Adios Las Perlas - Hola Galapagos
Rich's 2025 World ARC PatBon Blog
Richard Hurd
Fri 14 Feb 2025 07:30
It’s 0105 local time and I’ve just got a drenching! Yep, you guys in the U.K. can have a laugh at my expense at last, but at least when the heavens opened, I was still only wearing a T shirt and shorts. A very wet squall has just passed on our passage from Las Perlas islands to Galapagos, still 720 nm away.
We lifted anchor at about 0730 this morning from Isla Contadora, one of the northerly islands in this stunning archipelago and set off in a south westerly direction, keeping well clear of Punta Morro de Puercos, a headland on the Panamanian coast. It’s quite a busy shipping lane (heading into and out of the Panama Canal) and it has some notorious lumpy seas that we wanted to stay clear of.
We arrived at the Las Perlas islands on Tuesday, a few days later than we had hoped, as we had to wait for some replacement battens to be delivered for our mainsail. It was great to leave La Playita marina in Panama City and find some freedom at anchor off some stunning beaches. The ARC fleet came together on Tuesday evening for a lovely fun prize giving party at a hotel on Contadora. Good food, cold beer, great people and a bonfire on the beach - great fun.
Most of the fleet then headed off at midday on Wednesday 13th Feb for Galapagos, however the rebels aboard Pat Bon, One Distraction and Amelia decided to stay another day in the Las Perlas islands. We headed to an anchorage between an island called Mogo Mogo and Chapera for some R&R, swimming and paddle boarding off a stunning empty beach. Saw 5 rays swimming beneath me on the paddle board- quite a sight. The 3 boats then met up for a fab dinner at another small hotel on Contadora.
We really liked the Las Perlas islands, probably the loveliest place we’ve been to so far on this adventure, but the Galapagos await and so we’re now on our way. It’s about a 5 day sail and sadly the forecast is for light winds. We’re actually in the Pacific ITCZ (the doldrums to you and I), which is where the usual trade winds interact and nullify each other, so this is very normal for this leg. After saying that, for the first 6 hours after leaving the Las Perlas, we had great f.5 winds on the beam, so One Distraction and ourselves enjoyed some great sailing at over 10 knots at times. Amelia had planned to leave a little later than us, so she probably missed the morning sea breeze.
Sadly one yacht, Walrus, lost her dinghy and outboard overnight on Tuesday. Amelia already had her dinghy stolen when in the San Blas, so of course there was concern that this might have occurred again or indeed, someone didn’t tie the dinghy to the boat on their return from the party! It happens - trust me! Well, after a couple of hours sailing today, we saw One Distraction slow and turn around. We tried calling them up on the VHF to check all was OK, but no reply. After half an hour we called again and they said that they found a dinghy floating by in the Pacific and had stopped to pick it up. It was Walrus’ and they had sailed right passed it, two days after it was lost - a chance in a million. A very grateful and relieved crew aboard Walrus, as where we’re heading and dinghy is essential. The dinghy will be repatriated when we get to Galapagos or if 1D pass Walrus on route.
Nathan and I also caught our first fish - a Mahe Mahe first, quickly followed by a Bonito. Due to our lack of success and clearly feeling sorry for Nath and I, Jim and Heather from Amelia had given us some of their Mahe catch the night before. So with our fish expertly filleted by Nath, supper tonight was Mahe fillets with baked veggies. The Bonito is in the freezer ready for tomorrow!
So my watch has ended and Nathan has taken over. There are no ships in sight and One Distraction ‘the dinghy rescuers’ are about 1nm astern of us as we motor ever closer to the Galapagos and of course the equator. We need to start thinking about our equator crossing celebration and how to placate King Neptune of course!
Paula and Val by the beach on Chapera
Nathan and the Mahe Mahe
Rich and the Bonito
Amelia at sunset