Headed to the Galapagos Day Two

An other beautiful day on the high seas today, nary a cloud to be found. And for a few hours at mid day, nary a whisper of wind.

But fortunately that didn’t last too long. So far the weather is defying the models and we have enough wind to move the boat effectively under sail. She’s a lovely sailing boat, but weighing in at close to 56,000 pounds when the wind is just a whisper…well that isn’t her optimal conditions. The prevailing wind was Northerly by Northeast, which put it almost behind us as well.

We didn’t do any fishing today as I expected the wind to be fluky and require some sail changes (OK, maybe I didn’t feel like cleaning any fish, either). I wasn’t wrong as we started out the day making more than nine knots, eventually to have to stow the sails when the wind itself dropped to two or three knots. After a couple of hours of motoring though the wind began to come back, and with seven to eight knots now on the beam which we could sail to. We’ve not had the engine on since.

At dinner we were treated to a good sized pod of Spinner dolphins jumping and frolicking in the waves in the distance. A number of them broke towards us, apparently to come play in our wakes, but the whole pod didn’t come so they turned back. At the end of dinner another pod in the distance could be seen making spectacular leaps out of the water and slashing back down with a cannonball of spray. It is tough to tell distances in the air from a ways off, but they certainly looked like they were getting 10 feet or more in the air if they were 5-6 foot dolphins.

Tonight I’d like to also send a shout out to the Seven Hills School class of 1984. My classmates tonight are celebrating our thirtieth reunion and of course we are unable to make it. This would have been a fun one to make as a lot has changed in our lives. So to all of you back there, hello and sorry we couldn’t be there with you! Think of us out here almost 100 miles off the Panama coast.

Tonights watch remains still, and we will settle in for a couple of hours with an audio book before shift sleeping starts. Will is taking 9-midnight, I take midnight to 3:00 a.m., Kathy takes 3:00-6:00 and Danielle gets up at 6:00 to relieve her as it gets light. It is nice sailing with kids old enough to share the watch!