08:41S 104:59W

Day’s run 186 miles

 

The Saturday before we left the Galapagos, we went to the weekly produce market and ordered green bananas and plantains for the following week.  We also ordered green pineapple, papaya and tomatoes explaining we were about to set off for three weeks at sea and needed produce that would keep.   This was all done in Spanish so imagine our surprise when we turned up the next week to find the vendors we’d spoken to had not only understood, but turned up with the goodies.  Amazing!  The market starts at about 5am so we blinked the sleep out of our eyes and got there about 6am to find it  overflowing with beautiful fresh produce being sold by villagers who come down from the lush highlands.

 

We happily handed over a few dollars in exchange for delicious produce.  As I sat outside with the rapidly filling bags David went in search of the banana man and returned a few minutes later with a huge stick.  We had so much we took a taxi back to the dock. Back on board we spent ages wrapping the tomatoes in paper towels, oranges in foil, separating onions from potatoes (they make each other sprout) and packing the vegetables in bags for the fridge.  Bananas and pineapple were dipped in salt water to drown any lurking cockroaches and then hung from Bandit’s stern and left to ripen, as they did, within a few days and all at the same time.  We were surprised they ripened so fast (as did everything else) but guess a lack of sprays helps. 

 

So faced with the prospect of a banana glut we set about eating them.  Aside from having them with other tropical fruit with our morning cereal we made banana cake for morning coffee (and judging by the speed it went, the skipper devoured plenty of it on night watch!), banana and  strawberry muffins, banana pancakes for dessert and a fresh banana whenever energy levels were low.  The plantains also ripened fast so we fried them and had them on wraps with avocado and bacon, with Thai tuna curry and as a salad with lime juice and fresh coriander.  We’re getting down to the last few now, although a few dozen have gone into the freezer to ensure a supply for banana cakes.

 

You will notice we haven’t mentioned the weather.  That’s because it’s still pretty rotten out here and we don’t want to sound like moaners!  Only the dedicated need read on.  It’s blowing 18-20knots with gusts up to 30, seas 2-3m with a very confused chop on top.  Lots of squalls at night.  Bandit continues to race along about 7-8knots with two reefs in the main and heavily furled gib – what a star!  If only she could make life on board a little more comfortable.  We’ve made up a bed on the saloon floor which is the most comfortable place to be.  Imagine being inside a gigantic mechanical bull for 3 weeks. The motion is not regular as we had expected, instead Bandit does these funny little jerks which easily throw you off balance.  We caught a huge blue fin tuna today and getting in onboard and dealing with it in the mechanical bull was interesting.

 

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