Maybe by Christmas???

Passage from Panama City to Galapagos
Day Five
Noon, Monday, February 27 to Noon, Tuesday, February 28
Noon Position: N 04.04.79 / W 083.32.19
Distance covered in 24 hours: 59 nautical miles
Distance Covered from Panama City: 446.6 nautical miles
Fish Caught: 1 – a little tunny - but too small to keep
Motoring: 3 hours 15 minutes
Sailing: 10.75 hours
Drifting: 10 hours

A slow day. There continues to be absolutely NO wind. The seas are glass slicks with barely a wisp of air crossing the decks. We've tried the drifter (a-symmetrical sail) many times and are getting better and better at deploying it – only to return it to the sock within 15 minutes because there isn't even enough air to keep that light air sail full. The swell continues to give us good isometric exercise as we balance.

Projects get done. We did test the engine today after Michael in the water check yesterday. The good news is the whining noise is gone. So perhaps something was on the prop or shaft or strut and has worked itself off. That's the good news and we celebrated by running the engine for a bit over three hours to make water, charge batteries and actually get about 13 miles ahead. That's probably all we'll have all day. But the good news is, no major engine issue to worry about. Whew!

With the engine on, we actually made enough speed to be hopeful about fish and did get one small tunny. We're not big fans of this fish and it was a bit small – so we released it in the hopes of good karma for a fish more on our wish list. But it was fun to at least have that action. It was a yellow feathered lure.

We did have a small bird hitchhike a ride most of the day with us. He would fly off and return throughout the day. He was pretty fearless sitting on the front bow rail no matter whether we were pulling in sails, putting up drifters or whatever, he seemed unimpressed with all the activity and just sat there.

The challenge is staying cool with no breeze and steady sun. It sure would be nice to make another 100 mile day! But don't count on it in tomorrow's entry.

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