The First 500 miles under our sails
Serai
Jason and Emily Willis
Tue 1 May 2007 19:49
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04:46.25S 99:48.24W
When we left the Galapagos, Serai had done 3020
miles with her new crew. It seems strange that in a mere 3 weeks or so, we will
double that!
As I type this email, the GPS tells me we are doing
7 knots on a course of 265 degrees. Since leaving Galapagos we have travelled
623 miles. In the last 11 hours we have covered 75 miles. This is awesome
progress according to the Admiral and we should be very pleased with
ourselves. On the basis of this I think we have found our trades. We have 8
ft seas coing in behind us and a lovely blue sky with a smattering of cotton
wool clouds.
I wish I could say it has been like this
throughout. We motored for the first 24 hours with absolutely no wind. Then we
found some wind and the skies turned cloudy and we had 2 days of rainshowers
every few hours. It is normal practice on this trip to stay on a level with the
Galapagos for as long as possible, in other words keep North. We have been
unable to do this, along with the other boats that left with us, and so had to
come south in search of wind, and now we have found it! Our aim is to stay in
the band of 4 and 5 degrees South for as long as possible, and just keep heading
west, west, west. The Maquesas lie at around 10 degrees south and at 138 degrees
west. At the rate we are going we cover 2 and half degrees west every 24
hours.
So yesterday we celebrated our first milestone -
the first 500 miles. To mark the occasion, Ems made a lemon cake to go with our
4 pm cup of tea, made in a teapot, of course. I feel one mustn't let ones
standards drop on these occasions! We had a lovely lasagne dinner and were
joined for the event by a large boat that came up very quickly behind us and
then stopped about a mile from us. Ems paniced, put some clothes on and then
decided that they were about to board us. I told her that they probably could
just smell the lasagne and not to worry. Sure enough, as we finished our meal,
they disappeared into the night, never to be seen again. And I think that may be
the last lasagne I will see as a result too...Ems being a bit seperstitious
about these things!
The fish have not been terribly sporting so far
this trip, seemingly preferring not to dedicate themselves to our next meal.
Until that is, this morning, when we caught one unidentifiable fish which I
think was a very thin oily mackeral, followed by a small mahi-mahi (which is now
in lime juice to make Cerviche), followed an hour later by a much bigger
mahi-mahi which is now in the fridge ready for tonight's meal! The mackeral
imposter is now trailing along behind the boat with a big hook in it, to see
what might like a bigger meal, and as a general warning to other imposters that
we only take mahi-mahi, wahoo or tuna! Are we being a bit
choosy?
Thanks so much to everyone who has sent emails. It
is wonderful to open up the computer each day and download messages from friends
and family. For all those who have not emailed...I might start a name and shame
campaign by week 2. You have been warned!
I am finishing this now as its a bit like trying to
type whilst sitting on the rollercoaster at Alton Towers - not easy and not
overly pleasant in the long term!
Take care one and all. Till the next
time.
Lots of love
J and Ems xx
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