May 2, 2014 and Counting . . .

So as day 19 comes and goes, we are still sailing gently along.  I'm counting day 19 all the way until tomorrow morning at 10 am, which is the time we left from the Galapagos.  Even so, it's looking possible, but not so good.  It's 9:00pm and we have another 63 miles to go.  We've got very light winds, Windometer reading 5.5 knots on the top of the mast.  We are going an incredible 3.9 knots.  At this speed, we're looking at another 15 hours or actually slightly more.  We shall see as the wind changes, but at this point all predictions are that it only gets lighter . . . I think I'm going to claim a win if we are within their governing waters.  Galapagos had a 40-mile radius that you could not fish in their waters, etc.  Anyone know what the surrounding area of the Marquesas is?  I may need that knowledge in the near future.  Because you certainly claim to have gone SCUBA diving in the Marquesas even if you are off the coast!  It's not like you claim you were SCUBA diving in the Pacific in general when you are that close to an island.  So, I think it's not landfall, but rather land sighting, that counts.  And I'm anticipating that we wake in the morning with views of land!!!  Something we haven't seen hide or hair of for almost 3 weeks!  That will be a welcome sight!  We have seen increasing birds, but not that many more. 

As we approached the Galapagos, we had 7 motorboats blow by us just in the time we were reeling in that gigantic fish.  I'm wondering if we get the same here?  Will there be signs of pangas, motorboats, fishermen or anything before actually arriving at land?

This morning started out with all kinds of activities.  Courage started the generator and water-maker so that we could do a load of laundry.  Un-named people urinated in their bed requiring urgent action.  I washed our sheets also, which was a bonus!  We also added water to the port hull.  Then Courage gave the boys haircuts and everyone went to the back steps for showers, soap and everything!!  

Can you believe it!  We will hit land tomorrow clean as a whistle and smelling like roses!!  (Or at least not smelling like old flying fish that we've been playing with.)

The other two boats we have contact with are ahead of us and are both motoring as of this morning.  The one behind us is still a day behind as far as we can tell.  So we figure Daphne hit land yesterday, Moana Roa and Malua today, us tomorrow and Field Trip probably May 3rd.  Nice spacing, good run for everyone!

We brought in another smaller tuna today. With the generator running and the fish being smaller, so not really pulling, we didn't exactly notice it right away.  By the time we'd reeled it in, it was dead.  We probably would have thrown it back since we already have some fish and it was smaller, but we kept it.  It's nothing to sneeze at, it's probably about 4-5 pounds, but still a relatively little guy out here.  Finished our other 2 fish today and will have him for lunch tomorrow probably.  I had predicted catching 7 fish; we are at 4.  But I hadn't predicted that we would not be fishing as part of the equation.  That always puts a damper on progress.

We had a great watermelon for lunch today.  I was impressed.  Not grainy or anything, like some have been, just juicy and nice.  Had our last pineapple for dinner also.

So, it's been a great run.  You could make an adventure series out of it, but all in all, it's been a very pleasant trip.  We lost our starboard motor to fishing line wrapped in the prop.  Our boom disconnected from our mast, so our mainsail was out of commission.  If that didn't do it, the cars from the very top of the sail jumped the track putting it out of commission.  We wrapped our spinnaker on our Genoa, so our headsails were both useless.  Our bilges were filling with water for days on both sides!  Our port water pump went out.  Our main salon built-in furniture is cracking away from the starboard hull.  We took blue-water through the hatches more than once.  We lost many a lure.  The kids were sick with fevers a few days after leaving.  But none of these were issues that couldn't be addressed.  Everything is up and running as best it can.  The electronics performed well, the boat performed well, the crew performed well. 

Vitality is barely green and has a "summer cut" hairdo as we refer to it in these parts.  We watched the video tonight of her after painting herself.  Boy was she thorough, solid coloring mid-chest down to her toes and a decent amount of her back too!

This evening wrapped up with us doing our French for gummies on the bow - la lune (moon), les etoilles (stars), la nuage (clouds), and la mer (ocean) were the words added tonight up there as we were looking out in a very pleasant warm breeze.  Then we pulled out the iPad and looked at the constellations.  It impressively also shows the satellites, so the boys got a total kick out of seeing where the satellites were since we just watched the video "Earth from Space" which was a summary of findings from images from satellites in space.

No wind, no rain, no waves, just a pleasant 4 knot drift under spinnaker in a star filled sky with a few clouds and a crescent moon.  A great conclusion to what is hopefully our last night at sea after finishing one of the longest possible passages available in the world without hitting land (unless you specifically detour to miss it).  The guidebook actually says Seattle to Marquesas is shorter due to Panama being so far east.  I think I didn't realize how far east we were really.  So here is a pleasant goodnight to all.

Looking forward to experiencing a new culture, new language, and new island navigations.

Shannon