930 nm SW of Galapagos
0700 Report
There was a short-lived afternoon easing of winds and waves yesterday, but brisk winds continued through the evening and night. hours, and are unchanged this morning blowing 17-22 knots from 100 degrees mag. (this more easterly direction is good). All in all, things out here look pretty much the same this morning as they did yesterday, but I know this must be a different patch of ocean. As Gram said, it is a lonely planet out here. We have not seen a single boat in the entire 900 miles, although Jo and I once thought we saw some lights on the distant horizon, and there was a very brief AIS target several days ago. I am not sure when that was, as days seem to meld into one another as we approach our midpoint.
We have not encountered the idyllic down wind reaching conditions we had expected/wished for - we are a bit harder on the wind than desired, and the consistent 20 knot winds have kept the sea state lively - but all in all we are moving quite fast in the right direction. We made 226 nm over past 24 hours and if there is any boredom, that's a good thing as I do not wish for ocean passages to be exciting. The usual complement of flying fish lie on the side decks this morning; squid count again zero. Otherwise, decks are very clean, albeit akin to a salt farm.
When the boat is moving this much we tend to eat out of wide white plastic bowls (the kind with rubber non skid rings under them), but any lack of elegance was more than made up last night by filling them with herbed chicken, basil Parmesan pasta, and a Mediterranean salad with stuffed grape leaves.
GRIB files continue to suggest that winds will diminish and will be quite light come March 3/4, several days outside of Easter. We will deal with that when the time comes. Right now, 1017 nm to go.
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