bird, in the end I think both species are quite prolific. I hope you continue to have good winds to keep your sails filled!!!
We are now seeing the first rains we have seen in over a month, I honestly can't tell you the last time we had rain. So we might have some wet exploring while here, but on the plus side, the two non-princesses on the boat (Darryl and Iris....in case that isn't obvious) got out in the rain and gave Maple a long overdue scrub. Although the huge squid ink (and I mean the real kind) stain down the one side of boat is going to need more than a little rain to clear off.
Monday, 1 April 2019
Officially Shellbacks
One last hello from Maple before we arrive in Galapagos tomorrow!
Today we had the momentous occasion of crossing the equator at around 1100. Okay...really it is like the anticipation of New Years Eve and then a little anti-climatic but we made the most of it by making an offering of a maple leaf shaped cookie and champagne. We think Poseidon has a bit of a sweet tooth. And yes, it is Poseidon to us instead of Neptune given where we started our journey. The Greek Gods and Goddesses win out on our boat.
We had received an official summons the night before from Poseidon himself to meet him at 1300. So the girls and I were on time, but the captain was a no-show. And what do you know Poseidon himself graced us with his presence!!! He put us through the motions to adequately demonstrate our worthiness of becoming a shellback. We had to tie a bowline, have squid ink (which smelled and tasted suspiciously of molasses) drawn on our backs in the shape of a turtle shell and brave the creatures of the deep by jumping into the ocean. The girls and I passed with flying colours of course!! Poseidon then sadly left us but with instructions for whenever the captain decided to turn up with some punishment for failing to show up on time. And what do you know the captain turned up not long after Poseidon's departure. His penance for not being on time was to crawl around the boat on his hands and knees and to have the added addition of squid ink dumped over his head. However, in the end, we think Poseidon was satisfied that the whole crew qualified for the distinguished order of shellbacks.
Tomorrow morning we should arrive in Galapagos!! Sadly there has been no wind to speak of so it has been motoring all the last day and night for us. The one positive side to that is we enjoyed our first swim on the southern side of the equator. We are looking forward to arriving and have been sorting out our defenses against the sneaky sea lions to keep them off our boat, will keep you up to date on how successful we manage.
-----
At 2019-04-01 21:23 (utc) our position was 00°11.80'S 088°47.13'W
Today we had the momentous occasion of crossing the equator at around 1100. Okay...really it is like the anticipation of New Years Eve and then a little anti-climatic but we made the most of it by making an offering of a maple leaf shaped cookie and champagne. We think Poseidon has a bit of a sweet tooth. And yes, it is Poseidon to us instead of Neptune given where we started our journey. The Greek Gods and Goddesses win out on our boat.
We had received an official summons the night before from Poseidon himself to meet him at 1300. So the girls and I were on time, but the captain was a no-show. And what do you know Poseidon himself graced us with his presence!!! He put us through the motions to adequately demonstrate our worthiness of becoming a shellback. We had to tie a bowline, have squid ink (which smelled and tasted suspiciously of molasses) drawn on our backs in the shape of a turtle shell and brave the creatures of the deep by jumping into the ocean. The girls and I passed with flying colours of course!! Poseidon then sadly left us but with instructions for whenever the captain decided to turn up with some punishment for failing to show up on time. And what do you know the captain turned up not long after Poseidon's departure. His penance for not being on time was to crawl around the boat on his hands and knees and to have the added addition of squid ink dumped over his head. However, in the end, we think Poseidon was satisfied that the whole crew qualified for the distinguished order of shellbacks.
Tomorrow morning we should arrive in Galapagos!! Sadly there has been no wind to speak of so it has been motoring all the last day and night for us. The one positive side to that is we enjoyed our first swim on the southern side of the equator. We are looking forward to arriving and have been sorting out our defenses against the sneaky sea lions to keep them off our boat, will keep you up to date on how successful we manage.
-----
At 2019-04-01 21:23 (utc) our position was 00°11.80'S 088°47.13'W
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)