Day 4 - Wind Discovered
Harmonie
Don and Anne Myers
Thu 13 Mar 2008 19:10
|
05:10.998S 98:44.090W
Overnight and early this morning the wind played
hide and seek with us, but now we have captured it - hopefully for good.
We are speeding along at 6-7 knots and enjoying the quiet. We are
pleasantly surprised that the weather forecast was correct, we did indeed find
the wind once we got south of 5S latitude and west of 97W longitude. We,
especially Don, love it when a plan comes together.
All but seven of the rally boats are spread out on
the Pacific Ocean between 94W and 100W longitude - that's over about 360
miles. We can't see anyone and haven't seen anyone for more than 24
hours. Nor have we seen a single freighter or fishing boat. If we
didn't know there were about thirty other sailboats out there (some within 15-20
miles of us), we'd feel pretty darn alone right about now. But because we
hear everyone's position at noon on the SSB (long range) radio everyday, we
don't feel in the least bit alone. Once each boat's position is
given, the radio chatter moves on to the wind (what else?) and plans for a
St. Patrick's celebration when the time comes. A few boats are
bragging about their stash of Guinness beer. Geez and all we have are a
few measly Heineken's - not too festive.
About seven rally boats are still in the Galapagos
for one reason or another - mostly equipment problems. GPS, generator,
watermaker and boom repair are the types of items these boats are dealing
with. Whitbread is one of the boats still in port. I don't think
their delay is due to an extended hangover resulting from too much celebration
of the blue footed boobie, but I suppose anything is possible. Hopefully
Whitbread and the others will all be on their way soon.
There was some fishing activity yesterday with
three smaller fish caught, landed and thrown back - not big enough to keep at
only about 10lb each. Yes, only 10lb each. The good news is
that Don's new double hooks seem to be working, although they haven't been
tested by a large and feisty mahi-mahi yet.
Marquesas Semi-Useless Factoid #3:
The population of the Marquesas Islands is approximately 8,632
people.
I don't think we will run into any crowds given that the total land area of
the island group is 405 square miles. Oops. That's two Marquesas
semi-useless factoids for the price of one today. What
a bargain.
Anne |