to Marqueses
01/04/10 23:39
Our stay in the Galapagos Islands destroyed any lingering, beer glass half empty thinking as to whether our round the world adventure is worth all the stress, money, bureaucracy and non-stop nautical DIY. The islands are truly enchanting. Where else in the world can you swim with sea lions, sharks, turtles and even iguanas? We saw penguins surfing on the equator, giant tortoises bonking, nocturnal sea gulls and even Steve Irwins nemesis - stingrays. And the Galapagos islands are full of boobies. Some are masked, some are red footed but the most endearing have blue feet which are shown off to potential mates during courtship. In addition to going to North Seymour Island we visited Floriana, Bartolome and Isabella. This provided a nice balance of wild life with other attractions that the islands offer such as stunning beaches and volcanic landscapes. It also gave "J" off Chsalonina the opportunity to step in a huge pile of sea lion ka ka that he alone did not see.
On the social side, Jeremy's (Chaslonina) birthday party took over a street outside a restaurant in Puero Ayora where he was the sheik and everyone else, including the men, came as his harem. It was a fun evening organized by Carol with lots of help from Charlie and Annie, the Miss Tippy girls. On the 23rd March there was another more sophisticated joint birthday celebration for Chrissie on Blue Magic and Derry on Jackamy. So we didn't let the island hopping and sightseeing tours impact upon our drinking and partying.
It soon became time to restock our perishable foods and prepare for the mind bending 3,000 mile plus sail to the Marquesa Islands. We left the Galapagos Islands on the 24th March and, yes, I did buy an "Ï love boobies" T-shirt before raising the anchor and motoring out of the bay. We were expecting to motor some 350 miles before picking up the trade winds but we soon got good winds and we have now covered over 1,000 miles of this journey (and remember that a nautical mile equals 1.15 statute miles). Paranoia kicked in very early when our autohelm packed up on day 2 leaving us to rely on our Hydrovane for self-steering. Others were not so lucky in having back ups or readily available solutions to their problems. Three boats have already returned to the Galapagos Islands for repairs with one of them withdrawing from the rally.
My air of despondency with the prospect of much hand steering plus more bureaucracy and nautical DIY was not helped by the torrential rain we experienced for several days after leaving the Galapagos Islands. Both Carol and I were forced to resort to full North West European foul weather gear. Thoughts of cruising in the tropical sun and balmy trade winds were rapidly dashed. But things improved rapidly and my spirits increased dramatically despite not drinking any spirits while sailing. The Hydrovane is working well and we are actually going where we want to go. There were relatively short but very tiring periods in the early stages when we had to do some motoring and steer by hand but as I type we are sailing on a broad reach at 7.4 knots in 20 knots of wind and the Hydrovane is in control. The rain has stopped and although it has been overcast today, the sun has been out a lot and we have seen blue skies during the days and bright stars at night. A pod of pilot whales passed by a short while ago.
So things are going great for us but not so for Jamie on Bionic who has developed some very painful kidney stones some 1,000 miles out into the Pacific. Sheila (an ex-nurse) on Miss Tippy has gone aboard to help treat him and Gaultine has turned back over 100 miles into wind with some medication and one of their crew, Johan, who can skipper Bionic until Jamie recovers. This demonstrates the strong bond between Blue Water Rally participants which has been painstakingly nurtured over so many sundowners, meals and party nights. Everyone offers to help whenever there is any problem and I have no doubt that many life-long friendships are being forged on this voyage, not least of all by us.
So, the current situation is that we still have about 12 more days to go but we are in good spirits and cannot wait to get to the Marquesas for a well earned break - fingers crossed that even more nautical DIY does not kick in again.
Sail on!
On the social side, Jeremy's (Chaslonina) birthday party took over a street outside a restaurant in Puero Ayora where he was the sheik and everyone else, including the men, came as his harem. It was a fun evening organized by Carol with lots of help from Charlie and Annie, the Miss Tippy girls. On the 23rd March there was another more sophisticated joint birthday celebration for Chrissie on Blue Magic and Derry on Jackamy. So we didn't let the island hopping and sightseeing tours impact upon our drinking and partying.
It soon became time to restock our perishable foods and prepare for the mind bending 3,000 mile plus sail to the Marquesa Islands. We left the Galapagos Islands on the 24th March and, yes, I did buy an "Ï love boobies" T-shirt before raising the anchor and motoring out of the bay. We were expecting to motor some 350 miles before picking up the trade winds but we soon got good winds and we have now covered over 1,000 miles of this journey (and remember that a nautical mile equals 1.15 statute miles). Paranoia kicked in very early when our autohelm packed up on day 2 leaving us to rely on our Hydrovane for self-steering. Others were not so lucky in having back ups or readily available solutions to their problems. Three boats have already returned to the Galapagos Islands for repairs with one of them withdrawing from the rally.
My air of despondency with the prospect of much hand steering plus more bureaucracy and nautical DIY was not helped by the torrential rain we experienced for several days after leaving the Galapagos Islands. Both Carol and I were forced to resort to full North West European foul weather gear. Thoughts of cruising in the tropical sun and balmy trade winds were rapidly dashed. But things improved rapidly and my spirits increased dramatically despite not drinking any spirits while sailing. The Hydrovane is working well and we are actually going where we want to go. There were relatively short but very tiring periods in the early stages when we had to do some motoring and steer by hand but as I type we are sailing on a broad reach at 7.4 knots in 20 knots of wind and the Hydrovane is in control. The rain has stopped and although it has been overcast today, the sun has been out a lot and we have seen blue skies during the days and bright stars at night. A pod of pilot whales passed by a short while ago.
So things are going great for us but not so for Jamie on Bionic who has developed some very painful kidney stones some 1,000 miles out into the Pacific. Sheila (an ex-nurse) on Miss Tippy has gone aboard to help treat him and Gaultine has turned back over 100 miles into wind with some medication and one of their crew, Johan, who can skipper Bionic until Jamie recovers. This demonstrates the strong bond between Blue Water Rally participants which has been painstakingly nurtured over so many sundowners, meals and party nights. Everyone offers to help whenever there is any problem and I have no doubt that many life-long friendships are being forged on this voyage, not least of all by us.
So, the current situation is that we still have about 12 more days to go but we are in good spirits and cannot wait to get to the Marquesas for a well earned break - fingers crossed that even more nautical DIY does not kick in again.
Sail on!