Off to Galapagos
Ripple2
Thu 11 May 2006 17:50
 Here's a picture of us and Ripple looking
happy.
Well I think we're really off this time. It has
taken forever to get the boat ready for this trip - but we now have our engine
going again, wind vane steering set up with new replacement parts, provisions
are all on board, sails have been repaired and changed - now we have a crispier
main sail and the stay sail is up again, we had a last minute glitch with the
satellite phone/internet connection - they upgraded the system and we lost our
connection and had to run around Panama City trying to get it sorted - but
that's all fixed now. Darren has even made a 'dolly' seat up the back which sits
across the aft of the boat and is an excellent place to sit and watch the
horizon, which we will be doing a lot of. We just cranked up the watermaker
after having pickled it for the time we were in the Canal Zone and it is pumping
away merrily.
We have just had a couple of days in Las Perlas
islands which are about 60 miles off the coast of Panama - we found a deserted
bay and have been the sole inhabitants here for nearly 3 days, it has been just
lovely to be away from civilization at last. It was Darrens 40th birthday while
we were there. So his present was a deserted beach and the seat/bench which he
made that day. Well if you don't have any presents to unwrap and play with, you
have to make your own right?!
We have completed some more little boat jobs and
Annie has done some cooking for the trip. Thanks again to Kate and Tony for the
pressure cooker - I'm loving it. So there's lasagne and Beef bourgignon, and
chicken curry to look forward to. Today I'm making taboule and falafel to
go with hummus and pita bread. We have just about turned into pineapples - I
bought 2 at the big fruit and veg market in Panama City, they were 25 cents each
so I couldn't resist but they both ripened at once and we have been eating
pineapple twice a day since. Luckily there were bananas, rock melon and grapes
to go with it, and this morning we had pancakes and fresh pineapple which were
delicious, but after today we will be fine with not having any pineapple for a
while. Looking forward to catching a fish or two - the dolly seat doubles as a
fish cleaning station so we'll have to see how that pans out.
We'll try sending another blog en route if
conditions permit, otherwise it's next stop Galapagos. Hope all's well with you
wherever you are, do drop us a line if you like we love hearing from everyone.
Bye for now
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