Day three was another clear day with variable breeze. We have managed to sail all day but some times it hasn’t been as fast as we like. Right now at 2000 local time (0100 UTC or “zulu”) we have 8-10 knots of wind which is variable and light. Its dark so you can’t see the shifts and puffs coming. We’re happy to be holding five knots or more.
Dolphins
We started the day with a visit from a large pod of fairly good sized dolphins – tentatively Risso’s Dolphins that swam with us for a while before breakfast. They weren’t as active as some of the other dolphins we’ve seen. They happily loafed along with us without all the frenetic racing and chasing we’ve seen in some other species.
Later in the afternoon we were also joined by another pod of what we think may have been more Spinner dolphins. The coloring and markings were similar to our field guides though they did not engage in any of the acrobatic leaps and spins that characterize them. They certainly were very active and playful chasing each other around the bow. It is impossible to be anything but amused when dolphins are riding with the boat.
Garbage Gyre?
One of the stories you hear about the Pacific is the so-called Garbage Gyre, an area where currents converge and floating plastic trash is supposed to be accumulating into vast floating islands. Some say they’ve seen it, others say it is a fable.
After merely two days in the Pacific Ocean we can sayit sure seems plausible. There is almost always some sort of floating plastic thing in view, and if there isn’t there will be within a few minutes. Looking by eye, we’re probably seeing well a swath of ocean maybe 50-75 feet on either side of the boat. And we’ve been shocked at how much we’ve seen.
In the Atlantic, sure there were occasional things the most common being Mylar balloons. Out here we see plates, bags, Crocs, bottles, jugsall variety of floating plastic household trash.
It is really quite sad to see, so much more than we’d expected. But entirely consistent with what we’ve heard.
It’s not a raft or island, but if you consider that Evenstar is sweeping our little one hundred and fifty foot swatch of ocean and we almost always see something, consider how much must be spread out over the thousands of square miles of open ocean out here.
Tonight
It is a quiet evening tonight with the boat lightly heeled. The wind has moved further forward, swinging more Southerly and lightened. We aren’t sailing hard upwind, but are pretty close to it with this recent persistent shift. Hopefully it will not swing more, sailing upwind in light air is no one’s idea of fun on a passage and we might have to start burning dinosaurs if we can’t maintain 3-4 knots towards the Galapagos.
After our third day on the water we are starting to get more into the routine. Eventually our bodies will function better with the watch schedulethen we will get there!
