Captain's corner:
It's so nice to be back at sea again, even if there's absolutely no wind whatsoever! It looks like we'll be motoring the whole way to Galapagos, unless there's some major change in the weather.
We spent the day yesterday in the lee of land, dodging the myriad of ships and getting the Cloud back into ship-shape - That and fabricating zed's to catch up on the lost sleep due to the hive of activity whilst ashore/in the canal. Just as the evening started to settle in and we were congratulating ourselves on a job well done, we swapped over to the starboard engine and learned that the gear shifter had suddenly decided to pack it in: Very glad it was kind enough to wait until we'd finished with the canal. After a good look about, it seems (hopefully) that some screws shook loose on the Morse controller. A little job with my leatherman later and we've got a starboard engine that is permanently in forward gear which will do fine for the moment. As if this wasn't enough, two hours later a terrible racket came up: we caught a bag fish... We turned on the underwater lights so I could see the issue and jump over and clear it, only to notice that we were surrounded by rubbish. It took about 2 Miles to get clear of all of it, leaving us none to happy with our fellow man who must surely be the culprit. The rest of the night passed without much event, more ships, and one dolphin zipping through the water like a torpedo in the phosphorescence - surely a good omen.
Last bit of the night was accompanied by a massive thunderstorm, full of purples and pinks in the sky, and such a drenching as we've no need to scrub the decks today!

Anyhoo, this morning we've been busy at various odd jobs, I've now re-plumbed and wired the small watermaker (it's solonoid is however dead, good thing I've already ordered a replacement!), Jenny's organised our pharmaceuticals, and Rodney and Noel have redone our door catches on the saloon door. At noon we stopped engine, had a gorgeous swim in the PACIFIC, YAY, I changed the pitch of the propellers to get another half a knot, and life is good!

The one benefit of this lack of wind is that we've got unlimited power and water, so it's the height of luxury with cool-down showers whenever we like.

From a relaxed crew, which is a happy crew,
Matt