Day 6 05:40.14N 080:25.52W
Five Islands
John & Sue
Fri 25 May 2012 02:01
Motored last night after taking the sails down at around 7pm. We then ducked & dived around ships heading to and from the Panama Canal, then headed south west early this morning. The wind has come up again, enough to put up the sails & turn the engines off. Our speed varied between 6.4 knots & 2.4 Knots, not overly fast but very pleasant. It was a beautiful sunny day, but no fish although we watched a large pod of dolphins this morning feeding and jumping. Spending our time doing watches (2 hr shifts), reading, sleeping, cooking and playing Sequence. The girls still rule, well on most nights. The boys are doing a bit of a gloat tonight. Baked 2 loaves of bread today. Some of our fresh fruit and veg is starting to perish regardless of all the preparation and storage precautions we undertook.
The conditions have been lovely, the only thing lacking is a bit stronger breeze. The out haul line (for non sailors, it's the rope that holds the mainsail tied to the back of the boom) broke today and a reefing line has been used as a temporary fix. We have spent the day sailing, although slowly and have tacked 3 times (it must be Thursday). We are currently motoring and are starting to see ships again. They disappear during the day. Our current speed is 3.2 knots heading SW at 205 deg. We are about 200nm from Panama and 660nm from Galapagos.