Day 6 Panama to Galapagos
Zepher
Chris & Lyn Darch
Sat 10 May 2008 19:23
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00:23.00N
84:59.01W
Hi from the Pacific Ocean.
Only 23 miles from the equator, and it's
freezing. Global warming hasn't happened here. At least not
today. Mind you it's winter on the other side of the line,and we have been
having winds blowing from the south all the way from Antarctica.
Antarctica reminds me of the first time I crossed the equator. I was on my
way to that continent of snow and ice "working" for British Antarctic
Survey. Anyway as we crossed the line we had to pay homage to king
Neptune. This involved being covered in all the left overs from the
previous two week that had been festering on the aft deck for a couple of weeks,
all washed of eventually with the fire hoses. What fun we had. Ruth
is still expecting to see a line, and feel a bump. With Master Chef, Chris
dishing up scrumptious repass (he has kept that talent well hidden) there
has been no left overs, and as a fish has yet to be landed, we have no
fish guts. So I don't think she will have to suffer the old food thing,
she would beat me up if I tried anyway, ha ha like to see her try.
Nevertheless we'll have to think up some way for her to pay homage to
Neptune. The lack of fish was partially explained this morning when Lyn
spotted two guys out in a little boat up ahead of us. They turned out to
be line fishing in conjunction with a larger boat that then came into
view. Their nets can be a mile long catching every thing that comes
it's way. We did have a flying fish that took pity on our attempts and
surrendered it's self on the fore deck. We also had a visit from an
unknown 'sea gull' type of bird which stayed with us all afternoon before
falling off it's perch. Back to the flying fish; Lyn promptly chopped it
up and tried her luck with it as bait. Still nada. I think she will
be trying her sparkly spandex pants next. Ops. poetic licence starting to
get stretched again! We were hoping to do the old water going down the
plug hole. To see if it revolves in different directions on each side
of the line, but being heeled over at 20deg. it's not been possible to get a
confirmed direction for the northern hemisphere yet. Some times it's
clockwise and others anti. It's also requiring the water maker running
full time to keep up with all the water required for our experiments.
Starting to stretch it again so I will hand over to Chris for some sensible data
!
I thought that was quite constructive Rob ,
anyway we are back on track today after steaming to the south all night
under power with light airs , it was this part of the passage that I had
designed the large fuel tanks of Zephyr for, although I think we will only empty
the engine rm one .
Another first today was sun sights , its been
25 years since both Rob and myself did them and with the help of Roger
" Washboards" PC program we have managed to get our sights down to less than 10
miles which we thought for the first one wasn't bad .
We are due to cross the equator at 01:00
tomorrow morning our time 6 o/c UT and 7o/c BST so if your up and about at that
time tomorrow morning think of us ....
Any news out there on the football results .. Dave
... would be appreciated ,
We have been in contact again with Rhythm
last night and gathered more info on our destination , there are twelve yachts
in Academia Bay our destination , we should be there by Tuesday morning at 07:00
so will be looking forward to the end of the rock and roll session
.
Thats all from the crew of a bouncy Zepher still
plying to windward cutter rig doing its thing !
Message to Lexa and Steve , Have had probs with
eming you think it sailamail again , hope all is well ,chris and
lyn
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