Day Ten
Noon, Saturday, March 3, 2012 to Noon, Sunday, March 4
Noon Position: S 00.56.475 / W 089.56.86
Distance covered in 24 hours: 70 nautical miles
Distance Covered from Panama City: 941.6 nautical miles
Fish Caught Today: 0
Fish Caught on Trip: 2 (not kept)
Motoring: 18 hours
Sailing: 2 hours
Drifting: 4 hours
It seems like we'll never get there. After a few hours of good sailing, the wind simply died. Nothing. A glass slick. Barely a wisp and enough sea roll to keep what little breeze there is from keeping the sails filled. So we had to give in finally and motor. We now would have enough fuel to get us there if we had to motor the rest of the way. So we chose to do so. At first we optimistically thought we could get in on Sunday but had to change to a Monday arrival.
Seeing the Galapagos for the first time is quite magical. After days and days (actually about 10) of no land in sight, suddenly these islands pop out of the sea. Also, there are more of them than we thought. The clouds over the land makes them easy to see in the distance.
As we entered into the island group we were escorted like celebrities by at least 20 dolphins – like a motorcycle brigade with about ten on each side of the boat, they stayed very close by, almost in formation. It was very cool and they stayed with us for more than an hour. A lovely welcoming party. We also spotted our first sea lions swimming and lots of turtles (unknown variety).
Though we caught no fish, we did manage to lose another lure off our yoyo – so something was on the line at least for a bit. When we finally pulled the line in – there was a bit of fish lip left – but no lure. Perhaps a large tuna as we saw a school of very large tuna in a feeding frenzy.
It was a slow motor/motor sail. We actually drifted every now and then thinking the wind was up – but no luck. We also drifted and took showers which was refreshing as it is hot in the sun at the equator.
It's amazing - we pinch ourselves. We're in the Galapagos.
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