Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Galapagos to Easter Island Day 8 - a squirrely night

Pacific Ocean
17 29.8S, 105 00.7W
1290 nm SW of Galapagos
0700 report

We saw rain on and off through the night, with squirrely winds that changed direction through 35 degrees, and ranged from 13 to 25 knots. This meant - how much sail do you want up - too much or too little? A racing crew would have a 24 hour 4 person deck watch and sail changes evey 20 minutes with the winds, but we just set them at a happy medium, and sailed through it all. The wind does seem to be stabilizing this morning with this very picturesque sunrise I see off our port quarter.

With the light of day and from the cockpit I can only count a few small flying fish on decks; the large overnight deposits have lessened with the lessening seas. I also note that the rain has returned some of the salt from our decks and fittings to the ocean, but we are stil heavily laden. At the equator, sun rose and set very close to 630 AM and PM, but out here it is light later, with an 7:30 sunset and 8:00 twilighrt. Oddly enough, Easter Island sets it's clock on mainland Chile time, so we will move our clocks back (the wrong way) when we get there...it is light there quite late in the evening.

I have to chuckle when I note that more people comment or reply about our menu than just about anything else nautical! So, for those so very interested...Jo cooked a great chicken curry last night prepared with rice, salad, and a fantastic homemade papaya chutney (thank you Soggy Paws for the chutney recipe!). Midway through our episode of "24", she served a desert of freshly baked peach cobbler - which I had been waiting for all day - as the cabin smelled deliciously good when she baked it yesterday morning. Jo has already received one job offer as a sea-going chef, but I do nt think she will take it.

After 7 nights we are beginning to get a bit thin on greens. The lettuce last night was our last one, but we still have 2 1/2 cucumbers, 2 tomatoes, a cabbage, and carrots. These should last us to Easter Island, but I hope that the airport is open and/or one of the reqular supply ships come in as we would like to replenish.

We made 208 nm yesterday 6AM -6AM. 624 nm to go

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