Galapagos to Marquesas Day 13

30th July 2017

Current Position: 08 03.1S / 126 06.3W at 0230 UTC, 2030 boat time Galapagos. SOG 7.4kts. COG 269T. Wind E 12kts. Sea State: slight swell. DTR 762nm. 24 hr run 164nm.

The "iron sail" came into play in the early hours of today just as we thought it would. The wind slowly got softer and softer. The sails jitterbugging all over the place from one side to the other while the wind gods tossed a coin as to where the breeze would eventually come from. Then it settled coming in from the northeast. This was not good, effectively pushing us further and further south away from our destination. There was nothing left to do but burn some diesel and turn back towards the rhumbline.

Midnight to dawn watches are my favourite. The night air is cool and crisp and it gives you time to clear your mind letting it wander into the corners of your memory. Shooting stars streak across the indigo sky leaving a trail of white wash and sometimes effervescent green behind them as the fall towards earth. I often wonder if it is space junk, meteors or a distant star disintegrating from another galaxy that I am seeing. Nocturnal sea birds occasionally glide by looking for a quick bite to eat from the bounty of the sea. Their white underbellies illuminated by our masthead tricolour light and a wake of twinkling phosphorescence dances across the rushing waters behind us we move forward across this endless expanse of blue. Night watches are truly magical.

It is quite a humbling experience out here in the vastness of this ocean. Before the modern era of sailing with its bells and whistles of electronic charts, GPS and autopilots our true forefathers of navigation looked up at the same night sky and the same stars and found their way around this planet with just a sextant and star to guide them. To say that they were amazing is an understatement.

The broken outhaul flapping in the breeze

So onto things that go bump in the night, or rather bang in the night. I must have jinxed us yesterday saying that a day without breakages is a good day. Because in the wee small hours the "bang " thing happened. It wasn't 'till the light of day that the bang revealed itself. Our outhaul, the rope that pulls the foot of our mainsail along the boom and keeps it taught, decided it was time to have a break, and I mean that literally. With no tension on the foot anymore it was ballooning out like Marilyn Monroe's dress in that iconic photo as she stood over the subway grate. A good look for her but can't say the same for our sail.

So Mr fix-it got to work assuming the pose of downward dog-upward dog while balancing at the wobbly end of our 25ft boom. He did a sterling job and an hour and a half later it was all finished and we were onto our morning lattes. It's a temporary fix, but it will get us to our next anchorage without a problem.

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Galapagos to the Marqusas Day 12

29th July 2017

Current Position 08 10.45S / 124 01.6W at 0200UTC, 2000hrs Galapagos boat time. SOG 5.2kts. COG 284T. Wind ESE 10kts. Sea State Flat. DTR 833nm. 24 hour run: 140nm

Our transoms are looking a bit shabby

It's been another cracker of a day out here. The seas are flat and getting flatter if that's at all possible, the breeze is warm and the boat is toddling along like it is on rails. We've raised the mainsail to full height and with the aid of the jib we are being pushed along quite nicely.

The forecast for the next couple of days is for the wind to do an about face turn to the north east which is just about unheard of at this time of year for where we are. When this happens we will be fighting the urge to turn on the engines but we know the inevitable will happen and the ignition keys will have to be turned, unless someone tows Fatu Hiva a couple of hundred miles south for us.

The hulls look bad too!

The good news is that in the early hours of this morning our distance to run went from the four figure category to the three's. Cue the applause and break out the party hats! We've finally broken the mileage camel's back and at last we have less than 1,000 miles to go to landfall. You know you're a seasoned cruiser when you get really excited about stuff like that!

With the great weather and calm conditions we both took advantage of the warmth and sunshine. A couple of loads of washing hit the clothes line and Liam cleaned and reorganized one of the cockpit lockers. He also had a brain snap and put together a portable bilge pump. We already have an Attwood submersible battery run model which works a treat and pumps water like a demon but the hose on that one isn't particularly long and the pump itself can't fit into tiny spaces.
However the pump-a-la-liam, which will soon be on every boaters Christmas list, it's conveniently powered by 12 volts and can easily squeeze into a space as big as your hand. We all know there are plenty of nooks and crannies like that on every boat so get your orders in soon before stocks run out.

Any day out here when there's nothing bad to report, like gear failures is a good day. So far,touch wood, all our systems on board are working like a charm. Liam's eye is gradually improving, with sunglasses being his standard attire from dawn to dusk. Bright light and glare are a killer to his vision. Maybe he was a bat in his former life.

Being Saturday night we all know what that means...it's date night!

Yes even out here in the Pacific you can go on a date. But what do you do if you can't exactly go out for a bite to eat and a movie cause you're in the middle of an ocean? You get home delivery of course.
So Liam put in an order for Thai food and before we knew it a yummy chicken and veg stir fry was delivered to the table. And what about the movie I hear you ask. Well tonight we did better than just a movie we had Rod Stewart perform live, beamed straight in to our lounge room from the Albert Hall London. Well kind of ..we watched the DVD. We cranked up the Bose speakers, you can do that sort of thing when you don't have neighbours, and sang along to his oldies but goodies. We tapped our toes, indulged in a glass of wine and Liam even got me up for a whirl around the dance floor. It was a real hoot of a night and something a bit special to do out here in the middle of the wild blue yonder.



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Galapagos to Marquesas Day 11

28th July 2017

Current position: 07 07.3S / 121 35.9W at 0200 UTC,2000 hrs boat time. SOG 8.4kts. COG 261T. Wind SE 13kts. Sea State: Flat. DTR 1039nm. 24 hr run 180nm.


What a fabulous day it has been out here today.

Since the early hours the wind has been steadily dropping off. There have been no squalls and only a light drizzle of rain for about 20 mins, just not quite enough to wash the salt of the decks.

By mid morning the conditions had really settled into a nice pattern. The wind was a steady 12 kts from the SE and the seas quite flat with no rogue waves or white water. The clouds had parted giving way to sunny blue skies and a temperature of 29C. We rolled in the jib and out came our beam reaching sail, the screecher.

With these conditions life on board is about as normal as it can get on a passage. No thumping, bumping, bashing or crashing. It's almost too benign.

So what you do on days like this? You enjoy the great outdoors. Yes I know that sounds a bit of a silly thing to say when you live on a boat and are on passage across the Pacific but hey,let's be realistic here. When the weather is rough and the cockpit has taken the odd wave with salt coating everywhere you want to put your butt, call us soft but we're not that inclined to spend a lot of time outside lounging around just for the heck of it.

Today was different kettle of fish, a rare treat you could say. The salt encrusted cockpit got another wash down and we made hay while the sun shone soaking up all the vitamin D we could get. Life is good. Now if only it can day like this till we make landfall.

Animal count today: No fish, No dolphins, No whales, two birds and no dead bodies on the decks.


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Galapagos to Marquesas Day 10

27th July 2017

Current Position: 06 03.7S / 118 59.5W at 0200UTC, 2000hrs boat time. SOG 8.2kts . COG 245 T. Wind SSE 11 kts. Sea State Lumpy and rolly. Sea temp, It's warming up, 20.1C. DTR 1205nm. 24hr run 180 nm.

Beautiful sunrise

Just after 0630 a mini squall gave us a monster wind shift sending us due south. Defiantly not where we wanted to go.
One minute we were heading west and the next 25kts hit us and off we went. Theses squalls, sometimes with rain and sometimes without, seem to materialize from nowhere. A few puffy clouds get your attention and by the time you think about it wham it has you by the short and curlies. Ten minutes later it's just a memory.

Breakfast this morning was banana pancakes with maple syrup, followed closely by lattes and a mid morning snack of..,you guessed it bananas. There will be bananas served with everything come tomorrow as the hand that I picked up the day before leaving the Galapagos are all ripening at once. We'll have gone totally bananas by the time we've munched through them all.

Something  big took a bite out of this lure

The captain was a happy chappy today having caught another nice size Mahi. Rather than pull it in first go as he usually does he decided he'd let it run for a bit to tire it out. Then he figured he could drag it up onto the transom and do the deed without the all the struggling and flapping about. These fish fight to the end and then some.


However his line of thinking changed rather rapidly when he spotted a big fin not far from his prize Mahi. Mr nice guy wasn't about to share this fish with anyone. The shark made a swim by to line up for the big bite but his nibs was too fast out of the blocks and in one swift pull of the line landed said fish up on the second step well out of the reach of Jaws. Liam 1 shark 0.
And that was the end of the fishing for today, no point tempting fate.

Our day ended with yet another "green flash" sunset. We're starting to think they are a dime a dozen out here.

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Galapagos to Marquesas Day 9

26th July 2017

Current Position 05 32.7S /115 59.2W at 0200 UTC, 200hrs boat time. Speed over ground (SOG):8.5. Course over ground (COG):293. Wind: SSE 10 kts. Sea State: Rolly but settling down slowly.
Distance to Run (DTR) :1388nm. 24 hr daily run :189nm.

It's been another slow day out here with not much happening and that seems to becoming a pattern. Mind you when I think about that logically, really what do we expect to happen? No one is going to drop in for tea and scones and no one can give us a call as Optus has no coverage out here. The daily paper doesn't get thrown onto the front porch, there's no surfing the internet and no listening to the top 40 hits on the radio. In a nutshell life is pretty dull out here. It's an eat, sleep, wakeup, eat sleep wakeup way of life with no walkies around the block to see what's going on in the neighborhood.

The exciting news today is that we have made it to the halfway mark. When crossing this mighty ocean this spot on the map is the furthest you can be from land in any direction on the surface of the earth. It's the ideal place for those wanting to "get away from it all" but not good for those who don't like being out of sight of land. We are well and truly smack bang in the middle of nowhere.

The other good news is that El Capitano is feeling better today. The patch came off his eye this morning and the nursing staff report that the swelling has started to go down and overall the eye looks a teensy bit better. And the patient's demeanour has also dramatically improved, halleluiah. He is still struggling with bright light and is wearing his sunnies from dawn to dusk, not that he ever sees the dawn as he's usually tucked up in bed at the time of day. He's not out of the woods yet but at least he's turned the corner.

On the fishing front a dolphin swam past today, first one we've seen on this crossing. Bad news is he took Liam's favourite squid lure. Yep it was the pretty blue one which is, or rather was, a hit with the Mahi's. I was off watch at the time but I'm pretty sure there were a few not so friendly words shouted at Flipper as he went on his merry way. The captain does have more lures but on the sinker and tackle front the inventory is dwindling.

Our Tailender's fleet here is getting really stretched out now. Weather conditions have been vastly different for each boat. Sannsipapp, the Norwegian flagged Bruce Farr 55 is 700 miles ahead of us having departed the galapagos 4 days before us. She expects to make landfall in Hiva Oa tomorrow,Friday. Luarta the 56 ft NZ mono is 60 miles behind us, she left the day after us and OFF 2 C the NZ cat who left 2 days behind us is now 650 miles behind. Bindacier the 12m French boat heading south to the Gambier Islands still have a whopping 1800 miles until they make landfall. Restless the Norwegian boat that was taking on water are making slow progress but have stemmed the water leak by placing a ratchet strap with a gasket hand sewn on to it from toe rail to toe rail. As they say necessity is the mother of invention and kudos goes out to Jorgan on that front.

And that folks wraps up day 9 on the good ship GWTW.

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Galapagos to Marquesas Day 8

25th July 2017

Current position : 05 22.48S 112 51.8W. SOG 6.7 KTS. COG 261. Wind SSE 12kts. Sea State slight chop 2m swell. 24 hr run 189nm

Very non descript day today. Overcast to start, then clearing with a little blue sky, a smidge of rain then back to cloudy at sunset. Sounds like an average day in Melbourne really. It's still quite chilly at night so the wardrobe of choice is track pants, fleecy tops and socks.

On the health front, Liam's eye is not showing signs of improving just yet. He's struggling to focus using only his right eye and is having trouble with depth perception. Sometimes he reminds me of someone watching a 3D movie as he tries to grasp things that are just out of reach. The chlorsig drops are still being administered regularly and he's taking Ibuprofen to reduce the swelling as it's starting to look like someone punched him.

Being the fashion hound that we all know Liam is he's smartened up to today's attire by accessorizing his look with a white eye patch and matching guard. One could say he has a look for every occasion. But seriously the guard will stop wandering fingers poking around in there and keep the bright light, salt air and wind away and stop the tracks of his tears staining his precious little cheeks. If things don't start to improve soon I may have to break out Polly, our inflatable parrot and sit her on his shoulder. Hopefully tomorrow will be the turning point.

Fairly sedentary tasks were performed today. We shook out one reef from our mainsail and a few hours later put it back in again. One load of laundry was washed, dried, folded and put away and a well needed wash down of the cockpit completed. It always astounds me the amount of dust, hair and fluff that accumulates in the corners out there. Not to mention the odd flying fish scales that appear from nowhere.

We saw two birds, cleaned up 8 dead and drying squid from the decks, ate lamb burger's for lunch, watched some more of The Kennedys series, had a sundowner at sunset sans sun and called it a day.

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Galapagos to Marquesas Day 7

24th July 2017

Current Position 04 31.7S / 109 34.2W.at 0200UTC, 2000hr boat time. SOG 10-14kts. COG 264T. Wind SSE 12-16kts. Sea State, choppy 2m swells. DTR 1782nm. 24hr run 208nm

Overnight the cloud cover increased and the stars all disappeared. With no moon, not that you could have seen it anyway, it was a dark, dark night. One could say it was as black as the inside of a cow.

The seas were up again just for a change and white water constantly sloshed past the hulls. The crests of the bigger breaking waves threatening to jump onboard just before GWTW rose up and the wall of water slid away beneath her hulls. Now when this sort of thing happens in daylight it's no big deal 'cause you can see your surroundings and the brain can deal with it. But as soon as the lights go out it's a whole different ball game. Evil and scary. Strange how the mind works

Around 3am a decent sized flying fish trying to elude it's captor took a blind leap of faith. Heading onward and upward towards what it must have thought would be a soft landing in the white water of another wave it had a rude awakening, slamming into a solid white wall instead. Bouncing off the cockpit roof with a thud he fell straight down through the open hatch above the port helm. He was in such distress I thought he was going to knock himself out. Mind you he probably already had concussion after hitting the roof at such speed. With winds extended trying hopelessly to get airborne, fish scales flew everywhere as he flapped around next to my feet. In a heart beat I grabbed the poor creature and disembarked over the back beam to the deep blue sea where he belonged. Hopefully he went on his way thinking the whole thing was just a bad dream.

Daylight is coming later as we move further west, the sun now rising around 07.45, a big change from when dawn started at 04.30 not so long ago. This is great for the offwatch who gets an extra hour of darkness to roll over and snuggle down. Not so great for the onwatch who waits all night for the sun's dazzling rays to peep over the horizon. Well this morning the sun didn't peep and as the light came my world was engulfed in a grey dome as far as the eye could see. Not at all what I was hoping for as I sipped my morning cuppa.

Next came the march of the ominous looking clouds bringing with them fast moving squalls and rain. What a great start to the day!.
On a regular basis the wind and rain blew in, changed our course to somewhere we didn't want to go, hung around while it tossed up the seas and then it was gone taking what little breeze was left behind, leaving us clanging and banging around until the next round came through. And so continued the pattern throughout the day.

In the light of what has been happening with the Norwegian boat Restless of the past few days, when our high water bilge alarm sounded just after 8pm this evening, well you've never seen two people move so fast. Liam was asleep and I was at the nav station at the time. We both nearly collided at the bottom of the stairs as I flew down into the port hull and Liam leapt out of bed.

We have three bilge alarms in that hull and it was the forward one that was making all the racket. With the cover of the bilge off we could see the water. Now just where was it coming from? In that bilge there are four thru hull fittings. After investigation the culprit was determined to be the shower sump float switch. It had come loose from its fastening and was floating around inside the sump instead of doing it's job of pumping water overboard. Liam had just had a shower before he'd gone to bed and the switch must have only just come loose then. He spent the next hour sponging out the water that had spilled over from the sump into the bilge and reattaching the float switch to the sump floor. Crisis averted.

The lesson learned was the alarm works as it should and nothing bad happened.

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Galapagos to Marquesas, Day 6

23rd July 2017

Current position: 04 03.5S / 106 18.7W at 0200UTC, 2000hrs boat time. SOG 7.5kts. COG 264T. Wind SSE 12-15kts. Sea state moderate 2m. 24hr run 203nm

Well first up I must apologize for the spelling mistakes in the previous posting. Neither spell check and nor my proof reader picked up the errors. So sorry about that.

Well as always on a passage the dominant factor is the weather. Yes I agree it does get a bit repetitive to read about it but when you are out here it is THE ruling factor our lives. Mother nature dictates how well you sleep, if at all sometimes, how well you eat, your moods, which are directly related to the sleep factor and how many bruises you end up with at the end of the day as you bump around falling this way and that into everything and anything solid.

Well today the bruise factor has been down but Liam copped a wack to his left eye from the tail end of the preventer line. This line restrains our mainsail from taking a flying hike from one side of the boat to the other when we are hit by a big wave or have a massive wind shift which makes the boat gybe onto the other tack. An uncontrolled gybe is not good thing to have happen. His injury happened when I was off watch and by the time he told me about it his eye was looking red and nasty. I suspect it is a corneal scratch which can be very uncomfortable (I've had a few over the years) but should heal itself in a few days. We have chlorsig eye drops on board which liam is having a dose of every four hours just to be sure.

This guy ended up on our cockpit table

With no fishing today as it was too rough we decided to watch a tv series called The Kennedys. As you can guess by the title its about JFK, his family life and the journey to becoming the youngest president in US history. So far we've watched three episodes and it's excellent. The cast of actors is top notch and the likeness to the characters they portray is quite amazing.
Grab it off Netflex or wherever for a good watch.

Over the last couple of days we have been monitoring the progress of a Norwegian flagged yacht named Restless. As we are loosely traveling with two other Norwegian boats we received an email that S/V Restless was in trouble and taking on water and could we standby to render help if need be. We were told that their bilge pumps were coping with the situation but who knows for how long. The cause of the egress of water was not immediately known and there are two persons on board, as is the case with the majority of cruising boats. Their boat speed was 4.5 knots and they had turned onto a course of 300 degrees back up towards our rhumbline and an interception point.

At that time Restless was located 750 nm SW of our position. Given the prevailing winds that made us the obvious choice for assistance. The two other boats were over 5 days ahead of us meaning they would have to battle the elements up wind to reach them, and with the conditions at present that's the way too hard basket, but if it came down to the wire it would happen.

SAR,(Search and Rescue) in Norway had been contacted and a Wilhelmsen Car Carrier has been diverted en route to Restless's position to standby and assist. It was expected to arrive in 22 hours.

Many emails have been flying through cyberspace during since we first learnt of the of the Restless's predicament and this afternoon we received another email saying that the situation was now under control. Motor vessel Oberon had arrived on scene, they must have been closer than the Wilhelmsen ship and off loaded repair materials and extra provisions.

We can only imagine the utter relief that engulfed Jorgen and Anna when they saw M/V Oberon come over the horizon. They are hoping to dive on their hull in the coming days if the seas lay down to assess the damage and effect a repair. We should meet up with them a little further down the track.

This is a prime example of the inherent dangers in this life we lead as cruisers. But rest assured there are no better immediate resources for help than those of the family of cruising boats around you when it hits the fan.

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Galapagos to Marquesas, Day 5

22nd July 2017

Current position: 03 28S / 103 09W at 0200UTC, 2000hr boat time. SOG 10.5kts. COG 257. Wind SSE12-15kts. Sea state rough and confused short steep waves 2-3m. DTR 2174nm. 24hr run 187 nm

With the wind steady increasing GWTW's speed has also been climbing. During the early hours before the sun came up 9 kts was what we were seeing as the speed over ground. By 6am it had increased to a steady 11 knots and by 8am the magic number was 14kts. We were starting to chew up the miles at this pace.

This guy had all the moves

As much as we love going fast, the speed combined with the sea state doesn't make for ideal living conditions particularly when it comes to getting a few decent hours of precious sleep. The boat creaks and groans and is a real carcoughpany of sounds. As the waves crash into the hulls we get the bonus 3D experience of noise and bone jarring shuddering. So next time you crawl into your ever so comfy bed be thankful it doesn't move like a bucking bronco.


Right, moving on to today's major activity...the fishing report.

On GWTW we don't fish with rods as many boats do. The fish master prefers hand lines, big kick ass ones with heavy duty nylon lines. He has the lines attached to the boat by bungy cords fitted around our rear winches to allow for stretch once a fish latches on.


We troll 3 lines off the back of the boat all set at different lengths with different types of lures. We like to offer a choice of lures to suit any fish preferences and believe me they can be fussy buggers at times. We also use a high tec alarm to alert us when there is a potential dinner on the hook. From the aforementioned bungy cord a piece of string with a clothes peg is attached to our life lines. Once a fish takes the bait the peg "snaps" off the line indicating we have a strike. It's amazing how in tune the human ears on board are to the sound of that "snap".

What a beauty

Well late this morning the "alarm" was going off like rapid fire. But alas whoever was out there didn't like our lure menu and they backed away after the first bite. But minutes later another snap and this one was a keeper. After an exhibition of fish Olympics the captain pulled in a nice size Mahi Mahi. The chap who came for dinner was subdued with a tottie of high end Egyptian gin to the gills and he went into a very deep sleep from that moment on.

The line was returned to the water to straighten out with the intention of pulling it in and calling it quits for the day. But as misfortune would have it another bigger Mahi came looking for his kin folk. El Capitano got that look in his eye and strated relling in the next caditate. However after a few short words from the food and beverage manager on the merits of tag and release, sustainable fishing, availability of freezer space AND the unnecessary killing of one of God's creatures the second fish was released back to the wild. And so ends today's fish report.

Oh and what did we have for dinner? Pan seared Mahi with herb butter and a fresh garden salad of course.

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Galapagos to Marquesas, Day 4

21st July 2017

Current position : 02 53.91S /099 30.1W at 0200 UTC, 2000hr boat time. SOG 8.4. COG 252T. Wind SSE15 kts. Sea state, Choppy.
24 hr run : 135nm.




Today was just another day at the office. The early hours saw light winds, flattish seas and not even the distant lights of trawlers. It was just us out here with a million stars above. The sun came up as a big ball of fire, just the same way it went down last evening. Spectacular to say the least.



Light winds continued all day so for a change of scenery we rolled out the spinnaker for a cameo appearance. It looked ever so pretty floating gracefully off the starboard side but sadly did nothing for our boat speed. Can't have it all.

The fish tally today...nada. Most mundane chore...cleaning the brown slime that is rearing it's ugly head on our transoms. If we don't keep on top of it by the time we make landfall we'll look like a bit part from the movie "The Blob".


Then as evening approached the breeze started to increase and not wanting to get caught with our pants down, we pulled down the giant sock and snuffed the spinnaker. Into it's bag and into the locker it went. That was more than likely the last time it will see that daylight on this passage.

The clock has struck eight and we are starting to pick up speed. The fresh breeze is kicking up GWTW's ever so clean transoms and girl is stretching her legs. I reckon we could be in for a fast but bumpy night.

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Galapagos to Marquesas : Day 3

20th July 2017

Current position: 02 26.1S 097 5.6W at 0300UTC, 2100hrs boat time. SOG 6.5kts, COG 245. Wind SSE 8-10 kts. Seas state :long gentle swells. 24hr run 135nm. DTR: 2488nm

One of many dead flying fish on the deck

It has been a quite day on GWTW today with the wind up and down like a yo-yo.

Many more Chinese trawlers have past us today heading east towards Galapagos. They are big and cumbersome looking and their paint work leaves a lot to be desired. The outside of these boats is appalling and covered in huge streak marks down the sides of the hulls where they haul in their catch. W e can only imagine what the inside must look and smell like.

They look to be either squid catchers or long line fishing boats and seem to come in packs usually with the same name followed by a different set of numbers for each vessel. Kind of like calling your kids Ming 823, Ming 824, Ming 825 etc, not very inventive really. Anyway their attack plan is to have two or three boats in the front row with the others in the group bringing up the rear. Their noisy engines thump away as they go by. In fact it is the only mechanical sound out here. There are no other ships or yachts nearby and no planes overhead.

What a shocker of a look

The mother ship stays about 20 miles or more behind the group while the refueling tanker, yes they bring their own, ambles along some 50 miles in the distance. You gotta give it to them, China certainly is organized when it comes to the assault on the world's marine life.

On another subject the weather today is the best since leaving the Galapagos. Not a cloud in the sky and the long slow swells make it a very pleasant motion on board. One would almost think we were on a cruise ship. It's starting to warm up too. The temp today hit the 30's and the sea temp is now 18c.. nearly time for that swim.

Liam has been playing guitar and I have been engrossed in a book. Lunch today was a tasty lobster salad with sundried tomatoes, avocado, basil and fresh romaine lettuce. A nice glass of chilled NZ Sav Blanc would have gone very nicely with it, but soda water had to suffice instead.

Tonight the sunset was a cracker. Without a trace of cloud on the horizon the fabled "Green Flash" lived up to it's name. One of the best we've seen and a first on this crossing.

So that's the GWTW crew report for today. More exciting news tomorrow.

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Galapagos to Marquesas: Day 2

19th July 2017

Current position: 01 54.17S / 094 52.58W at 0200UTC, 2000hr boat time. SOG 7kts, COG 283. 24hr run 160nm

Conditions are pleasant out here albeit we are traveling a bit slow. In the wee small hours of the morning and we were dodging many very large Chinese flagged fishing vessels. We counted six not including the mother ship which because of it's size of 900ft in length had to be a fish processing vessel. We assume that their home waters have been fished out and they have no choice but had to venture further afield to the rich grounds of the South Pacific.

This afternoon while under sail we dropped our reaching sail to the deck to do a few minor repairs. The old girl has seen better days and is starting to show her age with some de-lamination happening here and there. So a stitch in time was the thing to do.

Things got a little boisterous as we wrestled it to the foredeck. Still under sail but with the aid of our engines we ran downwind and brought the boat up to wind speed. We needed to do this in order to drop the sail safely onto the deck while it was blanketed by the mainsail to prevent it from resetting like a billowing spinnaker as the halyard was released. The repairs took the best part of an hour and then up it went again with the reverse manoeuvre of dropping it and we got back to the business of sailing.

A few of the Stormy Petrels are still hanging around. They are such tiny little birds with so much energy and a joy to watch as they dip and dive for their dinners. On the fishing front the count is still zero.

It's now O-dark-hundred and as all sailors have come to accept this is when the shit hits the fan.

The wind and swell have increased and we are galloping along with the screecher and a full main. Not a good scenario given the conditions. Great minds think alike as we give each other that look, time to pull in the reigns and put the brakes on.

Gingerly Liam slinks up to the foredeck to furl in the screecher while I handle the lines at the back. It's then that a problem rears it's ugly head. While the sail was down earlier this arvo for repairs Liam had loosened the line that slides the sail forward and back on the track on our prodder pole. That line had now somehow wrapped it's tail around our anchor and it was jamming the movement of the furler. The halyard, with the sail now only partly furled needed to be partially dropped.

One thing you have to understand is that we were still blasting along through the water at speed and the wave and wind noise makes it extremely had to hear each other even though I was now on the foredeck and only inches away from Liam. Lucky their were no neighbours about 'cause they would have thought we were having a doozy of a tiff.

With me sitting down on the deck and hanging on to the furling lines like there is no tomorrow so the sail wouldn't unfurl anymore, Liam eased the halyard and then slowly pulled the sail back up the track on the pole. It may all sound simple but believe me it wasn't. Eventually the screecher was put to bed and while we were still hyped up on adrenaline we put a reef in the main then rolled out 3/4 of the jib. Aahhh peace at last.

See, it's not all fun and gin and tonics out here all the time.

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Galapagos to Marquesas : Day 1

18th July 2017

Current position: 01 27S 92 23W @0200 UTC, 2000hr boat time, SOG 5.4, COG 253, DTR 2830NM

So far so good. Isabela is gradually disappearing behind us and after many miles we have finally emerged from the cloud and drizzle that has been a constant since arriving in the Galapagos. The sky is blue and the sun is shinning and we're wearing sunglasses. The sea water temps are still rocketing south and the gauge reads a very chilly 14c, best not fall overboard just yet!

Last look at land for a while

The fishing lines have been deployed but as this stage there have been no takers. The captain lives in hope of a strike. Most of the day the Boobies and the Petrels have been giving us a royal escort out of the Galapagos, maybe some might hitch a ride tonight. And as a last hooray we've seen a couple of huge Manta Rays as well.

The winds are steady on the beam coming in from the SSE at 8-10 kts and our boat speeds have been in the 9,10 & 11 knot range for most of the day but are lightening off now.. Pushing us in the right direction is the mainsail with one reef and our screecher, our big reaching sail. GWTW is purring along on the straight and level. Life onboard is good at this point in time, here's hoping it stays that way.

Taking down the Galapagos flag

We heard from another boat today, S/V OFF 2 C (catamaran) they have arrived in Santa Cruz from mainland Ecuador. We meet the OFF 2 C crew Vaughn and Leslie in Guatemala years ago and again in Panama a few months back. While anchored in Santa Cruz Leslie had a bad fall and now has two broken ribs. This injury was caused by the atrocios conditions in Santa Cruz harbour. The same sea state that drove us out of there.

In keeping with all our previous ocean passage traditions we have started up the "Tailenders Magellan Net" on our high frequency SSB radio with the three other boats that we know of out here. We pick up the microphones twice daily for a chat and even through we can't see each other it's nice to have some neighbours just across the fence so to speak.


S/V Lurata a NZ flagged Northwind 56ft monohull which left Santa Cruz this morning is 55 miles astern. The race is on.

The red dot is us heading out 

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The Galapagos Islands: Santa Cruz

14th-16th July 2017

To be quite honest we didn’t like Santa Cruz at all, well the anchorage that is. The town was nice and we did walk out to the Darwin Research Centre and around town a little bit. But with the anchorage so untenable we cut our time there very short and left with 3 days.

We are now about to depart for the Marquesas, a 3,000 mile passage which will take anything up to 20 days at sea.

I will post each day but there will be no photos until we next have internet.

So off we go to the South Pacific.

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The Galapagos Islands : Isabela

Our Last days.

11th – 13th July 2017

        

Our final trip was by foot. We followed the coastal trail  8 klms out to  a place in the hot arid scrub known as the Wall of Tears. During the late 40’s early 50’s a penal colony was set up here to deal with political prisoners and delinquents from mainland Ecuador. The conditions and treatment of those incarcerated were extremely hash. The guards worked the prisoners hard and for no particular reason made them construct a rock wall from the surrounding volcanic stone. It was a fruitless project resulting in the  loss of many lives. The wall still stands today as a memorial to those whose fate was sealed by being sent here.

Our time in Isabella was quickly coming to and end and a final day was spent buying fresh veggies, having a haircut and checking out the only church in town that had a distinctive Galapagos flavor to it. The windows were beautiful and under the alter was a huge wooden carved tortoise. The mural behind the alter depicted Christ  ascending surrounded by frigate birds while iguanas watched from the shore.

We really enjoyed our time here and definitely recommend  to anyone following us to spend as long as possible  here on this special island.

So where to now ?? We’re off to  our third island, Santa Cruz.

       

Above are some of the stained glass windows in the church but God always has a soft spot for the Galapagos it seems. Check out where the ray of light is going in the photo below on the left.

             

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The Galapagos Islands : Isabela.

8th-11 July 2017

                      “All you  really need is Isabela”

           

After a lovely  83 mile overnight sail from San Cristobal we arrived at Isabella at 11am. We spent the rest of the day trying to get in contact with our agent  so that we could get checked in and on our way to seeing the sights. I may have mentioned that the Galapagos is very restrictive with respect to yacht movements. This means that although you are limited to three ports only, you have to check in and out of each one paying a fee each time you do. By 4pm we finally gave up calling on both the radio and our cell phone and piled into the dinghy and walked the length of town until we found where the man lived. He was most apologetic for not answering  any of our calls and assured us that all would be taken care of tomorrow!  Just gotta roll with the punches sometimes.

Isabela is the largest  and youngest island in the Galapagos archipelago and consists of five intermittently active volcanos. The last eruption back in 2005 was from Volcano Sierra Negra which sent a plume of smoke and ash 20klm skyward. This eruption put Isabela on the map as far as tourism was concerned.  People wanted to come and see the Volcano. Little did they know that this island had the best of the best animals as well.

The Port of Villamil where we entered is the main town for the island. It has an excellent anchorage which is protected from the swell by small islands of lava rocks and mangroves. It’s a sleepy little place with sandy streets and a handful of bars, restaurants, and cafes. It has a country feel to it and we really like it so far. But before we could get out and see the place there were a few major jobs to do on GWTW. One of the hinges on our glass shower screen door sheared off on the way over and that had to be dealt with promptly, borrowing from Peter to pay back Paul as it was. So now our starboard shower has no door ‘till we can find another hinge and that won’t be easy. One of our bilge pumps failed so that had to be replaced and  after 13 years of work our screecher has started to delaminate, so down that came for repairs. The bottom of the boat is getting an increase of growth again and that took us several hours to clean. All these jobs were biting into our touring time but they couldn't wait.

So on to the sights. First up was a swim with the sea lions in the mangrove lagoon just near the dinghy dock. I just love swimming with those guys, they are a real hoot, then it was a nice long walk on the boardwalk trail to see the beautiful pink flamingos. Flamingos have been illusive to us in the past buy today we got our flamingo fix.

  

Later in the week we booked a  half day boat tour to Los Tuneles  and Cabo Rosa, 45 mins further along the coast. This trip was recommended to us by both our agent and cruising friends and it definitely lived up to all the hype. We booked with Rosedelco Tours and we really don’t think that there is a better outfit in town to go with.

The ride up there was thrilling as the boat captain raced the  breaking waves and swell into a narrow channel between the lava rocks, just feet away from crunching the hull. Talk about an expert driver. Once anchored we,  there were 10 of us, jumped overboard with our guide Edwardo into the very chilly 14c water. Within minutes we were face to face with sea horses, golden manta rays, white tip sharks and giant turtles. It was a wonderful experience and yet again we were up close and personal with these animals who have no fear of humans.

From here it was off to the actual lava tunnels. We swam through them, around them and over them.  Adding to the ever growing list of species we’ve seen so far were now penguins. They may only be small but man they are like torpedos in the water. I was lucky enough to have one whoosh by and my camera caught the shot perfectly.

It had  certainly been a jam-packed few hours so far but as they say you gotta leave the best till last. And so it was. After a hose down, a change of clothes  and a bite of lunch it was time for a little hike over the larva archways. And there waiting patiently for or us on the other side were the famed Blue Footed Booby birds which we’d been hanging out to see.

So far we’d only ever seen them flying high or nesting on far away rocks and cliffs and here they were just feet away from us.

This time of year for many animals in the Galapagos is mating season and we were gob smacked when out of the blue a couple of them started doing what is called the Booby Dance. The male struts around showing the female some well rehearsed moves hoping that she will do him the honor of taking to the floor with him. Even though she may do a mirror image of his dance steps doesn’t mean that she’s accepting his proposal  just yet.

We waited and watched in silence and eventually after a lot of fancy footwork in a flutter of wings  and a  song in their throats ,the deal was sealed with a beak to beak kiss. They sure didn’t waste any time and before our group had moved off there were already picking up bits and pieces of twig to build their love nest.

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