Panama to Galapagos

Panama to Galapagos. Day 7

We arrived San Cristobel and had our anchor down at 0730, an hour after first light which was EXACTLY the same time we up anchored at Isla Contradora, Las Perlas, Panama to set forth.
Sea birds started visiting us, looking to see if any fish were jumping from our bow.

Our big excitement was crossing the equator. For Ann and Terry it was their first time. We had a little ceremony for Neptune then we swam along the equator, with a line out for security! We were in 2.5 km of water and the cobalt blue of the water was sensational and so clear! There was no wind!

Not a lot of wind once again, (good for our card game)although it did remain consistent angle from the SE. Once in the lee of San Cristobel, we sailed quietly from 0100 until dawn, in the absence of any swells. We had to wait until daylight to enter the harbour at Wreck Bay (aptly named we are sure). It was quite humid as the all too familiar ITCZ had re-formed around us. Thunderheads were small and any rain there was went around us. The wind in the cells were no more than 10 knots. The stars generated enough light to see the horizon in the absence of a moon.

We reflected that at one stage we were unsure if we had enough fuel, yet we arrived with the 80L still on the deck and one tank half full..approximately 150L. Most of our motoring was done around 1500-1800 rpm to conserve fuel. We motored for 129 hours over a total of 7 days, with total distance of 908 nm. I think there is an extra 45 miles in there somewhere for wandering off the rhumb line earlier.

As we were so busy looking at the manta rays on our entry, and being tired, it took Peter and I to realise there was a considerable set coming into the bay. Our 2011 max sea charts were accurate. Once the anchor was down, there were many sea lion pups coming to check us out and feeding under the boat. Its been a long time since we anchored and could see the grains of sand on the bottom.

A chap came by in a panga and asked if we had an agent, informed us of how to call a water taxi and called Bolivar for us (our agent) who promptly arrived by 0930. Checking in was easy; but we paid handsomely for this service. We had a few visitors in uniform, a lovely girl who spoke beautiful english who was their quarantine agent, then went off with Bolivar to immigration. By 1100 hours we were all done and enjoyed the cool rain we had to walk in!!

Now we are 1/4 of the`way to the Marquesas and will be on our own for our 21 day passage. In the mean time, we have around 40 days to enjoy here. Di and Gorbar fly in the same day as Ann and Terry fly out.
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Panama to Galapagos

Panama to Galapagos, Days 5 and 6.

Barn and Anita...best start booking for Tahiti!!

We sort of expected to arrive in Galapagos by the end of Day 6, but lack of wind and slow going at the end has put us back a day. Unless we can pull some wind out of a magic bag and sail tomorrow, we will have to hove to for a night until we can enter in daylight. Our ETA is early tomorrow evening, after dark.

Day 5 was unexpected with a beautiful 10 kt SSE wind, giving us a good sailing day of around 6 knots for 14 hours. Peaceful and cool!!! The winds have been consistently from the SE quadrant since 3N so not much needed for sail trim. Nights have been quiet with many stars. Now we have a New Moon, we will get a little moonlight for a few hours in the early evening. We can still see the horizon though with the light from the stars.

Day 6 has been slow with lighter winds from the same SE quadrant (SE Trades). A good day for playing cards rather than have them flying around like yesterday. I decided to do some baking this morning to use up some fruit that had seen its best days. The look on Peter's face seeing me busy in the galley said it all!!!! Peter cooking a nice Indian dinner for tonight. Some advantages of calm weather!

Ann and Terry are doing well on their first passage, although Terry is a little over this now he can see the end in sight. We will have a little ceremony for them crossing the equator for the first time on the ocean. For Peter and I its our 5th crossing. We have had no luck with fishing!! They have been doing the 1900 to 2200 watch, which makes it easier for us. Terry also likes to stay on deck during the day, so we can get lots of bits and pieces done down below and have an afternoon nap.

It is late afternoon and we only have 155 miles to go!
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On Passage Panama to Galapagos

On Passage Panama to Galapagos. February 2012.

Day 3 and 4

Ho hum now as we have lost the wind and positive current. Progress is slow under motor. There was some concern that we would run out of fuel! Think we are ok now but hoping for a SE wind near the equator.
We have now passed well away from the Columbian Island that has a naval presence. 100 miles out of Panama we were interrogated on VHF at length by the Panamanian Navy. One chap sounded American so maybe a joint effort with drug patrols. I am sure our details will be passed on to Australian/NZ Customs.
Have had one ship pass close by and another vessel around 0200 this morning. Perhaps one of the trawler type boats doing the Pacific. It was going along at around 8 knots.

Ann and Terry are doing well. We are passing a lot of time by playing cards and reading. Eating well! The fish are winning as we are going too slow for them to be tempted by our lures! A nice boat wash came by. Terry was out scrubbing the deck!!

A huge pod of bottle nose dolphins, some very large came, to play this morning. Ann took some great photos.

We had many birds coming to check out the fish around the boat (of course there were none!) and one beautiful Lava Gull decided to rest for a while. He was a long way from home!

We now have 300 miles to go, which puts us in Galapagos, Sat morning our time and Sat night Perth time.
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On Passage

 Panama to Galapagos. Feb, 2012

Day 1 and 2

Motoring for the first 12 hours, we thought about what would happen if we ran out of fuel! Galapagos is approximately 900nm.

 A nice relaxing time for broter and sister!

However, at 2000 hrs last night, we found the NE wind and off we went! A quiet night at around 15 knots..all behind us. As it was so calm we entertained ourselves by playing cards for a few hours.
Day 2 saw the wind pick up to around 18-22 knots, pushing us along at around 8 knots. We feel we have current with us (west bound equatorial current??) but not sure as our speed log will not hold memory and we have nothing to set it by.

For first time ocean passagers, Ann and Terry settled into the cruising life very well.

Now around 1600 hrs on day 2, the wind has died. We have 655 nm to go to Galapagos.
Every morning their is a net on the HF. There are boats in front of us and boats behind us. The weather window closes down from Wednesday. No wind, or at least that was the last forecast. We are now trying to organise a yacht to bring out our guard rails that for some reason FEDEX could not deliver, even though they were in their van for 3 days. We gave up waiting as we had to get going. Ann and Terry are doing well but were a little despondent when we said how far we have to go! It should be a 6 day passage. VPP2, our interactive pilot charts are keeping us to the north of Galapagos. We suppose its to cross the east setting equatorial counter current on the equator, near the Galapagos. So far we have had positive current with us all the way.
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