5 Days in.......
Quartermoon
Mike Share & Sammy Byron
Mon 5 Apr 2010 23:56
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So far a great trip although we ran out
of wind for a wee while ( 2.5 days ) and had to motor in the Doldrums pass
Malpelo Rock and beyond. We now have a cracking 13-15 knots of wind from the SSW
and only 330 miles left to go. Averaging 6 knots and trying to go faster so
we don't have to sit off the Galapagos waiting for daylight to enter Wreck
Bay,340miles to go.
Finally we have left Panama. I think most of you
thought we were going to take up residency! We had to make a quick get away from
Contadora as the strong opposing tide and wind made it really uncomfortable and
poor QM was being slammed up the backside by some huge breaking waves..not nice.
We headed south and decided that we should just go for it and start our journey
of 920 miles. We pulled briefly into a small protected bay off Pedro Miguel
( one of the last islands in the Las Perlas chain) and got the tender onboard
and ourselves orgainised to start the journey. Nothing like starting a long
passage with a night sail but the breeze was good and we had a full moon so it
was a gorgeous night sailing. So far we have managed to cover nearly 9cm on the
chart and Mike reckons we have another 6cm to go :-)
Our trip to Malpelo rock was perfect sailing, We
had 15-20 knots from the North so we winged the headsail out and averaged around
6.5 knots at times hitting 8 knots. I am still trying to beat my sisters husband
( Mike) at his 8.2 knot record. I watched an amzing pod of dolphins swim with
the boat and we had a very cute bird decide to pay us a visit and sit on the bow
preening itself for a good 30 minutes. It's a great feeling being out on the
open ocean with absolutly no one else in sight except a few birds and flying
fish.
April 1st was the start of our fishing competion
which we are having with 3 other boats. We have not had a good start so far. We
spent the whole of the 1st day untangling a line and finally we got our
line in the water on the 2nd. It is now the 5th and apart from
catching a flying fish which landed on our deck we have caught diddly squat!
...Oh well plenty of time to work on our technique! Hopefully Mike will take
this up as a new hobby, it looks the kinda sport you need to be quite anal and
partiicular about :-) HAPPY BIRTHDAY Jacky M, Richard L and Lizzy B.
Apologies for not sending emails but I never transferred your email from my
hotmail address book to this one so if you read this Please send me an email to
our quartermoon address!!
Thats all for now, we'll just keep on
sailing!
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