2:29S 93:01W

We are now actually sailing in the right direction at 5.5 knots with about 12 knots of wind. This is very exciting as we had no wind for 2 days on leaving Galapagos.

We nearly couldn't leave as the immigration people had our passports (our spanish wasn't good enough to understand why we had to leave them there ) and they had closed the office to go to the airstrip to greet a private plane. So much for Socialism.

Anyway at 4 p.m. on Saturday Fernando appeared with them and we set off.

The battery charging is still a bit hit and miss...the generator starts about 10% of the time and runs for anything between 2 and 20 minutes. The fan belt on the engine started slipping again so Keith and I had some "quality time" at 4 a.m. fitting a new one from Galapagos ( we have 2..one is slightly too big  and the other too small so we could not get it on) So far it seems to be working. What fun.

 Clare

Hurrah for the wind! Finally there is some weather to write home about. We even had a few spots of rain last night, but thankfully today the sun is shining and the swimming trunks are getting skimpier. We currently have about 16 knots of wind. This may not sound hugely exciting back home, but yesterday we would have cracked open the champagne for anything over 5. (We did actually crack out the champagne, but that was to celebrate Easter, not a paltry 3.5 knots of wind).

Life beyond the galapagos seems slightly devoid of nature. Even the flying fish are a novelty these days...

Guido

Apart from 2 days of motoring since we left San Christabel, things are looking up . At 2000rpm we do 10mpg, and at 1400rpm we do 13, so even our extra bladder doesn’t give us much spare, thank goodness we’ve some wind. 4 or 5 days of this will be ideal. Repairs/breakage ratio still >1 so we are doing well there as well!

Keith