088:18.308W

As we are not able to access the Rumpelteazer blog ourselves, we rely on feedback from our faithful reader(s) to alert us (which they have) when we are guilty of ‘operator error’.  We hope this has now been remedied, but for a while our track became a bit zig-zaggy and we appeared to have arrived at the Galapagos before we been through the Panama Canal.  Apologies to our reader (Piers!).

We are now under 200 miles from the Galapagos, and the sea is calm and we have had two days of sun and no rain.  The bad news is that we still have no wind and the grib files we downloaded this morning show that we won’t now get any before we get to the Galapagos.  So Rumpelteazer is motoring calmly through the ocean at around 7.5 knots.

Life on board was greatly enlivened by yesterday’s ‘big event’ on the fishing front.  After patiently studying the manuals, learning all the knots, and trying out all different types of lures, and then suffering the disappointment (or in our case relief) of losing the two spearfish complete with our lures, Max was finally triumphant.  The evening light brought with it a huge shoal of Bluefin Tuna, two of which unwisely spotted our lures.  We reckoned they were each around 15lb in weight.  Max reeled them in, Pippa took the pics, Captain Robert doused them with whisky and Andy filleted them for dinner and for the freezer.  Yum, yum.

Earlier today we overtook the other 43 ft catamaran which set off from Shelter Bay before us.  We had seen its masthead light on the horizon ahead of us for the past two nights and we gradually overhauled them.  As we caught up with them and the two boats motored alongside each other, a lively discourse took place – in the open seas, with no sight of other boats, even comparative strangers seem to become close friends.

Today we had our first Pacific swim – Rumpelteazer stood by while three of us at a time (elf & safety requirements!) swam around in 10,000 feet of water – surprisingly warm at the surface but really cold more than two feet down. 

Tomorrow, the Galapagos!