Galápagos>Marquesas 04-08-2011 (Day 2, 23:40 UTC): DTF 2465nm (02:16.4S 98:11.7W)

Aquamante
Vries Peter Pons
Thu 4 Aug 2011 22:40
The technical info here below is for our on-shore
navigators/tacticians/weathermen Weynand Haitjema and Peter Houtzagers, who
support us actively with weather info and tactical advice from their
respective homebases Panama City and Bergen (NH). Thks, guys!
TWS: 10-15kt with very occasional gusts up to 20kt
TWA: 130-150 (autopilot op AWA van 110, bij meer wind op 120)
HDG: 270-280
COG: 260-270
DTF: 2465nm
Track: 447nm (GPS data)
Trip: 416.7nm (based on speed through water, i.e. slightly favourable
current)

Pls. let me know which other info may be relevant for you.

Yesterday evening last big fishing boat in the distance, since then the
whole ocean to ourselves. Managed to get some sleep at night, during watches
we extended our naps to 45min, probably to one hour as of tonight. Wind
picked up to 25kts for a very short while, then came down to 10-15kts again.
It always feels a lot more at night than during the daytime and you don't
feel like reefing the main at night either.

Big surprise today was that Daph prepared us a lovely thin-crusted pizza,
which could have come from the best Napolitanean wood-oven you can imagine.
What a difference from the rip-off USD90 pizza, that was served to us in an
authentic Italian pizzeria in Santa Cruz called La Dolce Italia by an
authentic Sicilean retard, who argued that we were technically right in
saying his so-called pizza sucked, but that his pizzaiolo always made the
crust thick, even if he tried to convince him to make it thinner, and, more
importantly, that 9.9 out of ten customers never complained!

Also nice that we're comparing notes daily with two other Dutch boats doing
this passage, Henk and Miranda on S/V Mirus and single-handed sailor Maarten
on S/V Aletis. Since leaving Curaçao, we met one or two other Dutch boats,
and only briefly, and now we're crossing the Pacific with 3 boats and no
other cruisers that we know of.