Past the two thirds way mark yesterday leaving us only 1000 miles to go. Celebrated by getting soaked by a big wave that hit us from the side, sneaked up on us, and followed by a small pod of whales that liked to play with us. We have not identified the species yet but they were not of the large variety so we were not too worried when they dived under our boat time and time again. The last two days have been difficult with constant 20 to 25 knot winds creating some mountainous seas and nasty side chop with the many squalls that also wanted to welcome us to the Eastern side of the Pacific Ocean.

 

You can see the jagged piece, now missing the blade that normally would be in the water steering Toucan 

 

It has calmed down a bit as I write this but a few hours ago another of those sneaky waves hit us from the side sending things flying, soaking me again but worse still broke our wind pilot. The Wind Pilot is a mechanical machine that steers the boat without the need for electricity. Normally it works really well and only needs fine tuning every so often so we are very disappointed that it is now broken. However we still have the electronic pilot that does the same job but uses oodles of current. It is dark now so a full investigation will take place in the morning.

 

 

Have not caught any fish now for three days and already am having fish withdrawal symptoms. The little buggers managed to take three of my prized lures along with some fishing line so they are obviously biting. I now have my heavyweight tackle out to foil them but because the line is so strong, it needs to be thick and I think that the fish can see the line and know it’s a trap. They’re not as daft as you might think. Another Tuna would be good.

 

We have been pushing along at good speeds in the strong winds and covered 170 miles in the 24 hours from midday to midday. Should this keep up we will be less than another week at sea before arriving at the Marquesas.

 

 

Oh I forgot to mention that while I was in Panama awaiting Marion’s return, the lone Dutch sailor Laura on the boat called Guppy happened to arrive and anchored beside our boat. You will remember her from the news when the Dutch authorities refused her permission to leave Holland and it made the world news. She is hoping to be the youngest person ever to sail around the world singlehanded. Well she just arrived in the Marquesas ahead of us.