Marquesas here we come!
Rhiann Marie - Round the World
Stewart Graham
Tue 6 Apr 2010 09:45
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Tuesday April 5th 0225 Local Time 0925 UTC
1025 BST
01:27.54S 092:25.34W
We set off this morning from Santa Cruz a
little later than we had hoped. We had decided to go ashore for one last
Equadorian breakfast, to get some money from the cash machine and pick up a
few last supplies. On our return to the boat we went to haul our stern anchor
which we had set to keep the boat pointing into the swell. This anchor is a
Fortress FX85 and we had set it by hand. It was very difficult to retrieve but
we eventually managed. This all meant we left at 1100 local time. We put in the
waypoint at the Marquesas once we were outside Puerto Ayora - exactly 3000
miles!
This is a sobering thought as it makes us
realise we can not be complacent and that in fact we are reliant
completely on ourselves and the weather when we are out there. We can not motor
there we must sail and we have little possibility of coming across other boats
once we clear Galapagos proper. This prompted me to examine and re arrange
and restock the grab bags which we hope will never be needed.
However right now we are amongst a few
longliners and close to Emily Grace a Nordhaven 46 trawler yacht. We also
spoke earlier today to Grace an Australian boat and we arranged with them to
check in daily on the SSB - if we can get ours to work. It has never been
seen to work with voice calls but here's hoping.
The sea today seemed to be boiling with all kinds
of sea life. We also had the biggest dolphins to date alongside
and they put on a very spectacular high jumping show at
a distance for us. Also since Panama we have seen a lot of rays jumping
high out of the water performing somersaults. I dont know why as I did not think
this was normal ray behaviour.
Anyway 129 miles gone 2871 to go! We are sailing
nicely and pointing at the Marquesas doing just over 8 knots.
We will try to keep in touch more regularly
again.
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