Las Perlas>Galapagos July 1st 2011 - Day 2: DTF 704nm (03:42.7N 80:12.6W)

Aquamante
Vries Peter Pons
Fri 1 Jul 2011 22:50
Last night again little sleep, the wind shifted from NE to SW and everything
in between. At times too weak to sail, but most of time we could sail, for
one 3 hour stretch even in the right direction. Every time we tack we first
have to bring the windward backstay forward and then take the leeward
backstay back, which becomes quite annoying if you have to do that every
hour or so in heavy rain and wind. Later this morning, after one more
downpour the skies cleared and we finally picked up a more steady wind,
initially from the E, which was lovely, but soon it turned SW, which is
where the Galapagos are. For the last 12 hours we follow a southerly course
with SE 4-5, not making much headway in the right direction, but at least we
do not have to change the sailplan all the time, and we both had a chance to
do an afternoon nap. We hope the wind will turn south soon, so that we can
head for our target directly on a port tack. However, our gribfiles tell us
the wind will continue to be SW for another few days, which mean we have to
go really south and then beat west. The weather info from a cargo ship in
the neighbourhoud sounds much better, don't know if it is true though: wind
would turn SSE 5-6, which would be a perfect broad reach. Let's see what
tomorrow brings.

BTW, I guess it would be fun to see how I write this blog, with the boat
heeling 15-20 degrees at average and slugging through 3-4 m headwaves. And
now I am going out in the cockpit with PC to send it with the Iridium phone.