Las Perlas>Galapagos July 3rd 2011 - Day 4: DTF 487nm (02:31.7N 83:39.5W)

Aquamante
Vries Peter Pons
Sun 3 Jul 2011 22:50
Since yesterday steady winds from the SW between 10 and 15 knots, slightly
longer waves not more than 3m in height, and no rain, though still mostly
overcast, which means relaxed sailing (if beating upwind for long periods
can ever really be considered relaxed) with one reef in our new high tech
mainsail and mostly the staysail on nothing more to do than the occasional
bit of trimming. Doing between 6 and 8 knots and a VMG (speed towards
target) varying between 5 and 8 knots, as we sail more west than south thus
far. Southerly winds are predicted, which will allow us to sail southwest,
but we're clearly not there yet. All this chitchat about sailing might be
quite boring to non-sailors, and may even be boring to sailors, but it also
helps my homefront weather forecasters to compare notes. Haven't received
any forecasts from them yet, but for this crossing we pretty well manage by
downloading gribfiles with the satellite phone.

With the relaxed sailing we could also catch up with some sleep last night
and today. We had lovely Thai curry with chicken for lunch, haven't done any
fishing yet, partly because we're beating upwind, which will make cleaning
the fish on deck quite uncomfortable. When sailing in Las Perlas, our new
Rapala lure was very effective, just before leaving we first caught a 1.2kg
tuna some 30 minutes after setting the line, and when Daph had just started
cleaning the little one, a huge pull on the line indicated something big
thought our Rapala irresistible as well. The reel got red hot when I put the
brake on, but the monster continued to pull line out, until it broke, and
fish plus Rapala were history. Luckily our line broke towards the end, and
we have another 7 Rapala's in stock to tempt our meals on board.