06:55.90S 99:17.98W South Pacific Day 4

Lisanne
Eric Alfredson
Wed 19 Apr 2017 22:05
Wednesday April 19, 2017.
 
Hello all Lisanne-friends !
We left Puerto Ayora on Saturday, Easter Eve, and are now on our 4th day en route from Galapagos to Fatu Hiva in the Marquesas. All is well on board. As we are still in the Doldrums near the Equator, 6 degrees south, there has not been a lot of wind yet. We have had some great sailing in 15 knots of wind but also quite a lot of motor sailing, about 50/50 so far. Many rain squalls at nighttime but luckily no thunder and lightning near the boat.  The guys on the foredeck ( Mike and Klas) said this morning that they are getting tired of pulling the Gennaker up and down after we had it up for about 10 minutes . We are steering a SW course to get further south where we expect to pick up the SE Trade Wind within the next day or so and then we could set course westwards to the Marquesas. We have now sailed 600 Nm and have 2300 still to go.
 
Life on board is quite pleasant. We have gotten into the routines with night watches, sleeping,cooking, fishing, card playing, reading, movie watching etc. It is quite warm with air and water temperatures around 31 C. The days are rolling on. On Sunday we had a group (7-8) pilot whales near the boat, about 75-100 m. We stopped the boat and got some really nice photos. We caught a 3 kg Mahi-Mahi on Monday which we have enjoyed for two dinners, one oven baked with Masala sauce, ginger, lime etc ( Sandy )and one fried with mashed potatoes and a delicious sauce ( Klas). Eric made a much appreciated Janssons Frestelse ( Temptation), on Easter Sunday to get some home-feeling. Today is Mikes cooking day so we are looking forward to another culinary highlight.
 
We have many Oyster Yachts around us and have a radio chat on the SSB-radio two times a day . We exchange general sailing information, weather and position reports so we can plot out the other boats near us. We also  have an ongoing fishing competition where we have all put in 20 dollars for the prizes so we have to try to get a large Blue Marlin or Swordfish to win the 1st prize. We had a monstrous Blue  Marlin on the hook one day. It was a bit scary. But he pulled the line with lure and everything. We have now rigged with 50 kg lines ! Let´s  hope they will hold !
 
Best wishes from the Lisanne crew in the South Pacific !